Scripture Daily

Context No. 1079 of 4322 · 2 Corinthians

Context · Reflection

2 Corinthians 3:12-18: in context

12Having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness of speech, 13and not as Moses, who put a veil on his face so that the children of Israel wouldn’t look steadfastly on the end of that which was passing away. 14But their minds were hardened, for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains, because in Christ it passes away. 15But to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Paul contrasts the old covenant with the new using the image of Moses' veil. When Moses came down from meeting God, his face shone, and he veiled it. Paul reads that veil as a picture of a hardening, a covering that lies over people's hearts when the old covenant is read, so they cannot see that its glory was always passing away and pointing to Christ. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, he says, the veil is taken away. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And then the great promise: we all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into his image, from one degree of glory to another.

The heart of it is what happens to an unveiled face beholding God's glory. Paul says we are transformed by beholding, changed into the image of what we gaze at. This is one of scripture's clear pictures of how spiritual growth actually works: not mainly by gritted effort but by looking, by turning our unveiled faces toward the Lord and beholding his glory, so that we are gradually remade into his likeness. We become like what we behold. And the transformation is from one degree of glory to another, a gradual process, not instant, moving us step by step toward his image over a lifetime, the work of the Spirit rather than our own striving. The condition is an unveiled face, which comes when we turn to the Lord, the veil that hid his glory lifted so we can actually see. There is real freedom in this, freedom from the exhausting project of self-improvement, because change comes as a byproduct of beholding Christ. Look at him, keep looking, and the Spirit does the transforming. We are changed not by staring at ourselves but at his glory.

Am I trying to change myself by gritted effort, or am I turning my unveiled face toward Christ to behold his glory, trusting the Spirit to transform me into his image from glory to glory?

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