Law and Grace - Beholding the Glory of the Lord

Good morning. Now, I have to preface our time here with a comment or two. Nancy got this nuclear-powered migraine over the last couple of days. And so I took her in for some pain relief. And at any rate, so I was scrambling even up until the last hours last night. So I'm lucky I came here with the shirt on top and the pants on the bottom, I think. So at any rate, you'll excuse me if I start talking backwards or something. It'd be understandable anyway.

All right, we're completing our study of 2 Corinthians chapter 3. This is the third of three parts. And Randy read that for you just kind of as a way of review. The first six verses of the chapter carry the theme of letters. Letters are repeatedly brought out in those first six verses. The next verses, 7 through 11, carry the theme of glory. Glory is repeatedly brought out in those verses. And now here in verses 12 through 8, the theme of the veil and those who are unveiled. That is the theme of the passage. Now, that having been said for each of those three sections, the theme throughout all of those sections is the Spirit. the Spirit.

It will be helpful for us to observe about the veil here in today's passage. The reason for the veil. Why is the veil there? Secondly, the veil changes location. The veil changes location. It's a moving veil. So observe that. Next, how the reading of the law impacts the hearts of the Jews. And the fourth thing, what it means for us to be unveiled. The veil, even though it changes location, is always, to get this, the veil is always on some part of those who are under the law. We are unveiled, why? Because we're not under the law. Those who are under the law all have the veil somewhere. We do not, as we'll see, because we're not under the law, we are unveiled, explicitly saying so there.

Moses and his veil is brought out in Exodus 34. This is after he was there in the tabernacle. And he would talk about the veil going on and off, and so Exodus 34, 33 through 35 talks about Moses and the veil over his face. Now the rest of the locations of the veil are talked about in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, but not here in the Exodus passage.

So spirit, as in the Holy Spirit, is a big theme in this chapter and this specific set of verses as well. And spirit, lowercase s, as referring to our own spirits or that which is spiritual, occurs seven times in the chapter. Three of those are in verses 17 and 18. The law is spiritual, that's clear from scripture, but it defines actions and behaviors and blessings here on this planet. In the physical realm, actions in the physical realm, blessings in the physical realm.

That's the character of the law. The ministry of the Spirit works from and blesses in the spiritual realm. See the difference there? So when a person who is a Christian now grabs hold of the law, what are they doing? They are looking to the physical realm. Everything is centered on the spiritual realm, even though the law has a spiritual source. The ministry of the Spirit, that is the ministry that we have apart from the law, works from and blesses in the spiritual realm.

So that is one reason why we here at Holly Hills will put great emphasis, we're not under the law. It puts the emphasis and focus in an entirely different place. We look for blessings in a different way and in a different location. See the difference? Okay.

Now, the Ministry of the Spirit, the Ministry of Righteousness, has an extraordinary hope. Sometimes I'll talk about a certain hope, and in order that not be confused, I mean a hope with certainty. I mean a hope that is fixed and absolute. The Ministry of the Spirit, the Ministry of Righteousness, has an extraordinary hope.

It is not an I hope so kind of hope. You know, people here will say, I hope this or I hope not that. They're hoping for an outcome. But in fact, they don't have certainty that there will be that outcome. They're simply hoping for it. They want this rather than that outcome.

The hope that we find in Scripture is different. It is a hope that is absolute. We have a hope in going to be with and see the Lord face to face. But it's not a, I'm going to cross my fingers and hope it turns out. It's not a, I'd really like it if it turned out that way, but if not, oh well. It is absolute, certain, and fixed. That extraordinary hope inspires boldness before the Lord and before others.

Unlike those under the law who were told, don't you dare go next to that mountain. Besides, it's scary anyway. You stay away from that mountain. where God is and Moses is up there getting the law. You don't come close. That was their situation. Instead, we're called to draw near. Draw near to God. Matter of fact, we're even told about intimacy with the Lord. Entirely the opposite. Why? Because we're not under law. It's not like the hope that Moses had. I hope these Israelites don't notice that my glory is fading. I think I'll keep this veil on so they can't see that it's fading, because I wouldn't want that. There is a poetic pattern in 2 Corinthians 3, verses 14-16. Let's step our way through it. It begins with, But their minds were hardened.

And then the next section here, for until this very day at the reading of the Old Covenant, the same veil remains unlifted because it is removed in Christ. And then the next part, but to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart. But whenever a person turns to the Lord, now the veil is taken away. Notice, for until this day, but to this day, is a repeated pattern there in those sections. Next, at the reading of the Old Covenant, whenever Moses is read, the same veil remains unlifted. A veil lies over where? Unlike with Moses, where he put a veil on his face, now there's a veil over their heart. A veil so that they can't see out. because it's removed in Christ. Whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. If you are a believer here today, the veil is taken away. The veil is taken away. Why? You're not under law.

Everyone under law, under that old covenant system, everyone had a veil somewhere. Everyone had a veil somewhere. Here's Moses, had a veil over his face. The Israelites, as they heard the law, had a veil over their heart. Those under law had a veil somewhere. All of them.

We under grace, having turned to the Lord, because we are in Christ, where the veil is removed. Because we are in Christ, the veil is taken out of the way. There's not a veil over our face. There's not a veil over our heart. No veil. No law. We don't need it. Why? We're under completely and entirely under the principle of grace, the operating system. There are cult groups today that have a veil over their hearts.

They come to you often two by two. And yes, you recognize them. Sometimes these 18 and 19 year olds will come up with a little tag on their chest that says elder. I don't know how they put that together. Anyway, They have a veil over their hearts because although their systems may differ in the details, they still operate by principle of law. They still operate by principle of law. Do this and don't do that and you'll be saved and you'll be blessed. So they have a veil over their hearts. We have in this passage what's called a chiasm. It's a mirror image in written form and it looks like this in verses 17 and 18.

Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. What is liberty? Freedom from the law. Freedom from the law. But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. Now the glory of the Lord is the center of this poetic pattern and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as from the Lord the Spirit. So the Spirit is mentioned in the beginning part and in the end. All right, now, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. And the other thing that we notice in here is the second and the fourth sections that we have colored in blue.

Both of those are a process. Both of those are a process. We are beholding the Lord as in a mirror, and we're being transformed as a result of that beholding from glory to glory. So the first is our action that's a process, and the second is God's action as we behold the Lord's glory. Now, but we all...

Now, when I was down in Texas, it was really interesting going to seminary, you know, and you're learning Greek with a Texas accent. That's really something, you know. Let me tell you about logos, you know, agape, stuff like that, you know. Anyway, real interesting. But there's an expression down there, all and all y'all, and I'm not quite sure all the detail when you say all y'all and all y'all. But we all refers to all believers.

It does so also in 1 Corinthians 10.17 and James 3.2. Those passages also have that, but we all, and it's referring to we believers. We believers in Christ. We might say that in Texas it might be we all y'all, so I don't know. And the we all is in contrast to the nation of Israel in this passage.

Those who had been under the law and were blinded and hardened by it. You see that? Here the law is spiritual, it is holy and righteous and good. I can say that from the New Testament. It is spiritual, it's holy, it's righteous and good. But applying the law does not work. It stimulates the sin nature, and what we see here, there is also a blinding. The veil is over their hearts. They can't see from their hearts, and they are hardened by it.

The law, though it is spiritual and holy and righteous and good, and reflects God's holy and righteous character, has really serious spiritual consequences, and it can have serious spiritual consequences for people who try to apply it today, especially in the church. We all are those from whom the veil has been removed and lifted.

Why? Because we have turned to the Lord and because we are in Christ. The law is a ministry of condemnation. Romans 8 says that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We are in a position in which the veil has been removed. We've been separated from the law. Turning to the Lord, we are in Christ and we have liberty from the law. Now he says, with unveiled face. In the context here, wearing a veil means still being under the Mosaic law. We do not, as believers in Christ, we do not have the law over our face. We do not have the law over our heart.

We are not being hardened by the law. We can actually look at the law and study it and draw spiritual principles from it. And that's what we've been seeing earlier in our study of 1 Corinthians, right? We can actually learn things from it under grace that are good and helpful.

But being under the law is a whole different matter. Being under the Mosaic law, the veil is over the heart, and that is only removed when a person turns to the Lord in faith. When a person believes the gospel that Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose again. When we turn to the Lord and believe the gospel, then the veil is taken off. Calling upon the grace of the Lord, not the works of the law in order to be saved. The law never saved anybody.

One of the points we made last week is it would have been possible under the Old Testament for someone to be saved spiritually by faith, because that's the only way anybody ever got saved. saved by faith and yet be killed under the law. A person might believe and be saved who was a Jew in the Old Testament might believe and be saved and yet pick up a piece of firewood on the wrong day and be stoned to death for it. Isn't that amazing? So under the law you might actually have somebody die who was eternally saved. because it's of works and it talks about what's happening here on the earth and whether you're going to live or die here on the earth and whether you're going to be blessed or cursed here on the earth. That's what the law can do. The law can't do the things that the Lord Himself can do. Yeah, I have this picture of a man here with a big pile of rocks on top of his head.

How long do I have to do this to stay saved? It's the problem with trying to be saved under the law. How long do I have to keep it up? Until the very end. Until the very end. Someone who believes that they stay saved by keeping the law actually are thinking that, you know, I could blow it at the last minute and go to hell. I could keep living righteously to the best of my ability to the last day and at the last minute I could sin and lose my salvation and go to hell. Someone who is thinking they're saved by the law could live under that kind of fear. The believer's beholding of the glory of the Lord is not enhanced by the law.

It is a veil. It makes it so that there is hardness. It makes it so that there is blindness. The law does not help. in our beholding the glory of the Lord therefore we all with unveiled face we don't need it we don't have it we don't need the law not even a little bit not one not ten not ten minus one plus one no combination now beholding in the mirror these four words are translated actually from just one Greek word That was one Greek word that described, you know, looking into a mirror. This is the word for looking into a polished first surface mirror. And the Corinthian mirrors were famous. Matter of fact, a number of them that were in somewhat decent condition got collected to the British Museum, and this is one of them. Now, the mirrors were not like ours where you have glass and then a silvery finish on the back from which the image is reflected. The mirrors were made of metal and you had to polish them up pretty much with each use because they would become tarnished on the surface. So this would be one that's many centuries old, even thousands of years old, and you'd have to go polish it each time.

Paul used the word mirror in 1 Corinthians 13.12 as James did in James 1.23, and so it looks like this.

1 Corinthians 13.12, For now we see in a mirror dimly. And then in this passage, But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 3.18, and then James 1.23, If anyone is a doer of the word, the word of God, excuse me, is a hearer of the Word and not a doer. He is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror."

So the comparison between the Word of God and the mirror there is clear from James 1.23. All three of these passages where the word mirror is used, it represents God's written Word. God's written Word.

So here is in James 1.22-24 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers, who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror. For once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. So, in 1 Corinthians 13, 12, sometime back in the elective that we had here several weeks back, that same word is used specifically for the completed New Testament.

Now this phrase, the glory of the Lord, the glory of the Lord is the center of Paul's chiasm, that literary reflection there. The center being typically the focal point of the entire passage. And so we have it here, the glory of the Lord is right there in the middle, the reflection point. And so the glory, as we mentioned last week, glory is the radiant essence of who God is. Glory is the radiant essence of who God is. It's not when the Broncos win the Super Bowl. It's not that.

Glory is the radiant essence of who God is. All glory is derived from God because He is the source. He is the ultimate source of all glory. All glory is derived from God. God declares His glory. He reveals His glory to us. He shares His glory with us. revelation, in the declaration, in the sharing of glory, He is glorified. That's God's eternal purpose, to declare, reveal, share His glory, that He might be glorified.

Glory isn't a thing or a commodity. I can't go and say, hey, slice me off two pounds of that there glory. Can't do that. It is also very personal. It's one reason it's not a commodity and you can't just go slice off two pounds of it. It's not a commodity because it's personal. It's personal to God himself who is a person. God is a personal being.

Our Lord Jesus even prayed in the final hours of his earthly life that we would see his glory which will be ultimately fulfilled when we see him face to face. Jesus was praying to the Father in those final hours, and he said, Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given to me, be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory, which you have given me. For you love me before the foundation of the world. He prayed for us. He prayed for us about glory.

Now, the phrase, are being transformed, this is a Greek word here, translated, beholding us in a mirror, is a present tense verb that conveys an ongoing action on our part, the action of ours as believers. The Greek word translated, are being transformed, is a present tense passive verb.

Now, what I mean by passive, it doesn't mean I'm about to lay down here on the stage. What it does mean is that we are the recipient. We are the recipient of being transformed. We don't sit here and go, okay, let's transform ourselves and exert a bunch of effort or have some magical phrase or something and then we get transformed.

It is instead something that is done to us by God. Matter of fact, we'll see specifically it's a work of the Holy Spirit that we are transformed. Now, actually there are two different processes, and we're going to only look at one here. We are being conformed, Romans 8, 28, and 29, into the image of Christ. This one talks about being transformed into the image of Christ. Though they sound the same, and their end goal is to be like Christ, they're different.

And the difference is, this transforming happens because we behold the Lord in His written word. It happens as a result of our beholding the Lord in His written word. It's an action of the Holy Spirit working upon us. As we behold the Lord in His word, the Holy Spirit is doing this transforming, this transforming of us into the image of Christ.

So Romans 8.28 and 29 bring out the conformed process. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good.

That doesn't mean all things are good. Some things are really awful. What happened in that school in Connecticut, that was really, really awful. So it's not saying everything is good. That's not true. But all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. When God predestines you, that doesn't mean that every move you make, every breath you take, is locked in. What it means is the end result will be you will be conformed to the image of His Son. That's different, and it also means we have liberty. We're not just having every move and every breath determined by God. But the end result is determined by God, that we will be conformed to the image of His Son.

This present process in Romans 12.2, and to not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The same word transformed here.

Now, into the same image, the words into the same image refers to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, similar to the words in Romans 8.29. So a similar end result, two different processes. Does it mean that we will all end up looking like 30-year-old first century Jewish carpenters from Nazareth?

No. That's not what God's doing. This is not superficial and external. God is working on changing your image. And I'm not saying that superficially. In New Testament times, the Greek word translated image refers to a representation of something or someone in some respect, but not to an exact likeness.

We are being made like Christ spiritually and morally. We are not being made deities. Got that? There's a huge difference. We're not being made deities. We're not having a whole bunch of gods. made, as we brought out in the elective just right before this. We are not being made into deities, we are being made into his spiritual and moral character. That's what God is in the process of doing, not making us God.

The word image in the context of 2 Corinthians 3.18 and Romans 8.29 refers to being changed into Christ's spiritual character. Changed into his character, not his earthly appearance, and not into a deity. Very important to get that straight. God is working on changing your image. He is. But it's deep, not superficial. He's not doing a PR job out there. He is doing a spiritual work inside of each one of us as we behold the Lord through His Word.

From glory to glory. Now this is a figure of speech expression that Paul actually uses several times. Increasing from one level to another. That's what from glory to glory means. Increasing from one level to another. In the previous chapter Paul used the same figure of speech.

In 2 Corinthians 2, 15 and 16, when he wrote this, For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, and to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. To the one an aroma of increasing death, to the other an aroma of increasing life, growing life. So glory to glory is growing and increasing glory.

That's what that means. Just as from the Lord the Spirit. The growing glory from glory to glory is not the result of our trying really hard to be glorious. Got that? It's not the result of our trying really hard to be glorious or to be worthy of Christ's glory. That's not what it is, right? Not at all. Okay, just so you got it straight. Okay. It's a process resulting from ministries of the Holy Spirit. You see, the Holy Spirit has a whole bunch of ministries, roughly two dozen ministries in your life and mine. And a part of that ministry is this transforming that goes on.

The Holy Spirit was involved in the original writing of the text of Scripture. All Scripture is inspired by God. God breathed. And it's the Holy Spirit, Peter says, that carried these authors along as they wrote. So writing God's Word is a work of the Holy Spirit. Bringing it in and understanding it is a work of the Holy Spirit.

And then being transformed and being changed is also a work of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit's work all the way along, ending up with a result that we are being changed, transformed as a result of doing this. You know, you can go and get doctorate degrees from seminary and study the Bible until you're blue in the face or any other color you like.

It doesn't matter. It does nothing spiritually unless it's a work of the Spirit. It is a work of the Holy Spirit that we are transformed. Unless God is doing something, it doesn't matter how many degrees you get from seminary or what grades you get. It's the transforming process that counts. It's the transforming process that counts.

And that happens only as we all, with unveiled face, behold us in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, in God's written word. And as a work of the Holy Spirit, we will be transformed Not because just we studied really hard and got good grades, or we impressed everybody else with how much we know about the Bible, but because God did and does and will do a work in us through His Word.

I was going to sing this, but my voice isn't there. It's an alteration of, you know, we shall behold Him in the chorus. We now behold Him. We now behold Him. We are transformed from glory to glory. Yes, we now behold Him as we study His word. We now behold Him through His word, our Savior and Lord.

It is a work of the Holy Spirit that we have God's word. It's a work of the Holy Spirit that we read and understand and behold the Lord Jesus Christ In God's word, it's a work of the Holy Spirit that we are changed as a result of it, transformed from glory to glory, growing glory. That's spiritual growth. That's spiritual growth. Let's pray.

Lord, we do give you thanks that we, even this morning as we meet here, have the privilege of beholding you in your word. What an awesome and wonderful thing that is. Thank you that we can meet here with unveiled face. Thank you that we can gather together in liberty. Thank you that we can look to you to carry this about. It's a miraculous work that is not from our great efforts and accomplishments, but is an accomplishment through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. We do thank you for it all. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.