2 Cor 3:5-18
SS Lesson for 06/09/2024
Devotional Scripture: 2 Cor 5:17-21
By AD 57, the year that Paul wrote the letter we call 2 Corinthians, he had developed a multiyear relationship with the church he had planted in Corinth. He had established that congregation on his second missionary journey of AD 52-54 (Acts 18:1-11). Bible experts recognize this letter as the most difficult to understand among all 13 of Paul’s epistles. This letter and others to the church in Corinth (see 1 Corinthians 5:9; 2 Corinthians 2:3-4; 7:8, 12) reveal that Paul had stayed in touch. Such was the nature of his church-planting ministry. The letters of 1 and 2 Corinthians show a congregation troubled on several fronts. Challenges to Paul’s apostolic authority aggravated those troubles, and his letters to that church feature responses to personal criticisms leveled at him (1 Corinthians 9:1-2; 2 Corinthians 10:10; 11:5; 12:11-12; etc.). Therefore, Paul used much ink in 2 Corinthians to defend the legitimacy of his apostolic calling. Indeed, the more than 500 words of 2 Corinthians 2:12-3:18 set the stage for longer defenses of his apostolic ministry later in the epistle. Today’s lesson covers a majority of those 24 verses.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
(Scriptural Text from the New King James Version; cross-references from the NIV)
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,
6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
10 I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. 11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.
5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."
7 "Two things I ask of you, O Lord; do not refuse me before I die: 8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. 9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.
23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! 15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance — now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: 16 "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." 17 Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." 18 And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.
6 But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises. 7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. 8 But God found fault with the people and said: "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 9 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. 10 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." 13 By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.
7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away,
8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?
9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.
10 For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels.
11 For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.
2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
8 The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you." 9 So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
5 But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope.
9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ — the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
1 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
12 Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech —
13 unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away.
14 But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ.
15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.
16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
4 Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.
5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.
14 "Because he loves me," says the Lord, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
7 "But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. 8 He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,
2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.
21 Test everything. Hold on to the good.
14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: 16 "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.
4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets.
17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." 4 "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" 5 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Only gradually in these two Corinthian epistles does Paul identity and expose the troublemakers in the church. In the first chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul speaks of the Corinthian schisms as groups of believers who follow a certain person like Paul, Apollos, Cephas, or “Christ” (1:12). We know from 1 Corinthians 4:6 that these are not the real leaders which divide the church, but that Paul has figuratively used his name and the names of Apollos, Peter, and Christ to conceal the identity of the real troublemakers. We know these church troublers are teaching a message different from the true gospel, one that does not focus on Christ crucified. Instead their message is one of worldly wisdom, and their methods are seductively persuasive (1 Corinthians 1:18–2:5; see also 2 Corinthians 2:17; 4:2). In the closing chapters of 2 Corinthians, these opponents of Paul and the true gospel are identified as false apostles (11:13), who are preaching a different gospel (11:4) for their own personal profit (11:7, 20). They are really messengers of Satan (11:14-15), who are authoritarian, if not authoritative (11:20). Paul also indicates that a good number of them are Jews, who seem to claim to have spiritual authority, and perhaps even have some official office or function:
22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as if insane) I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death (2 Corinthians 11:22-23).
Much (perhaps most) of the opposition against Paul and the gospel comes from those who are Jews. This does not mean that there is no Gentile opposition, for there is a great deal. But it is very clear, as one reads through the book of Acts and through the New Testament epistles, that Jewish opposition is prominent. The Jewish leaders quickly opposed the newly-born church in Jerusalem (see Acts 4:1ff.). The Jews are the ones who turn on Paul, once their ringleader in the persecution of the church (Acts 9:22-23). A Jewish false prophet, Bar-Jesus, seeks to hinder Paul’s preaching of the gospel to the proconsul, Sergius Paulus (Acts 13:6-8). Jewish unbelievers resist and oppose Paul when he preaches Jesus as the promised Jewish Messiah in their synagogues, some following Paul from one city to another to oppose him (see Acts 13:45, 50; 14:1-7, 19). The Jews from Judea insist that if any Gentile is to be saved, he must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses (Acts 15:1, 5).
The Jews opposed Paul when he preached Jesus as the Christ in Corinth (Acts 18:1-6), and they accused Paul before Gallio, the proconsul of Achaia, a fact which neither escaped Gallio nor impressed him favorably (Acts 18:12-17). I believe that identifying Paul’s main opponents in Corinth as Jews fits his description of them generally. They felt superior to other saints, and surely we cannot overlook the fact that the Jews of the New Testament times (as at other times in history, including today)19 view themselves as superior to Gentiles. Why did John the Baptist warn the Jews that God could raise up seed to Abraham from the stones (Matthew 3:9)? Was it not because they forgot that God’s salvation is by grace? Did they not wrongly believe that they would possess the kingdom of God simply because they were the physical descendants of Abraham (see Romans 9:6)? Why did Peter cease to associate with the Gentile saints in Antioch and associate himself with the separatist Jews from Judea (Galatians 2:11-21, note especially verse 15)? Why did Paul find it necessary to tell us in Philippians 3 that, after he was converted to Christ, he came to regard the things in which he formerly took pride as a Jew as “dung,” in light of the cross of Christ? Why does Paul warn Gentile readers that Israel was like a branch, broken off the olive tree because of arrogance, and that this could happen to the Gentiles as well (Romans 11:17-21)? Why does Paul stress that when we are saved, not only the enmity between us (as sinners) and Christ is removed, but also the barrier and distinction between Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2)? Why does Paul strongly rebuke Peter’s actions in Galatians 2:11f. as a denial of the gospel, and why does he indict the Galatians for turning from Christ to another gospel (Galatians 1:6-10)? Why does the writer to the Hebrews regard turning back to Judaism a turning away from the faith?
When God made His (Abrahamic) covenant with Abraham, He promised to bless “all nations” through Abraham’s seed (whom we know to be Christ—see Galatians 3:15-16). The Jews began to believe that God’s blessings were only for Abraham’s physical descendants. When God gave the law to Israel through Moses, it was not to keep the light of salvation from the Gentiles; it was because God gave the Jews the duty and privilege of being a “light to the Gentiles” (Isaiah 42:6; 49:6; Luke 2:32; Acts 13:47; 26:23). The Jews ceased to think of themselves as stewards of the truth of the gospel and began to think of themselves as the exclusive possessors of the gospel. If a few Gentiles must be saved, then they must become Jewish proselytes to do so (Acts 15:1, 5). Even so, they were regarded by many as second-class citizens of heaven, rather than as the “children of Abraham” (Romans 4:16-17), and the “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16).
I know this sounds harsh and judgmental, but I sincerely believe what I am about to say is true to the teaching of God’s Word. Even today, why are many Jewish converts to Christianity not willing to become members of our (largely Gentile) churches, but instead establish their own Jewish Christian congregations? When they teach and preach in the church, why do they seem to be unable to avoid reminding us of their Jewish identity and their status as God’s “chosen people,” even though all saints are referred to as His chosen (see Ephesians 1:4)? Why do they persist in referring to themselves as the “chosen people,” when for this period of time they are those whom God has called “not My people” (Hosea 1:9; see also 2:23)? At present, those who may legitimately call themselves “My people” (that is, God’s people) are those whom Judaism disdains as “not My people.” Only when the Jews acknowledge their sin and understand that they are “not God’s people” can they be saved (see Isaiah 65:1-7; Hosea 1:9-11; Romans 10:16-21).
If you are reading me correctly, you have understood me to say that throughout the Old Testament and the New, much of the opposition to God and those who were truly His people came from Jews. You have heard me say that the opposition to Paul in Corinth, and in the Corinthian church, was substantially Jewish. You have also heard me say that, just as Judaizers plagued the church in Paul’s day, they continue to do so today. They profess to know Christ as Savior, but they believe themselves to be superior to mere Gentile saints, and they may even corrupt the truth of God to put themselves in a more favorable light.
In our text, Paul does not identify his opponents in Corinth as Judaizers; that will come later. But he does identify the key issue over which Judaizers and those true to the gospel divide—the role of the old (Mosaic) covenant and its relationship to the new covenant. Those who “peddle the word of God” (2 Corinthians 2:17) are those who also feel adequate in themselves to do so, with all their worldly wisdom and persuasive methods (compare 2:16). And some of these gospel “peddlers,” from whom Paul seeks to distinguish himself, are Jewish false apostles, who exalt and glorify the old Mosaic covenant as though it were superior to the new covenant. Chapter 3 of 2 Corinthians is almost a miniature version of the Book of Hebrews, pointing out the superiority of the new covenant to the old.
Who is adequate for the new covenant ministry of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to the glory of God and the salvation of God’s chosen? Who is adequate to preach the gospel in Troas when their heart is torn with concern for saints who are far away in Corinth? How is the proclaimer of the gospel able to preach with clarity and simplicity, rather than with deceptive methods of persuasion, especially when no one is inclined or able to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ because of their fallen state and the blindness Satan imposes on them in their unbelief? The answer, recorded most beautifully in chapter 3, is that we are, we who have trusted in Jesus Christ, who proclaim the true gospel in simplicity, who are made bold by the sure hope of the glory of God in Christ, and who are empowered by the Holy Spirit.
(Adapted from URL:https://bible.org/seriespage/3-sufficiency-god-through-his-spirit-2-cor-212-46)
The larger context of Exodus 34, the source of Paul’s illustrations regarding glory, is the sin of the Israelites in chapter 32. From Exodus 32:9 to 34:9, the Lord characterizes the people as “stiff-necked” four times. The face covering Moses needed is noted only after Moses returned from the mountain a second time, following the incident of the golden calf. Thus that great sin was answered with a sign of great holiness: the radiant glory of Moses’ face, which needed to be covered. But despite the greatness and holiness that that radiance symbolized, another episode of glory, the advent of Christ, was yet to be. Some 15 centuries later, Christ arrived in God’s perfect timing. Few, if any, people expected him in the way he came. And relatively few allowed him to remove the veil from their hearts so they might see him clearly. And so it is yet today. Think of someone who believes that he or she will have no problem getting into Heaven because he or she is basically “a good person.” Whether consciously or unconsciously, that attitude comes from a salvation-by-works mentality. Such thinking often presents itself when a person compares himself or herself to another who is relatively “more evil.” But that’s not how salvation works; that is not the criteria for entrance. Those stuck in this mode of belief have a veil they refuse to remove. They need to encounter the great veil-remover, Jesus Christ (Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45). How will you seek out someone who is lost in this way this week?