12Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 13We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. 14But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Dig Deeper
When our now twelve-year-old son was about two, we decided it was time to start potty training him. As a part of that training process, we got him a package of pull-ups. From the very beginning, though, the pull-ups were a temporary measure meant to be part of the learning process moving him along to being fully potty trained. What was meant to be a temporary thing, however, began to backfire a bit. The pull-ups are supposed to be easier for a child to get up and down while learning to use the toilet, while at the same time protecting them from accidents. Unfortunately, he learned rather quickly that he didn’t have to bother with all of that and could just let it go in his training pants. For quite a while it seemed as though, because of his attitude, he was never going to understand the purpose of the training pants and would never be potty trained.
In a sense, this is what Paul is trying to explain when it comes to the Old Covenant. It was never meant as a permanent solution for the chasm that sin had created between God and man. The Law was a temporary measure that was designed to point people to the need for something better. It was, from the moment it was given, being rendered inoperative or annulled by the coming of the perfect and New Covenant in Christ Jesus. The problem that Paul will briefly mentions in this passage is that Israel never appreciated the fading nature of the Old Covenant, and instead held tightly to it. But in the very act of holding tightly to what was temporary, they were missing the whole point of the true plan of God.
Paul continues his defense of his status as minister of the New Covenant by further explaining the differences between the ministry of Moses and his ministry. The hope of the glory of the New Covenant that will last forever as it is administered by the Spirit, has lead to Paul feeling bold in exclaiming the gospel and the benefits of the new ministry. The word he uses for "bold" (parresia), is a very specific technical term which refers to a lack of shame in one’s behavior, that leads to an open and courageous manner of speech. Paul realizes that the things he is saying could be deemed rather controversial, but He is so confident in the work of the Spirit, that he does not for one minute hesitate to proclaim the glories of the New Covenant.
Paul reminds his readers in Corinth that there are two big differences between the ministry that he is proclaiming and the ministry which Moses dispensed. First, whereas the New Covenant, administered through the Spirit, is never ending and will never need replacing, the Old Covenant was being annulled or fading from the moment it appeared. Second, the ministry of which Paul is a part is administered internally to each person who enters into Christ through the life-giving, transforming work of the Holy Spirit. Under the Old Covenant, there was always a need for a veil between God’s glory and the people because of their hardness of heart.
Paul uses the veil that Moses wore to keep the Israelites from seeing the reflected glory of God on his face (the glory that would destroy them because of their condition), as a picture of the veil that stood between the people and the Law. Paul makes it clear, however, that it was not the Law that was veiled, but rather it was the hearts of the Israelites. This veil of hard heartedness still stands between Israel and the Law. This is evidenced by the fact that all of Moses and the prophets pointed to Jesus (Luke 24:44-45) and they have rejected Christ and His message as well. The sad irony is that the One that they rejected was the only one who could remove the veil between them and God.
Although he doesn’t say it directly here, lying just under the surface is the fact that the Law never could remove that veil because that is not what it was designed for. What he does say directly is how the veil might be removed. Paul says that whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. This truth goes all the way back to Moses. When Moses returned to God’s presence, he was able to take the veil off and be in God’s presence. Paul considers Moses to be the prototype of New Covenant believers who turn to the Lord, in Christ, and have the veil of hardness removed by God from our hearts.
One difficult part of this passage comes in verse 17 when Paul says that "the Lord is the Spirit." Is Paul saying that Jesus and the Spirit are synonymous? The difficulty is that "Lord" (kyrios) is ambiguous because it is the word used in the Septuagint Latin translation for YHWH, the personal name of God. Thus, in the New Testament, although it is usually used of Christ, it can also refer to the Father. This wouldn’t make the translation any easier, though. Another possibility would be that Paul is using kyrios here to refer to lordship, thus saying that the Spirit is the master or lord in the life of the believer. Probably the best and simplest explanation, however, is that Paul is using this to explain the use of Lord in verse 15. According to this view then, verse 17 could be understood to read, "Now when I say Lord, I mean the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Regardless of which of these explanations is correct, it is clear that the Spirit gives freedom because through His transforming power to mold the lives of those in Christ into the image and likeness of the Messiah.
It is through the power of the Spirit that our hearts are no longer veiled and we can reflect the Lord’s glory as surely as Moses did. Not only are we being transformed into the likeness of the Messiah, we have the freedom to look at the glory of God being reflected in the lives of fellow believers and do not need a veil between us and God’s glory. The ministry of the New Covenant is the means through which the new creation of God has been inaugurated. God’s Spirit transforming the lives of believers is the beginning of His new creation, and the fact that we can look at one another reflecting the glory of God, is evidence that God’s great reconciliation project for His creation has begun.
Devotional Thought
Do you recognize the glory of God as it is reflected in the lives of other believers or do you focus on their faults and flaws? Make an honest effort to look for signs of the new creation and the transforming power of the Spirit when you look at fellow Christians rather than being so sensitive to the areas that still haven’t felt that transformation.
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