(2 Corinthians 3:7-18)
The world’s glory is like a disappearing act. The darling company that is behind the skyrocketing stock symbol today will have investors and shareholders scrambling for months after its shares suddenly plunge. Once the A-list celebrity everyone was talking about is in a movie that bombs or generates some negative publicity, we move on to the next big name. The championship team was all anyone talked about, until they barely mustered a winning record the following year. The world’s notion of glory is pursued by so many with such drive and determination, only to find out it’s nothing but a mirage.
But there is glory. Real glory. And that glory is God’s glory.
You want to know something astonishing about God’s glory? He wants to share it with you! The same author of these words from Corinthians wrote elsewhere that God desires “that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 2:14). How amazing is that?! A glory unlike the world’s disappointing version of glory, but a real glory, and God wants you to share in it!
So how do we come by this glory? How do we take our share in it? There are two channels by which God reveals his glory in Scripture: law and gospel.
In the Old Testament, God’s glory was visible to the Israelites while in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. When God first gave his Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai, his glory was enough to terrify the Israelites through loud crackling thunder and lightning, trumpet sounds, and smoke around the mountain. Then, as the Israelites wandered, there was a special place outside of their encampment called the tent of meeting where Moses went to meet with the Lord face to face. Whenever Moses was inside the tent, God’s glory was visible via a cloud column standing at the entrance. Then, after God gave Moses his commandments for the second time, his glory was manifest through Moses’ radiant face. “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord” (Ex. 34:29). God’s glory was visibly associated with the law God gave to his people.
When we think of God’s glory in connection with the law, we may not be drawn to that type of glory, and understandably so – it’s terrifying! But make no mistake, God’s law is glorious.
To appreciate the reality of how glorious God’s law is as it stands on its own, imagine how different a typical day would like for the rest of your life if you and everyone else kept the law perfectly. You’d wake up in the morning to fill up with the Word, then see headlines in the news that were only positive. Any exchanges with family members result in smiles. The drive to work sees commuters politely waving each other ahead of them. Work is filled with happy employees encouraging one another and offering any help wherever it may be needed. A scroll through social media leaves you feeling uplifted and blessed by how good God is to so many people. A few errands after work leave you delighted by such pleasant customer service, which you of course expressed your appreciation for. You are excited to arrive home, knock out a couple of chores – which hardly seems like an appropriate label for something you enjoy doing so much – and then prepare dinner. Afterward, a little down time with a book or show, then some more with the Good Book, some prayers, and off to bed.
If we were able to experience how amazing that life would be, we’d understand how glorious God’s law is! If we could all live perfectly, our minds would be blown. Take it a step further and consider why we long for heaven so much: no sin! Only perfection!
Well, what are we really describing? Perfect obedience to the law. So the law itself is glorious because it is in perfect harmony with how a perfect God longs for everything to be.
But, as Paul describes in our verses this morning, we have a better understanding of why it isn’t natural for us to perceive of God’s law as glorious. “Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, 8will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! 10For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. 11And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!” (2 Corinthians 3:7-11). That covenant, that ministry of the law results in only one thing: death! Why? Not because there’s anything wrong with it, but because it so clearly exposes what’s wrong with us and what we deserve because of it.
So the law itself is glorious and reveals God’s glory, but it will never be the avenue to our pursuit of glory, because it can only kill those who sin against it. Think about what this means when it comes to Christian living and obedience. Our obedience isn’t carried out under the misunderstanding that glory is somehow attached to the law. In other words, rules and keeping the law are not the bottom line. We don’t strive to live that way or teach our kids to live that way just because it’s “the right thing to do.” That is moralizing. There is no glory attached to that. Instead, the law assures us that there is no such thing as a “good” Christian, regardless of how much we might throw that term around. There are only perfect Christians, and that label will never be attached to us on the basis of the law, but only through the other channel by which God reveals his glory: the gospel.
That is what Paul was referring to as a greater ministry than the one that “brought death” and “brought condemnation,” the one that was “transitory.” Paul’s point was that since the glorious law when applied to us can only kill and condemn, it cannot compare to the gospel, which has an entirely different purpose. “Will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? How much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!” (v.8, 9b-11).
This glory is a glory that the world cannot find and that no made-up religion can ever offer, for as Paul wrote, when it comes to the veil of the law, “only in Christ is it taken away” (v.14b). The gospel news is that “whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. (v.16). Jesus kept the law perfectly, so righteousness comes only through him. “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (v.17). The gospel offers freedom in place of the law’s condemnation, and only through Jesus, because he alone kept the law perfectly in our place. The gospel offers freedom in place of the law’s condemnation, and only through Jesus, because he alone paid the price for our sinful law-breaking. What could be more glorious than that?!
And if this gospel glory is only through Jesus, then what does that say about proximity to him? If freedom is ours through the glorious gospel, which is inseparable from Christ and only comes through Christ, then where else do we want to be than where he is?
Consider the visual aid God provides to illustrate this. What happened when Moses met with the Lord in the tent of meeting? His face was radiant… for a time. Eventually, though, after he was done meeting with the Lord, the radiance faded.
What happened when the disciples accompanied Jesus on top of the mountain? They saw his radiance… for a time. Eventually, though, after they departed down the mountain, the radiance faded.
What happens when God’s people gather where God is wherever his Word is proclaimed and his sacraments administered, just as they are today? By faith we see his radiant glory, though it is hidden in the water attached to his promise and the bread and wine set apart for his purpose. Where the Word is, there Jesus is, and where Jesus is, there is God’s glory.
But what happens as we distance ourselves from Jesus? The glory fades. Or, to state it more correctly, the glory appears to us to be fading, when in reality it still remains; it just looks like it’s fading because we can’t see it as clearly the farther away we are from it.
Then, the further away we are from it, or the longer we stay away from it, the more we become accustomed to a glory-less life. We forget how glorious it is to be in the presence of his glory. So we chase the world’s ideas of glory here and there, thinking we catch little glimpses of it.
But as stated earlier, such perceived glory comes to nothing. It is but a mirage. And we live such glory-less lives only because we have distanced ourselves from the Lord of glory himself.
Paul described one way it happened in his first letter to the Corinthians: “None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8). They didn’t get it either. They thought glory could be achieved through the law, but since Jesus and his message stood in the way of that, they killed him. If they would have understood and believed the relationship between God’s glorious law and his glorious gospel, and how they work together to lead us to Christ, then they could have known true and lasting glory.
But we don’t have to suffer the same fate, for we know where God’s glory is and where to find it. We join the psalmist in gushing about it: “Lord, I love the house where you live, the place where your glory dwells” (Ps. 26:8). God’s house is where his glory is! That is the place where his glory dwells because that is the place where the gospel is dwells. Unlike Moses, however, the glory doesn’t have to fade when we depart from there, because if that glory is wherever the gospel dwells, then I take that glory with me and let it dwell richly in my home and daily life.
That glory is for us, and it changes us. “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (v.18). Jesus was transfigured on the mountain; his people are transfigured – changed – to be more and more like him, through the gospel.
There is no greater way to give God glory than by getting God’s glory. Let the gospel saturate your soul. Hunger and thirst for it more than whatever else it is you’re chasing after in life right now, which is glory-less. We know where to find real glory. It’s where God is. And where is God? Wherever his Word is.
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