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.