The New Outshines the Old Covenant - Zack Morgan

Good morning. Good morning. It's really good to be here.

So today I'm going to be— we're going to be studying out 2 Corinthians 3. And Paul is going to be— Paul is, in this chapter, Paul is going to be drawing a parallel between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. And that's what I want to focus on, is seeing the parallel between the two.

And he's going to reference the story of Moses going up on the mountain, receiving the Ten Commandments from God, coming back down, and his face was shining. He put a veil over his face. I'm sure you all know that story. But I'd like to read that story first, give us a refresher of memory a little bit on what happened there. So that is found in Exodus 34, and we will start reading that.

So I'm just going to cut in about halfway into the chapter. But before verse 28, God was giving Moses his commands. He was telling Moses what he wanted from the children of Israel. And so he was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights, and we're jumping in right here as he's coming down off the mountain. "And he was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights. He didn't either eat bread nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

And it came to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with two tables of testimony in Moses's hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.

And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come nigh him.

And Moses called unto them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him, and Moses talked with them.

And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. He came down off the mountain. He did not immediately veil his face. They saw him, and then he didn't veil his face. He called them back, and he said, "Hey, come back. I want to tell you what God has." Meanwhile, his face is still shining. Okay?

That's an important point to remember, that they were afraid. They stepped back away from him. He says, "No, come back. Aaron, you, the elders, I want to talk with you and share with you." And then the rest of the people came.

Until Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. So that veil went on his face after he had been done speaking with them.

But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the veil off until he came out. And he came out and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded. And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses's face shone. And Moses put the veil upon his face again until he went in to speak with him.

So in the past, I had believed, or I'd been told, that the reason why Moses put a veil on his face was to keep the children of Israel from being afraid of him. It was like, "Oh, we're afraid. You guys are afraid. Okay, I'll veil my face so I can talk with you."

And I don't know how often this continued. I don't know how often Moses would go in before God. It seems like it happened several times, possibly. But it says the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses's face shone. And Moses put a veil on his face again until he went in to speak with God. So that veil would come off when he would go speak with God. And I think it was important for me, as I studied this chapter, 2 Corinthians, Paul talks about this a little bit more. And it was important for me to realize that nowhere does it say that Moses veiled his face because the children of Israel were afraid.

Okay? And whether you agree with me on that or not, we'll look into 2 Corinthians and we'll go from there. See if that makes a little more sense. All right. So 2 Corinthians 3:1, "Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?

Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men. Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart." Paul starts drawing a comparison here between the Old and the New Covenant.

And both of those covenants were written on something. The one was written on a stone, and the other covenant was written on the fleshly tables of the heart, whatever that means. And we're going to look in a little bit more into that. But written on stone, Paul uses the Ten Commandments, the tables of the testimony, to summarize that law, to summarize the Old Covenant. And he uses that as a metaphor to summarize the Old Covenant.

And I want to look at Ezekiel 36:26-27. And I don't know if Paul is quoting this verse in Corinthians here, but it seems like he's at least referencing back to it. And God says, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.

And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them." What is a heart of flesh? I will give you a heart of flesh. So thinking about the Old Covenant, the law, the tables of the testimony, that summary of the Old Covenant, that was something that they were to internalize. The children of Israel, that was to be like the core of their society, the core of their life was wrapped up in the law and wrapped up in this covenant that God had with his people. And so if you can picture those tables of the testimony being inside of them, it was something that they were to, yeah, just really internalize.

And thinking about fleshly tables of the heart, when we think about the New Covenant and Jesus, who ushered in the New Covenant, he was the perfect human. He was the true humanity that God had for all of us at creation. Jesus was a perfect example of humanity that God had in mind. Just read this verse one more time. And it says, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh."

And so looking at the law, which was a temporary measure that God had put in place for the children of Israel, it was a substitute covenant that he had. And thinking about that, God has removed that substitute covenant, that substitute law, and he has put within us a heart of flesh. He has put within us what we were meant to be at creation.

And I like the term being fully human. Thinking about when we live below the morality that Jesus sat, when we live below that, we are living a subhuman life. But when we live the life of Christ, we can be fully human. We can be what God had, the heart that we were always meant to have. All right. Let's continue with 2 Corinthians 4. "And such trust have we through Christ to Godward.

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life."

And one thing I want everybody to notice is how often Paul uses Spirit, covenant of the Spirit. He talks about Spirit quite often in these verses in his letter to the Corinthians. So we are ministers of the New Covenant through God's sufficiency.

And verse 7, I find quite interesting. And it says, "But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away." As we follow him drawing this parallel between us and the Old Covenant, us and Moses, it's good to remember that Moses was the minister of the Old Covenant. He was the one who brought the covenant to the people. He was the one that God spoke to, and he brought that covenant to the people. And the analogy that Paul keeps using, he's going to be going more into the glory, expressing the glory of the Old Covenant, and obviously leading into the glory of the New Covenant.

And the analogy that Paul uses is Moses's face, Moses's shining face, the glory of his countenance. He says, "Which glory was to be done away." So Moses's face did not—when he came from the presence of God, his face did not continually shine from that point on.

There was a limited timeframe for the glory of the Old Covenant to shine. It was for a specific time. It was glorious, but it was limited. There's a certain time for that to shine. And that is expressed in—that is shown. Paul uses Moses's shining face as a way to give us an example of that. All right. Verse 8. "Okay, so if the Old Covenant was glorious, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious?

For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory."

Okay. I'm going to go back to another thing that God foretold. In Jeremiah 31:33, he says, "But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts, and they will be their God, and they shall be my people."

God spoke his law to the children—God spoke his law to Moses on Mount Sinai.

Moses was the minister of the Old Covenant. Moses came down off the mountain bearing the tables of the testimony, the Ten Commandments, the summary of God's law for the children of Israel. Moses came down off the mountain and shared that with the rest of the people.

Paul says that we are ministers of the New Covenant. We are ministers like Moses.

And so what similarities does a minister of the New Covenant have with a minister of the Old Covenant? Well, the first thing, Jesus delivered his law on a mountain as well. But on that mountain, Jesus has written his law in our hearts.

And we come with that law written on our hearts. We come bearing that law to the rest of the people, to the world around us.

And that's what's fascinating about the Sermon on the Mount, is that Jesus, he spoke to the heart. He spoke to the root cause of our problems, fulfilling that prophecy, "I will put my law and write it in their hearts." So this is one aspect that makes it glorious, more glorious than the Old Covenant.

And understanding it this way, understanding the kingdom of God and that Jesus came and he brought his constitution, or he came to set up his nation here, and this was his constitution. He set up his constitution. It makes more sense seeing the parallel between the nation of Israel and the nation of Jesus.

That makes a lot more sense than if you just understand the message of the gospel that Jesus came to die on the cross. So when you understand the concept of the kingdom, it's easier to be able to see these parallels with the nation of Israel.

Okay. So the ministration of the Spirit is more glorious than the Old Covenant.

And what metaphor does Paul use to show the glory of the Old Covenant? Like I said, it's Moses's shining face.

So how is it, and why is it, and how is it more glorious, and why is it more glorious? So Paul refers to the Ten Commandments, the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of death. He refers to it in verse 7.

I mean, condemnation really has a negative feel. It was mostly a law of what you shouldn't do. And if that was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry of righteousness? And righteousness is doing that which is right.

One main difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant is that the Old Covenant was a boundary on humans to keep their evil in check. The New Covenant is a proactive law that commands us to do good.

So Jesus mostly said, "Do this and do that," instead of, "Don't do this and don't do that." And by commanding us to do good, it automatically is assumed that we're not going to stab our enemy in the back as we bless them in retaliation.

Okay. Continuing with verse 10. "Or even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth.

For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. Seeing then, we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech."

So the Old Testament was done away with, and the New Testament remains. And Paul uses Moses's shining face. Verse 13. "And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel would not be afraid to look at him." Or the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished.

It's not talking about them being afraid and keeping them from being afraid. It was a veil to keep them from seeing that which was to end, that which had a limited timeframe to shine.

Moses would come off the mountain with his face covered. He would talk with the people, and then he would cover his face until he went to speak with God again. Moses put a veil on his face so that they could not see the end or the final outcome of that glory.

The veil on Moses's face was to keep the people from seeing the fading glory of God.

And remembering that while Moses was in God's presence, his face shone. And immediately after leaving God's presence, his face still shone for a certain amount of time.

So how I understand this, and yeah, this is my understanding from this chapter, is that the veil was to keep them from seeing the fading glory of God, which was Moses's face going back to his normal Moses face.

Okay. Verse 14 through 17. And some of these verses here are maybe a little fuzzy for me. I don't understand it completely. But I'm going to share what I, at least what I've been able to find from this study. So verse 14 says, "But their minds were blinded, for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ.

But even unto this day, when Moses has read, the veil is upon their hearts. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

So I don't mean to make this confusing, but when we think about the veil that has been done away in Christ, immediately my mind turns to the veil of the temple, the veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple. And the temple was the, or the tabernacle was the core of society, or where the children of Israel were gathered around. And the Holy of Holies was that innermost part of the temple. It was that inside, that interior part. And we think about the veil, thinking about the veil, it was woven in such a way that no light could escape, no light could enter.

And this is just my speculation. I know that the veil of the temple was a barrier that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the—I keep using tabernacle and temple interchangeably, but the rest of the tabernacle.

But I guess my speculation, and this is just my speculation, was it also when God would come down once a year to meet the high priest, was it also a barrier to keep his light, his fading glory from shining through? That's just something I've been thinking about.

But what I do know is Jesus, at his crucifixion or his inauguration as king, he removed that veil, and that opened the way for us to God, as well as releasing his Spirit into the world. The covenant of the Spirit, the covenant of the Spirit.

And we see in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit filled the disciples, or the many tabernacles, the many temples, we see that he releasing his Spirit into the world. "You, you Christian, are the temple of God," Paul says in another epistle. "You are where his Spirit dwells."

So as we know, the Old Testament tabernacle was a physical location.

And the New Testament tabernacle is God's people, people with unveiled faces, because the veil has been done away in Christ. Christ, who is Emmanuel, God with us. Paul keeps referring to this as the covenant of the Spirit, God dwelling among his people continually.

Verse 18. "But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

So we come to the final question.

Why do we, as Christians, have unveiled faces? Why does Paul say, "You have an open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord"? Why do we have unveiled faces?

It is because of the continual dwelling of the Holy Spirit within us. This allows us to continually reflect his glory and be changed into his image. It is the covenant of the Spirit. And this is kind of where my main point comes to with the message.

When Moses would go into the presence of God, and he would have that glory, was in God's presence, and he reflected God's glory. He reflected it so much that immediately after leaving God's presence, that glory still shone.

And this, to me, is the biggest difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The Old Covenant, having a limited timeframe, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians there, he says that, "so that they could not look to the end of that which is abolished."

And I guess where I come away with this concept is understanding that the Spirit is dwelling within us continually. It's not like God comes down into the tabernacle, meets with his people, meets with the minister of the Old Covenant, and then it fades away. We have a continual dwelling of the Holy Spirit within us that allows us to continually reflect his glory and reflect his image. Instead of becoming less and less, and it fades away, we can become more and more.

Chapter 4, verse 6, it says, "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

So as we look to Christ, we mirror his glory. And that's, to me, is the beauty of it, that we are just mirroring the glory of Christ's Spirit, the Spirit that dwells within us. And so there's no need to have veiled faces. There's no need. We can continually reflect the glory as ministers of the New Covenant, as Moses looked to God, and he received God's law and reflected God's glory. We can look to Jesus, and we can receive Jesus's law, and we reflect Jesus.

And through the dwelling of the Holy Spirit in us and the law of Jesus written on our hearts, we can continually reflect his glory to the world. That's all I have. I hope I was able to be clear enough and understand. Does anybody have anything you'd like to share?

Well, thanks for diving into that passage. I love those comparisons from the Old Covenant to the New, and especially the thing about the light, the face shine. I thought about the transfiguration when Jesus was there talking with Moses and Elijah.

And by the time the disciples saw that and woke up and looked again, it was just Jesus there. And then God made it very clear to them that this is the one you listen to now. Jesus is the one to listen to. The rest, even Moses, as great as he was in the law, had faded away. That's a good point. And there again, there was that light was there, transferred, I think, in a big way to Jesus from Moses.

And your point also that we are to be bearers of that light, that image to the world around us. I appreciate what you shared. Yeah. And I guess one thing that I forgot to express is that through this all, and in the one verse it says, I can't quote it, but the liberty of the Spirit. "Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." And that's what I find the beauty in just looking at a whole passage and in the context, like, "Yay, the Lord of the Spirit, where the Spirit is, there is liberty. I don't have to do what I have to do." But it's in the context of God writing his law on our hearts and understanding that there's a parallel with Jesus coming on a mountain and giving us his law with Moses, or God coming down on a mountain and giving Moses his law.

There's a parallel that this is a covenant of the Spirit, a covenant of obeying Jesus. And it's not just, but there's liberty in that. It's not just liberty to do as you will, but there's liberty in obedience to Jesus.

When reading this passage, I thought about Jesus when he was walking with the disciples on the road to Emmaus right after his resurrection. And he opened up the scriptures that said and revealed everything there in the Old Testament that talked about him. And this is something that we as Christians have.

One of the ways the veil is taken away is that we see all of these truths in the Old Testament that are still veiled to the Jews who have not come to Christ. I remember this was a couple of decades ago, meeting with a Jewish rabbi.

And I was asking him, I was meeting with him because I was just very curious what Jews believed, and I wanted to get it from the horse's mouth. And I asked him about Isaiah 7, the famous prophecy about the virgin she'll give birth. And his answer was, "That's talking about Hezekiah, not about the Messiah." And so it hasn't changed from where it was in the days of Jesus that that veil is still there. They don't see all of these eternal truths in the Old Testament talking about Jesus and his church and the New Covenant that is spoken of there. They're still looking at the letter of the law, the Jews who are still believers, that is, in the Old Testament.

So yeah, it's a wonderful privilege that we have, that we can see these truths that that veil is taken away for our behalf by Jesus.

I like that parallel that you pointed out. I never thought about that, that God gave his the law to Moses on the mountain. And then Jesus gave his law to us, a greater part of his law to us from above. Yeah. Yeah, that sent the shivers down my back when I was able to, when I saw that put together.

Sometimes we hear about the flat body where people try to make the Old Testament and New Testament equal in emphasis. I was just really impressed with verse 10 where it said, "For even that which was made glorious had no glory by reason of the glory of that itself."

I don't know, somehow the thought struck me. It's like the sun and the moon. When the sun shines, it is so bright that we don't even think about the moon shining anymore. And it's like the New Covenant is shining so bright that even though the Old Covenant had a lot of glory, we hardly even, I mean, glory is, I mean, the New Covenant outshines the Old Covenant.

As far as the light shining in the kind of light that comes out of our faces when God, or Moses was with God, one of the differences that I see that happening in the New Covenant is in the Old Testament, you see a lot of failures in people's lives, that just a lot of weaknesses happening. And when you look at the apostles' lives, they come out of that and talk about writing it on their hearts. They own it. They become righteous men. And their failures is, I'm going to say, way less because they dial in on becoming righteous. That's what they—that's who they become. Whereas a life of not being able to grasp that and knowing that we should.

And to me, that is the difference between we can continue to have our light shine as the way it's supposed to shine if we become righteous, like the apostles. And they were able to impact the entire world because of that high quality of character. And I mean, everywhere they went, their impact was tremendous. And it was because they were righteous. And all those details, it's like writing them on their hearts is when you can take not be hate—you can not hate and not just not say bad things, but you actually love your enemies, love your brother, and you love in a way that's just impactful.

And so that, I think, is just my thought on the whole thing of how do we shine the way we're supposed to shine. And I guess one of the main points I hope I was able to bring it out is that it is a continual thing. It keeps growing. It keeps building. It gets stronger. It doesn't fade away. It doesn't fade away because it's the ministry of the Spirit. It's the covenant of the Spirit that makes it even possible for us to live the life of Jesus. So if anybody doesn't have anything else to share, I guess we'll close with prayer. So you all stand.

Kevin, would you lead us in prayer, please?