the horns of ames

You've got a little glory on your face

I was reading 2 Corinthians 3 this morning (yes, I read "Our Daily Bread") and thought it was really cool. I had a slightly different take on it than the ODB author. First of all, there's something cool in the first 3 verses. Paul calls the church of Corinth "Christ's letter." It made me imagine that God is trying to communicate with the people of the world, and the way He choses to do that, besides with His Word (the Bible), is by writing them another letter through the lives of His church. Unfortunately, there are plenty of churches perverting His message and actually hurt His message instead of expressing it. We should accurately express the love and judgment of God to others in our lives and as a church body. If nothing else, to show the love and peace we have as members of God's family!

Paul jumps into his "Romanesque" talk about how we need to shed the Old Testament law structure (he refers to it as "the letter" in verse 6) and take on the new convenant of faith in Christ alone and indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

The part I took from 7-18 was more about Christ's glory reflecting on our faces. Moses's face was shining so brightly as a reflection of the glory of God, that his face had to be veiled. However, it eventually faded away. Just like the necessity of keeping the law of the Old Testament. So if obtaining the law and meeting with God once made Moses's face shine with glory, how much more obvious should it be to other that we are "glowing" with Christ's glory? Because the salvation we are offered now through the faith in Christ is so much more powerful than the keeping of the law was back then. The keeping of the law was simply to point out that it couldn't be done and that everyone was a sinner needing God. Now we have full access to God and can communicate with Him whenever we want!

Verse 15-16 says "However, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts, but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed." The Jews were still following the Old Testament law and regarding their good works as their way to salvation. They were dimming the true glory of God. It can only be fully recognized through faith in Christ!

And here's my favorite. Verse 18. "We all, with unveiled faces, are reflecting the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit." We should have glowing faces (figuratively speaking)! People should know right away that there is something different about us when they meet us. They should see a happiness and a love for God that shines brightly. We are like the moon is to the sun. We should be reflecting God's glory to the people around us. We should be like Christ! That's what sanctification is all about. Being made more like Christ. Let's not wait until we die to be like Christ, let's be like Him now while people on earth can witness it and want to have the joy that we have and "turn to the Lord."

In Him,
Aaron

posted by Aaron @ www.HornIT.net @ 6:54 AM