Clarity and Transformation by the Spirit

2 Corinthians 3:12-18

Clarity and Transformation by the Spirit

Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.

We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at the end of what was fading away.

But their minds were closed. For to this day the same veil remains at the reading of the old covenant. It has not been lifted, because only in Christ can it be removed.

And even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.

But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

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Commentary written on this passage, not on a single verse.

Public-domain commentary

Matthew Henry

From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry comments on passages, not single verses — this entry covers 2 Corinthians 3:12–18. His three-level outline is real structure in the source text, so it is rendered as structure.

1662–1714

I. II. Main points1. 2. Sub-points(1.) (2.) Details

In these verses the apostle draws two inferences from what he had said about the Old and New Testament: -

I.Concerning the duty of the ministers of the gospel to use great plainness or clearness of speech.

They ought not, like Moses, to put a veil upon their faces, or obscure and darken those things which they should make plain. The gospel is a more clear dispensation than the law; the things of God are revealed in the New Testament, not in types and shadows, and ministers are much to blame if they do not set spiritual things, and gospel-truth and grace, in the clearest light that is possible. Though the Israelites could not look stedfastly to the end of what was commanded, but is now abolished, yet we may. We may see the meaning of those types and shadows by the accomplishment, seeing the veil is done away in, Christ and he is come, who was the end of the law for righteousness to all those who believe, and whom Moses and all the prophets pointed to, and wrote of.

II.Concerning the privilege and advantage of those who enjoy the gospel, above those who lived under the law. For,

1.Those who lived under the legal dispensation had their minds blinded (Co2 3:14), and there was a veil upon their hearts, Co2 3:15. Thus it was formerly, and so it was especially as to those who remained in Judaism after the coming of the Messiah and the publication of his gospel. Nevertheless, the apostle tells us, there is a time coming when this veil also shall be taken away, and when it (the body of that people) shall turn to the Lord, Co2 3:16. Or, when any particular person is converted to God, then the veil of ignorance is taken away; the blindness of the mind, and the hardness of the heart, are cured.

2.The condition of those who enjoy and believe the gospel is much more happy. For,

(1.)They have liberty: Where the Spirit of the Lord is, and where he worketh, as he does under the gospel-dispensation, there is liberty (Co2 3:17), freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law, and from the servitude of corruption; liberty of access to God, and freedom of speech in prayer. The heart is set at liberty, and enlarged, to run the ways of God's commandments.

(2.)They have light; for with open face we behold the glory of the Lord, Co2 3:18. The Israelites saw the glory of God in a cloud, which was dark and dreadful; but Christians see the glory of the Lord as in a glass, more clearly and comfortably. It was the peculiar privilege of Moses for God to converse with him face to face, in a friendly manner; but now all true Christians see him more clearly with open face. He showeth them his glory.

(3.)This light and liberty are transforming; we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory (Co2 3:18), from one degree of glorious grace unto another, till grace here be consummated in glory for ever. How much therefore should Christians prize and improve these privileges! We should not rest contented without an experimental knowledge of the transforming power of the gospel, by the operation of the Spirit, bringing us into a conformity to the temper and tendency of the glorious gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Historical interpretation

Five Centuries of Reception

46 surviving comments on this passage. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.

46 quotes · AD 215–700

Ante-NicenePost-NiceneEarly Medieval

200300400500600700

Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.

AD 215Clement of AlexandriaAnte-NiceneSourceThe Stromata Book 4

So far the apostle respecting knowledge; and in the second Epistle to the Corinthians he calls the common "teaching of faith "the savour of knowledge. "For unto this day the same veil remains on many in the reading of the Old Testament"

AD 220TertullianAnte-NiceneSourceAgainst Marcion Book V

But what concern has Paul with the veil which still obscures Moses from their view, if the Christ of the Creator, whom Moses predicted, is not yet come? How are the hearts of the Jews represented as still covered and veiled, if the predictions of Moses relating to Christ, in whom it was their duty to believe through him, are as yet unfulfilled? What had the apostle of a strange Christ to complain of, if the Jews failed in understanding the mysterious announcements of their own God, unless the veil which was upon their hearts had reference to that blindness which concealed from their eyes the Christ of Moses? Then, again, the words which follow, But when it shall turn to the Lord, the evil shall be taken away," properly refer to the Jew, over whose gaze Moses' veil is spread, to the effect that, when he is turned to the faith of Christ, he will understand how Moses spoke of Christ.

AD 220TertullianAnte-NiceneSourceAgainst Marcion Book V

For only there is superiority possible where was previously the thing over which superiority can be affirmed. But then he says, "But their minds were blinded" -of the world; certainly not the Creator's mind, but the minds of the people which are in the world.

AD 220TertullianAnte-NiceneSourceAgainst Marcion Book V

By thus setting forth the glory which illumined the person of Moses from his interview with God, and the veil which concealed the same from the infirmity of the people, and by superinducing thereupon the revelation and the glory of the Spirit in the person of Christ-"even as," to use his words, "by the Spirit of the Lord" -he testifies that the whole Mosaic system was a figure of Christ, of whom the Jews indeed were ignorant, but who is known to us Christians.

AD 220TertullianAnte-NiceneSourceAgainst Marcion Book V

Of Israel he says, Even unto this day the same veil is upon their heart; " showing that the veil which was on the face of Moses was a figure of the veil which is on the heart of the nation still; because even now Moses is not seen by them in heart, just as he was not then seen by them in eye.

AD 220TertullianAnte-NiceneSourceAgainst Marcion Book V

But how shall the veil of the Creator be taken away by the Christ of another god, whose mysteries the Creator could not possibly have veiled-unknown mysteries, as they were of an unknown god? So he says that "we now with open face" (meaning the candour of the heart, which in the Jews had been covered with a veil), "beholding Christ, are changed into the same image, from that glory" (wherewith Moses was transfigured as by the glory of the Lord) "to another glory." By thus setting forth the glory which illumined the person of Moses from his interview with God, and the veil which concealed the same from the infirmity of the people, and by superinducing thereupon the revelation and the glory of the Spirit in the person of Christ-"even as," to use his words, "by the Spirit of the Lord" -he testifies that the whole Mosaic system was a figure of Christ, of whom the Jews indeed were ignorant, but who is known to us Christians.

Clarity and Transformation by the Spirit