Amid all the pressures we encounter, Paul’s been saying, we’ll be seriously strengthened if we grasp the incredible privilege of `ministering the Spirit’, plus the sheer glory we’re headed towards! But amid all these revelations, Paul suddenly starts to talk about Bible reading (3:14). Whatever for?
Well, as Anfin Skaaheim put it so memorably: the words of God are not just symbolic expressions about the presence of God, they are the presence of God: `The words I have spoken to you are Spirit‘, Jesus said clearly, `and they are life!‘ (John 6:63). Our encounter with the Word he’s given us (2 Cor 3:14-16) and the ministry of his Spirit (3:17-18) go (as usual) together. As we read God’s amazing Word, with his Spirit opening it to us, we are in the presence of the Lord; and to minister that Word is to minister the Spirit!
But Paul has a serious, even controversial, point for us here first in v14; like Jesus, Paul was not afraid to be controversial if enough was at stake. `Even to this day’, says Paul, that `same veil remains’ when those who have not submitted to Christ read the old testament. The barrier `has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away’ (vv15-16).
That’s a vital issue for Christians today, in the training of our future leaders. If Scripture is made plain above all through the Spirit’s presence, it follows that, for teachers who have not been `born again of the Spirit’ (John 3:3,8) as per the biblical gospel, the `veil’ will remain, and false understandings will be inevitable. (1 Cor 2:14 says this very clearly.) It surely happens, in the astonishing blindnesses that crop up sometimes in secular academic theology. A grim example is Dibelius, one of the very father-figures of `form criticism’, who dared write that a `monstrous illusion’ (that the End was about to come) `lies at the basis of the whole mission of Jesus.’ So wrong a foundation inevitably leads to warped interpretations; without close contact with the Spirit, the point of whole Bible passages will be missed. (I’ve just been reading, with amazement, a journal piece describing how scholars like J D G Dunn can’t see that Paul, even in Philippians 2, teaches the preexistent deity of Christ.) But people shaped by hearing such approaches will learn a warped agenda too. Yet, remarkably, that is often how we train our future church leaders… Obviously all this is a key area of spiritual warfare (cf 4:3-4). If God has really spoken in his Word, then a major concern of the Enemy will surely be to ask continually, `Did God really say…?'(Gen 3:1) – to confuse or render distant and obscure the meaning of his Word. It’s not difficult to see that happening in the history of biblical scholarship – and occasionally alas (`But the Bible’s so unclear`) in our church life too, even in our members’ meetings….
Such issues are vital, because our understanding and encounter with the Word is central to the marvel the Spirit is accomplishing in us. Paul’s remarks about Bible reading in 2 Cor 3:14-16 now lead into a really dramatic promise: as `with unveiled faces’ we contemplate God’s glory in his Word, the result will be nothing less than our own `transformation’, or transfiguration, into glory, `into his likeness` (v18)! Paul’s choice of word here is very striking: it’s the term used for our being `transformed by the renewing of your mind’ in Romans 12:2 – but, it’s also the word used for Christ’s transfiguration, in Mark 9:2. So as we read the gospels, for example, `beholding as in a mirror’ (F F Bruce’s translation) the `glory of God in the face of Christ’ (cf 2 Cor 4:6), we may feel it’s a mundane thing to do; but in fact something very remarkable is occurring, and we’re invisibly being `transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory’!! This is what will be happening as we feed on Scripture in the next 24 hours! (Lord, please help me understand, and believe, what this means!) The idea of such a transformation is astounding, a wondrous finale to our salvation; and in fact as Paul says elsewhere, it will culminate in nothing less than `Christ is formed in you` (Gal 4:19), our being `conformed to the likeness of his Son’ (Rom 8:29)! In later chapters of Corinthians he will set out its implications for relationships, for money, and for ethnic divisions; here, however, he’s showing us how it works and what makes it happen, through our gazing at Christ’s glory, and specifically in Scripture. It’s what we saw in Ephesians 5: Christ is preparing for himself a `radiant church’, transfigured through the `washing of water with the Word‘… This titanic thing is what Scripture does in us, as we let it loose daily into our brains & bloodstreams!
At the very heart of our spirituality, then, must be time spent gazing, meditating on, contemplating, and ultimately reflecting, the `unveiled’ revelation of Christ; absorbing the Bible personally — and grappling with it collectively in a cell-group — and absorbing it in a different way again through exposition in church. To see Jesus is to grow like him. M’Cheyne’s sane advice is relevant here: take ten looks at Christ for every one you take at yourself. The key to our transformation is not self-examination – that is, using the mirror to scrutinize ourselves. Gazing into the abyss of our self can be endlessly fascinating; but what we see reflected back may only be something introspective, damaged, and inadequate – a broken pot, as Paul will say in ch4. There is a role for that `one deep look’ inside; but its main function is to help us grasp our inadequacy for change; the power has to come from elsewhere. (We’ve seen this process as we’ve looked at the shift from failure on our own in Romans 7 to God’s empowerment in Romans 8; see eg https://petelowmanresources.com/latest-romans-68-5-liberation-the-three-steps-forward-on-our-side/ .) Real transformation will come from gazing at the Lord; as we absorb and contemplate God in his Word, the power of the Spirit who is present there changes us step by step to become something genuinely different & massively glorious, to be like Jesus. 1 John speaks in very similar terms: `Dear friends… what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for‘ – why? – `we shall see him as he is‘ (3:2). And it’s in the Word that we start to see him, day by day, right now! God promises here that, as we do so, we will genuinely be transformed by the Spirit `into his likeness with ever increasing glory` (2 Cor 3:18)…
Then also: it’s this that we encourage, help along, seek to maximize, in each other! `Therefore`, concludes Paul, in a cry of confident faith that lifts him beyond all the pressures and accusations he’s facing as he writes this letter: `Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry’ – this quite astonishing ministry of glory, channelling the twofold, hugely transformative power of God’s Word and God’s Spirit both to ourselves and to others – `we do not lose heart!‘(4:1)!
Here I am, Lord, reflecting on your Word. Thank you so much that you’re making me (even me!) to be like you! Thank you so much for this treasure that accomplishes this: your Word, and the transformation into your glory it brings, through your Spirit who makes it happen! Please help me maximize the process – both maximizing my intake of your Word, and maximizing my output, my carrying it, my sharing it; knowing that as I do so I will be `transformed into your likeness with ever increasing glory`! Thank you Lord!
