4. Being Changed by God’s Glory (2 Corinthians 3:7-18)
by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
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Rembrandt, detail of “Two Old Men Disputing” (St. Peter
and St. Paul in Conversation) (1628), oil on wood, 72.4 x 59.7 cm,
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. |
Paul has just introduced a contrast between the Old Covenant
and the New Covenant, between the letter of the Mosaic law and the leadership of
the dynamic Spirit of God.
“He has made us competent as ministers of a new
covenant – not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the
Spirit gives life.” (3:6)
Now Paul continues this contrast in 3:7-18 by showing the
basis of the Old Covenant as the work of the Spirit through Moses, the Spirit
that – under the New Covenant – works through all believers.
But why is Paul explaining such things to an overwhelmingly
Gentile church? Probably because his opponents in Corinth had Jewish connections
and were trying to “out-Hebrew” Paul himself. Later in this letter, Paul argues
against these false apostles:
“Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So
am I. Are they Abraham’s descendants? So am I.” (11:22)
In his letter to the Philippians, Paul offers a similar
defense, for the same reason – to counteract the Jewish or Jewish-Christian
opponents there:
“... Circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the
people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the
law, a Pharisee....” (Philippians 3:5)
Paul, the trained Pharisee, corrects these Jewish-Christian
opponents with a typical Rabbinic argument from the lesser to the greater.
- Ministry of Spirit is more splendid than ministry of death (3:7-8)
- Ministry of righteousness is more splendid than the ministry of condemnation
(3:9-10)
- Permanent ministry is more splendid than that which passes away (3:11).[93]
You’ll see these themes in the text:
“7 Now if the ministry that brought
death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the
Israelites could not look steadily[94]
at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading[95]
though it was, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more
glorious?
9 If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more
glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! 10 For what was
glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing[96]
glory. 11 And if what was fading away came with glory, how much
greater is the glory of that which lasts![97]“
(3:7-11)
Paul agrees that the Old Covenant, characterized by the Ten
Commandments (“engraved with letters on stone”) was glorious. He refers to
Moses’ experience of encountering God on Mount Sinai and his practice of talking
to God in his tent of meeting and then emerging with the glow of God’s glory on
his face.
“29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai
with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD.
30 When
Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they
were afraid to come near him....
“33 When Moses finished speaking to them,
he put a veil over his face. 34 But whenever he entered the
LORD’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And
when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35
they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil
back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.” (Exodus 34:29-30,
33-35)
I envy Moses! He had prayed, “Show me your glory,” and God
had answered in this unique expression of God’s glory on Moses’ face. That’s how
the law was given. That’s how Israel was led through the desert – by a man who
sought God and spoke with him face to face.
But, Paul argues, that however glorious its origins, the law
didn’t bring life to God’s people as the Spirit does. In Paul’s analogy, the
glory of the law fades or passes away, while the Spirit of God continues with us
to this day.
Q1. (2 Corinthians 3:7-11) Why did Moses’ face glow? Why
did he cover it when he was out with the people? Why didn’t more people’s face
glow in Moses’ time? What’s the difference between the spread of God’s glory in
Moses’ time when compared to our own time?
http://www.joyfulheart.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1082
Having such great promises and expectation in the Spirit
encourage us. Paul says,
“Therefore, since we have such a[98]
hope,[99]
we are very bold.[100]“
(3:12)
Moses’ ministry in bringing the Old Covenant was indeed
glorious. But the era of the Spirit and the New Covenant is even more glorious,
and because of it we have a great expectation for the future.
Paul has made his main point, that the New Covenant was more
glorious than the Old. Now he takes this concept of the veil over Moses’ face to
symbolize the darkness of the Jews who can’t grasp the New Covenant.
“13 We are not like Moses, who would put
a veil[101]
over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was
fading away. 14 But their minds were made dull[102],
for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It
has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.[103] 15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a
veil covers their
hearts.” (3:13-15)
How sad! The Israelites are dull to the truth. Who has
made their minds dull? God? No. Read what Paul says a bit later in this letter –
still with the imagery of the veil:
“3 And even if our gospel is veiled,
it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded
the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the
glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (4:3-4)
Satan has blinded the eyes of the Israelites.
The Spirit of God is the One who takes away this blindness.
“16 But whenever anyone turns to[104]
the Lord, the veil is taken away.[105]
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is freedom.” (3:16-17)
It is clear that the Holy Spirit is the bringer of
spiritual light, revelation, and freedom from the Law. But verse 16 confuses us.
We’re used to a stricter differentiation between the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. So Paul, at least verbally, offends our Trinitarian
doctrine here. What does Paul mean, “Now the Lord is the Spirit”?
This gets a little confusing, but the clearest answer seems
to come from the passage quoted above about Moses’ radiant face and the veil he
used to wear.
“But whenever he entered the LORD’s presence to
speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out.” (Exodus 34:34a)
Paul seems to be saying: Now the Lord in this
passage refers to or corresponds to the Spirit of God.[106]
Bruce comments that usually Paul is careful to distinguish between the Lord
(Christ) and the Spirit, “but dynamically they are one, since it is by the
Spirit that the life of the risen Christ is imparted to believers and maintained
within them.”[107]
Kruze has it right when he says:
“So when under the new covenant they turn to the
Lord, they experience him as the Spirit. The expression ‘the Lord is the
Spirit,’ is not a one-to-one identification, but rather a way of saying that
under the new covenant the Lord is to us the Spirit.”[108]
Today’s English Version captures the idea well:
“But [the veil] is removed, as the Scripture says,
‘Moses’ veil was removed when he turned to the Lord.’ Now ‘the Lord’ in this
passage is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is present, there is
freedom.[109]“
(3:16-17, TEV)
What kind of freedom is this? It is freedom from the
letter of the law that comes when a person begins to follow the guidance of the
Holy Spirit. In his discussion of flesh vs. Spirit in Galatians 5, Paul
observes:
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of
slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)
“But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under
law.” (Galatians 5:18)
Q2. (2 Corinthians 3:16-17) Why is the Holy Spirit
essential to help people see truth clearly and be able to grasp it? What enables
people to come to Christ at all? What kind of freedom does the Spirit give us
when we become Christians?
http://www.joyfulheart.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1083
Paul concludes this section with a wonderful verse that
describes Christian sanctification, the process of Christ’s character being
formed in us.
“18 But we all, with unveiled[110]
face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being
transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the
Spirit.” (3:18, NASB)
The Greek verb is katoptrizō, formed from the
noun katoptron, “mirror.” Three possible renderings have been suggested:
- “to
behold as in a mirror” (NRSV, NASB, KJV),
- “to
reflect like a mirror” (NIV, NJB), or
- “to
behold or gaze,” with no association with a mirror (RSV).
[111]
Of these three, “look at something as in a mirror,
contemplate something,”[112]
seems to fit both the derivation of the word and the understanding of early
translations of the Bible. The idea of reflecting God’s glory doesn’t
appear before Chrysostom.[113]
So how do we behold God’s glory? We might ask: How did Moses
behold God’s glory? Yes, he had some experiences of great glory on the mountain
when he saw God’s form while sheltered in the cleft of the rock (Exodus
33:18-23). But as we saw above, Moses’ practice of speaking to the Lord both in
the pre-tabernacle tent of meeting and later in the tabernacle left a mark on
both his face and his character.
“[Moses’] face was radiant because he had spoken
with the LORD.” (Exodus 34:29b)
“But whenever he entered the LORD’s presence to
speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and
told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35 they saw that his
face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went
in to speak with the LORD.” (Exodus 34:34-35)
Why did Moses face glow? I guess because it absorbed
just a little bit of God during these times of speaking with him.
Q3. (2 Corinthians 3:18) Moses glowed by spending time
with God on Mt. Sinai, in his tent of meeting, and in the Tabernacle. How can we
get a similar glow of the Spirit in our lives? In what way is meditating on
Scripture beholding God? Is the low plane of Christianity in our day related to
the time we spend in communion with the Lord? What is God leading you to do to
increase your glow?
http://www.joyfulheart.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1084
Yes, Moses’ glow had to be renewed by repeated sessions, but
it had the effect of altering him. This is the idea that Paul is focusing on
here.
I like the simple way the Revised Standard Version puts it:
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory
of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory
to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (3:18, RSV)
As a result of beholding God in communing with him, we are
“being transformed” (NIV, NRSV), “being changed” (KJV, RSV). The verb is metamorphoō, “to change inwardly in fundamental character or condition, be
changed, be transformed.”[114]
It is a compound verb, formed from meta-, “exchange, transfer,
transmutation” + morphoō, “to form, shape.” From this we get our English
word “metamorphosis.”
This process of change morphs us into God’s “likeness” (NIV,
RSV), “image” (NRSV, KJV). The noun eikōn here means “that which
represents something else in terms of basic form and features, form,
appearance.”[115]
For our character to be changed into God’s image is our
destiny. Paul taught,
“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be
conformed to the likeness (eikōn) of his Son, that he might be the
firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:29)
The word “conformed” in this verse is the adjective
symmorphos, “pertaining to having a similar form, nature, or style, similar
in form,”[116]
from syn-, “participation, together, completely” + morphē, “form.”
This is sanctification, the gradual process of becoming holy
and godly in our character to match our holy standing, which was brought about
instantly through Christ’s gift of salvation on the cross.
“Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the
desires of the flesh.... The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Galatians 5:16,
22-23)
“If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap
corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal
life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we
will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:8-9, NRSV)
My dear friend, going to church will not transform you. What
changes you is worship before the Lord, meditating on him, singing to him,
speaking to him, drinking him in through the Word and the Spirit. Just like
Moses spent time before the Lord and was transformed by it, so as you spend time
with the Lord it will change you.
This transformation is a gradual process, literally “from
glory to glory” (KJV). This means, as the NRSV puts it, “from one degree of
glory to another.”[117]
The agent of change, according to our verse, “comes from the
Lord, who is the Spirit” (3:18). In other words, this is the sanctifying work of
the Holy Spirit of God, the fruit of the Holy Spirit gradually filling our
character, replacing the common and unclean with the holiness and glory of the
Lord.
Decades ago when I was in college, I attended a small gospel
church in the MacArthur Park area of downtown Los Angeles. There I learned a
song, based on the King James Version of this verse, that indelibly impressed
the meaning of this verse on my soul.
“From glory to glory He’s changing me,
Changing me, changing me.
His likeness and image to perfect in me,
The love of God shown to the world.
For He’s changing, changing me,
From earthly things to the heavenly.
His likeness and image to perfect in me,
The love of God shown to the world.”[118]
Q4. (2 Corinthians 3:18) Why is character change directly
related to time deliberately spent in God’s presence? What is the theological
word for the process of maturing in Christ? Have you noticed a change in the
“degree of glory” you’re experiencing now compared to a few years ago? Why or
why not?
http://www.joyfulheart.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1085
Dear friend, my prayer for you is that you will indeed so
live your life in his presence that his Spirit of Holiness will transform your
life. That when people see you, they will not see your imperfections, but the
glow of Jesus, so that people might recognize that “these men had been with
Jesus.” (Acts 4:13)
Prayer
O Lord, grant in me and in my brothers and sisters the
acquired glow of your glory. Let us bask in your presence that we might know
you, learn to love you more, and become like you! In the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen!
Key Verses
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of
the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Corinthians 3:17, NIV)
“And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the
glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into
the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the
Lord, the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18, NRSV)
End Notes
2 Corinthians Bible Study
Copyright © 1985-2012, Ralph F. Wilson. <pastor
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