With Unveiled Face

Please turn with me this morning to the third chapter of 2 Corinthians as we consider for a few moments. The hope of the gospel. And the bold confidence that springs from that hope. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. We'll read the chapter in its entirety, verses 1 through 18.

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation. Written on our hearts to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us.

Written not with ink. But with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us. But our sufficiency is from God.

who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant. not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.

Now, if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze in Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end. Will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, The ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all. Because of the glory that surpasses it.

For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent, have glory. Since we have such a hope, we are Very bold. Not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. but their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the Old Covenant, that same veil remains unlifted.

Because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord The veil is removed.

Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all with unveiled face. beholding the glory of the Lord. are being transformed into the same image. from one degree of glory to another.

For this comes from the Lord. Who is the spirit? Let's pray. Holy Spirit, you are the one who removes. the veil from our faces and gives us understanding where there was ignorance.

You give us righteousness where there was sin. You give us life where there was death. Lord, we have not yet arrived. At that final state of glory. And yet, by faith, we know that we are being transformed gradually, sometimes imperceptibly.

into what we will one day be.

So, may our interaction with your word this morning move us further down that road to glory. Let your work, let your word do its work. in our hearts today. If there are any here today who think that they're spiritually alive when in fact they remain in their sins. May their eyes be opened to the true state of their soul before you.

Would you give grace that would lead to repentance and eternal life? Nourish your church now as we feast on the riches of your word. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, I pray. Amen.

Well, we know that Paul has been in this letter defending his authority as an apostle. To a congregation of skeptics who were using all the wrong measuring sticks to evaluate Paul's credibility and competence. That defense continues here in chapter 3, in which Paul seems to be responding to a demand that he provide letters of recommendation. to validate his work as an apostle. To which Paul is going to reply, my work is not validated by the mere commendation of other people.

It's validated by the fact that it is accomplishing only that which can be accomplished by a God-ordained apostle. Imagine hypothetically that we saw someone walking on water and we said to them, Hey, we need some verification that you know how to do that. Do you have a license for walking on water?

Well, silly us. The fact that he is walking on water is the proof of his competency. Corinth's very existence as a church was proof that Paul's apostleship was legitimate. Because the conversion of sinners And the building of the church through apostolic means are things that only God can do. And so despite Corrin's criticism, Paul was full of confidence in his work as an apostle, and rightly so, because his confidence was in what God was doing, not in what man thought of him.

Now in the second half of this chapter, we're going to see that Paul extends that same confidence to the Corinthians, and in fact to all Christians. If you are in Christ, you have every reason to be confident and bold and full of hope because God is doing in you what can only be attributed to God. Sinners don't come to Christ on their own. If we find ourselves looking to Christ in faith and redeemed from our sins, then we can be assured that God in Christ through the Holy Spirit is at work in us. People may criticize us.

They may call us hypocrites. They may accuse us of being holier than thou. They may doubt our profession. And on and on the skepticism goes. But if we find in ourselves evidence of a work that only God can do, then we have every reason to say with Paul in his declaration there in verse 12: since we have such hope, we are very bold.

The message of 2 Corinthians 3 then is this. Hope grounded in what only God can do, leads to a life of bold confidence. Hope grounded in what only God can do. leads to a life of bold confidence. Paul begins first by pointing to his true credentials.

Which are not letters of commendation from some VIP in Jerusalem, but rather the fact that there was a real living and breathing church in Corinth. That was the proof of his apostleship. Verse 1, are we beginning to commend ourselves again, or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are. Our letter of recommendation written on our hearts to be known and read by all.

See, Corinth was looking for confirmation of God's involvement, God's blessing, God's will. On their own terms, when God had already given that confirmation on His terms. How often do we do that? We go looking for confirmation of God's will, God's involvement on our own terms when He's already given that confirmation. It's really unbelief, isn't it?

Masquerading maybe as spiritual fervor or conscientiousness. I think a great example of this tendency that we all have is the story of Gideon. and his habit of testing God with fleece.

Now, God accommodated his lack of faith, as he often accommodates our lack of faith, but that doesn't justify Gideon's immature failure to simply take God at his word. Another example of this tendency is seen in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, where the rich man begs for someone to be sent back to the land of the living to evangelize the rich man's family. In this case, his faithlessness was not accommodated. Abraham tells the rich man: Your family have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.

Our unbelief problem is not one of lack of information. or of missing evidence. or of not having a letter of commendation. Our problem is a moral problem. We don't believe God.

And so we don't trust his means. looking for confirmation of God's involvement and God's will. In areas where God has already given that confirmation is not evidence of a conscientious Christian, it's evidence of an unbelieving Christian. The existence of churches sprinkled all over Asia Minor was all the confirmation needed to verify Paul's authority as an apostle. And in fact, the presence of these churches does so much more than establish Paul's credibility.

The presence of the church points to the credibility of Christ. The apostles are merely means to an end, but Christ is the source. Look at verse 3. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, delivered by the apostles. The presence of a redeemed people is proof of a redeemer.

Paul and the Apostles were merely the conduit. They were the delivery boys, if you will, the means. But Jesus Christ gets the credit for being the competent, credible source of all true churches. Paul's credentials are legitimate. because he is a certified ambassador for the one who dispenses all credentials.

From the one who is the king of kings and the lord of lords.

So, Christ is metaphorically writing a letter of commendation. And what is the medium on which this letter is written?

Well, it's not ink and papyrus. It's not even written with chisel and stone. The medium on which Christ writes this letter is nothing less than the Holy Spirit of God writing on human hearts. Hearts. Verse 3.

Written not with ink. But with the Spirit of the living God. Not on tablets of stone. but on tablets. of human hearts.

Mere man cannot write such letters. The proof of changed hearts is something that only God can do. It's further. confirmation of the legitimacy of Paul's apostolic work. Where God is at work, hearts are changed.

People become new creations. This isn't something that man can replicate. There's no how-to book on regenerating the human heart. That's because it's impossible for mere man to even know his own heart, much less change it. But God can.

And God has. Since God has done this supernatural work through Paul at Corinth. Paul is not only fully credentialed to do the work of an apostle, He also has every reason to be confident. But his confidence is not in Corinth's approval. It's in God's power.

Look at verse 4. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ. Toward The Corinthian skeptics?

Well no. Such is the confidence that we have. Toward God. Paul is not confident because he has. Successfully quelled the skeptics in Corinth.

No, he's confident because God has qualified him and called him and is doing God-sized things through him. The word of confidence in verse 4. That word might be a little misleading to us maybe when we think of a person being confident. We perhaps think of being self-assured. Maybe the image of a salesman or a boxer comes to mind looking in the mirror, slapping his cheek, saying, I got this.

But the word here implies a reliance on something outside of self. It's essentially a passive confidence that's. characterized not by self-sufficiency, but by reliance on someone else. The first time I went white water rafting, I wasn't scared. but my fearlessness had nothing to do with my whitewater skills.

It had everything to do with the fact that there was an experienced guide in the back of the raft guiding us through these dangerous waters. I was confident. But that confidence had nothing to do with my ability. It had everything to do with someone else's ability. Paul doubles down on this godwardness of his confidence in verse five.

He says, not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God. Is God the source of confidence in your life? in ministry. Are you overwhelmed with a sense of inadequacy that's maybe paralyzing you from serving the Lord, from obeying the Lord, from confronting the darkness with the light of the gospel? I was talking to a young Christian recently who was struggling with some decisions he had to make.

decisions that felt momentous and irreversible. And he was paralyzed with fear for doing the wrong thing. Fear of doing the wrong thing. I asked him, why was this so hard for him? And he said, I'm just scared of messing up.

And truth be told, there are an awful lot of scary ways that we can royally mess up in this life, aren't there? Friends, 2 Corinthians 3.5 is God's remedy. for the paralyzing fear of a child of God. We are not sufficient in ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. Left to ourselves, we will mess up.

We have messed up. But God has not left things to us. He is the God who makes apostles sufficient for their calling. He's the God who provides sufficient instruction and confirmation for his children to be able to walk in the way in which they should go. The scope and clarity of his word is enough.

The atoning work of his son is finished. The supply and power of his grace is sufficient. And that's all well and good. Yeah What makes this supposed Sufficiency from God concrete. Is this sufficiency just some sort of Attitude that we're supposed to maintain, some maybe mental game we play with our minds to bolster our confidence.

Does it ever have feet and give us actual confidence, boldness in real life situations?

Well, look at verse 6. where we discover the means of Paul's confidence. Our sufficiency is from God, verse 6, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant. Not of the letter. but of the spirit.

For the letter kills. But the spirit gives life.

Now, for the next several verses, Paul is going to launch into a comparison between the old covenant under Moses and the new covenant in Christ. That comparison, which we'll look at in depth here in a moment, begins with this contrast in verse 6 between the letter and the spirit, between death and life. And in this contrast, Paul is making the point that God's The provision of sufficiency is not some sort of theoretical nominal provision, some sort of a cheap paper copy of an IOU. No, it's real. It's actual.

It's a sufficiency that changes us in the real world, in our actual person, by the power of the Holy Spirit. The means of the sufficiency That legitimizes Paul as an apostle and that confirms to all the children of God that we truly belong to him. Is the Holy Spirit. This is the work of no one less than the third person of the Trinity. And this work of the Holy Spirit.

in the life of the Christian is the proof. The evidence, the confirmation, the letter of commendation that assures us that all of the promises we read about in Scripture are more than just words on a page. They're actually being fulfilled in time and space. God is Is proving his redemption through the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1 puts it this way.

The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it. Our confidence, our sufficiency is not theoretical. It's actual, it's real, it's sure. In fact, it's just as sure and real and actual as the Holy Spirit.

Now I'm gonna just go ahead and tell you we're about to bite off more than we can chew. I debated with myself whether to End the sermon here at verse 6, or try to make a mad dash to the end of the chapter. We're going to try to make a mad dash to the end of the chapter. Because, in the flow of Paul's thought, I think these verses belong together. But there's a whole lot in verses 7 through 18 that.

We're going to have to just sort of gloss over, so I encourage you to go back at some point next week and reread these verses slowly and carefully. and thoughtfully. But for the sake of Paul's larger argument, let's walk briefly through these verses. Paul has just spent six verses explaining his legitimacy as an apostle to the church. And it's a legitimacy that's grounded in God's work and God's sufficiency and God's Son and God's Spirit.

In fact, the God-centeredness of it all fills Paul with incredible confidence despite Corinth's resistance and skepticism.

Well, in the same way that Paul's credibility and confidence as an apostle are grounded not in some letter from man, but in the undeniable proof of God's redemptive work, so every believer's confidence, every believer's assurance is grounded not in the letters and laws of the old covenant with its types and shadows, but in the living, breathing work of Christ through the Holy Spirit in the heart of the regenerate. The presence of a church in Corinth legitimized Paul's apostleship and filled him with incredible confidence. In that work. Likewise, the presence of the Holy Spirit among believers, the church, legitimizes the church and fills us with incredible confidence in being the church. God's saving plan from Moses to Christ, ultimately to glory, just keeps getting better and better and better.

And because of this trajectory, Paul and all believers have every reason to hope in a future that will be unimaginably glorious.

So the verses that follow Are Paul extending his own confidence in God's work to every believer? We all have reason to confidently hope. in God's redemptive work. And Paul extends this confidence to us by pointing out the vast superiority of the new covenant in Christ. over the old covenant in Moses.

Now we need to be very careful here. There are many who read passages like this. and conclude that Moses has nothing to do with Christ, that the old and new covenants are entirely different in purpose and effect. and that to overlap the two at any point. uh is tantamount to heresy.

But as we go through these verses, I want you to notice that at no point does Paul mock the old covenant or belittle Moses or the law of God. In fact, Paul's whole argument in these verses is contingent upon holding the Mosaic covenant in high esteem. His argument is that since the old covenant was so glorious, How much more glorious must the new covenant be? Look with me at verse 7.

Now if the ministry of death carved in letters of stone. Came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face. Because of its glory. which was being brought to an end. Verse 8, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more?

Glory. Paul is alluding to Exodus 34. In which Moses, freshly back from the top of Mount Sinai and from receiving the Ten Commandments, returns to the camp of Israel, and his face is physically glowing. He's been with God. And the effect of that is that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God, Exodus says.

Of course, this frightened the Israelites. It would frighten you and me. There was glory emanating from this great prophet's face because of his proximity to Yahweh, and it was frightening. To add to the sheer fright of Moses' face was the prophetic word that he brought. He came bearing the Ten Commandments.

Etched into stone by God Himself. This was God's law. It was right, it was perfect. It was. impossible for sinners to fulfill.

And so, even though Moses' prophetic ministry was full of awe-inspiring, fear-inducing glory. And even though the prophetic word he brought was a good and just law, it was, in Paul's words, a ministry of death. It could not save, it could only condemn a sinfully incapable people.

Now if this ministry of death was so glorious.

So full of of evidence and and weight of the divine. then surely the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Who, unlike Moses, wasn't with God, but who is God, surely his ministry is all the more glorious.

So Paul then begins to highlight some Some of the ways in which What the Holy Spirit through Christ is doing in the church is more glorious than what Moses through the law did in the ancient church. First difference he highlights. is verse 9, the fact that where Moses as a ministry could only condemn The Spirit's ministry makes righteous. We could say it this way. The law of God can make a sinner know what the standard is, but it cannot enable him to live up to that standard.

This leaves a sinner painfully aware of his sin, but unaware. of the solution. The letter By itself. kills. The spirit makes alive.

With the coming of Christ and Pentecost, God revealed the full plan of redemption. What the law had killed the gospel resurrected.

Now, don't think of this in terms of old covenant Christians somehow getting saved by some different means than new covenant Christians are saved. Both have only to receive and rest upon Christ. The gospel has always been God's power unto salvation. Faith in Christ has always been the grounds of the salvation of the elect in every age. The law had to kill believers in the ancient church in order to make them desperate for a savior, and only faith in that savior would save them.

The law must kill us. believers today in order to make us desperate for a Savior, and only faith in that Savior will save us. But as New Testament Christians, we have the distinct advantage and privilege of knowing and seeing and understanding more than what Old Testament Christians could know and see and understand. The law alone condemns. The Spirit, through Christ alone, makes the sinner.

both ancient and modern. righteous It's a greater glory. In verses 10 and 11, we see another aspect of the greater glory of the new covenant. Verse 10. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it.

Something has eclipsed the old covenant's glory. Verse 11. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, Much more will what is permanent have glory. Where the old was temporary, the new is permanent. Both are glorious.

But permanence is more glorious than that which is temporary. It's a greater glory, it's a greater evidence that God is at work in the church. Verse 12. Since we have such a hope, we are very bold. Not like Moses.

who would put a veil over his face.

So that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. Because the old ministry of death was temporary and fading, it was hidden. Moses hid that fading light beneath a veil. But the gospel will not fade. It will never be replaced by anything more substantive because there is nothing more substantive than God's salvation through Christ.

It's here to stay. which emboldens the church with the confidence that not even Moses who had to hide his fading glory could fully enjoy this side of heaven. The last point of difference is described in verses 14 through 18. where Paul describes the different effects of the old ministry of death. Compared to that of the ministry of the Spirit.

Verse 14. But their minds, the old covenant community that refused to look to God in faith. Their minds were hardened. For to this day When they read the Old Covenant, that same veil remains unlifted. Paul turns Moses' literal veil into a metaphor.

For the hardness of heart that prevents a sinner from ever getting past the condemning, accusing, killing power of the law. this this veil of a hard heart. Prevents unbelievers from finding the grace that stands over the law, ready to resurrect and forgive and make holy and glorify the saved sinner. Why is An unbeliever left with a hardened heart. Verse 14.

Because only through Christ Is it taken away? Paul says, Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil of pride. A veil of self-sufficiency, a veil of unbelief lies over their hearts, but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. The gospel is more glorious than the law because it eliminates the veil. and gives a sinner full uninhibited access to the presence of God with joy.

Verse 17.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Freedom from condemnation, freedom from guilt, because Christ through the Spirit removes. condemnation and guilt. And we all Paul and the Corinthians, and you and me, all who were in Christ, with unveiled face. Beholding the glory of the Lord, they are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

For this comes from the Lord. Who is the Spirit? Church Paul highlights all of these differences between the old covenant and the new covenant to make the point that this new covenant in Christ, made effective by the Holy Spirit, is better and fuller and superior to the old. And this superiority, this greater glory, gives undeniable proof that God is in this. Just like Paul was a legitimate apostle.

With real authority, because of the fact that God was spawning churches through His preaching, so we who are legitimate children of God, because of the fact that God's Spirit is doing in us. what the gospel had always promised it would do. The same hope and confidence then that flooded Paul's heart in the face of such skepticism from Corinth belongs to us. Our hope and confidence doesn't come from the world's assessment of us. or of our religion, or of our beliefs.

Our hope and confidence. comes from the fact that God is transforming us. Little by little, from one degree of glory to another. until the day when we with unveiled face will behold the glory of the Lord. Church, we are God's letter.

of commendation. Imperfect. incomplete. Not yet glorified. But God's letter of commendation nonetheless.

And our hope is not to be found in the letter of the law. That is in our amazing ability to never mess up. To never struggle with sin, to never doubt. No, our confidence, our sufficiency, just like Paul's, is a Godward confidence. Our hope is in the work that God has Promised to bear fruit in our lives through Christ by the Holy Spirit.

A work that is at times more obvious than other times, but a work that will one day be unveiled for all to see. I was talking to a Christian brother last week who had been counseling a discouraged believer. A believer who was battered and bruised by his internal fight with sin. He was depressed and he just said, I cannot live up to the Christian life. He said, if even King David, a man after God's own heart, can't do this, I can't do this, nobody can do this.

And this Christian counselor wisely said to his friend, There is one person who's lived up to the demands of the law. Jesus lived up to the demands of God's holy law. Beloved, when we Verse 16. Turn to him. Turn to the Lord.

the veil is removed. The veil of guilt from sin. The veil of discouragement that takes root. In our hearts and convinces us that we will never have victory over sin. The veil that prevents us from seeing the smiling face of God.

The veil that blinds us to the eternal joy that awaits us. The veil that robs us of body. Boldness in our witness and Hope. In our pilgrimage through this barren land, that veil is gone when we turn to the Lord and find our rest in Him. It's interesting, there are no imperatives in this entire chapter.

There's no command to be obeyed. It's all indicatives. Facts. Truths. that God's word simply declares to be true.

And so, church, the application this morning is simply to believe what God has said. Take him at his word. And find in that word the confidence. that springs from a hope that's grounded in what only God can do. Let's pray.

Lord, you have spoken. And your word is true. And your truth sets us free. We thank you for it. In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Yeah.