Taking Advantage of the Spirit's Working

We have all heard the phrase, “Old habits die hard”, meaning that it is very difficult for us to change our ways, change our belief patterns, change our diet, change our routines, or change virtually anything about our lives. Part of this resistance to change is simply that they have been ingrained and imbedded into our consciousness, but probably the more difficult aspect to overcome is our own opinion of ourselves. The pride and arrogance that resides within us does not allow for us to consider that what we are currently doing could be improved upon. “I know what’s best for me” is a common, albeit false, belief that has been chiseled in stone in our minds and on our hearts.

In Acts 10, we have the account of the Apostle Peter on his roof to get away for prayer and then drifting off into a trance of sorts. While he was in this state of semi-consciousness, God gave him a vision of a sheet drifting down from heaven with all manner of animals, creatures, and birds on the sheet. Before falling into this trance, the account says that Peter was hungry. Seeing all of these animals, and creatures, and birds on this sheet from heaven, a voice comes out of heaven telling Peter to kill and eat. Peter protests at this command because all of these creatures were considered unclean and forbidden to eat under the Old Covenant Law. The voice from heaven responded with, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy” (Acts 10:15).

Because of our human nature and this resistance to change that I have mentioned, God gave the same vision to Peter three times before waking him from this trance. Peter was still “greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be” (v. 17).

In Peter’s case, the vision was not only to show him that the New Covenant superseded the Old Covenant dietary laws concerning unclean animals, but more importantly it was to show Peter that neither were the Gentiles unclean as he was led to the house of Cornelius to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with him and his family.

Peter’s mind and heart and beliefs needed to change, regardless of how deep-seated these beliefs were.

Turn with me in your Bible to the Book of 2nd Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 3:12-18

Let’s pray.

Last week we were given a vivid picture from Paul on the contrast between the Old Covenant Law and the New Covenant of grace. Paul referred to the Law of Moses as the ministry of death and the ministry of condemnation, while calling the New Covenant the ministry of the Spirit and the ministry of righteousness. Paul wrote that both covenants were full of glory but that the glory of the New Covenant surpassed the glory of the Old.

Paul used the illustration of how Moses’ face glowed when he came down the mountain after meeting with God and receiving the Law, but that he had to put a veil over his face so that the people would not stare at his face too intently. This was a tremendous representation of the Law, as the Law only condemns and kills and thus points to the need for a Savior – the reason that Paul calls the Law the ministry of death and the ministry of condemnation. Moses had veiled face so that the Children of Israel would not stare intently into the outcome of the Law, which was condemnation and spiritual death.

But as we studied last week, Paul does not disparage the Law even with the truth behind his choice of terms. The Law was full of glory because it pointed people to their desperate need for a Savior. But the glory of the New Covenant of grace was greater than that of the Old.

2 Corinthians 3:12

“Therefore, having such a hope, such a confident secured guarantee that has been lavished on us in this New Covenant of grace, we use great boldness in our speech”.

Old Testament believers rightly had hope in the mercy of God, as is recorded for us in numerous verses and passages, but that hope was never based in the Law of God or the Old Covenant. The endless offerings and sacrifices never provided hope of forgiveness of sins but only a temporary covering for sins that began fading the moment the petitioner had completed his offering and walked away. True hope, which in the biblical sense means and assured result or outcome instead of a potential result or outcome; true hope came in the New Covenant of God’s grace. And because of the glory of this hope that is provided by God’s grace, we not only can be bold in speech but should be bold in speech.

Now, this does not mean that we should be bold in speech about any and everything that comes to our mind – that is a recipe for all manner of problems – instead, it means that we can and should be bold in speech to proclaim the glory of God’s grace, to proclaim the ministry of the Spirit, the ministry of righteousness.

This boldness in speech describes an unhesitating fearlessness, it displays a courageous, confident, outspoken proclamation of the gospel. By Paul’s example in the New Testament accounts, it is a fearless proclamation even in the face of great opposition, great persecution, and enraging the Jews of his day who fiercely clung to the Old Covenant of Law, not understanding that it only condemns and kills. Back up to verse 6 – “the letter (meaning the law) kills, but the Spirit gives life”. The unbelieving Jews were clinging to that which could never provide eternal life but was only condemning and killing them spiritually.

2 Corinthians 3:13-14a

Moses used this veil to symbolize that the Law, as glorious as it was could not save. The Children of Israel were not to look intently into the fading nature of the Law. The Old Covenant could not be fully understood without the New, which would be embodied in the Person and work of the Messiah. Even the Old Testament authors did not fully understand everything that they wrote. Even God’s holy angels were puzzled, as the men will see more clearly at our next breakfast & Bible study or two in 1st Peter.

Hold your place in 2nd Corinthians and turn with me for a brief moment to the Book of 1st Peter.

1 Peter 1:10-12

Eternal salvation by the grace of God was a mystery to even the prophets of old and angels, they did not understand. The prophets had a vague and obscure and shadowy sense of what Messiah meant to them, but it was nothing they could fully grasp – especially the heart of the gospel, meaning the suffering and death of the Messiah to usher in the New Covenant.

2 Corinthians 3:13-14a

So again, the primary purpose of the Law was to point to their utter inability to keep even the smallest facet of the Law and their utter need for a Savior.

The New Covenant reveals that which was obscure in the Old. Matthew 13:11 says, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” This is huge reason for us to rejoice and to praise God continually. We not only have been undeservedly given the grace of God in salvation, but by the Holy Spirit of God within us we have been given the ability to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. This is not some automatic download into our brains, you can’t just click a button to install the updates into your mind, as much as many of us in today’s culture would love. We have been granted to know, meaning we have been equipped by the Holy Spirit to be able to understand, but we must do the digging.

To the extent that the Old Covenant law-keepers, or more precisely the trying and failing to be law-keepers, have their minds hardened and are in a perpetual state of where the veil remains unlifted, we who have the privilege of this divine enabling to know the mysteries of the kingdom are often choosing to keep the veil over our faces, or to use an obvious illustration of sorts in our current culture of keeping your mask on everywhere you go. And please, I only mention that as a poignant illustration and not a commentary on your choice to wear or not to wear a mask; it is a vivid illustration that we can easily picture in our minds.

Don’t read more into that than I am intending, but we should easily be able to picture what Paul is teaching concerning this depiction of the veil. Again, do not take this as me saying that mask-wearers are likened to those whose minds are hardened against the gospel, but do you see this in terms of how the masses are blinded to the gospel? We should feel a tremendous burden for the lost every time we go out in public and witness the crowds wearing masks – it is a tremendous reminder for us that there are multitudes who have a veil over their minds and hearts regarding the gospel of Jesus Christ, regarding the New Covenant of grace.

And we can take that a step further in depicting how many believers choose to keep a veil over their minds and hearts regarding the mysteries of Scripture. I dare say that the overwhelming majority of those who claim to be saved rarely pick up their Bible to read and study on their own. We are incredible privileged to have been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven; but most choose to ignore and reject that knowledge, forsaking this undeserved privilege.

As Voddie Baucham often says in his sermons, “If you can’t say amen, say ouch”, right?

2 Corinthians 3:14b-16

In Christ, our spiritual vision in no longer impaired but is made clear. Those who turn to Christ and believe, who repent or turn away from their sins and confess Jesus as Lord and Master and believe that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead, these have the veil lifted and have their spiritual sight illuminated. First, this illumination is to the gospel of God’s grace, but then illuminated to the mysteries of the Bible and the kingdom as we pick up the Book and read.

This is not a promise that you will instantly fully understand every verse and passage you read, but it is a promise that your studies will never be in vain. The Holy Spirit will reveal something to you every time you read, and He will reveal something new to you the next time you read the same verses, and the next time, and the next time. The primary context of our passage is for unbelievers having the veil lifted so they can believe, but we can easily apply this to believers in their study and understanding of the mysteries of God’s Word – “whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.”

When I read to you from the Book of Exodus last week, we have another picture of this. It said in Exodus 34:34, “But whenever Moses went in before Yahweh to speak with Him, he would take off the veil”, indicating being able to see clearly what God would reveal to him. God does this for everyone who seeks Him, first in salvation and then every time we open the Scriptures and truly desire to know God and His Word.

2 Corinthians 3:17

John MacArthur writes, “There was nothing in the Old Covenant to energize obedience. The Law was a jailer, locking up sinners and condemning them to death and hell. But the New Covenant liberates through the power of the Spirit who gives life.”

“Now the Lord is the Spirit” reveals what we should already know; that the Holy Spirit is God. Thus, the same God who gave the Old Covenant to Moses in the Law is the God who grants the liberty in salvation by grace through faith in Christ. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

So, where is the Spirit of the Lord today? The Spirit of the Lord lives within those who have had the veil over their hearts and minds lifted by Christ as they have turned to Him in repentance and faith. And now having the Spirit of the Lord within, you have liberty and freedom from not only the curse of the Law but the legalistic twisting of the Law that is so prevalent today.

Whereas there was indeed nothing in the Law that energized obedience, this liberty of the Spirit, this freedom in Christ very much so energizes obedience. Our liberty is not a freedom to live as we please but a freedom to love, serve, follow, and obey Jesus Christ who provided our freedom through His death, burial, and resurrection.

The truth in this verse should be relished and embraced, and it should fill our minds and our hearts and our souls to overflowing; it should generate immediate and spontaneous praise and worship to our God and Savior, and it should lead us to a willing love and obedience to His precious Word. This liberty transforms our lives, which Paul writes about in the final verse of our study this morning.

2 Corinthians 3:18

Transforming grace is active and living and growing in those who have genuinely experienced this liberty of the Spirit. Transforming grace is that which sanctifies us every moment of every day that we choose to seek the leading of the Holy Spirit through the truth of the Word of God. Transforming grace has a radical impact on every facet of your life.

Paul writes that “we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord”. There are two primary ways we could understand this phrase, and I believe both could likely be applied in the context of the passage.

The first is that because of transforming grace, we, like Moses, have the glory of the Lord all over us. So, beholding as in a mirror would mean that the transformation through our sanctification is conforming us into the image of Jesus Christ, meaning that as we are being sanctified, we are progressively seeing the reflection of Christ in who we are becoming.

The other rendering of the Greek word translated in the NASB as “beholding as in a mirror” means that we are reflecting the glory of the Lord to others. This rendering fits with the opening verse of our study from the position of using great boldness in our speech in proclaiming the message of the gospel.

But I don’t think that we have to choose one or the other because both applications are consistent with our lives being transformed by grace. We will progressively grow into the image of Jesus Christ if we have been truly saved, and we will reflect Jesus Christ to others if we have been truly saved.

Moving from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit, is a vivid picture of sanctification. A true believer’s life will reveal spiritual growth – glory to glory is the progressive nature of becoming more like Jesus. There may occasionally be interruptions in that growth as we can sometimes get derailed in our devotion to Christ, but those who have been truly saved will get back on the rails and continue to grow.

The primary truth in this study is that we can never encounter God and remained unchanged. Our disdain for change and our resistance to change notwithstanding, any real encounter with God will never leave you the same, as depicted in the last two weeks in this passage with the glow on Moses’ face when he encountered God. We may not climb a mountain to speak to God like Moses did, but our encounters with God will be no less dramatic. Maybe not a glowing face, but a radical change, nonetheless.

Beloved, if you are here this morning and you claim to be a believer, but your life is no different from before you feel that you became a believer, that’s not possible. The grace of God in salvation is a transforming grace – it simply cannot and will not leave you the same.

Verse 18 cannot be any clearer – unveiled face goes back to the veil being taken away when you turn to the Lord, indicating the genuine belief of salvation. And once you are with unveiled face, it says that you will be transformed, you will be through sanctification growing to be more and more like Jesus Christ in every facet of your life, and you will reflect Christ to others, you will be that fragrance of Christ that we studied several weeks ago.

If this is not your experience, then as Paul says at the end of this Letter in 13:5, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you – unless indeed you fail the test.”