2 Corinthians 3:12-18 - Homiletics

The gospel as a transcendent benefactor.

"Seeing then that we have such hope," etc. Amongst the invaluable services which the gospel confers on man, there are four suggested by the text. It gives him moral courage, spiritual vision, true liberty, and Christ-like glory. It gives him—

I. MORAL COURAGE . "Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness [boldness] of speech: and not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished," etc. This means that, seeing the revelation we have of God in Christ is not so terrible as his revelation in Moses, we have "great boldness." We need have no superstitious fear or dread. Unlike the Jews, who were afraid to look at the Divine radiance on the face of Moses, who trembled at the manifestation of God on Sinai, and who lacked the courage to look at the fact that their system was a temporary one, passing away; we have courage to look calmly at the manifestations of God and the facts of destiny. We use "great boldness." He who has the spirit of Christianity in him has courage enough to look all questions in the face, and to speak out his convictions with the dauntless force of true manhood.

II. SPIRITUAL VISION . "But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; which veil is done away in Christ." The "veil" of Moses was on his face, some material used for the moment and then withdrawn, but the "veil" referred to here was that "veil" of prejudice and traditional notions which prevented them from seeing when Paul wrote that the old dispensation has passed away before the brightness of the new. The souls of unrenewed men are so veiled by depravity that they fail to see anything in the great universe of spiritual realities. The spiritual is no more to them than nature is to men born blind. Now, the gospel is the only power under God that can take the "veil" from the soul, and enable us to see things as they are. Its grand mission is to open the eyes of the blind, etc.

III. TRUE LIBERTY . "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." By the "Spirit of the Lord" here is meant the Spirit of Christ, his moral temper; and wherever this is, there is freedom.

1 . Freedom from the bondage of ceremonial sin.

2 . Freedom from the trammels of legality.

3 . Freedom from the dominion of sin.

4 . Freedom from the fear of death.

The Spirit of Christ is at once the guarantee and the inspiration of that liberty which no despot can take away, no time destroy—the "glorious liberty of the children of God."

IV. CHRIST - LIKE GLORY . "But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord," etc.

1 . The glory of Christ was the glory of moral excellence. He was the "brightness of his Father's glory."

2 . The glory of Christ is communicable. It comes to man through transformation "changed into the same image."

3 . The glory of Christ which comes to man is progressive: "from glory to glory." The gopel alone can make men glorious.