2 Corinthians - From Glory to Glory

2 Corinthians 3:1 is one of the most important chapters in the book. Remember now, in the first seven chapters of 2 Corinthians, Paul is explaining his ministry. He'd been accused of double-talking to the Corinthian church—writing one thing and saying one thing and meaning quite something else.

And so Paul is explaining his ministry, and in 2 Corinthians 3:1, he explains that his ministry is a ministry of grace and not a ministry of law. There had come to the Corinthian church a group of legalists, a group of Judaizers we call them, who were saying, "Oh, it's fine to trust Jesus Christ, but you also need the law, and apart from Moses, you just won't be able to make it."

In this chapter, he presents a number of contrasts between the Old Covenant ministry and the New Covenant ministry.

Now the background for this chapter is Exodus 34:1. This chapter tells us how Moses would go up and talk with God, and when he came down from the mountain, his face was shining because he had picked up some of the glory of God. But this glory was fading; it did not remain. It was a fading glory.

And so Moses put a veil over his face when he talked to the Jewish people, lest they would see the glory fading. When Moses would go up to talk with God, he would take the veil off. When he came down to talk to the people, he would put the veil on. That's the background of this particular chapter.

We're going to survey it now and notice the contrast between New Testament and Old Testament ministry. 2 Corinthians 3:1-3: the Old Covenant was written on stones; the New Covenant is written, as he tells us in 2 Corinthians 3:3, not in tables of stone but in fleshly tables of the heart.

The Old Covenant ministry was an external ministry. God put before them Ten Commandments and a great many rules and regulations, and as long as they obeyed this externally, they were accepted—not saved, but accepted. They were in fellowship in the Israelite nation. But you see, a person could obey these rules and regulations externally but never have them internally.

That's why Jesus came along and said, "Now I'm not just saying to you, thou shalt not kill; I'm saying don't hate in your heart, don't have anger in your heart. That's internal. I'm not saying to you, thou shalt not commit adultery; that's right, it's wrong to commit adultery, I am going to enunciate that, but it's also wrong to have lust in your heart. That's internal."

Now this kind of ministry is not easy. 2 Corinthians 3:5, Paul says, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God, who hath also made us able or sufficient ministers of the New Testament." Only God can enable the minister of the Word of God to write the Word of God on people's hearts. And of course, the important thing is that those people be written on the minister's heart. 2 Corinthians 3:2, "Ye are our epistle written in our hearts." It's a ministry of love, isn't it?

Now in 2 Corinthians 3:6, he gives us a second contrast: the Old Covenant was a ministry of death; the New Covenant is a ministry of life. "Not of the letter"—now that means the law, the Old Covenant law—"but of the spirit"—that means the New Covenant. "For the letter"—the Old Covenant—"killeth, but the spirit giveth life." The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life.

Now some people interpret that verse to mean don't take the Word of God literally, just take it spiritually, and so they symbolize everything and use allegory and so forth, and of course, that completely twists the Word of God. The letter means the Old Covenant; the spirit means the New Covenant.

The letter kills; the law was not given to give life. The law was given to convict, to reveal the righteousness of God. The law was given to control people externally. The law was given to show people their need for the grace of God. The law was given to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord Jesus.

Now the Old Covenant ministry killed; the New Covenant ministry gives life. When you preach the Word of God and share the Word of God, it's the living Word, and the Spirit of God takes the Word of God and generates life.

There's a third contrast now in 2 Corinthians 3:7-8: the contrast between condemnation and righteousness. The Old Covenant was a ministry of condemnation. "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"—then he adds—"which glory was to be done away, how shall not the ministration of the spirit be more glorious?"

You'll notice that there is a contrast here in glory: the ministration of death, the ministration of the Spirit; the ministration of death, the ministration of righteousness.

Now in 2 Corinthians 3:9, "For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more does the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory." Now two things are involved here. The Old Covenant is a ministry of condemnation because it cannot save. The law was a mirror—you don't wash your face in the mirror; you look into the mirror and see how dirty your face is.

Paul says in Galatians 2:21, "For if there had been a law which could have given righteousness, then verily righteousness would have been by the law." But the law does not give righteousness; the law condemns. And so the Old Covenant ministry is a ministry of condemnation, but the New Covenant ministry is a ministry of righteousness—salvation.

A fourth contrast now: the Old Covenant ministry was one of fading glory. When the Lord Jesus met Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses wasn't glorified there—his face wasn't shining. Elijah's face wasn't shining. Moses represents the law, Elijah the prophets, but Jesus was radiant in glory. The law and the prophets are fulfilled in Christ, and God spoke from heaven and said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased. Listen to him."

And so the glory that Moses had faded. The glory of the Old Covenant's gone. The temple is gone. The priesthood is gone. The sacrifices are gone. All of that glory is gone. But the glory that we have in Jesus Christ is more glorious; it exceeds in glory.

2 Corinthians 3:10-11, "For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, but by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which is done away was glorious"—that's the law now—"much more that which remaineth is glorious. Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech, and not as Moses, who put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel should not steadfastly look on the end of that which is abolished."

In other words, he put the veil on his face not because he was frightening them; he put the veil on his face because he didn't want them to see the fading glory.

So here we have another contrast: the contrast between the veiled face of Moses and the unveiled face of the believer today. 2 Corinthians 3:14, Paul applies this to the Jewish nation: "But their minds were blinded"—or hardened—"for until this day there remains the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament."

When the Jewish people or anyone reads the Old Testament and doesn't see the Lord Jesus, there's a veil over their minds and they cannot see the truth of the Word, which veil is done away in Christ. And when they read the Old Covenant, they do not see the truth. Why? Because they haven't trusted the Savior. Jesus is the key to the Old Covenant, and those who want to put us back under that Old Covenant are leading us from Jesus back to Moses. My Bible goes from Moses to Jesus.

Now 2 Corinthians 3:17, there's a contrast between bondage and liberty. "Now the Lord is that Spirit"—that's interesting, he's telling us that the Holy Spirit is God—"the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." What kind of liberty? Liberty from the bondage of the law.

Under the Old Covenant, it was a yoke of bondage. Everybody admitted this, Acts 15:1; they call it a yoke of bondage. The law was not given to free people; the law was given to show them how much freedom they needed, and then they would turn to Jesus Christ. Now law is not antagonistic to grace; they are complementary, not contradictory. Because of law, I see my need for grace, and through grace I can fulfill the righteousness required in the law.

So there is a contrast now between liberty and bondage. There are many ministries that put people into bondage, and Paul is saying we don't have that kind of a ministry. We do not write the Word of God on the wall of the church building and expect people to obey it; no, we write it on hearts.

It's not a ministry of death, it's a ministry of life. It's not condemnation, it's righteousness. It's not a fading glory, but a lasting glory that gets brighter and brighter. We don't have a veiled face; we have nothing to hide. Our hearts and our lives are open before God and before people, and our ministry does not lead to bondage, it leads to liberty.

2 Corinthians 3:18, you have a final contrast: in the Old Covenant only Moses shared the glory, but in the New Covenant everyone can have the glory. "But we all, all of us with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror"—the Word of God—"the glory of the Lord are being transfigured"—being changed—"into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

I imagine those Jews must have envied Moses. He'd come down from having fellowship with God and his face would be shining, and they'd say, "Oh, if we could just share in that." Well, you and I can.

2 Corinthians 3:18: when the child of God looks into the Word of God and sees the Son of God, he is transformed by the Spirit of God into the image of God to the glory of God. 2 Corinthians 3:18 tells us that we can look into the Word of God and see this same glory in Jesus Christ, and then the Spirit of God will transfer that glory to us.

If you're depending on law, turn away from that. Law shows you your need, but grace meets your need. Law can bring us to Jesus, but only grace can make us like Jesus.

We've noticed that there are a number of contrasts in 2 Corinthians 3:1—contrasts between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, law and grace as it were. Under the Old Covenant, the law was written on stones for people to read. In the New Covenant, the law, the Word of God, is written on hearts by the Holy Spirit. Where there is a spiritual ministry, the Word is being written on hearts.

The Old Covenant was a covenant of death, 2 Corinthians 3:6, but the New Covenant is a covenant of life. The law slays, but grace gives life as we trust the Lord Jesus. The Old Covenant was a covenant of condemnation, but the New Covenant is a covenant of righteousness.

Now I want to focus on 2 Corinthians 3:17-18, a gold mine, a very, very precious gold mine of spiritual truth. "Now the Lord is that Spirit"—that identifies the Holy Spirit as God immediately. There are those who teach the Holy Spirit is not God, but he is, and we find it right here:

"The Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all"—not just leaders, not just Moses, not just the preacher, all of us—"but we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are changed, are being transfigured, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

Now there are three basic truths in these two verses that we need to lay hold of if we're going to understand what New Covenant ministry is all about. I say this cautiously, but I believe it with my whole heart: in many New Testament churches, we have Old Testament ministry. It's not a ministry of the Word of God by the Spirit of God written on hearts; it's very legalistic, it's very condemning, it's very cold.

It is a ministry of death, it's a ministry of bondage. And these two verses, 2 Corinthians 3:17-18, contain three exciting truths that'll help us understand what New Testament ministry is all about.

Truth number one: the goal of our ministry is likeness to Jesus Christ. Did you notice that? "But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed"—transfigured is the word—"into the same image." What image? The image of Jesus Christ. The goal of ministry is likeness to Christ.

Now that's God's goal for your life. Back in Romans 8:1, we all like to quote Romans 8:28, and we know that all things are working together for good. But don't forget the end of that verse: "to them that are called according to his purpose." Now what is his purpose? Well, Romans 8:29 tells us what his purpose is: "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son."

God's goal for you and me is to make us like Jesus Christ. Now the devil wants us to be conformed to the world, Romans 12:2: "Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed." The legalists who had gotten into the Corinthian church wanted these people to conform externally to a law. They had certain rites and rituals, they had certain standards and practices, and their goal was to make these people conform to a certain standard of legalistic ministry.

Now the problem there is twofold. Number one: you can conform on the outside and be very wicked on the inside. You can measure a person by the Ten Commandments, but you can't measure a person very easily by the Sermon on the Mount because you can't see the heart.

The legalists wanted to have an external ministry. Secondly, when you follow these legalists and conform to an external law, you all become alike. I've been in churches where everybody was alike—cookie-cutter Christians. They came off of an assembly line. They carried the same Bible the same way, they used the same language, had the same tone to their voices, and it was a legalistic conformity.

Now the goal of our ministry is not likeness to the preacher, not likeness to John Calvin or Martin Luther, not likeness to John Wesley, not likeness to Warren Wiersbe—likeness to Jesus Christ. And the beautiful thing is this: the more you become like Jesus Christ, the more it brings out your own individuality. The more you become like the preacher, the less you are yourself. But the more you become like Jesus, the more it brings out your own individuality. Now law can bring you to Christ, but only grace can make us like Christ. And the goal of our ministry is likeness to Christ.

Truth number two: the means of ministry is the Spirit of God using the Word. "Beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord." Now the Word of God is compared to a mirror. James does this in James 1:1 when he says, "Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves."

It'd be an awful thing to read your Bible and fool yourself. "For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror, for he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was."

The Word of God's compared to a mirror. Now when you look into a mirror, you see yourself, but you also in this mirror of God's Word see Jesus Christ. That's the beautiful thing. The Spirit of the Lord wrote the Word of God, the Spirit of the Lord reveals the Son of God in the Word of God, and the Spirit of the Lord lives in the child of God. Did you get that?

That's why you spend time every day in your Bible. That's why your pastor keeps telling you, "Now have a devotional time, spend time every day reading God's Word and praying." But don't just read it; let it read you. The means of ministry: the Spirit using the Word.

You change people from the inside; you make them like Jesus Christ by writing the Word of God on their hearts, and only the Spirit of God can do that. 2 Corinthians 3:3, "Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us"—God uses men and women—"written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone but in fleshly tables of the heart."

Finally, the result of ministry: freedom in Christ. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Now legalism always keeps you a baby. Little children have to live by rules and regulations; adults live by principles. And when you are mature in the Lord, you are free.

We have had the joy of raising four children, and it's a delight to see them grow into freedom. Now some parents like to keep their children immature; they like to keep them under a lot of rules and regulations. I have news for you: if the discipline on the outside when they are children doesn't become conviction on the inside when they become teenagers, you're lost, you're done for, you've missed your opportunity.

Little children must have legalistic rules and regulations and disciplines, but as they get older, those disciplines on the outside become convictions on the inside and they start living by principles, not by rules and regulations. And this is what ministry does.

The test of your ministry is this: how free are your people? Now I'm not talking about license, I'm not talking about anarchy, I'm not talking about lawlessness, no, no. Fact of the matter is, a legalistic ministry produces more lawlessness; when people get away from somebody watching them, they just go the opposite extreme.

The Spirit of the Lord is the Spirit of liberty. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." The Word of God is God's law of liberty. When the Spirit of God puts the Word of God into your heart, you are free—not free to do whatever you want to do, that's the worst bondage in the world—free to accomplish the will of God and be all that God wants you to be. It's discipline from within. Maturity always brings responsibility, and responsibility balances privilege. And so we aren't afraid of ministry that leads to freedom.

Well, the goal of ministry is likeness to Christ, and the means of ministry is the Spirit using the Word. Only the Spirit of Christ can duplicate the character of Christ in our lives. And when the Spirit uses the Word, the result of our ministry is freedom in Christ—a growing, joyful liberty, not to do what we please, but to do what pleases Him. Not selfishly to live for what we want, but to live to serve others. Test your ministry, my friend: what is the goal of your ministry? What is the means of your ministry? What's the result of your ministry? I trust it's going from glory to glory.