2nd Corinthians chapter 3 and
we'll take time to read the whole chapter actually, we'll just
do that. Do we begin to commend ourselves
Or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters
of commendation from you? Ye are our epistle, in our hearts,
known and read of all men. Forasmuch as ye are manifestly
declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written
not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables
of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart, And such trust
have we through Christ to Godward. Not that we are sufficient of
ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New
Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter
killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. But if the ministration
of death written and engraven in stones was glorious, so that
the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face
of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was
to be done away, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit
be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation
be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness
exceed in glory. For even that which was made
glorious hath no glory in this respect by reason of the glory
that excelleth. For if that which is done away
was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness
of speech, 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, 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. But even unto this day, when
Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when
it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now
the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding
as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same
image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. As Christians we speak a lot
about peace but often our lives don't seem very calm. At one end we find ourselves
too busy with more to do than we have time to do it and at
another level we seem paralysed with worry and anxiety about
what it is that's going on around about us and all that's outside
of our control and neither of those excesses lends to a feeling
of peace. And Paul doesn't actually mention
peace in these verses. It's the last two verses of this
chapter that I want to think about particularly this evening.
And Paul doesn't actually mention peace in these verses, but he
does speak of a believer's liberty. And one of the best ways to think
of our Christian liberty is with respect to experiencing and enjoying
a settled sense of divine peace. It's the liberty from the slavery
of duty. It's the liberty and the freedom
from obligation and self-reliance that generates anxiety and generates
that fear of failure. And just so I've said it, and
so nobody is under any misapprehension, a believer's liberty and freedom
is not freedom to sin or liberty to act without consequences or
without repercussions. In fact, the whole point about
gospel liberty is that a new rule applies, a gospel rule. We are now inhabitants of a new
kingdom, and we have a new king. And that king has a royal law
that alters the desires and changes the motivation of the hearts
of his citizens, of his people. And true conversion means that
we desire to honour and serve the Lord in all we do and say. Where once we sought simply to
honour and serve ourselves and our own desires, Paul tells the
Corinthians here that when a sinner turns from Moses' law as a source
of righteousness or as a measure of holiness or as a means of
peace with God, they turn to Christ and they rest on gospel
truth. And there they find the Spirit
of the Lord. That's a lovely phrase that,
the Spirit of the Lord. And where the Spirit of the Lord
is, he tells us, there is liberty. So what is this Christian liberty
that we discover in the presence of the Spirit of the Lord, the
Spirit of the Lord Jesus? Well, our Christian liberty is,
as Paul says here, the privilege of the divine presence with us. When we are in the presence of
the Spirit of the Lord, there we find liberty. So that liberty
is the privilege of the divine presence with us. It's the union
that we have in our spirit with the Spirit of the Lord. And that union, that coming together,
that mutual fellowship and appreciation, it brings with it certain gospel
blessings and benefits. It brings acceptance with God. It brings access to God. And as we grow in grace, it brings
familiarity with God. So that we're no longer strangers
and servants of God, but we're family, we're adopted, we're
brought into that closeness of relationship. It is us in Christ
and Christ in us. It is a relationship. It's family
and it's dwelling together in the company and in the presence
of the Lord. So that actually Christian liberty
isn't anything to do with what we're allowed to do and what
we're not allowed to do. It's rather that there is nothing
that we need do in order to obtain all the blessings of spiritual
union with Christ. Those blessings that we once
thought could only be secured by earning them and deserving
them are seen to be freely given to us. We don't rely on our own
personal goodness anymore, we rely on Christ's worth and as
a result we have a peace and a liberty in the Lord Jesus Christ. As believers, we're freed from
the burden of sin. We are freed from its consequences. We are freed from its guilt,
its enslavement, its control, its fearful drive, its condemnation. And again, it's not that we don't
sin. but rather that a new holy principle
now rules where sin once ruled, where sin once held sway. A new man lives in our heart
and that new man has direct access to the throne of grace through
the union that we have with the Lord Jesus Christ. So that when
the law rumbles, when Satan accuses, When conscience condemns, then
the believer is free to call upon the Spirit of the Lord. When we sin, we're free to draw
down the cleansing power of the blood of the Lord. When we stumble,
we're free to lean upon Christ. When we fall, Christ freely picks
us up. When we need help, we are free
to pray for that assistance. When we are tried, He freely
supports and strengthens us. When we sorrow, He comforts us. When we doubt, He reassures us. When we are sick, He heals us.
When we are dying, He revives us. and all concern about our
mortality, about our eternity, about our future in this world
and in the world to come is to be considered and understood
and put in its proper place because our union with the Lord Jesus
Christ brings with it a perfect liberty in Him. And that doesn't
mean that we are without sin or sorrow or sickness of body
or of mind. But it does mean that we are
free to call on the spiritual resources and limitless power
of Christ, which is freely available to us. Last week when we were
thinking about these verses, I left off, or when we were thinking
about this chapter, I left off these last two verses because
I felt that there was so much in them that it was a shame to
wrap them up with our earlier thoughts on law and gospel. And now I kind of feel as if
I've run out of time for this final verse as well. But let
me just say this. The apostle here makes reference
to open-faced or that means full-faced. It's a reference, I think, to
the fact that Moses had a veil over his face and now that veil
is taken away and we see face to face. And when we are in the
company of the Lord, We see fully the beauties and the glories
of Christ in the Gospel. Where the law hid those things,
we see a fullness and an openness in the Gospel. There's a fullness
of revelation now in Jesus Christ and in his doctrine and in his
Gospel. And the point that the apostle
makes is really quite startling. He says that as we look full-faced
into the glories and the beauties of Christ in the gospel, we begin
to take on the appearance of the Lord. Almost mirror-like,
we take on and reveal his likeness. And that's cumulative because
the more we see of him, the more we grow to be like him. The more like him we become,
the more we understand of his attributes, of his activities,
of his accomplishments, then the more we reflect those qualities
in our life. We started off this passage a
few weeks ago, speaking about the work of a preacher and the
burden of a preacher. And we asked the question, who
do you listen to? And we asked, what does the person
say that you listen to? And we saw how Paul advocated
the gospel over the law, because the law brought failure and guilt
and no peace. And now the great apostle tells
us what the gospel brings. He tells us that preaching Christ
to believers makes the hearer more Christ-like. Preaching the
law might help you corral the goats, but preaching Christ brings
Christ's sheep into conformity with their saviour. So it's the
job of the pastor, it's my job as a pastor, to lift up Christ
all the time, knowing thereby His people are changed into the
same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the
Lord. The Apostle John says, when He
shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as
He is. That appearance of the Lord isn't
at the end of time or when we die. It's every time the Lord
appears to his people in the preaching of the gospel. That's
when Christ appears to us and that's the power. in preaching
Christ. So let us dwell on some of these
beautiful thoughts from this little passage and remind ourselves
of how good it is to be under the sound of Christ preached
because then we are able to learn day by day, occasion by occasion,
what it is to be like Christ. Amen.