The glory from the face of Jesus

2Co 3:3  Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart….

2Co 3:6  Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter [alone], but of the [letter and the] Spirit: for the letter [alone] killeth, but the Spirit [through the letter] giveth life. [Paul had just sent them an epistle of letters, called 1 Corinthians, and it gave life through their death to self. Now in this epistle he can add more mercy to the truth in his communications with them because they bowed to the heavy “letters” of hard sayings from his previous epistle.]

2Co 3:7  But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance [The Old Testament had glory, great glory; it was as glorious as Moses’ face; Moses’ glorious face represented the glory of the Old Testament]; which glory was to be done away [at the close of the Old Testament]:

2Co 3:8  How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious [the glory shining from the face of the Lord, Christ in us, His Spirit in us, the hope of glory]?….

 2Co 3:13  And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished [They were too scared too keep looking at the divine presence on Moses the whole time that he led them]:

2Co 3:14  But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; which vail is done away in Christ. [The veil was not taken away from most of them but to some it was taken away (see Romans 11:7,14,25). And it is taken away from us only if we don’t need Jesus to be veiled, as most of them needed. But, if we have to veil Christ as we read of His self-sacrifice and then His leadership throughout the rest of the New Testament, or if Satan veils Him to us, so that we can’t see Him throughout, then we don’t have the Spirit. And if we can’t see Jesus and are unable to reveal Him to others because we have nothing to say about Jesus, then we don’t have the Spirit. If we can preach about everything except Jesus, then we have not studied Jesus; and as a result, we have not the Spirit.]

2Co 3:15  But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail [of unbelief, being offended, a stubborn resistance, a supernatural prejudice, an unholy presence] is upon their heart. [They didn’t want to see or have Jesus; they didn’t need a personal Saviour. But, at a future time a full, perfect removal of the veil will happen to all the redeemed, completely and forever. We will no longer see Jesus by faith through a glass darkly, but then face to face. “And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.” (Isa 25:7).]

2Co 3:16  Nevertheless when it [the heart] shall turn to the Lord, the vail [of offense] shall be taken away.

2Co 3:17  Now the Lord [“Christ Jesus” (4:5)] is that Spirit [“of the living God” (3:3)]: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. [This sounds confusing. It sounds like Jesus is the living God, which is not exactly true. Paul explains later that the one, true, living God gives the light of His own glory, which is His Spirit, through the knowledge of His only begotten Son. Therefore, the Lord Jesus is the Spirit and wherever His own Spirit is, there is liberty from the bondage of sin. Truly the gospel is all about Jesus and His Father who sent Him.]

2Co 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. [The Spirit of Christ causes the glory and the freedom when we turn to Christ.]

2Co 4:1  Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;

2Co 4:2  But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

2Co 4:3  But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:

2Co 4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. [“And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: for this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.” (Matt. 13:14,15). This is why the hardened path never had a single seed take root before the birds came and devoured them.]

2Co 4:5  For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.

2Co 4:6  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

 

God shines in our hearts by giving the bundle of Christ’s Spirit (see Revelation 5:6) that shines in our hearts and minds and consciences. God shines in us using Jesus’ light. “Direct from the throne issue the beams of His glory. The heavens are opened, and upon the Saviour’s head descends a dovelike form of purest light,--fit emblem of Him, the meek and lowly One.” Desire of Ages, p. 112. God, who is Spirit, doesn’t send a third person of a trinity to us. Neither does He send His own glory to us, just as Jesus said that His Father (the Spirit) would not speak of Himself, but he would speak of whatever He hears from His Son. “He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive [G2983, lambanō] of Mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are Mine: therefore said I, that He (the Father) shall take [G2983, lambanō] of Mine, and shall shew it unto you.” (John 16:14,15). “‘Holy Spirit…another Comforter…the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless’ (John 14:15-18)” 14MR 23.

“I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (John 14:18). “I will manifest Myself to him [that hath My commandments and keepeth them].” (John 14:21). “We will come unto him and make Our abode with him [that will love Me,... and keep My words].” (John 14:23). God, the UNKOWN GOD, whom the world cannot see or know (see Acts 17:23; John 14:17), and His glory, is beyond our sinful natures’ ability to grasp and appreciate. His glory is abstract values written in letters and carved in slabs. “What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh: God sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:3,4). We could not obey God because of our weak flesh. Rather, God sends the glory of a human like us. God sends One in the likeness of sinful human flesh so that we can identify with His Son and with the righteousness shining from Him, not just His face, but in all His actions, in all His words. God shines in our hearts the whole person of Christ, the life and death of Jesus. God, sending His Son in our image, pictorially played out the truth in the letters and slabs of stone and abstract values. The Son was the Law of God incarnated, the truth as it is in Jesus. God gave the light of the knowledge of His glory shining from the face of Jesus Christ, which was brighter and better than the glory shining from the face of Moses and his Old Testament.

Yet the truth of the Father sending the mighty presence of His Son, “the Spirit of His Son” (Gal. 4:6)--not a third person of a trinity, but His own dear Son in Spirit--has been veiled from the minds of the post-apostolic church, from the time of the church’s lost first love and falling away, all the way down to the present Laodicean church. But, when we turn to Jesus and study Him as seen all through the people of the Old and New Testaments, then the veil of a third person of a trinity will be taken away, and we will see Jesus shining forth clearly in every glorious work of the Spirit seen in the Bible. We will see the Father personally working through His Son, both getting Their hands dirty, to comfort sinners, to change our hearts, and to lead us into all truth. We will understand that God and Christ both have a Spirit, as we have a spirit because we are made in Their image. The Spirit of God and Son are one Spirit, and They invite us to join Them in Their one Spirit when we will submit our will to Their commamdments, and They can give us a new spirit and a new heart to know Them (see Ezekiel 36:26). “I in them, and Thou in Me.” (John 17:23). “In that day [of Pentecost when the Spirit was poured out] ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.” (John 17:20). “Know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But, he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” (1 Cor. 6:16,17).

 

Christ was about to depart to His home in the heavenly courts, but He assured His disciples that He would send them the Comforter, who would abide with them forever. To the guidance of this Comforter all may implicitly trust. He is the Spirit of truth; but this truth the world can neither see nor receive. . . . {OFC 127.1}

Christ desired His disciples to understand that He would not leave them orphans. “I will not leave you comfortless,” He declared: “I will come to you” (John 14:18, 19). . . . Precious, glorious assurance of eternal life! Even though He was to be absent, their relation to Him was to be that of a child to its parent. . . . {OFC 127.2}

The words spoken to the disciples come to us through their words. The Comforter is ours as well as theirs, at all times and in all places, in all sorrows and in all affliction, when the outlook seems dark and the future perplexing and we feel helpless and alone. These are times when the Comforter will be sent in answer to the prayer of faith. {OFC 127.3}

There is no comforter like Christ, so tender and so true. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. His Spirit speaks to the heart. Circumstances may separate us from our friends; the broad, restless ocean may roll between us and them. Though their sincere friendship may still exist, they may be unable to demonstrate it by doing for us that which would be gratefully received. But no circumstances, no distance, can separate us from the heavenly Comforter. Wherever we are, wherever we may go, He is always there, one given in Christ’s place, to act in His stead. He is always at our right hand, to speak soothing, gentle words, to support, sustain, uphold, and cheer. The influence of the Holy Spirit is the life of Christ in the soul. This Spirit works in and through every one who receives Christ. Those who know the indwelling of this Spirit reveal its fruit—love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. {OFC 127.4}