The unsurpassed glory of the gospel

2 Corinthians 3:7-18

How good is the Christian message? How glorious is the gospel? 

If someone was to ask you, ‘Why is Christianity so good?’  What would you say – if anything?

To most non-Christians, Christianity is not great nor glorious. It’s irrelevant. Or boring. Or moralistic hypocrisy. Or all three.

But as I’ve shared the gospel with hundreds of people over many decades, one thing is constant: What non-Christians are rejecting is not the true Christian faith but one or other distorted form of Christianity. What’s rejected is not the glorious, life-transforming gospel, but a distorted faith – a faith that’s been distorted by Christians like you & me – by well-meaning but wrong-thinking Christians.

You see sometimes, we’re tempted into thinking that the gospel God has given us isn’t very attractive – Christmas is OK, so long as you focus on a little baby in a manger. But when you get on to all that stuff about sin and judgement, about Jesus’ death on the cross, about heaven and hell, well then it’s… well, difficult to talk about that over a coffee at Fenwick’s or Costa.

So in an attempt to make the faith more attractive, Christians have changed the emphasis of the gospel so that there’s little talk of Jesus, and more emphasis on social engagement. In some churches, services are more about entertainment than hearing the word of our great Lord. More about generating nice emotions & feelings than obedience, character transformation and hard work for the gospel.

But there’s also another problem: the original gospel does have some astonishing things to say about God’s authority & sovereign power, about how Jesus defeated death and gives us hope beyond the grave, about the work of the HS to change people and free them from self-destructive behaviours.

The problem is, the gospel is a glorious gospel. But why’s that a problem? Because faithful, God-honouring, loving, prayerful Christians suffer.

Christians who give their lives for Jesus get ill.

Christians who have the HS living in them still sin.

We who believe in Christ’s victory over death still die.

Churches that are supposed to be united, divide.

And some Christians are embarrassed about this apparent failure - it doesn’t look like God has won a great victory. It doesn’t look like the gospel is glorious.

So not only have Christians have altered the faith to make it look more acceptable, they’ve also embellished it in an attempt to make it look more spectacular, more powerful, more glorious:

Some build great cathedrals, dress church leaders in gold cloaks & hats & robes.

Some have claimed that it’s not God’s will that we should get ill or suffer.

Others insist on great music – the echoing choir singing Bach’s B-minor mass or the thumping rhythm of a worship band.

Christians have been embarrassed that the glorious gospel not only means knowing God, having hope and freedom, but also means taking up the cross of suffering.

Now all of this embellishment and alteration of the gospel was going on in the Corinthian church just as it is today. Of course they did it in their own ways to suit their culture. But the church in Corinth was particularly embarrassed by the apostle Paul. He wasn’t impressive. He kept getting into trouble. He was an poor preacher. He was ill. He confronted people. His ministry was weak. His gospel was all about the cross of Christ.

So some of the Corinthians began to say to Paul, “Surely this new work of God in Jesus – the gospel – must be more impressive than the old works of God. Don’t you remember, Paul, how, when Moses came down the mountain after receiving the 10 commandments from God, ‘his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.’ Now that was a glorious ministry! But you, Paul, let’s be honest, your face doesn’t exactly shine with the glory of God. Your ministry is more wooden than golden! It’s more matt black than radiant gold! Surely a New Testament apostle should be even more glorious than Moses! Surely the New Covenant ministry of the Spirit should bring prosperity and health and healing to all. Why isn’t your ministry like that, Paul?”

So Paul sets about showing how truly glorious the gospel is. It’s glory may not be outwardly visible – but the glory of the gospel is unsurpassed.

We all love to look back and think that things were better in the old days – as a Spurs supporter, I look back to the glory years of the 70s & early 80s – to Chivers & Peters, Mullery & Jennings, Villa & Ardiles. If only we could recreate some of those great days! In Corinth, Paul picks up on this longing to go back to the glory days, but unlike a Spurs supporter, he can say, actually things are far more glorious today!  And Paul shows that, though the Old Covenant (i.e. the relationship between God & his people in the OT) may have been outwardly impressive, it was ultimately lacking power.

At the same time, he shows that though the New Covenant (i.e. the relationship between God and his people made possible by Jesus) may be outwardly lacking, ultimately, it is impressive and lacks nothing.

Now the OC was glorious – that was demonstrated by Moses’ face shining with the glory of God after God had given him the 10 commandments written on the stone tablets. And the commandments were good: they showed the people how to live as God’s people. 
 

But... the OC brought death – death because the people were unable and unwilling to live as God’s obedient people, and their disobedience resulted in God’s punishment of death.

And the glory of this old covenant was fading – fading because it was always pointing forward to Jesus – to the new and more glorious covenant: 

If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!  v9

So the OC brought death because people wouldn’t & couldn’t obey it.

But the NC covenant brings righteousness – that is, it puts us in the right with God. Our disobedience is forgiven, so we’re able to have a right relationship with God – the NC makes us righteous.

So what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!  V10

But do you see the problem?  The problem is you can’t see the glory of the NC in the way the people saw the glory of the OC on the shining face of Moses.

And this wasn’t because Moses had been using Dove Summer Glow & Soft Shimmer Deeper Effect body lotion – no, Moses’ face shone with the reflection of the glory of God himself. And it was scary - when the people saw Moses they were astonished and cowered in fear.

And the Corinthians were saying, ‘Look, we could do with a bit more of that!’ And today, people say, ‘Look, we could do with a bit more of that outward, visible glory in the church.’

But the NC doesn’t come with that sort of glory. No, the glory of the NC is the lasting glory of righteousness & the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The NC, 2 Cor 3:12, is about hope and boldness. The hope – the certainty – that we will never come under God’s judgement again, and the boldness to draw close to God without cowering in fear.

Boldness was one thing the people of the OC did not have. In fact no-one can ever have boldness towards God without the ministry of Jesus – without the NC:

If you’re not confident that you will never be condemned by God, then you don’t know the glorious ministry of Jesus.

If you’re not confident that when God looks at you he sees you as righteous – as standing in a right relationship with him – then you don’t know Jesus.

So back in Moses’ day, the people  cowered in fear because his face radiated the glory of God – and they were afraid that God would judge them. So they insisted that Moses hid the glory of God with a veil. But, v16, whenever anyone turns to the Lord Jesus, the veil is taken away. 

When anyone turns to Jesus the fear of judgement is taken away. No longer does the glory of God need to be hidden behind a veil. No longer do you need to hide from God. Fear is replaced with boldness.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  v17

Jesus brings the freedom to approach God. The freedom to live without fear. The freedom to change – to become someone new. The problem with the OC was that the people didn’t want to obey God. But the glory of the NC is that we’re filled with the HS and he makes us want to love & obey & please & enjoy God – not as a fearsome judge but as our loving Father in heaven.

So, v18, 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. 

Not only have we received righteousness from the NC, but we’re now being transformed into the glorious likeness of Jesus himself by the power of the Spirit at work in us. Not, of course, that we’re being changed into the visible likeness of Jesus –  but his moral likeness.  But as we begin to think like Jesus thinks, we will begin to behave as Jesus behaved, and so his glory will be seen – not in our faces, but in our words and in the choices we make.

That’s what your experience of the glory of the NC should be like – righteousness, hope, boldness, and transformation. That’s the glory of the NC.  

And we don’t need to be embarrassed by it. We don’t need to dress it up nor dress it down. No embellishment. No apology. The gospel is what it is, and it is glorious. Glorious in its sufficiency to do for us all that we need done: to make us right with God and to transform us into the likeness of Jesus.

God-honouring Ministry

2 Corinthians 1

With the need to appoint a new Archbishop of Canterbury, the qualities required for a senior church leader are much in the news.

So if you were on the 16-man Crown Nominations Committee, what qualities would you be looking for?

Some recent suggestions have included:

• A great manager of people
• An effective communicator, a powerful speaker
• A presidential figure
• A skilful politician & negotiator
• Someone with charisma, wit & common sense.

At a more mundane level, some rural parishes in Surrey are looking for a new vicar who must be

• Is a strong and inspiring spiritual leader able to share his or her faith in God.
• Is a good communicator, compassionate and with a sense of humour.

You may – or may not – be pleased or surprised to hear that I won’t be considered for Archbishop and, much as I love Surrey, I won’t be applying for that job!

The question of the qualities needed for a church leader was very much on the agenda when Paul wrote to the church in Corinth back in AD55.

If they’d written a job description for a church leader, they’d have wanted someone who had the characteristics which showed they were blessed by God:
For them, this would have included:

·         being a powerful communicator (preferably with an international ministry)

·         being physically strong & healthy

·         having charisma & charm

·         visions from God

And…

·         the wit and cunning to avoid persecution by the Romans or the Jews.

And some men who fitted that profile had turned up in Corinth. Each had his own group of followers, and church members liked to boast about the prowess of their preferred leader.

But Paul was not like that.

He wasn’t a powerful speaker, he wasn’t particularly fit or healthy. Yes, he had visions from God, but he kept them to himself. He hadn’t managed to avoid the Romans or the Jews. He’d been in prison many times, he’d received 39 lashes from the Jews on 5 separate occasions, he’d been beaten up, stoned, & shipwrecked 3 times.  Humanly speaking, Paul was a walking disaster!  Not only that, but he upset church members by challenging their belief and behaviour – in person when he visited and by letter.

 So, as far as many of the Corinthians were concerned, Paul was a bit of a second-rate church leader, and they’d rather follow these more impressive leaders, who said what they wanted to hear in the way they wanted to hear it. And as he begins his 4^th letter to the Corinthian churches, Paul shows what a genuine, God-authorised, Christ-honouring, Xn life & ministry looks like.

And he begins with his usual greeting: he writes as a God-appointed apostle of Jesus – he was one of the few who met Jesus – and so he writes with the authority of God himself.   2 Corinthians 1:1-2

So the letter is addressed to a number of fellowships which met in the courtyards of large houses. And many of them had serious problems and issues. Perhaps this explains why the letter seems a little disjointed at times – Paul seems to turn his attention from one fellowship to another – and of course they all knew exactly what he was talking about and who he was talking to – even if we don’t.

 And so Paul begins by tackling this issue of his weakness – do his problems and sufferings mean that God has abandoned him? Does he really have the authority of God to lead the church?

In the face of that criticism, Paul writes, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of all compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles.

You only have to turn on one of the Christian TV channels to see the belief that only suave, sophisticated, healthy, wealthy people are truly blessed by God. These people would never admit they had any problems at all. But Paul admits it – he’s had all sorts of troubles. But God has not abandoned him. In fact it’s in the midst of trouble and suffering that God has drawn near and poured out his compassion and comfort into Paul’s life. It’s only because Paul suffered these troubles that he’s received this compassion and comfort of God.

Not only that, but this has happened so that, v4, we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. Suffering means receiving special grace. Receiving special grace means having a special ministry – the ability to pass that grace on to others.

Now, on one level, we might simply see this as a great example of the difference between sympathy and empathy:

Sympathy is expressing compassion and giving comfort to someone who is suffering.

Empathy is showing a deeper level of understanding, entering into their experience with them.

So perhaps Paul’s simply saying, ‘Look, I’ve suffered. We all suffer. And because I’ve received compassion and comfort from the Lord, when you suffer, I can empathise with you.’

But in fact, Paul’s saying something much, much more profound than that. He hints at this in v5, for just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. This is no mere human empathy, no mere human comfort and compassion that Paul’s experienced. It’s not even that Jesus is able to empathise with him because he also suffered (though that is certainly true). What Paul’s experiencing here are the benefits Christ won for him on the cross – reconciliation with God, friendship with God, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Paul’s relationship with God has been healed through the sufferings of Jesus, and now he can know & receive the comfort of God. Comfort in our sufferings is only available through the sufferings of Jesus because it’s the cross that heals our broken relationship with God, and opens the floodgates of his mercy. And this is what Paul’s talking about in v7 when he says, Our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. The suffering of the cross is shared by Paul, and through Paul’s ministry, it’s shared by the Corinthians.

When your football team wins, it’s the players & the manager who have actually won the game. The crowd who were there shared first hand in the win. But then, when you hear the classified results read out by James Alexander Gordon at 5 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon, you share in their joy & comfort because you’re not going down! So here, Paul is saying, ‘we who witnessed the resurrected Jesus were overjoyed when we saw him. And we passed on to you the news of Jesus’ death & resurrection. When you accepted Christ, you shared in his sufferings, but you also share in the joy & comfort of the cross & resurrection.’

But being a Christian isn’t only about sharing in Christ’s sufferings spiritually – there will also be real emotional & physical hardships and pain. Of course some preachers claim that Christians won’t suffer if they are faithful and blessed by God. These preachers want the crown of blessings without the cross of shame. But Paul says they’re wrong. He knows that even the most faithful, obedient and blessed Christian – will include sufferings. After all, if Jesus suffered, why do we think we won’t suffer? As he himself said, -‘No servant is greater than his master’ if they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.

So Paul says… 2 Corinthians 1:8-10.

 It has always been true that when life is easy, even the most mature Xn can begin to rely on themselves. When life’s easy, we become more independent of God, we forget that we need him, we forget that all we have is from him. And so hardships serve a vitally important role in our lives – they drive us back to trust in Christ. Hardships and sufferings should not, therefore, be seen as a sign that God has left us or that we’ve upset him or that he’s not blessing us. Quite the opposite, suffering can be God’s blessing on us, forcing us to discover new depths of faith and trust in him. As Paul says, his sufferings happened so that he & Timothy would rely not on themselves but on God. And Paul knows that, ultimately, God could call him to martyrdom – he might be called upon to lay down his life for Christ. And if that happens, so be it. Paul knows that God raises the dead and will deliver him even through death. And yet, Paul is confident that, for the time being, God will deliver him from physical dangers and enable him to continue with his ministry.

But it’s not guaranteed, and Paul urges the Corinthians to help him by praying for him, and then, v11, many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favour granted to us in answer to the prayers of many.

As Paul continues in ministry, many will thank and praise God that he has been granted more time to teach and minister to God’s people – more time to share the hope of the death and resurrection of Christ – more time for the comfort and compassion of God to overflow into the lives of others.

Christian ministry is not hampered by suffering. Because God is the Father of all compassion and the God of all comfort, he brings life and joy from the depths of human troubles.