“Unveiled Face”


BIBLE READING:2 Corinthians 3

All Christians, not just one man as in the case of Moses, behold the glory of the Lord.  No veil is required. This has a transforming effect on all who do it. It is in the Christian looking upon the Lord in the worship of him that a miracle of transformation is wrought. Paul revealed the secret of how to be “transformed" (Romans 12:2).
The word "beholding" in classical Greek means "looking at one's self in a mirror." That required steady looking when mirrors were metal, and so the word came to mean simply, to gaze steadily.
G.W. McGarvey gave the importance of this to be, "Now Jesus is that Spirit, or new covenant of which I have been speaking (2 Corinthians 3:3,6,8); and where that new covenant is, there is liberty, especially the liberty of seeing (without a veil)." In this view, spirit would not be capitalized. Others also favored this understanding of it saying, "(What the Christian beholds) is the manifestation of Christ's glory which is made in his word and by his Spirit, whose office it is to glorify Christ by revealing him to us."  (R. W. Tasker in his commentary on 2 Corinthians)
Under the old covenant only the face of Moses shone.  Only the high priest went into the Holy of Holies.  Only the priests served at the altar, etc.  In the glorious new covenant, "All who are Christ's, whether great or small, whether known or unknown, have this blessed privilege of beholding and being transformed."  (Philip E. Hughes, Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians)

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