2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” This episode explains how the veil between us and God was torn in two when Jesus died on a cross for our sins. It also talks about how important it is to accept God's glory and His forgiveness. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The Veil Is Torn In Two
2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
This was a verse I needed to look up to truly understand. I am always so surprised when I read the explanation of verses by people who have studied the Bible and know so much more than I do. This is one of the reasons I really enjoy doing Bible studies. There are people who know so much about the original languages the Bible was written, or the history of the times it was written in. There are people who know the Jewish traditions and how they relate to various aspects of the Christian faith. I love when I do a Bible study and they explain these things that seem like little bits of information and yet when you know them it adds so much more to what you are reading. The explanation of this verse is a great example of that.
When I read this verse I didn’t really understand the significance of the part that says, “who with unveiled faces.” I thought it simply meant uncovered faces. I should know by now the words in the Bible are chosen very carefully and nothing is just thrown in there. God paid attention to every detail and every word and there is a reason for the exact words used. When Paul said this he was referring to Exodus 34 when Moses’ had to cover his face after meeting with God. The reason Moses’ had to cover His face is because it would be a reflection of God and the Israelites’ hearts and minds were hardened by their sin. They could not look upon the Glory of God because of their sin. There was no way to remove this sin through study or attempts at obedience or even through religiously following the law. Paul explains that God removes the veil between Himself and His people when they come to Him through their trust in Jesus. Only in Christ is sin forgiven once and for all. For the Israelites, Jesus had not come to die for our sins yet. Therefore Moses had to cover his face after meeting with God.
Let me try to explain a little more about the significance of the veil. In the Old Testament, in the temple there was a veil separating the Holy of Holies—the earthly dwelling place of God’s presence—from the rest of the temple where men dwelt. Man had to be separated from the presence of God because of sin. However, in Matthew 27: 50-51 it says, “And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom…” I read an article which talks about the significance of this verse. I will place a link to it in the show notes in case you are interested in reading it. The article says the size and thickness of the veil makes the event of it tearing upon Jesus’ death all that much more momentous. This veil was around 60 ft high and Jewish tradition states it was about 4 inches thick. The articles states, “Above all, the tearing of the veil at the moment of Jesus’ death dramatically symbolized that His sacrifice, the shedding of His own blood, was a sufficient atonement for sins. It signified that now the way into the Holy of Holies was open for all people, for all time, both Jew and Gentile.”
Now that the veil is removed the Holy Spirit can work on removing the hardness in our hearts and allowing those in Christ to see God’s glory. Because this veil is removed we can now see Christ for who He really is. When this happens God begins to transform us into the image of Christ. Because Jesus died on the cross for our sins, we no longer have to be separated from God’s glory. As the verse above says we, “are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” God’s glory can transform us, if we allow it to. First we have to say yes. Yes, to accepting Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Yes, to believing we are saved, not because we deserve it, and not because of anything we have done, but because Jesus died on the cross for us. Yes, to accepting God’s glory and letting it in. Yes, to listening to God and accepting His ways.
When Jesus died on the cross He torn down the veil between us and God and yet we keep wanting to put it back up. We want to keep ourselves apart from God because we feel we aren’t worthy. We hold onto our sin because we simply don’t believe that God could ever forgive us. We know and believe in theory that Jesus died on the cross for our sins but deep inside we tell ourselves He died for other’s sins but not ours, our sins are too great. Why do we do this? Why do we let the enemy fill our head with these lies? Why is it so hard to accept forgiveness? It is not just God’s forgiveness we struggle to accept. We struggle to accept forgiveness from our loved ones as well. Is this something you struggle with? Something happens and you hurt a loved one. You apologize and they forgive you and yet you let the guilt eat you up inside anyway. Why don’t we believe them when they say we are forgiven? Why is it so hard to believe that our loved ones have forgiven us?
I think the answer to both situations is the enemy and the fact we live in a fallen world. We don’t believe God will truly forgive us because the enemy whispers in our ear all sorts of lies about why we aren’t worthy and why we can never be forgiven. It is the same with our loved ones. The enemy preys on our deepest fears and turns them into lies that he whispers into our ear all the time. Also, we live in a broken world, so we don’t experience true, selfless forgiveness like Jesus gave us when He died on the cross. It is hard for us to believe things we haven’t seen before. If we haven’t seen healthy forgiveness then it is hard to believe it is possible. The good news is God can help us with this if we turn it over to Him. You may be tired of hearing me say that by now, and yet I will continue to say it because it is true and because someone still needs to hear it, or someone needs that reminder today.
We are not perfect, we are all flawed. We tend to look around us and think that everyone is so much holier than we are. We wonder how everyone else can be getting it so right, and we are getting it so wrong. If this is you, if you have these thoughts, these next few Bible verses are for you. Ecclesiastes 7:20 says, “Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins.” Romans 3:10 says, “There is no one righteous, not even one;” Psalm 14:3 says, “They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.” There are several other verses just like these. The Bible makes it clear, in the Old and the New Testament, we are all sinners. In Romans 3:23-24 it says, “ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Did you catch that last part, it begins by saying we have all fallen short of God’s grace. Then it says, AND we are all justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
God knows we aren’t worthy. God knows your sins, even if you hide them because you are too ashamed to tell Him. He knows them. Bring them to Him, lay them at his feet and ask Him for help, ask Him for forgiveness and then rest assured that you are forgiven. God gave us the ultimate sacrifice to forgive our sins and I truly feel it is a slap in the face when we refuse to accept His forgiveness. Jesus talked about not accepting His forgiveness in the parable of the unforgiving servant found in Matthew 18:21-35. If you are struggling to accept Jesus’ forgiveness you may find it helpful to go and read this parable. We need to learn to accept God’s glory and His forgiveness and the good news is we don’t have to do it alone, we just have to ask God for His help.
Wow, I had no idea we were going to be talking about forgiveness today. The Holy Spirit knows where He is leading me though, so I am sure that was exactly what someone needed to hear today. It was a great reminder for all of us. Jesus died so we could be forgiven and that veil separating us from God could come down. Don’t try to put it back up. Allow God’s mercy and grace to transform you each and every day. Some days will be better than others and that is ok. Progress not perfection is my motto. Remember, when the enemy starts whispering lies about how we don’t deserve God’s glory, you remind yourself and the enemy that God doesn’t give us His glory because we deserve it, and He doesn’t give it to us because of anything we have done, He gives us His glory because Jesus died for our sins and there is nothing anyone can do to change that. It is ours forever!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord we are so grateful you gave us your only son to die for our sins. We are grateful you love us that much. Lord we want to accept your mercy, your grace, your forgiveness and your love. If anything is standing in our way we ask you to remove it. We ask you to help each and every one of accept your grace and forgiveness. Lord, you know our struggles, please help us. Please release us from anything binding us to our negative thoughts and our negative habits. We want to be free from all evil spirits. When the enemy is whispering his stupid lies please fill our minds and hearts with Your Words instead. We love you Lord. You are amazing. You are the Great I am, you are the just one and you are the lamb of God. You are our joy and our life. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen
Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you on Monday. Have an amazing and blessed weekend.