The Glory of the New Covenant, Part 5
2 Corinthians 3:12-16
Turn in your Bible to 2 Corinthians chapter 3. We come back to this text from verses 6 through 18 on "The Glory of the New Covenant" again this morning. And I confess to you that I am having a terrible time getting through this text. I knew I would but it's even exceeding my own expectations. There is so much here and so many issues that arise out of this text that I want to address that we're taking our time going through it.
As we look at this text, just to remind you that the Apostle Paul here is defending himself against some accusations that he is a false teacher. He is saying that he is a true teacher for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that he preaches the new covenant as he notes in verse 6, he is a minister or a servant of the new covenant.
As he defends himself by identifying himself with the new covenant, he then launches in to a discussion which compares the new covenant to the old covenant because the false teachers, the real false teachers who came into Corinth were the Judaizers, the Circumcision Party who were teaching the old covenant. So Paul wants the Corinthians to understand that a true servant of God, a true minister, a true preacher, a true prophet, a true apostle will preach new covenant truth, not old covenant. And that is the essence of what launches him into this discussion. Once he's identified himself as a preacher of the new covenant, he then goes on to explain the superiority of the new covenant to the old covenant. We've been sort of wandering through that field for the last four weeks and this is number five.
Now let me give you a little background just to kind of bring you up to this text. Satan's most effective deception is religion. That is why he is disguised as an angel of light and that is why his ministers are disguised also as angels of light. While in fact they are all demons of darkness and damnation, they masquerade through religion. Satan's subtlest and most powerful impact is through designing religion that does not save but damns people under the illusion that all is well between them and God. And the world is obviously engulfed in that Satanic deception. The world is engulfed in religion that does not save, religion that damns them to eternal hell. It is the Satanic religion of ceremony or ritual or self-righteous works. It is the religion of performance, the religion of human effort, the religion of sacraments. And it sends people into a godless eternity, deceived about their real condition.
As I have told you many times through the years there are only two religions in the world...just two. There is true Christianity, salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone. And there is one other religion and that is the religion of human achievement, human accomplishment, human effort, human ceremony. And all religion in the world apart from true Christianity is really another form of that same one false damning deception that a person can be made right with God through some external effort through some moral activity through some ceremony. That is a damning deception that engulfs most of the world.
This explains, for example, how the Pope can say that Buddhists worship the same God he worships and should be considered as brothers. It explains how he can say that the Muslims should be considered as brothers and sisters who worship the same God he worships. This explains why Mother Teresa in her home for the sick and dying in Calcutta can have a picture of a Hindu god. Because it is all the religion of ceremony, it is all the religion of human achievement, self-achieved righteousness or righteousness achieved through sacraments, ceremony, ritual or whatever. In fact, the Roman Catholic Church and certain forms of Greek Orthodoxy and certain forms of High Church Protestantism have more in common with non-Christian religions then with the true gospel of Jesus Christ. They are more akin to them because they are religions of external works and ceremony and sacrament and performance and ritual, they are more like non-Christian religions than true Christianity. And that is why we're not shocked when we see the Pope make some kind of comment that embraces people who are distinctively non-Christian. And while at the same time we who are distinctively Christian cannot embrace the pagan format of Roman Catholicism.
Keeping the pure gospel separate from all those forms of religion, even those which claim to be devoted to the God of the Bible, is one of the preacher's greatest task. It's a task we can't abandon. And Paul faced that very task in Corinth. Now you remember that he had gone there and preached the gospel and he had been there nearly two years and he had founded a church. And all was well, ostensibly, at least on a theological side. There was certainly some sin problems there but all seemed to be well on an understanding of the gospel, until some Jewish people came in there and said, "In order for you to really be a Christian you've got to not only accept Jesus but you've got to keep the Old Testament ceremonies and rituals." So it was salvation by Christ plus ceremony, ritual, works. And Paul is saying in this section, "that is not so, it is not the new covenant and the old covenant that saves, it is the new covenant alone that saves." The false teachers were teaching salvation by circumcision which is a ceremony, or by ritual, or mechanics, by works. And therefore they had polluted the pure stream of gospel truth. So Paul writes to inform the Corinthians that what he preached is the truth, the new covenant. And what you see him doing here is what every faithful pastor has to do, you have to protect your people from the Satanic deceptions that come in the form of false religion. And Satan is subtle enough to even embrace them under the name of Christianity, if he has to, if it fits and suits his purpose and try to slide them in with that subtlety.
All those back in verse 6 who are truly made ministers or servants of the new covenant, the covenant in Christ's blood, must take the responsibility that Paul exercises here and warn people about non-saving, deceptive, Satanic, damning religion no matter whether it has the label of Christianity or not. The Corinthian church and everyone else must completely reject all efforts to convolute the gospel by works or by ceremony or ritual. And we've covered all of that, that's a review.
Now in making this point, Paul shows how the new covenant has replaced the old covenant. And he wants them to see that the old covenant is now abrogated as it says in Hebrews 8, it is now set aside because the old covenant contributes absolutely nothing to salvation. The new covenant, you remember I've told you this and I say it again because so many people are confused, the new covenant even saved the people who lived during the old covenant. That's an important thing to keep in mind. Let me explain it from another text because I keep getting echoes that maybe you don't quite understand it. Look at Hebrews 9:15, Hebrews 9:15, we've just popped here and there to different texts on these Sundays and I want you to get a grip on this, this is absolutely crucial. But here is a verse that we haven't yet considered and we must consider it. Hebrews 9:15, I told you last week, remember, that the text of 2 Corinthians 3:6 to 18 is a shrunken version of the book of Hebrews, remember that. The whole book of Hebrews deals with the new covenant as is compared to old covenant and that it's reduced down in 2 Corinthians. So let's go back to the larger text of this issue, Hebrews chapter 9 verse 15.
Listen carefully to this, "And for this reason, He...that is Christ who is referred to, of course, back in verse 14...He is the Mediator of a new covenant." Now follow this, "In order that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant." Did you see that? In other words, the death of Jesus Christ provided redemption for transgressions committed by people who lived under the first covenant. That's what he's saying. There again you have the very clear indication that people under the old covenant living in the Old Testament before Christ was ever born or before He ever died and rose again, people living at that time prior to gospel events were saved by what Christ would do. It's a very, very important thing to understand. Christ, because of His perfect sacrificial death for sin, became the mediator of a new and a better covenant. The only way a person could ever come to God was to have the penalty for his sin paid in full by death. This payment Jesus made by dying as the substitute for all who believe and repent of every age. He became the bridge. He became the mediator. The only mediator between God and man, bringing them together forever. Hebrews says He accomplished in one offering of Himself what all the offerings of old covenant priests could never accomplish, they could only symbolize. It was His death that took the place for the redemption of the transgressions. The price was paid in full, sinners were reconciled forever to God.
But notice this, what sins? Whose sins? "The transgressions that were committed under the first covenant." I don't know how people can be confused on this. I don't know how people can think that people in the Old Testament were saved because they kept the Law, or they were saved because they had in their hearts a Messianic hope. They may have tried to obey the Law, and that's a noble thing for them to do, obviously, if they had been...if they had been saved they would therefore have seen the laws a path of life and they would have obeyed it gladly as much as they could in their fallenness. But people who think that keeping the Law or having some Messianic hope saves in and of itself miss the whole point. The only thing that saved those people was the provision of Jesus Christ on the cross, that's why he says it was for the transgressions committed under the first covenant. Look at it this way, the death of Jesus Christ was retroactive, it went back and it covered the past.
Look at Romans chapter 3 verses 24 and 25, you know, of course, if I'm belaboring this point of the gospel a little bit that I've belabored it for years and written a number of books on it because I can't believe that the church is confused about it. Nothing could be more important than getting the gospel right, is that not true? Romans 3:24 and 25, "Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation or a covering in His blood through faith." All right, justification is a gift by grace through the redemption provided in Christ. God put Christ on display as a covering for sin through His blood through faith. Now listen to this next line, "This was to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed."
That is a crucial point. God passed over the sins of those who believed in Him prior to the coming of Christ. But Christ had to come to make God's passing over those sins a righteous act. Do you understand that? God would have been unjust if He just ignored their sins, if He just passed over their sins whimsically. Somebody might have said, "What kind of a holy God are You, You just pass over their sins? Where is the sacrifice for their sins? Where is the satisfaction of justice? Where is the satisfaction of righteousness? Where is the requirement of the Law? How can You just forgive those sinners? How can You just be merciful and gracious to those sinners?" And until Christ came, follow this, until Christ came to make the perfect atoning sacrifice, God could be...God could be assumed to have been unjust or unrighteous, or have lowered His standard.
So, says Paul here, God was demonstrating His righteousness and He needed to demonstrate what a righteous God He was because in the past He had overlooked the sins previously committed. And people would say, "Well some holy God you've got, He just decides whose sins He's going to forgive and forgives them. Where is the justice, where is the righteousness, where is the holiness there? Where is the holy standard, where is "the soul that sinneth, it shall die" principle? And so he puts Christ publicly on display and we see that He is a just God. In fact, He is so just and His so righteous and He's so bound to His on exorable Law that sin cannot be forgiven apart from a perfect sacrificial death, He is so committed to that Law that He puts on the cross His own beloved Son. Therein is the exhibition of the absolute justice and righteousness of God. So He demonstrates His righteousness by putting His Son on the cross so that we will understand that passing over sin in the past was only temporary, the sacrifice for that sin was to come. Because the blood of Jesus Christ was not yet spilled until hundreds or even thousands of years after many Old Testament believers died, their salvation was, so to speak, on credit...it was on credit. By their repentance and that's always got to be there and by their faith in God, that is to believe God for whatever God had revealed about Himself, obviously the progressive revelation means that at any point in Old Testament history God had revealed more and more and more, what did a person have to be saved? They had to believe whatever God had revealed at that point. And they had to believe that God was merciful and gracious and would forgive their sin. And they had to believe that they had nothing in themselves by which that sin could be forgiven and they had to know in their heart and their mind that God somehow, some way would provide an atonement for their sin.
So what was required for the salvation of an Old Testament person? To believe God...to believe God. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. And to repent of sin and cast oneself on the mercy and grace of God who alone could forgive that sin. And to know in your heart that God would provide a proper sacrifice.
On that basis, the basis of repentant faith, God granted them salvation on credit...on credit. Because of Christ's death to come, God was patient until the sacrifice was made and He passed over the sins of truly repentant believing folks until the time when Christ could come and take care of their sin.
Since the old covenant ceremonies and sacrifices...now listen to this...never did save, keep that in mind, they never did save, they only symbolized the one sacrifice of Christ which does save, we can conclude then that salvation has always been by grace, always been by faith and always been through what Christ did in the new covenant. So the new covenant alone saves.
So Paul is therefore saying, "Why in the world would you people want to believe you need to observe the old covenant as a part of your salvation?" Paul uses the occasion then to defend himself against the false teachers and to show that the new covenant is better than the old.
Now let's look at the text again. The fact that the new covenant is better in a number of ways. First of all, it gives life...we covered that in verse 6. Secondly, it produces righteousness...we covered that in verses 7, 8 and 9. Thirdly, it is permanent...we covered that as well in verses 10 and 11. The superiority of the new covenant and thus of new covenant preachers is indicated by the truth that the new covenant gives life, provides righteousness and is permanent. Now let's pick it up with point number four.
The new covenant brings hope...the new covenant brings hope, verse 12. "Having therefore such a hope we use great boldness in our speech." The new covenant brings hope. You know, if there was thing true about the old covenant, it was that it was a kind of a hopeless covenant. No sacrifice was ever final. Is that not true? You always had to have another one. But the new covenant had a finality, an absolute finality. It provided real hope. Sin has really been dealt with. And the hope of life eternal is crystal clear. Our hope is so sure, it is so established, it is so irrevocable, it is so final that Paul says we preach it with boldness.
Now what is hope? Well it's very simple, it's the belief that all the promises of the new covenant will come to pass. And what does the new covenant promise? Total and complete, permanent and forever forgiveness, removing your sins as far as the east is from west would be certainly a part of it. God did that as well in the Old Testament but He did it in the Old Testament, follow again, based upon the new covenant accomplishment. The new covenant brings life abundant and life eternal, the hope of heaven. The promises are all going to come to pass. Great as the glory of the new covenant is, it's not yet fully manifested, it has hope in it. The new covenant brings us not just a present, but it brings us a future. It brings us a glorious future. It was ratified in the past at the cross, it is applied in the present at faith, but its fullness is experienced in the future. So we have entered into a new covenant, the fullness of which we have not yet experienced. Is that not true? Absolutely.
Look at Romans chapter 8. We live in hope, says Paul. This new covenant has a hope capacity. You see, the old covenant had sort of a hopelessness in a sense. The old covenant just sort of killed you with your sinfulness. It stole your joy, it wiped out your peace, it took away your hope. It relentlessly hammered and hammered and hammered and hammered on the sinner and filling him with despair, fear, judgment. The new covenant comes and brings hope. In Romans chapter 8 verse 18 Paul says, "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us, for the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God."
In other words, he's saying here, "We don't mind suffering in this life because we have hope for the glory that is to be revealed. We are anxiously awaiting for the revealing of the sons of God, the glorious manifestation of the sons of God hasn't happened. The creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but because of Him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now, not only this but we also groan ourselves, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, even ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons the redemption of our body...here it is...for in hope we have been saved. But hope that is seen is not hope for why does one also hope for what he sees? But if we hope for that we do not see with perseverance we wait eagerly for it." We're saved in hope. Paul is saying inherent in the new covenant is hope, a glorious exhilarating wonderful anticipation of the glorious manifestation of the children of God.
Later in Romans chapter 15 verse 13 he gives a benediction. He says, "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." See, we live in hope.
I went into the hospital yesterday, spent about an hour with Herb Clingen, Herb had had another mild stroke and they were doing some tests on his heart and trying to figure out if they had any...if there was any effect on the heart, any damage to the heart from this latest stroke. And we were just chatting about the difficulty of life when you hit the age of 80 and all of that. And with joy and exuberance and happiness in his heart, he talked about the possibility and reality of death which for him holds no fear because it ushers him into the presence of Jesus Christ. That's what it is to live in hope. That's what it means to live in hope. That's what the Apostle Paul was talking about in Romans chapter 13 when he said, "Now is your salvation nearer than when you believed." What aspect of your salvation? The fullness of it. In Galatians chapter 5 and verse 5 we read further about the hope that is in the new covenant. "For we through the Spirit by faith are waiting for the hope of righteousness."
Listen, I'm saved but I look at my life and I frankly live in hope, don't you? I mean, I understand Paul in Romans 7 who says, "I do what I don't want to do and I don't do what I want to do and I'm a wretched man, and who is going to deliver me from the body of this death?" Right? I know what it's like to be a totally redeemed, fully redeemed person living in unredeemed flesh and having this endless warfare. And I have this great hope that some day the war will be over and I will be fully and completely righteous. And so, through the Spirit we by faith are waiting for the hope of righteousness to be fulfilled.
In Ephesians chapter 1, "I pray that the eyes of your heart," verse 18, "may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints." He says I want you to understand what you have to hope for, I want you to understand your eternal reward, the glories of heaven, righteousness, being made like Christ. I want you to see that, look ahead, view that. "Some day it does not yet appear what we will be but some day we will be like Him when He appears for we'll see Him as He is." That's our great hope and we are saved in hope. We have what Paul says in Ephesians 4:4 is one hope of our calling, that hope, of course, is to become like Jesus Christ.
Peter certainly anticipated this, as many other scriptures do, but listen to 1 Peter 1:3, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." And what is our hope? To obtain an inheritance imperishable, undefiled, will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. That is our great hope. Fix your hope, he says in verse 13, completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Set your hope on the grace you're going to receive when Jesus comes. Verse 21, "Your faith and your hope are in God."
You see, the new covenant brings hope. The old covenant is hopeless. All the old covenant can do is kill you, it can't save, it could never save. But the new covenant brings hope, the old covenant is hopeless. And so Paul says, back to our text, verse 12, "Having therefore such a hope as the new covenant, we use great boldness in our speech," or literally, "we continue to use much openness, public exhibition of frankness, no reserve, no timidity, no hesitation, no reluctance. We preach new covenant truth fearlessly without any hesitation.
Now you know that the new covenant was a severe jolt to the Jewish people, you know that, it was a severe jolt. Because it was basically saying to them that your whole system is apostate, your whole system is defective, trying to achieve salvation through the old covenant which was never intended to save. But he says, "Because the new covenant is so replete with hope, we preach it fearlessly no matter what kind of a jolt it is and no matter what the consequences might be to us," which were, of course, were painful to say the least.
Take the word "boldness" for a moment, parrhesia in the Greek. It means courageous. It means outspoken. He is saying I am so confident of new covenant promise by faith in Jesus Christ, I am so confident that it fills the heart with hope that the old covenant never gives, it takes away the despair and the fear and the doubt and it places joy and peace and hope. I am so confident that I am courageous and outspoken and bold and without reluctance and without hesitation no matter what kind of severe reaction I get. I can't hold back, I can't hesitate.
Contrast Paul's boldness, his openness with Moses' demeanor at the event that is behind this passage. Remember the Exodus 34 event when Moses was in the mountain getting the Law and saw the glory of God that we talked about last week? Look at verse 13, "We use great boldness in our speech and are not as Moses who used to put a veil over his face." That's interesting. He put a veil over his face.
Moses didn't have that boldness. There was something about...there was something about the Law that was blinding, burning, searing, you couldn't look at it without destroying you. And Moses had to cover it. Paul is sort of casting his own approach against the backdrop of that particular issue that he drew from Exodus 34. Moses was reluctant and then he would cover his face immediately so that the blazing glory of God that came to him in the giving of the Law didn't burn people, it was like looking into the sun, it would scorch their eyes. It was a burning covenant, it was a devastating, injurious and harmful one, though glorious.
So Paul says the new covenant gives hope, gives hope. It's permanent. It provides righteousness. It gives life.
Number five, it is clear...it is clear. Now I want to take you back to the story of Moses. Let's go back to Exodus 34 for a minute. Paul uses, as I said, this account as an illustration so we have to keep intersecting with it. Back in Exodus 34, and for you that haven't been here, Paul is showing the superiority of the new covenant to the old covenant and he uses an illustration or an analogy from the life of Moses when he went up into the mountain to receive the Law of God and saw the glory of God and then he came down to speak to the people, the glory of God was on his face. That's the background.
And Paul draws a number of conclusions from that...a number of spiritual conclusions from that marvelous illustration.
Look at verses 33 and following. When Moses had finished speaking with them he put a veil over his face. Remember now, he spoke to them with the shining glor