I. THE WRITER—CHRIST. Many great men, especially great thinkers, have perpetuated their influence and have served their race by their writings. As poets, philosophers, or moralists, they have made a place for themselves in the mind of humanity. The greatest of all, the Divine Man, wrote nothing. It is greater to be than to write; and the Lord Jesus simply lived and worked, suffered, died, and conquered. He could not compress and limit his mind within the compass of a treatise or a volume. He left his evangelists and apostles to write of him; his earthly manifestation thus spoke a universal language. Yet, in a sense, he has always been writing, and he is writing now. He is still daily issuing epistles to the world.
II. THE EPISTLE—CHRISTIANS. As a friend and counsellor, when on a journey and at a distance, communicates by letter with those who need his guidance and the assurance of his interest, so our Lord, though he has ascended on high, is ever sending epistles to the children of men. Every Christian upon whom he impresses his own will, character, and purposes, thus becomes Christ's communication to the world, written by his hand, and authenticated by his autograph. Every individual is a syllable, every congregation a word, every generation of believers a line, in the ever-lengthening scroll, which approaches its close as the ages near the end.
III. THE TABLET—THE HEART. God does not write on stone, as men did in ancient monumental inscriptions, or as he once did on the tables of the Law. Nor on waxen tablets, as men wrote of old with the stylus, in notes of ordinary business or friendship. Nor on parchment or papyrus, as perhaps these Epistles of Paul were written. But Christ writes on tablets that are hearts of flesh. The expression, adapted from the Old Testament, is an impressive one. In the Proverbs, Wisdom invites the young man to write her precepts upon the tablets of his heart. By Jeremiah the Lord promised to write his Law upon his people's heart. Christ takes the human soul and works upon it, and engraves there his own characters, sets down there his own signature, and sends the human nature—so written upon—into the world, to tell of himself, to convey his thought, his will.
IV. THE AGENCY—NOT INK, BUT THE SPIRIT OF GOD. As in the processes of nature we see the operation of the living God, so in grace we discern spiritual handwriting. The Spirit of God most deeply reaches and most blessedly affects the spirit of man. The Spirit carries truth and love home to the heart with an incomparable power. He writes upon the soul in deep, legible, sacred, and eternal characters.
V. THE HANDWRITING AND SUBSTANCE OF THE EPISTLES. What difference there is in the appearance and in the matter of the letters we daily receive! They vary in handwriting, in style, in tone, in matter, according to the character of the writer, the relation of the writer to the reader, the business upon which they treat. But there is something characteristic in all—all tell us something of our correspondents, and of their mind and will. So is it with these living epistles described in the text. Every epistle tells of the Divine Writer, bears witness to the Lord from whom it emanates, is evidently written in his handwriting, and reveals his mind and heart. Every epistle must be so authenticated by his signature that it cannot be suspected to be a forgery. Spirituality, holiness, obedience, meekness, benevolence,—these are the proofs that the epistle is the composition of the Christ. This is to be manifestly, unmistakably, declared.
VI. THE READERS—ALL MEN. There is some writing which only a few can read; the characters may be ill written and illegible, or they may be in cipher, or the language may be scientific and technical. There are letters of private business or of personal friendship, only intended for certain individuals. But there is literature, such as the Bible or the law of the land, intended for the instruction and benefit of all. So, whilst there is religious language only fully understood by the initiated, by a select class—e.g. doctrines, meditations, prayers—there is language intended for all mankind. The Christian character and life can be read with profit by all men. They can comprehend the virtues which adorn the Christian, and which are the manifest signs of the Lord's spiritual presence. If we are truly Christ's, then his handwriting will be legible to all men, and all men who know us may gain some advantage through reading what the Divine hand has inscribed upon our nature.—T.
2 Corinthians 3:6-11
The old and the new.
The warm and affectionate nature of the apostle had embraced the religion of Christ with a fervour, an attached devotion, exceeding even that which he had shown in his earlier days towards the dispensation in which he had been nurtured, Not that he had lost any of the reverence, the affection, he had cherished towards the covenant which God had established with his Hebrew ancestors; but that the new dispensation was so glorious to the view of his soul that it shed its brightness upon the economy which it replaced. The contrast drawn here seems almost depreciatory of that Law which was "given by Moses," when that Law was brought into comparison with the "grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ."
I. THE NEW IS BETTER THAN THE OLD. If God is a God of order, if progress characterizes his works, if development is a law of his procedure, then it is only reasonable to believe, what we find to be the ease, that that which displaces and supersedes what was good is itself preferable and more excellent.
II. THE SPIRIT IS BETTER THAN THE LETTER. Yet "the letter" was adapted to the childhood of the race, and was indeed necessary for the communication of the spiritual lesson to be conveyed from heaven. But Christianity cannot be compressed into any document; it is itself a spirit, unseen and intangible, but felt to be mighty and pervasive.
III. RIGHTEOUSNESS IS BETTER THAN CONDEMNATION. The old covenant abounded in prohibitions and in threats of punishment. The Law, when broken, as it incessantly was broken, is a sentence of condemnation to all who are placed under it. But it is the distinctive honour of Christianity that it brings in a new, a higher, an everlasting righteousness. It has thus more efficacy than the most faultless law of rectitude, for it supplies the motive and the power of true obedience.
IV. LIFE IS BETTER THAN DEATH. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die"—such is the import of the old covenant, which thus ministered death to those who were under it. "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord"—such is the evangel of the new covenant to mankind. Death is the emblem of all that is dark, dreary, and repulsive; life is fraught with brightness, beauty, joy, and progress. Well might the apostle rise to fervid eloquence when depicting the incomparable moral excellence and beauty of the covenant of Divine grace. And justly might he deem his office one of highest honour and happiness, as bringing salvation and a blessed immortality to the lost and dying sons of men.
V. ETERNAL GLORY IS BETTER THAN TRANSITORY AND PERISHABLE SPLENDOUR. There was a glory in the scene and circumstances amid which the Law was given; there was a glory in that code of piety and rectitude which was then conferred upon the chosen nation; there was a glory in the illumined countenance of the great lawgiver when he came down from the mount. But this glory was for a season, and indeed it almost lost its title to be spoken of as glory, by reason of the glory that excelleth. The ministration of the Spirit, of righteousness, that which remaineth, this is encompassed with a halo, an aureole, of spiritual and heavenly splendour which shall brighten until it merges in the ineffable glory of eternity.—T.
2 Corinthians 3:15, 2 Corinthians 3:16
The veil.
The historical incident in this passage makes way for the allegorical representation. When Moses came down from the mount he veiled his face that the people might not see his features and might not witness the fading of his celestial glory. And Paul affirms that a similar veil conceals the countenance of the great prophet and lawgiver when his writings are publicly read in the hearing of his countrymen. In many ways the Pentateuch is a witness to the Messiah, even Jesus. But over the Pentateuch, as read, there rests a veil which hinders the Jews from penetrating to the spiritual, the prophetic, meaning of the inspired writer. Moses testified of Christ; but to the unenlightened the writings of Moses prevent any perception, any vision, of the Divine Lord. A similar veil keeps many from apprehending the truth which is so near them.
I. IN WHAT DOES THE VEIL CONSIST? Especially in prejudice and in unbelief. As the Israelites were so persuaded of the incomparable excellence of the Mosaic Law that they could not discern the higher revelation to which that Law was designed to lead, so oftentimes men's minds are so preoccupied with their own notions of religion, of righteousness, etc., that they are not prepared to give heed to the Divine manifestation and appeal.
II. WHAT DOES THE VEIL HIDE? The covering referred to in the context hid the face of the lawgiver; but the veil of error and of unbelief conceals the countenance of Christ, the revelation of Divine attributes, purposes, and promises. What it would be most for our interests to behold we may, by our sin and folly, obscure from our own view. See what we may, if we behold not the light of God's glory in the face of Jesus Christ we forfeit the highest privileges of which we are capable.
III. HOW IS THE VEIL REMOVED? The answer is very simple, "When it shall turn to the Lord." That is to say, the obstacle to spiritual vision lies with ourselves and not with Heaven. Repentance, or the turning of the heart away from sin, is the condition of true enlightenment, Whilst the mind is occupied with itself and its own inclinations and fancies, the spiritual glory of the Saviour is not discernible. It only needs that, under the guidance of the Spirit of God, the mind should look away from self to Christ, in order that at once the scales should fall from the eyes of the beholder, and the veil should drop from the face of the Redeemer, and a true revelation should take place.
IV. WHAT DOES THE REMOVAL OF THE VEIL EFFECT?
1. The transitory character of preparatory dispensations is clearly discerned; the veil being dropped, it is seen that the glory of the older covenant has gone.
2. The true glory of Christ and of Christianity is made manifest; the new covenant appears in all its splendour, unfading and eternal.—T.
2 Corinthians 3:17
The spirit of liberty.
If there are two words especially dear to St. Paul, they are these—the spirit as distinguished from the form and the letter, and liberty as distinguished from religious bondage.
I. MAN'S NEED OF LIBERATION.
1. Sin is bondage, however he may confuse between liberty and licence. There is no slave so crippled and so pitiable as is the bondman of sin.
2. Man's happiness and well being depend upon his deliverance from this spiritual serfdom.
3. No earthly power can effect this great enfranchisement.
II. THE DIVINE LIBERATOR. Many of the designations applied to our Lord Jesus imply this character and function. He is the Saviour, who saves from the yoke of sin, the doom of death; the Redeemer, who ransoms from a spiritual captivity, who pays the price, and sets the prisoner free. "The Lord is the Spirit;" i.e. the work of redemption was wrought by Jesus in the body, and is applied and made actual to the individual soul by the unseen but mighty and ever-present Spirit, in whose operations the Lord. Christ perpetuates his action and achieves his dominion.
III. THE ESSENCE OF SPIRITUAL LIBERTY. It is irrespective of personal condition; for the slave can enjoy its sweets, even when his clanking chains remind him of his earthly bondage. It is emancipation from the curse and penalty of the Law, as this oppresses every sinner who is at all aware of his real condition. It is freedom from what St. Patti calls the dominion of sin. It is the glad consecration of all powers to the service of the Divine Redeemer. It is "the glorious liberty of the children of God."
IV. THE FRUITS OF FREEDOM.
1. Obedience, strange and paradoxical as the assertion seems, is the consequence of the gracious enfranchisement of the soul. The service of the heart, which cannot be rendered in bondage, is natural in the state of emancipation.
2. Joy is natural to the emancipated slave, who realizes the dignity and the blessedness of freedom.
3. Praise of the Deliverer never ceases, but ascends in unintermitting strains to the Author and Giver of spiritual and everlasting liberty.—T.
2 Corinthians 3:18
The glorious transformation.
An exulting joy scorns to have moved the soul of the apostle, when he meditated upon the present immunities and honours, and. upon the prospects of future blessedness and glory which, through Christ, belong to all true believers and followers of the Lord. A kind of spiritual exhilaration pervades and exalts his spirit, and adds eloquence and poetry to his enraptured language.
I. UNINTERRUPTED VISION. The figure of the veil continues to haunt the mind of the inspired writer, even after it has answered the purpose of its first introduction. Associating his brethren in the faith with himself, he affirms, concerning Christians, that the veil was in their case removed, so that for them was actually realized a wonderful approach to the unseen Saviour. Before their enlightenment by the Spirit of God, the scales were upon their eyes and the veil was before their countenance. Now, in Heaven's light they see light. The sin, the prejudice, the unbelief, which hid the Saviour from their view, have been removed, and nothing comes between the soul and its Saviour.
II. SPIRITUAL REFLECTION. Instead of the countenance being concealed by a veil, it is, in the case of true Christians, converted into a mirror, which receives and then reflects the rays of light. Thus the glory of the Lord, which is ever manifested in nature, and which shone in the face of our incarnate Redeemer, is gathered up and given forth by the renewed and purified character of the Christian. This is a moral process. A spiritual nature alone is capable of attracting and receiving such light, alone is capable of giving it forth in uncontaminated, though reflected, rays. Thus the disciple mirrors the Teacher and the servant mirrors the Lord. We are living representatives of the Divine Head.
III. GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATION. Faith in Christ and fellowship with Christ are the forces which produce assimilation to Christ. The image which is beheld seems to infix itself upon the mirror-like soul that receives it. The life of faith thus serves to carry on a gradual process of spiritual assimilation. The progression is denoted by the phrase, "from glory to glory," by which we understand, not earthly splendour, but spiritual excellence and. perfection. And the agency is indicated by the expression here used, "as by the Lord the Spirit." Because he is the Spirit, the Lord has access to the heart, and renews, hallows, and glorifies the nature to which he makes himself graciously and divinely known. And there seems to be no limit to this most blessed process. In fact, the future state appears to offer the most amazing scope for its continuation: "We shall be like Christ; for we shall see him as he is."—T.
HOMILIES BY E. HURNDALL
2 Corinthians 3:3
The Christ-letter.
The people of God are set forth under various figures in Scripture. For example—as corn ripening for harvest; as Lebanon's cedars, standing like rocks under fiercest blasts; as stars fixed in heavenly places; as the sun climbing the heavens, enlightening the world; as purified gold, fit for the King; as jewels flashing forth tints of loveliness, prepared for regal crown; as vine branches richly laden; as pomegranates and figs, sweet and refreshing; for might, the lion and eagle; and, great paradox, for weakness, the defenceless sheep and lamb; for humility, the lily; for dignity, the palm tree; for usefulness, the salt of the earth. Here, as "the epistle of Christ." A singular but impressive title. And this sets forth what each individual believer should be—a Christ-letter. We have been accustomed to regard epistles as certain books of the Scripture or letters passing between men. The apostle leads us to this thought—men are epistles. Apart from nature and providence, we have regarded the Bible as God's only book. Now we are directed to other books of God, volumes of redeemed humanity. We speak of the Epistles of Scripture as inspired; men who are the epistles of Christ are inspired by the same Spirit. Of the former we think as testimonies for God, for Christ, for religion; the latter are equally so. And, as though God were not content with Wing to mankind silent and secluded epistles, he has placed in the midst of the world living epistles, moving amongst men, unobscured, ever beheld and perused. We regard the Scriptures with reverence. What a thought that we, if we are truly of Christ, constitute part of the great Scriptures of God! The Bible we esteem as sacred; if of Christ, we are sacred, appointed to bear a like witness to the verities of the Christian faith. It would seem as though there could scarcely be a more honourable designation than this—"the epistle of Christ." If we are to be the epistles of Christ—
I. GOD MUST WRITE OUR LIVES. The epistle, to be worth anything, must be dictated by God. We say Paul's Epistles, Peter's Epistles, John's Epistles; but, if this adequately represents them, they are nothing. If they are anything, they are God's Epistles—God's Epistle to the Corinthians and to the Romans, and so on. So with us. If we are epistles of Christ, we must be "of God," "written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God" (verse 3); and the writing must be, not on "tables of stone "for us, but in "tables that are hearts of flesh" within us. The work of the Divine Spirit in our natures and in our lives can alone make us epistles of Christ. This is the highest form of human life, when it is made by God, day by day, hour by hour—the will of God finding expression in conduct, thoughts, motives, being. Free will is the glory of man, received by the fiat of the Eternal; but the noblest act of free will is its voluntary subjection to the will of God. We are highest when we are willing to become most completely the servants of God. Satan tempted our first parents to pass from under the will of God by the promise, "Ye shall be as gods." There was wonderful deceit here. The temptation found them as gods, it left them as devils. To live otherwise than in subjection to the will of God is to go down. The way upward is, "Not my will, but thine, be done." To consult the Divine wish in all our undertakings, to follow the Divine instruction in all our deeds, to wait upon the Divine purpose in our whole being and course, is for God to be writing our lives. How different, alas! is our experience! How often we have taken the pen out of the Divine hand, that we ourselves might write a little! How often, by our wilfulness, our self-seeking, our sin, we have rendered the Divine writing blurred, and the manuscript of our life blotted and defaced! How often have our foolish insertions entirely altered the meaning of what the Divine fingers were tracing! What chaos, confusion, disaster, have come into the epistle of our life because it has been largely of ourselves and not of God! How poor has been the influence of the life-letter because it has not been inspired of the Holy Ghost!
II. OUR LIVES WILL THEN TESTIFY OF CHRIST. This must be our supreme aim if we desire to be epistles of Christ. He is to be the one conspicuous feature in our life and being. Epistles we are to be, which, when men read, they shall find that they are reading of Christ. Many professing Christians are anything but epistles of Christ. There are some very great epistles of doubt, read and known of many men, telling us that they do not claim apostolical succession, and proving this with conclusiveness by being anything but fully persuaded in their own minds; epistles of dismalness, epistles of idleness, epistles of delay, epistles of change, epistles of frivolity, epistles of self, epistles of quarrelsomeness, and others who seem to be epistles of nothingness. In contrast to the true consistent believer—Christ manifested in his actions, Christ breathed forth in his influence, Christ the utterance of his life. To him "to live is Christ." If we are the epistles of Christ:
1. We must allow men to read us. We must not be too reserved. We must not hide our light.
2. We should not be too forward. Much talk of our attainments and graces will convince most men that we have not any. A book is not instructive which has the most of the printing outside.
3. Men will be willing to read us when very unwilling to read the Epistles of the Scriptures. There are two things which men are very fond of reading—their newspaper and each other. The true epistle of Christ is likely to have wide circulation and large usefulness.—H.
2 Corinthians 3:6
The new covenant.
I. A COVENANT OF THE SPIRIT. The old covenant, the Law which came by Moses, was the "letter"—precepts laid down to be literally obeyed, fixed and rind, external and ritual. The new covenant, the gospel, is the covenant of love, of spiritual obedience. The Jew, under the old covenant, could not be exempted by any piety of spirit from the letter of the legal ordinance; but under the new covenant the spirit of the observance is chief. The old covenant did not supply the inward Power producing obedience—it was something outside of man, imposed upon him. But the new covenant has for an essential feature the Power of God operating in the heart, leading to newness of life. The old covenant approached man from without, the new covenant works from within. One is "letter"—external; the other is "spirit"—internal.
II. A COVENANT OF LIFE. In the old covenant there was the holy Law and the command to fully obey it: "The Law is not of faith; but, The man that doeth them shall live in them" (Galatians 3:12). The old covenant demanded perfect obedience: "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them" (Galatians 3:10). Thus the old covenant tended to condemnation and death, because fallen human nature failed to keep the perfect Law of God. The "letter" of unswerving righteousness convicted man of sin, and then "killed" him. Not that the Law was evil, but that it showed the evil in man. "The wages of sin is death." The Law, by discovering sin, showed that the wages were due. The old covenant thus left man condemned, and, if man was to be justified and restored, there was urgent need of a new covenant. We find, thus, that the old covenant is ever Pointing to the new, and that the design of the former was to lead to the latter: "The Law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ" (Galatians 3:24). Moreover, the Jew possessed the new covenant as well as the old, though not so fully unfolded as we have it. Men condemned by the old covenant lived the life of faith upon the Son of God who was to come, and thus participated in the life giving principle of the new covenant. This new covenant is a covenant of life:
1. Because Christ has perfectly fulfilled the Law of God on man's behalf, and to man this perfect obedience is imputed. Condemnation is thus avoided. Life is secured for man by man's Substitute.
2. Man's personal transgressions are atoned for by the sacrifice of Christ.
3. The Holy Ghost is given to kindle spiritual life in man, to sanctify his nature, to bring him at last into full accord with the perfect Law of God.
III. A COVENANT NOT TRANSITORY. The old covenant has passed away. The new covenant puts men in a position with relation to God which is an everlasting one. Death and the next world will not call for the abrogation of this covenant, nor any changes occurring during the residence of the human family in the world. The old covenant was imperfect; it demanded something beyond itself; it was designed to do this. There is no such element in the new. It is complete; it calls for nothing outside of its own provisions.
IV. A COVENANT OF SURPASSING GLORY. This arises largely from points already noticed.
1. Its spiritual character.
2. Its issues in bringing life, not death, to fallen man.
3. Its enduring character.
4. Its direct initiation and administration by the Son of God. "The Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). The inauguration of the old. covenant saw the face of Moses illumined. The new covenant came with the transfiguration of Christ.
5. Its marvellous revelation of Divine love. The old covenant laid the emphasis upon Divine righteousness; the new, whilst displaying with untarnished lustre this attribute of Deity, exhibits pre-eminently the love of God.—H.
2 Corinthians 3:15
The veil on the heart.
The veil which Moses put on his face (Exodus 34:33) obscured its brightness. The apostle seizes upon the event, so familiar to readers of Jewish history, to illustrate moral blindness, and. especially the moral blindness of Jews in his own day. As moral blindness is subjective, he speaks of the veil, not upon those things which are obscured, as in the case of the face of Moses, but as upon the heart. Upon the heart, because in spiritual matters the inability does not spring from the head, but from the heart. This veil upon the heart—
I. OBSCURES THE GLORY OF THE OLD DISPENSATION. It did so to Jews in Paul's day; it does so to Jews now. The true glory of the old covenant lay in its foreshadowing of the new. It was a covenant of types and shadows. Underlying its legality was a deep spiritualits. The Law condemned, and only condemned, but the "Law" was not the whole of the old covenant. Associated with the Law was the embryo of the gospel. And unveiled hearts looked through condemnation and shadow and type to the delivering Messiah, by whom men could be justified by faith and not by works. But the veil upon the heart caused the Jew to regard the old covenant as complete in itself, and to disregard the deeper spiritual meanings of its provisions. From him its true glory was thus hidden. A rigid system became much more rigid. The wings of a dispensation rising to something higher were clipped. A hard, narrow creed was substituted for an expansive and noble theology.
II. HIDES CHRIST. It did so when Christ came. When the Messiah appeared, veiled hearts failed to recognize him. The Jews would have welcomed a Messiah who came to continue Judaism as Judaism was understood by them. But the development of Judaism into Christianity, the fruition of the old covenant in the new, had no charms for them; on the contrary, it was obnoxious to them in the highest degree, as spirituality is ever to a carnal nature. In the Christ they could not see the Christ. He was not their Christ, and by facile logic was thus demonstrated to be no Christ at all. "Their minds were blinded" (2 Corinthians 3:14). From many today Christ is thus hidden. To them "a root out of a dry ground" is as beautiful as he. They think the fault is in him, but it is in themselves. False conceptions of the objects, duties, and pleasures of life possess them, and are the coloured media through which Christ is looked at. They see a darkened, shorn, maimed Christ; the true Christ is hidden from them.
III. CAUSES MEN TO REST IN SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS. This was the only way of justification which was apparent to the Jew upon whose heart the veil rested. The veil shut out all, except legalism. So with many now. It is their righteousness, not the righteousness of Christ, to which they look. They seek to save themselves, not to be saved by another. Each is a Messiah to himself. But poor rest is secured. The voices of old. sins make themselves heard, and to their clamour no satisfactory response is forthcoming. Present power to do right is found lacking. This is not to be wondered at, seeing that the Source of all true spiritual power has been abandoned. Piety becomes either a vague dream of the future or a dismal formality of the present.
IV. KEEPS MEN UNDER CONDEMNATION. The Law of God condemns, and if only the bare Law is seen there is no deliverance. self-righteousness, if attained to in perfection, would not cancel past sentences on sin. But self-righteousness practically is ever self-unrighteousness, and, instead of atoning for sin, continuously increases it. The most moral man has but the cheerless vision of a broken Law imperiously demanding its penalties.
V. THE VEIL IS REMOVED AS WE TURN TO THE LORD. (2 Corinthians 3:16.) When the Jew, led by the Spirit, believed on Christ, the veil, which had obscured his vision of the old covenant, and which had thus perverted his being and life, was removed. He saw then the true significance of the old economy, and perceived that Christ, in his own person and work, constituted the very fulfilment of the Law. Old things passed away, all things became new. The veil is destroyed forever as we come to Christ. The apostle has, no doubt, in his mind the action of Moses: "When Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the veil off" (Exodus 34:34). Our turning to the Lord is a sign that the veil is rent in twain like the veil of the temple, and as we reach the Lord and are taught by the Divine Spirit, the veil vanishes, obscurity gives place to brightness, and we marvel that we ever could have been as we once were. When Moses came out from the presence of the Lord he again assumed the veil, but he is not here an example to us; for we are not to come out again, but to abide with Christ, to be "forever with the Lord."—H.
2 Corinthians 3:18
The great change.
I. WHAT THIS CHANGE IS. Into the Divine likened. This, which was lost through the Fall, is recovered in the gospel. Believers become like Christ, who is the Brightness of the Father's glory, and the express Image of his person (Hebrews 1:3). The change is not merely of opinion, or feeling, or even conduct, but a change of being. It is not something connected with ourselves, but our very selves which are changed, and changed so as to be like Christ.
1. A marvellous change. For before men believe, they are singularly unlike Christ. By nature like Satan; by grace like Christ.
2. An all-desirable change. For ennoblement, peace, joy, usefulness.
II. THE MASTER OF THE CHANGE. It follows upon turning to the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:16). As Moses, standing before God, was singularly changed in countenance, so that his face reflected the Divine glory, so we are changed as we are turned towards Christ, as we turn towards him in penitence and faith and in desire to be his. The figure of a mirror is employed.
1. We may read "reflecting as a mirror," and then the idea conveyed will be that, as Christ shines upon us, as he acts upon us, we become changed. Or:
2. If we read "beholding as in a mirror," the thought will be that, as we gaze upon Christ as he is reflected in the mirror of the gospel, we become like him. Both thoughts are correct, though it is by the Divine action we are changed, our looking upon Christ being only the means by which the Divine action reaches us.
III. A SPECIAL FEATURE OF THE CHANGE. Progressive—"from glory to glory." The change is often gradual. There is a great fundamental change at conversion. A condition of "glory" is reached, but there is a glory beyond this. We "grow in grace." At first we are "babes in Christ," but we develop into the stature of perfect men in him (Ephesians 4:13). Conversion is but the first stage. Many seem to think that it is the final one. Justification is enough for them; sanctification is not in their thoughts. But this is not the salvation of Christ. We are saved for holiness, for usefulness, for the service of God, and as continuously we gaze upon Christ in faith, and as his power falls upon us, we pass into a further "glory."
IV. A CONDITION OF THE CHANGE. Our face unveiled. And here face stands for heart. The veil occasioned by the old enmity, by prejudice, by misconception, by ignorance, must be removed. This will be so with all who in sincerity turn to the Lord. "When it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away" (2 Corinthians 3:16). The more completely our face is unveiled the more rapidly shall we pass from "glory to glory." We should strive to remove all that is likely to hinder our development into the likeness of Christ. Anything that comes between ourselves and him will do this. Heart veils are of very various patterns.
V. THE STRIKING USEFULNESS OF THE CHANGE. Adopting the reading "reflecting as a mirror," we see that:
1. Those who turn to the Lord reflect the glory of the Lord. They show forth Christ. Men take knowledge of them that they have been with Jesus. They reflect the redemptive glory of Christ. They exemplify the power of his salvation. They are monuments upon which is inscribed "Christ, and him crucified." They reflect the love of Christ in Christian activity. Having been saved themselves, they desire the salvation of all around them. What a thought, that we may reflect, Christ!
2. As they seek to reflect Christ the change progresses. It is when we are diligent in the Master's business, when we consecrate ourselves to him, when we strive to set him forth in daily life, that we become changed into his image. As we strenuously endeavour to be like him we become like him. Our endeavour to reflect him is responded to by the change in us which enables us to reflect him. Reflecting his glory as a mirror, we are changed into the same image.
VI. THE WORKER OF THE CHANGE. The Holy Ghost, "the Lord the Spirit." Christ working by his Spirit, who takes of the things of Christ and reveals them unto us. "The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my Name" (John 14:26). The work is Divine; it calls for Divine power. We cannot work this change, yet we can "turn to the Lord," that it may be worked,—H.
HOMILIES BY D. FRASER
Verses, 2, 3
A living letter.