2 Corinthians 3:16-18

Applebury's Comments

Transformed
Scripture

2 Corinthians 3:16-18. But whensoever it shall turn to the Lord the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.

Comments

turn to the Lord.The only way to remove that veil is to make an honest investigation of the claims of Christ as set forth in the gospel which was preached by the inspired apostles. When it, the veiled heart, turns to the Lord the veil is taken away. Then one can see that God has spoken with finality through the Son in the New Covenant. The veil kept the Jews from seeing that the Law of Moses was supplanted by the gospel. They did not know that God was speaking through Christ, not Moses. See Deuteronomy 18:15. The veil, which Moses removed when he was in the presence of God or speaking to the children of Israel, is taken out of the way when one realizes that God did speak with finality through Christ.

Now the Lord is the Spirit.The word spirit in this verse is rendered Spirit, assuming that Paul was referring to the Holy Spirit. The Lord is Jesus Christ. See 2 Corinthians 4:5. See also comment on 2 Corinthians 1:3. But this is to identify the Lord with the Holy Spirit. We are well aware of the fact that Scripture makes it clear that there is an intimate unity between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. But why should Paul refer to this unity at this point? He had already made it clear that the New Covenant came into being through the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit as he directed the minds of those who wrote down the message of the New Covenant. He had also indicated that spirit stood as a symbol of the New Covenant. Since in this context he is contrasting the reading of Moses, that is the Old Covenant, with the boldness of Paul's speech in connection with the New Covenant, it is possible that he is speaking about the Lord who is identified with that spirit-covenant. It is to the Lord that the veiled heart was to turn. And that was to be done by the reading of the New Covenant which was symbolized by spirit rather than letter. The New Covenant is the fulfillment of the Old.

where the Spirit of the Lord is.While this could refer to the Holy Spirit through whom the New Covenant came into being, consistency would suggest that the reference is still to spirit as the symbol of the New Covenant. Where the spirit-covenant of the Lord is, there is liberty.

there is liberty.This is the very issue that Paul discussed with the Galatians in Chapter s four and five. The New Covenant is represented by Sarah, and the Christian by Isaac. Paul concludes, Wherefore brethren we are not children of the handmaid but of the free woman (Galatians 4:31). Again Paul says, For freedom, did Christ set us free. Stand fast therefore and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage (Galatians 5:1). This freedom in Christ is within the regulation of the Law of Christ. Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2). See also Romans 8:1-4.

But we all, with unveiled face.The reading of the Old Covenant is here contrasted with the reading of the New Covenant. While the Jew read with a veil upon his heart, the Christianthe one who turned to the Lordis aware that the New Covenant is the abiding message of Christ.

beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord.See James-' use of the mirror as a symbol of the perfect law of liberty, that is, the gospel or the New Covenant. James 1:23-24. It is the glorious, abiding New Covenant that reveals the glory of the Lord. It reveals His deity, His majesty, His power and His authority. It reveals His work as Prophet, Priest, and King. It reveals Him as our example, in whose footsteps we should follow. See 1 Peter 2:21. It reveals Him as the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. See 1 Peter 1:25. It reveals Him as the One coming again for those who wait for Him unto salvation. God's children will be like Him for they will see Him as He is. See 1 John 3:2.

transformed into the same image.The tragic failure of the Jews under the Old Covenant is indicated by the fact that they were not transformed into God's children. Though they claimed God as their Father, the simple truth was that they were filled with hatred for His Son and disregard for His Word. Therefore Jesus called them children of their father, the devil. See John 8:39-44.

Will Christ tolerate anything less than genuine transformation into Christlikeness under the New Covenant? Paul wrote to the Romans and said, Be not fashioned according to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds so that ye may approve the will of God, the thing that is good, and acceptable in His sight, and complete (Romans 12:2). How tragic that many of the Corinthians had failed to see this. Their sin of division was destroying the temple of the Holy Spirit, their immoral conduct defiled the body which is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and their unchristian conduct made it impossible to keep the memorial feast of the Lord's Supper.

from glory to glory.The image into which those who turn to the Lord are to be transformed is that of the glorious Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing short of Christlikeness in character and conduct meets this demand. Paul had written to the Corinthians to say, Imitate me as I am also an imitator of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). Guidelines to follow in this matter may be found in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. Christ demonstrated in His life the meaning of every one of these characteristics of love. Love is the crowning virtue of the Christian life. So the glory of Christ is to be seen in the glorious life of His church. He cleansed it by the washing of the water with the Word that He might present the church into Himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle of any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:26-27).

even as from the Lord the Spirit.This glorious transformation comes from the Lord of the spirit-covenant. Again some assume that Spirit is in apposition to Lord thus identifying the Lord with the Holy Spirit. The point that Paul is making is that the Lord has spoken through the New Covenant in contrast with the fact that Moses spoke through the Old Covenant as God revealed it to him.

Summary

Following the claim to be equal to the task of proclaiming the message of the gospel which was a message of life and death, Paul asked two questions: (1) Is this self-commendation? and (2) We do not need, as some do, letters of commendation to you or from you, do we?
He began his answers by saying, You are our epistle. Others might need letters of commendation, but Paul didn-'t. He knew that they had become Christians through his preaching. He had an abiding love for them. They, then, were like a letter written on his heart, known and read by everyone. They knew of his love for them and that they had become new creatures in Christ. Indeed, they were like a letter that Christ had written through his ministers who had preached the gospel to them. It was written on living heartsthe understanding and affectionsnot stone tablets as if it affected external conduct only. It was not an ordinary letter written with ink, but one written by the Spirit of the living God. Paul was confident of all this because he knew that it had God's approval. God alone had made him equal to the task of being a minister of the New Covenant. This led to a contrast between the Old Covenantthe Ten Commandments given at Mt. Sinaiand the New Covenantthe gospel covenant given in fullness on the Day of Pentecost. He spoke of the Old Covenant as a letter covenant, and the New Covenant as a spirit covenant.

To many, the letter-covenant was not obeyed out of love for God. It became a thing that killed, because death was the penalty for breaking it. The spirit-covenant, because it was intelligently, willingly, and lovingly obeyed, was a thing that made alive those who were dead in sin. The spirit-covenant was revealed by the Holy Spirit, but for that matter, so was the letter-covenant, and in some respects it too was spiritual. See Romans 7:12-14. The expression, the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life has nothing to do with the literal interpretation of the Scriptures as opposed to a spiritual interpretation.

Paul contrasted the glory of these two covenants, that is, the Old Covenant which kills and the New that brings life. The Old brought condemnation to the disobedient, but the New brings forgiveness to those who willingly obey it. The glory of the Old was such that the sons of Israel could not look steadfastly at the face of Moses which shone with a brilliant light because he had talked with God who had given him the covenant for Israel. But the glory of the New Covenant excells the Old just as forgiveness excells condemnation. The glory of the Old could not equal the surpassing glory of the New. Even the glory on Moses-' face faded away, a symbol of the fact that the Old Covenant was to be replaced by the New which is permanent. As a minister of the New Covenant, Paul spoke with great boldness.

Moses put a veil on his face to keep the people from seeing the end of the glory with which it shone. Moses wanted them to remember the glory as a symbol of the fact that God had spoken to them through Him. This kept them from seeing that the Old Covenant had been done away. Even in Paul's time, a mental picture of that veil remained in the minds of readers of the Law because they were not aware that the veil had been done away by the New Covenant of Christ. It was done away whenever the veiled heart turned to the Lord through whom God spoke with finality, completeness, and authority. See Hebrews 1:1-2. The Lord is the Lord of the spirit-covenant. The message of the New Covenant is forever fresh just as if one were speaking to God face to face. Where the spirit-covenant of the Lord is, there is liberty. With unveiled faces because we are talking to the Lord, we look as into a mirror when we read the New Covenant and see the glory of the Lord.

As we behold this glorious image of the Lord, we are transformed into the glorious likeness of the Lord of the spirit-covenant.