THE GLORY OF THE NEW COVENANT IN 2 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 3 EXPLAINED
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The Spirit of God had written the law of
God on the fleshly part of their hearts.
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When the believer accepts Jesus his heart is
washed in the blood of the Lamb and filled with the Spirit, Christ is ministering
to them i.e., Christ within you is
because you listened to the message preached and you have accepted it.
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God was writing His law on the hearts of
those people He transformed- an internal change wrought by God in the heart.
2 Corinthians 3:6 “Who
also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but
of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”
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The letter is speaking of the law.
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Romans 7:6 ” But now we are delivered from
the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness
of spirit, and not [in] the oldness of the letter.”
Note: Testament means contract or covenant.
The New Testament means
the new covenant that God has made with mankind. Jesus Christ, the Lord has
provided a new agreement. This new covenant is not by the works of the law, but
by the grace of God man is saved.
The new covenant was sealed with the shedding of the
precious blood of the Lamb. The law brought death to those who did not keep it.
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John 3:6 “That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” To keep the law was
an act of the flesh of man. Jesus Christ is the quickening Spirit that brings
everlasting life.
1 Corinthians 15:45 “And so it is written, the first man
Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [was made] a quickening spirit.” The
law brought death; the Spirit brought life.
2 Corinthians 3:7 “But if
the ministration of death, written [and] engraven in stones, was glorious, so
that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for
the glory of his countenance, which [glory] was to be done away:”
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Moses’ face shone so brightly from being
in the presence of God (The Light), that the people could not look upon him.
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This great Light was so bright that Moses
had to cover his face with a veil to keep them from being blinded.
HERE:
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Paul is saying if that Light was so great
in Moses, who brought the law; why do you not understand that the Light
revealed in the New Testament is so much greater?
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The law brought death.
BUT
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The covenant sealed in Jesus’ blood brings
everlasting life.
2 Corinthians 3:8 “How shall
not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?”
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What a glorious awakening when the Spirit
ministers to man.
2 Corinthians 3:9 “For if
the ministration of condemnation [be] glory, much more doth the ministration of
righteousness exceed in glory.”
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By the law, all men have sinned and come
short of the glory of God.
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We are all condemned by the law.
BEING IN RIGHT STANDING
WITH GOD COMES FROM:
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being washed in the blood of the Lamb
(Jesus Christ).
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The
difference is, that where the law condemns man, the grace in Christ brings hope
of everlasting life.
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Ephesians 2:5 “Even when we were dead in
sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)”
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Romans 5:9 “Much more then, being now
justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”
REMEMBER:
“justified’ means just as if I had never sinned.
The law was good, but grace is better.
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Romans 3:20 “Therefore by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law [is] the
knowledge of sin.”
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Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace are ye saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God:”
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2 Corinthians 3:10 “For even that which
was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that
excelleth.”
This glory spoken of here is speaking of Moses’ face shining
when he came from the presence of God on Sinai. BUT The glory of the Lord
far excelled the glory of Moses.
2 Corinthians 3:11 “For
if that which is done away [was] glorious, much more that which remaineth [is]
glorious.”
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Nothing is wrong with Moses or the law. BUT the weakness
was in man keeping the law.
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Galatians 3:21 “[Is] the law then against
the promises of God? God forbid for if there had been a law given which could
have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.”
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Hebrews 8:13 – In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first
one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
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Hebrews 9:15 – Therefore he is the
mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the
promised eternal inheritance since a death has occurred that redeems them from
the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
John 1:17 “For the law was given by Moses, [but] grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ.”
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The law of Moses was glorious, but man could
not live up to that law and was lost.
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The grace of God, in Jesus Christ, brings
life.
2 Corinthians 3:12
“Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:”
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The
Old Testament, itself, was veiled and hard to understand until the curtain was
torn between the holy place and the holy of holies.
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When Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to the Christians,
He was their Teacher and Guide.
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The Holy Spirit opens our understanding to
all Scriptures (Old and New Testament).
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Jesus’ teachings on the earth were all
very simple.
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The gospel message is very simple. This
plainness of speech was so that everyone could understand.
2 Corinthians 3:13 “And
not as Moses, [which] put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel
could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:”
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The children of Israel could not look
beyond the veil in the temple, or at Moses either. The way to God was veiled to
them.
2 Corinthians 3:14 “But
their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away
in the reading of the old testament; which [veil] is done away in Christ.”
TAKE NOTE
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A person who reads just the Old Testament
cannot truly understand until you put it with the New Testament and
realize the fulfillment in Jesus.
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The Old Testament cannot be understood by
physically reading it.
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It
is understood through the revealing by the Holy Spirit of God.
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Moses veiled his face to hide the
diminishing glory of his face because the glory was fading.
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The passing glory of the old covenant
contrasts with the enduring glory of the new covenant.
2 Corinthians 3:15 “But
even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.”
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This is speaking of the Old Testament read
in the temple or synagogue.
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Without the Holy Spirit revealing the
Word, it cannot be understood.
2 Corinthians 3:16
“Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.”
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This is simple to understand the message
of salvation mentioned in the gospel.
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God is revealed to man in His Son Jesus
Christ.
Here:
we see so clearly, God is revealed in Jesus Christ, in the following Scripture.
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John 14:9 “Jesus saith unto him, Have I
been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that
hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou [then], Shew us the
Father?”
2 Corinthians 3:17 “Now
the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord [is], there [is]
liberty.” The Lord is the Spirit: From the context
of Exodus 34:34, we see that when Paul says the Lord is the Spirit, he means
that the Holy Spirit is God, just as Jesus and the Father are God.
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John 4:24 “God [is] a Spirit: and they
that worship him must worship [him] in spirit and in truth.” “Spirit” in verse
17 above, is the God Spirit.
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1 John 5:7 “For there are three that bear
record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are
one.”
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Galatians 5:1 – For freedom Christ has set
us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
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John 8:36 – So if the Son sets you free,
you will be free indeed.
One, in this verse, is
speaking of their Spirit nature.
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Romans
8:9 “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit
of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none
of his.”
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The Spirit of the Risen Christ within the
believer brings liberty.
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The born-again believer has liberty
because he/ she is living in the perfect will of God.
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Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with
Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life
which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me, and gave himself for me.”
THERE IS
LIBERTY IN CHRIST.
2 Corinthians 3:18 “But
we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are
changed into the same image from glory to glory, [even] as by the Spirit of the
Lord.”
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The more of Jesus in us, the less of self
in us.
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When we become so full of Christ that
others can see Christ in us, then the Scripture above becomes truer in our life.
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Christians are becoming more like Jesus
every day.
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True Born-again Christianity is becoming
more Christ-like every day.
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Christ in me, the hope of glory.
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Romans 8:2 “For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
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1 John 3:2 “Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he
shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
Source cited:
https://bible-studys.org/2-corinthians-chapter-3/
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