2 CORINTHIANS 3 (THIRD READING)
2 CORINTHIANS 3 (THIRD READING)
CAC Christians are very apt to connect the thought of glory with the future, but this chapter fills the present with glory.
A Does the glory begin here?
CAC Yes, I think glory marks the whole dispensation; it is a dispensation of glory. The dispensation of the law began with glory, but it did not subsist in glory; the glory did not abide. The christian dispensation not only begins in glory but it subsists in glory. It is striking that what is referred to in this chapter is not the first time that Moses went up the mount, but the second time. The first time he went up there was no glory in his face; he came [p. 233] down with the tables in his hand, but broke them at the foot of the mount when he saw the people’s sin: he knew it was all over with them on the ground of pure law. The second time he goes up the mount he goes up as one who had found grace. It is remarkable that God had said to Moses, “Thou hast also found grace in mine eyes”, Exodus 33: 12. Moses personally had found grace in the sight of the Lord, and he says, “Make me now to know thy way”, and then further, “Let me, I pray thee, see thy glory”. That is the glory that shone in his face, it was the reflection of God’s glory. God had passed by and proclaimed Himself as merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, and that glory made Moses’ face shine and made him a worshipper. “Moses made haste, and bowed his head to the earth and worshipped”, Exodus 34: 8. Even God coming out and proclaiming His mercy and grace was a ministration of death because it did not minister anything for man. Moses personally learnt the way in which God’s favour could be known; he learnt the meaning of the cleft in the rock. God had said, “I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand”. Moses is hidden and God passes by. This is one of the most striking figures of the death of Christ in the Old Testament. Man is put out of sight and God is revealed; on the ground of that, Moses’ face could shine. In figure it is the complete blotting out of all that that man was, and the shining out of all that God is. Still the public dispensation and government of God was one of law; the glory shone in connection with demands made on man, and therefore it was a ministry of death. The apostle in this chapter is seeking to bring out the glory of the present ways of God in grace, showing that the Spirit and righteousness are ministered to man. The law ministered nothing to man but condemnation and death, but the new covenant ministers the Spirit and [p. 234] righteousness, and it subsists in glory. It is just as glorious today as at Pentecost; there is not an atom of change. God gives His Spirit just as much now as He did then and it is the same Spirit and the same righteousness. Saints may say what blessed times there were at Pentecost and how they would have liked to live in the times of the beginning of christianity, but there is no reason why we should not be as well off now as then, that is, inwardly, not outwardly.
A Have we not more light now?
CAC Yes. In those days they had much less light than has come out since. It is an immense thing to get hold of the fact that we belong to a system of glory and that we partake of its glory; nothing could be more glorious than to have the Spirit of God. There is no testimony to the value of redemption so great as the fact that the Spirit is given to those who believe. Everything is supplied now; there is no demand. The glory is a glory of grace. The Spirit and righteousness are the two great features of christianity. Righteousness is a much greater thing than justification: the latter has reference to offences, to what we have done, but righteousness is in contrast with sin, with all that we are. To put it simply, the ministry of righteousness means that I get rid of all I am, and get in exchange all that Christ is. What a wonderful exchange! That is what God is ministering now — a full Christ for an empty sinner; as has often been said, it is that or nothing now. God cannot give more. All that God can give us is wrapped up in Christ and the Spirit. There is no veil needed now. There was nothing ministered under the law, nothing brought to man then on God’s part, so he could not bear to look at the glory. It is only when everything is ministered to us in grace that we can bear to look at the glory. The veil was put on Moses’ face in mercy, because man could not bear the glory [p. 235] when it came connected with demand. The old covenant had a glory connected with demand, but the glory of the new covenant is connected with supply. God’s object in sending out the gospel is that men might have the Spirit and have Christ as righteousness. If glory comes to me in the way of supply, the nearer I come to it, the more I look into it, the more I am enriched. The nearer I come to God, the more I look at His glory, the better off I am; it makes me a worshipper like Moses: he made haste and bowed his head and worshipped, and then his face shone. That is what we get in this chapter, the saints’ faces shine. Not only is there glory in the Lord’s face, but the saints are all seen reflecting that glory, and that is how they become tables of testimony. That is what the testimony is; if we are not shining we are not in God’s testimony.
M Has the brazen serpent aspect of the death of Christ to do with righteousness?
CAC Yes, and immediately after the brazen serpent we get the springing well. If sin in the flesh is condemned in the cross of Christ, the Spirit can be given.
M Then they pitched towards the sun rising. Is that the dawn of an entirely new day?
CAC Yes. If you look at the map you will see that was the moment they turned to the land of promise. Before that they were going due south with their backs to the land, but they came to the brazen serpent and to the springing well, and then they pitched towards the sun rising, that was due east; they turned to the land, and they never turned their backs to it after. We get the brazen serpent in John 3, and the well in John 4 springing up into eternal life — that is very much like the land.
What remarkable terms are used here: in verse 8, “Shall not rather the ministry of the Spirit subsist in glory?”; in verse 9, “Much rather the ministry of righteousness abounds in glory”; in verse 10, “The surpassing glory”; and verse 11, “That which abides subsists in glory”. What a system of glory! It gives us the key to Romans 8: 30, “Whom he has justified, these also he has glorified”; the saints are glorified now, glorified in having Christ and the Spirit. Why did He justify? In order that He might give us His Spirit; every one who has the Spirit and Christ is morally glorified.
M How is it that these things do not come out more in us?
CAC That is our great exercise, that they might be seen. People who have the Spirit and Christ ought to come out carrying the features of Christ and the Spirit.
We see how it is brought about in the last verse of the chapter, and it is “from glory to glory”. Every step of the way is an ascending scale of glory: that is a good Pilgrim’s Progress! It would be impossible to look at all this if we are entangled with what we are in the flesh, and do not know that we are clear of it by the cross and death of our Saviour; until then the veil is on our heart, there is that which hinders the perception of the glory. How could you bring what you are into this system of glory? One can hardly find words to express what we are in the flesh.
Bildad the Shuhite expresses it in a way that comes nearer the truth than anything I know. He says (Job 25:6) man is a worm; the word “worm” is literally ‘maggot’.
That is the creature God has taken up to bring into this system of glory, and to have the Spirit and Christ. The glory of Christ becomes the personal wealth of the soul, so it can be said, “Whom he has justified, these also he has glorified”.
The Spirit has been given to bring us in heart and mind into the glory system now. Paul says, “We use much boldness”; we have not got to cover anything up. If all that I am is not gone in the death of Christ, if every rag [p. 237] and stitch of self was not cleared away in the cross, I would be lost to all eternity, but now there is no need to hide anything; the more we come out into the full light of the glory of God, the better off we shall be.
A We are brought into a wealthy place.
CAC Yes, we get the wealthy place here, and it was all in view in the times of the old covenant; God had it in view. God always had an end in view, Christ and the Spirit. Scripture opens with that, the tree and the river are on the front page. All the Old Testament, even the law, is full of Christ and the Spirit in figure, but it was not known. “Unto this day the same veil remains in reading the old covenant, unremoved”. They did not see Christ and the Spirit in the Old Testament, and many believers now fail to see Christ and the Spirit in the Scriptures; they read them in relation to themselves. They go to Scripture to find a comforting verse for themselves and they find it, of course, but they do not get the real good of Scripture. If I read Scripture with regard to myself the veil is on my heart, but if we read it with regard to Christ and to the Spirit we gain very much. Very often in reading it it is self that is before us, but the right way is to have Christ before us. The great themes of Scripture are Christ and the Spirit, and if we look for them we get the truest comfort; we get lifted up, but in another Man. God is not seeking to build me up as an individual apart from Christ. He seeks to build us up in Christ, and if we get more of Christ we are lifted up to be exalted in another Man. We are naturally self-centred; we have to learn to be Christ-centred. The true centre of Scripture is Christ. We are too much like the old astronomers; they believed the earth was the centre of the whole universe, and that the sun revolved round it, so all was in a muddle to them! If we read the Scriptures with self as a centre we miss the whole kernel; but if we see Christ is the centre we get [p. 238] things rightly adjusted. The Spirit is given as a bond of attachment to the centre, Christ, and then we are set in our right place and orbit.
To come into the blessing of all these things we have to turn to the Lord: when the heart of Israel “shall turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away”. That sets forth a turning away from self; that is what turning to the Lord means, and then the veil is taken away. It will be a wonderful day for Israel when they turn to the Lord. You get their experience depicted in Job, which is a setting forth prophetically of God’s ways with self-righteous Israel. Job learned to part with self. He had held on to it tight, “My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go”, Job 27: 6. It hindered him from seeing the glory; then he learns to abhor himself and turns to the Lord and he is in liberty. Israel has had long centuries of self-righteousness, but the day will come when they abhor themselves and have the Lord as their righteousness. Then, as prophesied, they will have the Spirit, “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground”, Isaiah 44: 3. What will be their portion is ours now; they get it in a day of manifested glory, we get it now in a day when glory is known spiritually, not manifestly.
M “The heavens declare the glory of God” — is that because Christ is there?
CAC Yes, I think that is a just application of Psalm 19. The sun in the heavens is really Christ.
M “There is nothing hid from the heat thereof”.
CAC Yes, verse 4 is quoted in Romans 10: 18 as referring to the gospel. It is wonderful how the Lord is the Spirit of all the Old Testament. We have to get built up in the letter of the Old Testament; then we find that the Lord is the Spirit of it and that every part of it testifies of Him. Then how wonderful it is that we should [p. 239] have the Spirit of the Lord! The Lord is the Spirit of all Scripture, but there is another thing, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”. Christians have the Spirit of a glorified Man in heaven as the Spirit of liberty. That does not mean liberty in the meeting but in soul. If we are all in liberty in our souls there will be liberty in the meetings. The kind of liberty that verse 17 has in view is enlarged on in verse 18. It is liberty to look on the glory of the Lord, liberty to be transformed according to the same image. Verse 18 is a very good and full description of christian liberty. There is not another chapter like this one; it brings out the glory of the new covenant and the true character of christian liberty.
F What does an unveiled face involve?
CAC That there is no veil on the glory of the Lord, in contrast with Moses. Moses had to veil his face because Israel could not look on the glory, but the Lord has no need to veil the glory because saints are able to look on it; the glory ministers everything to them, it does not demand. The unveiled face is on the Lord’s side; it is He whose face is unveiled: “the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face” is the right translation. There is the full shining forth of all that God is in grace. We sometimes sing, ‘Oh, the glory of the grace, shining in the Saviour’s face’. That is blessedly true. He has a people in this world who have Him as their righteousness and who have His Spirit. If that is so, there is no need for a veil on His face. If He were not our righteousness and if we had not His Spirit, we could not bear to look at His face. No one can bear to look at the unveiled face of Jesus till he has Him for righteousness. I have Him instead of self, and I have His Spirit; there is no need for Him to veil His face! So when we look at it, instead of being withered up as a natural man would be, we are transformed. If righteousness has been ministered to us and we have His Spirit, we [p. 240] are transformed from glory to glory. Instead of consuming fire it is a conforming power.
The apostle could speak with perfect liberty. He had the end in view that the saints should be here with shining faces; the glory of God in grace should be shining out in them. The only place where the world can see the glory of grace is in the saints; if they do not see it there they do not see it at all. Stephen was the most blessed illustration of this verse, “Having fixed his eyes on heaven, he saw the glory of God, and Jesus”, and he was transformed to the same image. He said, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”; that is, he acted in exactly the same grace as Jesus; that was the shining out of the glory.
Jesus had said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. That is the glory of God; Stephen looked at it and reflected it. What an expression of grace! The spirit of divine grace is to express itself in us. If anyone persecutes you, you pray for him; if he reviles you, you bless him. That is the character of glory. Instead of showing the character of the devil or of a man in the flesh, we are to show the character of God. That is God’s testimony, bound up in people who act like Him “This people have I formed for myself: they shall shew forth my praise”, Isaiah 43: 21. These are people who show forth His grace. We might say, ‘This is too blessed, it is all out of our reach’, but there was one man who did it, Stephen, and if one man can do it, another can. The course of saints is normally on a progression of glory, an ascending scale. The new convert who has just learnt God in grace, expresses a little, and as he goes on to know a little more he expresses more grace; it is in a moral sense, of course. It is all accomplished by the Lord the Spirit, not by human effort; it is not attainment. It is not simply by the Lord, but by the Lord the Spirit; that is, it is not simply by having the Lord as an object; that is not sufficient.
[p. 241] People say you must have the Lord as an object — that is so, but not enough; it is the Lord the Spirit. It suggests the thought that the Spirit is there providing power in the saints subjectively. The wonderful thing is that we are one Spirit with the Lord; the very same Spirit that is in the glorified Man at God’s right hand is in the saints down here and that is how any transformation is effected.
F Is that the same as, “As he is, we also are in this world”, 1 John 4: 17?
CAC That would be the result. The result is that saints come out as He is. He is the righteous One, and the saints are righteous. If you read the epistle of John you will see that the characters that attached to the saints are the same as those attached to Christ. If He is righteous, they are righteous; if He is holy, they are holy; and in that sense “as he is, we also are”. It is the result of what we get in this chapter.