In yesterday’s study, we concluded by mentioning the first two contrasts that Paul gives between the old and new covenants. Today we continue with the other three.
A third contrast is in verses 7-8, which talks about the glory of both covenants. Even though the old covenant is ineffective in being able to change people, it is still glorious because it is the law of God Himself which was given on Mount Sinai. But the new covenant is much more glorious because it does bring effective and permanent change.
Another contrast, the fourth one, between the two kinds of glory, is that the one condemns while the other brings righteousness. The old covenant brought death, and the glory of this covenant was to expose sin, the result for which is condemnation. The new covenant is much different because it brings righteousness through the grace that is more clearly demonstrated in Christ.
Then in verse 11, we see the fifth contrast, as Paul describes the glory of the old covenant as fading away, while the new covenant is characterized by a glory which lasts. This leads Paul to draw on the image of Moses and the veil over his face, as recorded in Exodus 34. When Moses, who had been up on the mountain communing with God, came back down, he had in his countenance a reflection of the glory of God. His face glowed with such a glory that the Israelites, who were near him, could not bear to look at it. In response he covered his face with a veil.
This is what Paul picks up on and develops in this section. He says that this is the way it is even today. There is a veil over people’s eyes and they cannot see the glory of God in the Gospel. Those of us who have received this new and glorious light not only have life, but as we gaze upon the glory of God, we are transformed from within into that glory by God’s power.
What you have here in this last portion of chapter 3 is the culmination of that great doctrine of the image of God that you find introduced way back in the very beginning of the Bible in the first chapter of Genesis. There are four stages. The first is that we are told that God made the man and the woman in God’s image. Theologians have some difficulty talking about what that means, but it certainly means that the man and woman were made like God as personalities and in moral righteousness. That image of God was their glory. It is what made them different from the animal creation.
The second stage is that this image of God was lost in the fall. There is some difference of opinion in theology about what actually happened. Was the image utterly blotted out, so that there is no image of God any more at all? Or was that image of God defaced but still having a remnant which remains? Is it still there a little, but certainly not what God intended it to be? As I read Scripture, I tend to think that the image was terribly defaced because of sin, but, nevertheless, there is something remaining that makes people different from the rest of creation.
The third stage is the image of God revealed again in the person of Jesus Christ. Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, nobody had seen what it was to actually reflect the image of God in the midst of a sinful world. But with the coming of Jesus Christ you have the true example of what men and women ought to be, and what they can be through His death and resurrection.
His redeeming work leads to the final stage of the image. It is that those who by faith are united to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the perfect revelation of the image of God, are now becoming transformed into His image. This spiritual change that Paul has been writing about in this section is the greatest thing happening in the world. Sinful men and women, who in themselves do not seek after God or wish to love and serve Him, by the grace of God are lifted up, purified of their sin, and set on a new way. By the power of God within, they are progressively, day by day, changed into the image of Jesus Christ so that they begin to reflect His glory in the world.
Is that true of you? Are you one who has known the forgiveness of God? A moment ago, it was pointed out that this is where it all begins. If you do not know that you are forgiven of God, you will never know the glory of being transferred from death unto life. But if you have experienced the forgiveness of God in Jesus Christ, then you know that the new life you have received is working itself out progressively as you are conformed by the Holy Spirit into the image of your Savior.
Do you know the newness of life about which Paul is speaking? Has that Gospel been a ministry of life to you? Is there something in you now that was not there before? Is God working in you day by day to transform you into that glorious image of His Son? All this can only come from the Lord. You need to spend time with Him in prayer. You need to study His Word because that is where you find Him. And when you enter into that new covenant, you become ministers of righteousness, ministers of life unto life in the midst of this dying world who needs to hear about the glories of this great Gospel.
