Paul and Timothy were “ministers of [the] new
covenant” (2 Cor. 3: 6)—occupied in “the ministry of the Spirit”
(v8) and the “ministry of righteousness” (v9). The contrast is
clearly with the “old covenant” (v14) written “in letters, graven in
stones” (v7). The Mosaic law was a “ministry of death” (v7)—for “the
letter kills” (v6)—and provided neither life nor righteousness. That
covenant, “which in Christ is annulled” (v14), “began with glory, so
that the children of Israel could not fix their eyes on the face of
Moses, on account of the glory of his face” (v7)—a glory,
nonetheless, “which is now annulled” (v7). What it has been
superseded by is a ministry which both subsists or
abides in glory (see vs. 8, 11), abounds in
glory (see v9) and is a “surpassing glory” (v10, my
emphasis). Again, the recipients, “looking on the
glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed according to
the same image from glory to glory” (v18). Could the old covenant
transform? Not at all. No wonder then that Paul can say that “having
this ministry … we faint not” (2 Cor. 4: 1)!
As already noted,
when Moses delivered the law to the people he “put a veil on his own
face” (2 Cor. 3: 13). Israel’s “thoughts”, however, “have been
darkened” (v14), and it is as if “the same veil” (v14) has been
transferred from Moses’ face to their hearts, for “unto this day,
when Moses is read, the veil lies upon their heart” (v15). In the
future, of course, “it” (Israel) “shall turn to [the] Lord” when
“the veil is taken away” (v16) and they will then see that the
purpose of God in the law was to lead them to Christ, “For Christ is
[the] end of law for righteousness to every one that believes” (Rom.
10: 4). For the time being, however, Israel lies in unbelief.
By contrast, under
the ministry of the Spirit there are no veils. There is no veil upon
the believer’s heart but, more to the point (and unlike Moses) there
is no veil upon the face of Christ in glory so that “we all,
looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are
transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as
by [the] Lord [the] Spirit” (2 Cor. 3: 18). Where there is
a veil is in the heart of the unbeliever. As Paul says, “if also our
gospel is veiled, it is veiled in those that are lost; in whom the
god of this world has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving, so
that the radiancy of the glad tidings of the Christ, who is [the]
image of God, should not shine forth [for them]” (2 Cor. 4: 3, 4).
There is no veil on the Gospel (the apostle talks about
“manifestation of the truth”—v2) but there is a veil in the minds of
the lost. The glory shines (for the glory of the Lord is the very
image of God Himself) but it does not shine into the unbelieving.
The position
of the believing is very different. As in the Genesis creation, “[it
is] the God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine who
has shone in our hearts” (v6, my emphasis). However,
the verse does not stop there for the transformative effect of the
light already mentioned in 2 Cor. 3: 18, is to result in “the
shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in [the]
face of [Jesus] Christ” (2 Cor. 4: 6, my emphasis). God has shone in
our hearts so that there might be a shining forth. We should not
limit this to preaching, for it really speaks about the
transformative effect of the light upon our lives, such that what
has shone in begins to shine out, and we take character from the Man
in the glory.
However, “we have
this treasure in earthen vessels” (2 Cor. 4: 7)—what the apostle
later describes as “our mortal flesh” (v11)—“that the surpassingness
of the power may be of God, and not from us” (v7). How we need to
remember that we can bring nothing to aid the success
of the Gospel! Gideon’s three hundred men with their torches and
pitchers were no match for the vast host of the Midianites (see
Judges 7: 16, 19, 20) and yet the victory was theirs, for, as was
prophesied, “God hath given into” Gideon’s “hand
Midian and all his host” (v14, my emphasis). Indeed, the vessels of
Gideon’s men were broken in order for the light to shine out. This
reminds us of the breaking of Stephen’s earthen vessel in Acts 7—and
yet how great the light: “But being full of [the] Holy Spirit,
having fixed his eyes on heaven, he saw [the] glory of God, and
Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, Lo, I behold the
heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of
God” (vs. 54-56)! Of course, we may not be called to be martyrs, but
all of us are responsible, “that the life also of Jesus may be
manifested in our mortal flesh” (2 Cor. 4: 11). As the apostle had
said earlier, “Ye are our letter, written in our hearts,
known and read of all men, being manifested to be Christ’s epistle
ministered by us, written, not with ink, but [the] Spirit of [the]
living God; not on stone tables, but on fleshy tables of [the]
heart” (2 Cor. 3: 1-3). The law was seen written on the two tables
of stone; Christ is to be seen in our lives. As there has been a
shining in, so there ought to be a shining out—may others be able to
read the pattern of that blessed Man in you and I, as epistles of
Christ!
