8 The Glory of the New Covenant— Part 2: It Brings Hope, and Is Clear, Christ Centered, Energized by the Spirit, and Transforming

(2 Corinthians 3:12–18)

Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech, and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day when -ever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person 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 liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. (3:12–18)

Throughout redemptive history Satan has sought to confuse the issue of salvation and make it a matter of human effort. One of his most devious and effective schemes has always been to offer an external, ceremonial, sacramental religious substitute for the true gospel of grace through faith. Such false religions do not provide salvation but damn people by deluding them into thinking that because they are religious, all is well between them and God. In Paul’s world that satanic, ritualistic counterfeit religion took the form of Jewish legalism, which was advocated within the church by the Judaizers. That heretical group rejected the truth that the new covenant fully provided the means of salvation, making the old covenant obsolete (Heb. 8:13). They argued that Gentiles must first become Jewish proselytes before they could be saved. To that end they advocated observing the rituals and ceremonies of the old covenant. But to cling to the shadow of the old covenant when the reality of the new covenant had arrived was foolish (cf. Heb. 10:1).

The Judaizers aggressively propagated their misrepresentation of the purpose for the old covenant. As we have seen, no one in any age has ever been saved by keeping the Law or by performing ceremonies and rituals. Salvation has always been by grace through faith. “The Law,” Paul wrote to the Galatians, “has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:24). The writer of Hebrews devoted an entire chapter to demonstrating that the noble men and women of God in the Old Testament were saved by faith, not by keeping the Law. They form a “cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1) testifying to the spiritual benefit of living by faith. The writer began by reminding his readers that the Old Testament saints obtained right standing before God by their faith: “For by it the men of old gained approval” (Heb. 11:2). Then, after listing a representative sampling of the Old Testament heroes of faith (Heb. 11:4–38), the writer repeated his assertion that “all these … gained approval through their faith” (v. 39), thus bracketing the list of Old Testament heroes with a statement extolling faith.

Yet despite their strong faith and exemplary lives, those Old Testament heroes of faith incredibly “did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect” (Heb. 11:39–40). Even those at the pinnacle of Old Testament redemptive history could not “be made perfect” (i.e., saved; cf. Heb. 7:11, 19; 9:9; 10:1, 14; 12:23) by the old covenant. Apart from the new covenant, the “something better” God provided for us, there would be no salvation. Had there never been a new covenant, the Old Testament believers would never have been saved, because the old covenant could not redeem them. Forgiveness of sin comes only through the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. The sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ was savingly efficacious and applied to those under the old covenant (Rom. 3:24–25; Heb. 9:14–15).

Proclaiming and defending the new covenant gospel is a high priority for every man of God. It was the task Paul faced at Corinth, where false teachers had infiltrated the church. Claiming to be apostles, they proclaimed that the rituals and ceremonies of the old covenant were prerequisites for salvation. To boost their own credibility with the Corinthians, the false apostles attacked Paul’s integrity and the credibility of his ministry. As part of his response to the false teachers’ attacks, Paul demonstrated the superiority of the new covenant over the old covenant. In 2 Corinthians 3:6–18 he lists eight qualities of the new covenant: It gives life, produces righteousness, is permanent, brings hope, is clear, Christ–centered, energized by the Spirit, and transforming. The previous chapter of this volume considered the first three of those qualities: The new covenant gives life, produces righteousness, and is permanent. This chapter looks at the last five: The new covenant brings hope, is clear, Christ–centered, energized by the Spirit, and transforming.

THE NEW COVENANT BRINGS HOPE

Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech, (3:12)

Though Old Testament believers rightly had hope in God’s mercy (Job 13:15; Pss. 31:24; 33:18, 22; 38:15; 39:7; 42:5, 11; 43:5; 62:5; 71:5, 14; 119:49, 166; 130:5, 7; 131:3; 146:5; Jer. 29:11; 31:17; Lam. 3:24), that hope was not based on the old covenant. The old covenant, with its endless sacrifices, provided no hope of forgiveness for sin (cf. Heb. 10:4). In contrast, hope came in the new covenant, which provides forgiveness of sin and complete redemption, because Jesus “through His own blood … obtained eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:12). “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). The hope of the Old Testament saints was based on the new covenant (cf. Heb. 11:24–26; 1 Peter 1:10–12).

Hope is the confident belief that God will fulfill all the promises of His new covenant. Many of those have already been fulfilled; yet great and glorious as the new covenant is, the heart of it has not yet been fully manifested. The new covenant was ratified at the Cross, though its benefits have always been appropriated by faith, but the fullness of its hope will not be experienced until believers’ future glorification. It is then that they will receive their glorified bodies and be freed not only from sin’s penalty, but also from its presence (Rom. 8:16–17, 23–25, 29–30; Gal. 5:5; Phil. 3:20–21; 2 Peter 1:4; 1 John 3:2).

Paul expressed new covenant hope in his benediction for the Romans: “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:13). He prayed for the Ephesians that the “eyes of [their hearts] may be enlightened, so that [they would] know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:18). Later in that epistle he reminded them, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling” (Eph. 4:4). He described to the Colossians “the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel” (Col. 1:5; cf. vv. 23, 27). The apostle urged the Thessalonians to “put on … as a helmet, the hope of salvation” (1 Thess. 5:8). The writer of Hebrews declared that

God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil. (Heb. 6:17–19)

He also wrote of “a better hope, through which we draw near to God” (Heb. 7:19). Peter wrote, “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” (1 Peter 1:3), then exhorted his readers, “Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. … Your faith and hope are in God” (vv. 13, 21).

So sure, well established, and irrevocable is the hope provided by the new covenant that those who preach it confidently use great boldness in their speech. They fearlessly and unhesitatingly proclaim the gospel message. Parrēsia (boldness) describes courageous, confident, outspoken proclamation of the gospel, without reluctance or wavering no matter how severe the opposition. Paul unhesitatingly preached the liberating message of the new covenant, even though it enraged his Jewish opponents, who clung fiercely to the old.

THE NEW COVENANT IS CLEAR

and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, (3:13–14a)

The bold new covenant preachers were not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face after being in God’s presence:

When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take off the veil until he came out; and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded, the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with Him. (Ex. 34:33–35)

Moses veiled himself to hide from the frightened Israelites the blazing glory that shone forth from his face (Ex. 34:30). Though the glory of the old covenant was designed to fade in the face of the more glorious new covenant, it was nevertheless a devastating, brilliant, blinding glory. As Moses had been unable to see the glory of God because it would have destroyed him (Ex. 33:20), so the partial glory on Moses’ face was too much for the people to look on.

Moses’ veiling of his face was so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at what Paul calls the end of what was fading away. That expression symbolizes the shadowy, veiled, diminishing nature of the glorious Mosaic covenant. It was replete with types, pictures, symbols, and mystery. It could never be fully understood without the new covenant, connected to the person and work of the coming Messiah. Even the inspired writers of the Old Testament did not fully understand everything that they wrote (1 Peter 1:10–12). A parallel for new covenant believers is the book of Revelation; only those alive in the end times will fully understand its symbolism.

In contrast, the new covenant reveals the mysteries of God that were obscure in the old covenant. A mystery in the New Testament describes a truth formerly hidden but now revealed. It is a privilege of new covenant believers to understand those mysteries. In Matthew 13:11 Jesus told His disciples, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” The New Testament reveals many mysteries that were not made clear in the Old Testament, including the partial and temporary hardening of Israel (Rom. 11:25); the gospel message of salvation (Rom. 16:25; 1 Cor. 2:7; Eph. 6:19; Col. 4:3; 1 Tim. 3:16); the teaching of the new covenant in general (1 Cor. 4:1; 1 Tim. 3:9); the Rapture of the church (1 Cor. 15:51); the unity of Jews and Gentiles in the church (Eph. 3:3–4, 9); the union of Christ and the church (Eph. 5:32; Col. 1:26–27); the truth that Jesus is God incarnate (Col. 2:2–3, 9); and the full revelation of lawlessness in the end times (2 Thess. 2:7). The new covenant makes clear truth that was vague and obscure in the old covenant.

Then Paul gave the reason that the Israelites did not look intently so as to comprehend the veiled and fading glory of the old covenant. It was not Moses’ fault, or the fault of the old covenant, but because their minds were hardened. Hardened is a form of the verb pōroō, which could also be translated “stubborn.” Israel failed to grasp the glory of the old covenant because of stubborn, hard-hearted unbelief. The writer of Hebrews warned his unbelieving Jewish readers not to follow their forefathers’ example:

Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness. … While it is said, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me.” … He again fixes a certain day “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” (Heb. 3:8, 15; 4:7)

Throughout their history the Jewish people (with a few exceptions such as Zacharias and Elizabeth [Luke 1:5–6], Simeon [Luke 2:25], Anna [Luke 2:36], and others of the believing remnant [cf. Rom. 11:5]) “stiffened their necks so as not to heed [God’s] words” (Jer. 19:15; cf. 7:26; 17:23; Deut. 10:16; 2 Kings 17:14; 2 Chron. 30:8; Neh. 9:29). Stephen summed up Israel’s tragic past when he confronted the Jewish leaders of his day: “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did” (Acts 7:51). Sadly, Paul noted that until this very day at the reading of the old covenant (such as when it was read in the synagogue service; cf. Luke 4:17–21) the same veil remains unlifted. The old covenant remained obscured, its purpose misunderstood. People wrongly thought that they could be saved by keeping it. By lowering its moral requirements they achieved an external, superficial righteousness. But by doing so they rendered the Law’s purpose of revealing their sin and helplessness ineffective. Since they did not realize they were lost, they saw no need for a Savior. The veil of ignorance obscures the true purpose of the old covenant to the hardened heart. That, in turn, made them ignorant of their need for the new covenant.

Jesus declared such ignorance to be inexcusable: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that bear witness of Me. … For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me” (John 5:39, 46). Even the disciples displayed this kind of ignorance, prompting Jesus to rebuke two of them on the road to Emmaus for being “foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25). The writer of Hebrews sternly warns of the danger of rejecting the new covenant:

Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Heb. 10:28–31)

Even Moses grieved over the hard-hearted blindness of his people. In Exodus 32:32 he pleaded with God, “But now, if You will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!” So intense was his concern that he was willing to sacrifice himself on their behalf. Paul echoed that same attitude in the New Testament: “For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites” (Rom. 9:3–4).

A true understanding of the old covenant would have prepared them for the removal of the veil that kept (and still keeps) people from understanding the clear revelation of the new covenant.

THE NEW COVENANT IS CHRIST–CENTERED

because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. … But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, (3:14b–16, 18a)

The veil that obscured the old covenant is only removed in Christ, and the revelation of the old covenant in the Old Testament is mystery apart from Him. But Christ has come and ratified the new covenant by His death. Therefore, for those who come to faith in Him, spiritual perception is no longer impaired and everything becomes clear. It deeply saddened Paul’s heart to have to write concerning the Jewish people that to this day whenever Moses is read (as part of the Sabbath worship; cf. Acts 13:27; 15:21), a veil lies over their heart. Even though the new covenant had come to make them clear, they did not understand the true meaning of the Old Testament Scriptures—an ignorance that, ironically, led to their fulfilling the Old Testament predictions that Messiah would suffer: “For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither [Christ] nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him” (Acts 13:27).

The veil of a hardened heart made them think they could save themselves, causing them, therefore, to miss the meaning of both covenants. In their arrogant pride, they sought to establish their own righteousness by good works, keeping the Law (at least externally; cf. Luke 18:21), and performing the appropriate ceremonies. But the broken and contrite heart that God accepts (Ps. 51:17; Isa. 57:15; 66:2; Matt. 5:3; Luke 18:11–14) is one that is penitent, meek, mourns over sin, hungers and thirsts for righteousness, and pleads for mercy and forgiveness. Paul again made the point that the problem was not with the old covenant but with the heart. Those who are unwilling to be broken over their sin, confess it, and repent of it will never experience the new covenant’s blessings.

It is only when a person turns to the Lord (cf. Isa. 45:22) that the veil is taken away. The blessings of the new covenant come only by God’s grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. All the mists that veiled the truth in the old covenant are then blown away like fog before a high wind. In 2 Corinthians 4:6 Paul describes this experience using the metaphor of turning on a light: “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”

Paul borrowed the image of salvation as a veil being taken away from Moses’ unveiling himself in God’s presence: “Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take off the veil until he came out” (Ex. 34:34). Moses removed his veil because he wanted a direct vision of God’s glory. So it is with sinners who turn to God through Jesus Christ. The veil is taken away and they have a clear vision of the glory of God reflected in the face of Jesus Christ. (For Paul’s description of how the veil was removed in his own life, see Acts 22:3–16; Phil. 3:4–12.) Philip E. Hughes writes,

Further light is thrown on this passage when we consider what took place on the occasion of the transfiguration of Christ. On that mountain height Moses and Elijah appeared with Christ, but it was Christ alone who was transfigured with heavenly radiance before the eyes of Peter, James, and John. It was His face that shone as the sun and His garments that became white and dazzling. It was of Him alone that the voice from the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” And thereafter the disciples saw no one, save Jesus only. It is He who abides. The glory in which Moses and Elijah appeared was not their own but Christ’s glory—the glory which He had had with the Father before the world was (Jn. 17:5). Just as in the wilderness the glory which shone from Moses’ face was the reflected glory of Yahweh, so too on the mount of transfiguration the glory with which he was surrounded was the glory of the same Yahweh. Christ’s alone is the full, the abiding, the evangelical glory. To turn to Him is to turn to the Light of the world. To follow Him is not to walk in darkness, but to have the light of life (Jn. 8:12). (The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992], 114–115. Italics in original.)

The inclusive phrase we all includes all new covenant believers. In the old covenant analogy, only Moses saw God with an unveiled face. But in the new covenant every Christian can with unveiled face behold the glory of the Lord revealed in Jesus Christ (cf. Matt. 17:1–2; John 1:14; Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3; 2 Peter 1:17–18). Believers gaze at Christ’s glory as if looking in a mirror, an illustration that speaks of a close, intimate look. Mirrors in ancient times were not made of glass, but of polished metal. They provided a clear but less than perfect reflection—an apt analogy of the new covenant, where believers see Christ clearly, but not as clearly as they will in the future (1 Cor. 13:12; cf. 1 John 3:2).

THE NEW COVENANT IS ENERGIZED BY THE SPIRIT

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. (3:17)

There was nothing in the old covenant to energize obedience. The Law was a jailer, locking up sinners and condemning them to death and hell. But the new covenant liberates through the power of “the Spirit [who] gives life” (3:6).

Paul’s declaration that the Lord is the Spirit strongly affirms the deity of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 5:3–4). The same God who gave the old covenant gave the new covenant. The same God who gave the Law is the God who brings salvation under the new covenant. The almighty Yahweh of the Old Testament is the same God who grants liberty in the new covenant from the futile attempts to earn salvation by keeping the Law. It is the Spirit of the Lord who brings the liberty of salvation to repentant sinners of any age—liberty from bondage to the Law (Rom. 7:1–6), Satan (Heb. 2:14–15), fear (Rom. 8:15), sin (Rom. 6:2, 7, 14), and death (Rom. 8:2).

There has been much confusion about the Holy Spirit’s ministry in the Old Testament. Some believe that His ministry in some economies or dispensations was different than in others. But there is a consistency in the Spirit’s ministry throughout redemptive history. The Holy Spirit’s ministry in the Old Testament can be summarized in four categories.

The first ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament was creation. Genesis 1:2 records that “the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving (lit. “hovering”) over the surface of the waters.” In Psalm 104:30 the psalmist wrote of the Holy Spirit’s role in creation, “You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the ground.” Isaiah asked rhetorically,

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and marked off the heavens by the span, and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales? Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counselor has informed Him? (Isa. 40:12–13)

The Spirit of God was involved in the creation not only of the physical world, but also of man: “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life” (Job 33:4).

The second ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament was empowerment. The Old Testament frequently records that the Spirit of the Lord came upon various individuals (and that He departed from the rebellious King Saul; 1 Sam. 16:14). That, of course, was not referring to the normal relationship of the Holy Spirit to Old Testament believers; all true children of God must have the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom. 8:9), because the divine life imparted in regeneration is not humanly sustainable. The Old Testament references to the Holy Spirit coming upon people describe the Spirit’s empowering specific people to perform special tasks. Four categories of people received the Spirit’s special empowering: judges (Othniel [Judg. 3:9–10], Gideon [Judg. 6:34], Jephthah [Judg. 11:29], Samson [Judg. 14:6, 19; 15:14; cf. 13:25]); craftsmen (Bezalel [Ex. 31:2–3; 35:30–31], Oholiab [Ex. 31:6; 35:34] and others [Ex. 36:1], Hiram [1 Kings 7:13–14]); prophets (Balaam [Num. 24:2], Amasai [1 Chron. 12:18], Jahaziel [2 Chron. 20:14], Zechariah the son of Jehoiada [2 Chron. 24:20], Ezekiel [Ezek. 11:5]); and civic leaders (Moses [Num. 11:17], the seventy elders of Israel [Num. 11:25–26], Joshua [Num. 27:18], Saul [1 Sam. 10:6, 10; 11:6; cf. 1 Sam. 16:14], David [1 Sam. 16:13; cf. Ps. 51:11]).

The third ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament was revelation. He is the divine Author of the Old Testament Scriptures. Zechariah 7:12 laments concerning rebellious Israel, “They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts” (cf. Neh. 9:30). The Old Testament was written by “men moved by the Holy Spirit [who] spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:21).

The fourth and most significant ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament was regeneration. Some maintain that regeneration or the new birth is foreign to the Old Testament. But the evidence clearly shows that Old Testament believers were regenerated. The convicting work of the Spirit, which precedes regeneration (cf. John 16:8), is not restricted to the New Testament. In Genesis 6:3 “the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.’” The Spirit of God striving with sinful hearts to bring conviction of sin is not unique to the New Testament.

Further, total depravity has defined the human condition since the Fall. In fact, Paul’s classic description of total depravity in Romans 3:10–18 comes entirely from the Old Testament. There is no clearer statement of total depravity anywhere in Scripture than the one found in Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” Since fallen, totally depraved people are incapable of saving themselves, no one in any age could be saved apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.

How could a totally depraved person exclaim, “O how I love Your law!” (Ps. 119:97, 113, 163) apart from regeneration? How could Noah be “a righteous man, blameless in his time” (Gen. 6:9) if he were unregenerate? How can the New Testament hold up Abraham as a model of faith (Rom. 4:1–16; Gal. 3:6–9) unless he was regenerated by the Holy Spirit? How could the Old Testament say that “David did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and [did not turn] aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite” (1 Kings 15:5; cf. 3:14; 11:4, 33) if he were not regenerate? How could the Old Testament figures listed in Hebrews 11 have lived such exemplary lives of faith if the Holy Spirit had not regenerated them? The transformed lives of the Old Testament saints testify to their having been regenerated by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus’ conversation with the noted Jewish teacher Nicodemus offers convincing proof that Old Testament believers experienced regeneration. The conversation took place before the ratification of the new covenant with Jesus’ death (Luke 22:20). Yet Jesus declared to Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. … Unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:3, 5). Thus Old Testament conversion involved being “born again,” and being “born of water (cf. the new covenant text of Ezek. 36:24–27) and the Spirit.” Salvation in any age has always been through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.

The difference between the Holy Spirit’s ministry under the old and new covenants is one of degree. Jesus implied that when he told His disciples, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you” (John 14:16–17). As old covenant believers, the disciples already possessed the Holy Spirit, as Jesus’ statement, “He abides with you” indicates. Yet there was a fullness of the Spirit’s presence and ministry in their lives that awaited the ratification of the new covenant. Then, Jesus declared to them, the Spirit “will be in you.” He also spoke of that coming fullness in John 7:37–39:

Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

There is a degree to which new covenant believers experience the power and the enabling of the Spirit that goes beyond that of old covenant believers. In addition, the Spirit unites believers into one body in the church (1 Cor. 12:13). But the essential work of the Holy Spirit in salvation was the same in the old covenant as in the new.

THE NEW COVENANT IS TRANSFORMING

are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. (3:18b)

When the veil is removed in Christ, believers receive “the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (4:6) and are transformed into the same image from glory to glory. The phrase are being transformed translates a present passive participle of the verb metamorpho? and refers to believers’ progressive sanctification. The Christian life is a continual process of growing into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, ascending from one level of glory to another.

Believers’ transformation into the likeness of Christ was a frequent theme in Paul’s writings. In Romans 12:2 he admonished, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” He reminded the Colossians that they had “put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him” (Col. 3:10), while in Galatians 4:19 he wrote, “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you.” Most personally, he wrote that the “one thing” he did was run “toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13– 14). The prize to which believers are called is to be like Christ (1 John 3:2). That is also the goal in this life—to be like the Lord. The process of being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ will culminate in believers’ glorification, when Christ “will transform the body of [their] humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself” (Phil. 3:21; cf. 1 Cor. 15:49, 51–53).

Ceremonial, sacramental religion offers nothing to new covenant believers. It does not provide justification, has no power to sanctify, and will not lead to glorification. The Christian life does not consist in rituals but in a relationship to Jesus Christ; not in ceremonies but in “the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3). As believers single-mindedly focus on the Scriptures, they will see God’s glory reflected in the face of Jesus and be transformed into His image by the powerful internal work of the Lord, the Spirit (cf. Eph. 3:16). Verse 18 will be further discussed in the next chapter.