125

THE UNVEILED FACE.

2 COR. iii. iv.

We have a remarkable series of contrasts in the third chapter of this epistle, designed to exhibit the perfect place of blessing in which we are set in Christ. After speaking of his own special relationship, through his ministry, to the believers at Corinth (vv. 1-4), the apostle points out the source of his qualification for his work, and the character of his ministry. (vv. 5, 6.) We have then a parenthesis which extends to the close of the 16th verse; so that for the connection we must read the 17th verse after the 6th, though it is evident that the parenthetical passage contributes, by the contrast therein drawn between the "ministry of condemnation" and the "ministry of righteousness," to further the general argument. Thus the apostle says, "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" (vv. 5, 6); and then he adds, "Now the Lord is that Spirit" (v. 17); i.e. not the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit of the "New Testament," which he thus identifies with the Lord-the glorified Christ. In other words, he teaches us that the Spirit that runs through and underlies "the letter" is a glorified Christ. But when he says in the next clause, "And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," he speaks of the Holy Ghost because he is now speaking of the power by which Christ glorified is apprehended, and the liberty into which we are consequently brought.

The parenthesis springs out of the contrast between "the letter" and "the spirit;" the former-the law, in fact-being a “ministration of death" and of “condemnation" (vv. 7, 9); the latter of "the Spirit" and of "righteousness.” (vv. 8, 9.)

In these terms we have indeed the essential characteristics of the two dispensations contrasted. By the law was the knowledge of sin, and resulting condemnation and death (Rom. v. 20; vii.); whereas by the gospel is the knowledge of accomplished righteousness, and of a Christ in glory. Hence, too, we get in this parenthesis, and the 18th verse, a further contrast between the position occupied by Israel under the law, and that occupied by believers under grace; and it is with this position, and its consequences and responsibilities, that we desire in this paper especially to be occupied.

It is summed up for us in the 18th verse: "We all, with open [i.e. unveiled] face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord." The words, "as in a glass," interfere with the clearness of the statement, having been added from a misconception of the force of the word employed. What we are taught is, that believers are now brought into the very presence of the glory of the Lord-they behold it with unveiled face. This is brought out by a contrast with Israel: "When Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart" (v. 15); but we behold the glory of the Lord without a vail; so that our position corresponds rather with that of Moses when he went into the tabernacle to speak with Jehovah. (See Ex. xxxiv. 34, 35.)

The knowledge of this position is brought to us by the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God; for, says the apostle, "we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord" (iv. 4, 5)—that is, Christ glorified at the right hand of God. Such was the subject of the apostle's ministry, the ministry of the Spirit; for it was performed in the power of that Spirit who came down on the day of Pentecost as the witness of accomplished redemption, and of the glory of Christ. It was also the ministry of righteousness; for instead of requiring righteousness from man, as the law did, it proclaims God's righteousness revealed in the gospel (see Rom. i. 16, 17; iii. 21, 22, &c.); for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness

to every one that believeth. (Rom. x. 4.) And a glorified Christ is the assurance of this; for when He died He bare our sins in His own body on the tree; yea, He was made sin for us (1 Peter ii. 24; 2 Cor. v. 21); and hence, if He is now at the right hand of God in the glory, it is the everlasting proof that every question of our sins and sin has been settled; that all the claims of God's holiness have been met and satisfied; that indeed God has been so satisfied (for indeed He was fully glorified in that death), that His response to what was then wrought is seen in the place which He has accorded to Him who died.

It is on this account that He can in righteousness, as well as in grace and love, accord a place in Christ-in the same position of nearness-before Himself to every one who receives this gospel of the glory of Christ. The source of all is in Himself, and hence it is said, "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts." (iv. 6.) He it was who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all (Rom. viii. 32); who raised Him up from among the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the glory; and He it is who opens our hearts to receive these glad tidings of His grace, so that He might be able to bring us into that place where with unveiled face we can behold the glory of the Lord. Blessed be His name! How precious is His grace!

But let us not forget that this is our position, and that nothing short of this satisfies His own heart of love to us in Christ Jesus. It is therefore not enough for us to know that our sins are forgiven, and that we are the children of God; but He would have us also know that we are brought to Himself, that there is nothing even now between us and the glory of the Lord; we all with unveiled face behold it. This is our normal place. What a fruitful theme then for application to the heart and conscience! Do we know our place? Are we consciously occupying it? Is the glory of the Lord

filling the vision of our souls? Do we know anything of not being "able to see for the glory of that light"? Is it our habit to judge everything about us by the light of that glory? Surely it ought to be the only light for our souls, and our joy to be ever standing with upturned faces, that every ray of the glory might fall upon us with its transforming power.

This indeed is the second point of the apostle's statement. "We all, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." Here then we have the source, condition, and power of our moral transformation—the source, Christ Himself in the glory; the condition, our looking upon the glory-beholding Him with the eye of faith, and the power being the Holy Spirit (for the meaning is the same as to this whether we read "the Spirit of the Lord," or "the Lord the Spirit").

It can never be too earnestly insisted upon that Christ Himself is the source of power, because it thus keeps Him as the object before our souls. Thus in the case of Stephen, how it strengthened him as he beheld "Jesus standing on the right hand of God." It lifted him out of and above his circumstances, and enabled him to tread in the footsteps of his blessed Lord, he praying for his persecutors, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge," even as his Lord had cried, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." (Acts vii. 55–60; Luke xxiii. 34.) In like manner, when Paul was buffeted by the messenger of Satan, he was taught to look away from himself to his Lord, as he was reminded, in answer to his thrice repeated prayer, "My grace is sufficient for thee." (2 Cor. xii. 7-9.) But it is in Philippians iii. that we have the effect of beholding Christ in the glory. There we are permitted, as it were, to see the power streaming down into the soul of Paul, and changing him into the same image, from glory to glory.

But if Christ Himself is the source, the condition of the reception of the power is beholding Him-the eye directed to Him. The power is in Christ; but there is no channel through which it can flow into my soul if I am not looking upward to Him by faith. This is remarkably exemplified in the case of Peter. When he was permitted to get out of the ship and walk on the water to go to Jesus, all went well as long as his eye was upon Christ; but the moment he looked off, he began to sink. And so always. As long as Christ is before our souls, we receive power; but if our gaze is intercepted or diverted, we stumble and fall. This is the secret of all interrupted communion, deadness, or backsliding.

But, on the other hand, if Christ fill the vision of our soul, then the Spirit of the Lord, ungrieved and unhindered, can work; and He will in this case never cease to work in transforming power within us. The model is before our eyes; the Spirit works on, fashioning us after the likeness of the model; and we are thus changed from glory to glory. Remark, however, that since it is Christ in glory, who is the model to which we are to be conformed, though there be increasing moral conformity wrought out in us daily, the full result will not be reached until we are like Christ, when we see Him as He is; i.e. when He comes again to receive us unto Himself, that where He is we may be also. Then since we shall be raised from among the dead, or changed, if the Lord should come before we fall asleep, we shall be like Him bodily as well as spiritually; we shall then be altogether conformed to the image of the Son. (Phil. iii. 20, 21; Rom. viii. 29.) In the meantime, while we wait for this full and blessed result, beholding with unveiled face the glory of the Lord, the Spirit is incessantly engaged in working out our moral transformation. There can therefore be no perfection according to God while we are in the body, and consequently no rest in attainment; for the goal is, as we have seen, Christ in the glory, and God has predestinated us to be conformed