Reflections on 2 Corinthians 3 - Part 1

2 Corinthians 3 is a crucial chapter in the understanding of the relationship between the old and the

new covenant. Paul is engaged, for a good proportion of the letter, in defending his being recognised as a true Apostle. It would appear that there were those who had come to the church at Corinth, or who had arisen from their midst, who were claiming themselves to be 'the' authoritative leaders to whom these believers should listen and who they should follow. Paul makes no secret of the fact that he is not interested in a battle of egos. Personality is not to be the grounds on which the issue is decided. So what is? Paul is abundantly clear. It is the nature and character of the 'ministry' the Apostle delivers.

Who is the 'we'?

I recently had the privilege of attending a 'Pastor's Study Day' on the subject of 'the Christian and the Law of God', run by Dr Garry William's. I am grateful to him for his careful examination of this passage, alongside Exodus 34, from which Paul draws a dynamic parallel. It is this that has prompted these further thoughts.

Paul makes statements such as:

"Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end." (2 Corinthians 3:12-13 ESV )

It occurs to me that it is essential to understand exactly who it is that Paul is speaking of. This will help us understand the thrust of the passage. It is easy to just assume that he means 'believers' - members within the new covenant as contrasted with those who were in the old covenant. If so, he is making a general point about our accessibility to God, made possible by Christ. But I think we will see that that does not make the best sense of the flow of his argument at all. That it is better to see this as a distinguishing authentication of his call to be an Apostle. True, later in his discourse on chapter 3, he widens to include 'we all', and speaks of the effects of various factors on the individual's hearts. But he doesn't begin there.

Will the Real Apostles Please Stand Up?

Paul begins chapter 3 by dismissing the need for a kind of spiritual cv in order to be recognised as a true Apostle. Is it to be about 'letters of recommendation'? Such human mechanisms would be wide open to abuse, their acceptance or rejection a matter of mere subjective analysis on the part of the recipients. Who would be in a position to write such a thing? Who could truly know? Endless argument and bickering would ensue. No, Paul says, this matter is down to God, not man:

"Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." (2 Corinthians 3:4-6 ESV)

'Claims' are not enough. The only grounds for 'sufficiency' comes from God, not from human means at all.

What he is saying, in essence, is that what distinguishes an Apostle, what makes him what he is, is not the man himself. Rather, it is his ministry. So the question to decide is this. Is this 'candidate' for consideration as Apostle ad-ministering from God?

The 'Men Commendments' of the New Covenant

What Paul does here is to demonstrate that the new covenant is eminently superior to the old covenant. And that this is his ministry, which he serves. His 'letter of recommendation' is not a written document at all, rather, it is the actual church at Corinth. And here is his first contrast. Remarkably, significantly, it is here that he begins to place the two covenants side by side.

"And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." (2 Corinthians 3:3 ESV)

When Moses descends from Mount Sinai, the authentication of his leadership in the eyes of the Israelites is that God has given him the tablets of stone engraved with the Ten Commandments. This is ‘the result of his ministry’. Indeed, way back at the burning bush, God had indicated that the proof to Moses himself that it was God who had sent him was to be that he, and all Israel with him, would worship God 'on this mountain' (Exodus 3/4).

In the new covenant, there is to be a critical difference. Paul's 'licence' to be an Apostle is seen by everyone and anyone as:

• The living entity which is the church at Corinth, not cold stone tablets 
• Written on the beating, loving heart of the Apostle, not engraved in stone tablets, carried in hands 
• Written with God's 'Spirit-ink', not mere words and letters 

Moses could be called 'the Apostle of the old covenant. Paul's intention here is to compare the covenant callings to their respective ministries. And thus he will illustrate that the new covenant vastly surpasses the old. Initially, he demonstrates that Moses' passes through to Israel the relationship with God which is governed by the Law. Whereas that of the new Israel is governed by the Spirit of God Himself. Moses brings the Ten Commandments. Paul's Apostleship embeds the concerns of those who are saved into his very heart, engraved there by the inner work of this Spirit. This is ‘the result of his ministry’.

Confidence and Competence

Paul is not diffident about this. He states that his confidence is rooted in Christ, and stand up in the very presence of God. It is a robust confidence, and it leads to competence in this new ministry of the life-giving Spirit, contrasted with the old ministry of the letter, which, he says, kills. If any of his so-called competitors are peddling a kind of rehashed Mosaic law, in any respect, they are dealers of death, not life.

We need to note that the Apostle is referencing something quite specific here. He is not saying that it is the ‘written-ness’ of God’s communication which causes death – after all, he is actually writing a letter himself! He is explicitly speaking about the old covenant, within which the effect of God’s given law, on those two stone tablets, was to bring about condemnation and death. And, quite obviously, it was not the words themselves, but rather the sombre fact that no-one could perfectly live up to what was being commanded.

Bold Behaviour

Thus, Paul says, because of the nature and character of the new ministry, as compared to the old, this results in different behaviour on the part of those who exercise it – bold behaviour.

“Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.” (vs 12)

The ‘we’ speaks of the way those who have received, first-hand, from the Lord what they now pass on in their gospel conduct themselves before their hearers. Not like Moses, who obstructed the view the Israelites had of his encounter, face to face, with God (albeit at their request). No, rather, the Apostles of Christ show forth, in their lives and in their preaching, all of the fullness of what they have witnessed, with no veiling. The Apostle John says:

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1 vs 14)

And Peter attests:

“For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.” (2 Peter 1 vs 16 – 18)

Elsewhere, in 1 Corinthians, Paul states ‘what I received from the Lord, I passed on to you’.

Of all that has been revealed to these men, chosen by Christ Himself to bear witness, nothing is hidden from their hearers. And this is the witness which we see and read when we open our New Testaments. Bold, Spirit-written, words of life. For us, this means that what we have in the Apostolic word, in our Bibles, is not only reliable, it is complete. Nothing is withheld from us that we need for the fullest understanding of who Christ is and what He has made us in Himself.

More about this chapter in the next article.

Hebrews 1:1-4 — Part 5: Finished and Seated

Finished and seated

“After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.”
(Hebrews 1:3–4, ESV)

We need to feel the impact of this. Verses 1–3 outline the majesty and glorious beauty of the Son, esteemed above all, and hallmarked with the nature of God. It would be a privilege above anything this world offers even to be acquainted with such a noble Lord. We should count it more precious than any work of any artist to be part of, to live in, the astounding work of his deep knowledge, great skill and infinitely careful construction: not a static production, but a growing, developing, integrated complexity which perfectly harmonises and interrelates. Louis Armstrong sings “What a wonderful world”. My heart sings “What a wonderful God!”

Verse 4 moves to another level. It can be no accident that the writer moves from the heights of glory, and the co-existence of Son with the Father, to the return to that same glory when his earthly role is fulfilled and his mission completed. The Son is back in his place, but with what astounding changes accomplished. He comes to the world to live his humanity, lays down his life and takes it up again, and ascends to where he was before. And the whole of it is summarised in the brief “having made purification for sins”.

This, then, in the eyes of the writer of Hebrews, is the esteemed pinnacle of his achievement. He has taken all that separates ruined rebels from the presence of the holy God and has wiped it away. And then, to demonstrate that the whole thing is completed, done, he sits down in the very court of the Father – something no earthly priest would ever dare to do. Thus he signifies that his sacrifice is not only perfectly offered, it is perfectly and eternally accepted.

In the words of Wesley’s glorious hymn:

’Tis finished! The Messiah dies –
cut off for sins, but not His own;
accomplished is the sacrifice –
the great redeeming work is done.

The veil is rent; in Christ alone
the living way to heav’n is seen;
the middle wall is broken down,
and all mankind may enter in.

’Tis finished! All my guilt and pain,
I want no sacrifice beside;
for me, for me the Lamb is slain,
’tis finished! I am justified.

The reign of sin and death is o’er;
all grace is now to sinners giv’n;
and, lo! I plead th’atoning blood,
and in Thy right I claim my heav’n.
(Charles Wesley, 1707–88)

Hebrews 1:1-4 — Part 4: Creator and Sustainer

Creator and sustainer

There is yet another strain in these opening verses, by which, it seems to me, the writer is setting up the easel and the canvas on which the revelation which is the remainder of the book will be painted. Something is revealed here which could not possibly have been fully known even by Christ’s Apostles before their Lord departed. But when the Spirit, who is promised to them by Jesus, brings his ‘this is that’ enlightenment to their understanding of all they have seen and heard, then they know completely what previously they had only glimpsed, even though they had begun to know it then. They had asked, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:41). Now they know.

Creator

Later, Hebrews 11 declares:

“By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”
(Hebrews 11:3, ESV)

The very man who lived and breathed and walked and slept in their very midst is both Creator and sustainer – upholder – of all that is.

Pause and think of that. The Word that called light and life into being dwelt among us; the Voice that spoke at the forming of the earth was heard – and heeded – by earthly ears. The hands that formed Adam from the dust broke and gave the bread to them. The Author of life lived as a man. He who was hidden was revealed.

Paul says the same:

“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
(Colossians 1:16–17, ESV)

Sustainer

And the very fabric of the physical universe not only came into being by his word, but continues to exist by it. What is seen has for its very foundations what is not seen. If we trace that through to what is later said about ‘faith’ we will see that it is not just something the author of Hebrews decides to throw in. It is here at the start and underlies all that he goes on to say. If, for one moment, the mighty sustaining power of the word of the Son was to cease, existence itself would stop.

Light is another picture. We hardly ever look at the sun, yet we see everything else by it. C. S. Lewis said he believed in Christianity as he believed the sun had risen – not only because he saw it, but because by it, in his words, he saw “everything else” (“Is Theology Poetry?”). So with the Son: the one by whom, and through whom, all else is seen and held.

Think of breath. We never notice it, yet it is given moment by moment, and the day it is withheld we are gone. Paul told the Athenians that God “himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25). Every breath the atheist draws to deny him is a breath he was given.

Paul goes on:

“And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.”
(Acts 17:26–27, ESV)

And then he quotes, with approval, a line from the Greek seer, poet and sage Epimenides – “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). It was written to Zeus; Paul takes it and shows who it really belongs to.

Even the atheist, the denier of God’s existence, depends in entirety on the enabling action, in pure grace, of the Son of God he refuses to turn to. What irony is that!

This is the Lord we worship. There is none greater. See how magnificent he is. Begin to grasp what privilege and honour we have been given to not only know his name, but to apprehend his person, through the Apostles’ witness. To worship him, not from afar, as if we were staring up at the night sky, captivated by all it is, but heart to heart, soul to soul. To have him – HIM! – call us his very own and know us by name.

Commenting on this, I have been heard to say that non-believers are people with no invisible means of support! But those who know him have their feet on solid ground.

Hebrews 1:1-4 — Part 3: Heir and Inheritance

Jesus - Heir of all things

"…whom he appointed the heir of all things… having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs." — Hebrews 1:2, 4

A third thread runs through these opening verses, alongside the radiance and the exact imprint already traced: heirship. Verse 2 says God "appointed" him heir. Verse 4 says he "has inherited." Two moments, one unbroken right — intention, then fulfilment.

Appointed

Before a word of creation was spoken, the Son already held the title. The same verse that names him heir also names him maker: "through whom also he created the world." Heirship was not a reward added later; it belonged to him from the first, by the Father's own appointment. This is high ground indeed — worthy of worship even in the ages before Bethlehem, before Calvary, before the empty tomb.

Inherited

Yet verse 4 speaks of something newly taken up: he has inherited a name, and because of it he is now shown superior to angels. The One who always held the right has now entered its full possession. His exaltation grants him nothing he lacked — it unveils, before heaven and earth, what was always his.

And what name is this? Hebrews does not leave us guessing. The very next verse answers it: 

"You are my Son, today I have begotten you" (Psalm 2:7). 

The name inherited is Son — revealed by the Father at his baptism, declared in majesty and glory at hiis transfiguration, and spoken over him in power at his resurrection. Declared to a watching universe.

Worthy

Appointed from before, inherited in time — the glorious Son we worship was never just a candidate for honour; he was always its rightful owner. And now, raised and seated, he has taken what was his to take. The One of such high placing, infinitely worthy of praise even through the old covenant ages, has by his redemptive love qualified — and been qualified — to receive the name that is above every name.

"Lord — this day, my knee will bow, and my tongue will confess your Name."

Hebrews 1:1-4 — Part 2: Radiance and Exact Imprint

"He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature." — Hebrews 1:3

Two words carry the weight of verse 3: radiance and exact imprint. Neither is decoration. Together they answer the question Part 1 raised — how does the unseen God become known?

Radiance

"He is the radiance of the glory of God" (Heb 1:3). The Greek apaugasma pictures light shooting forth from its source — not a borrowed glow, but light that belongs to what it comes from. As the Father is light, the Son is the radiance of that light.

The word can be read two ways: passively, as a reflection of a glory that stays centred in the Father; or actively, as light streaming out, carrying its own brightness. Hebrews' own emphasis — the Son as agent of creation, sustainer of all things, seated in power — favours the active sense, and that's the reading the early fathers reached for against every attempt to make Christ a lesser, derivative being. 

Radiance isn't a copy of light; it's light doing what light does.

One honest caveat: Wisdom 7:26 calls Wisdom "a reflection (apaugasma) of eternal light," using the identical word in a context that leans passive. But the word alone doesn't settle the question — it's Hebrews' larger argument about the Son that tips the reading toward active emanation, not the term in isolation. Not merely image. Procession.

Exact Imprint

"The exact imprint of his nature" — charaktēr, the mark a seal leaves in wax or a die leaves on a coin. Every detail of the stamp transfers to what's stamped. No loss, no approximation.

What makes this striking isn't just the picture but who else used the word. 

Philo, writing in the same world as Hebrews, uses charaktēr for exactly this kind of exact impress — then insists nothing is the charaktēr of God's own being. Not Wisdom. Not the Logos. Nothing gets that close. Hebrews reaches for the very term Philo reserved for "impossible" - and lays it on Christ without qualification.

That's the claim verse 3 makes: not that Christ resembles God, but that in him God's own nature is reproduced without remainder.

Together

Radiance says the Son's glory is his own, not borrowed. Exact imprint says nothing of God's nature is missing in him. Prophets spoke fragments, at many times and in many ways (v.1). 

The Son doesn't add another fragment — he is the thing itself, finally shown.

Together, these two descriptions comprise one of the most succinct statements anywhere of the Son's nature and essence, and a profound window onto his relationship with the Father and the Spirit. If the Godhead is the symphony — its orchestration, its melodies, its harmonies — the Son is the song sung. This is far from theoretical. It turns our eyes to the magnificence of the one who is our Saviour and Lord, worthy of adoration and worship.

"At your feet we fall; mighty, risen Lord,

As we come before your throne to worship you"

Hebrews 1:1-4 — The Radiance of His Glory

"He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature." — Hebrews 1:3

Central thought: Jesus shines God at us, and Jesus shows God to us.

Reflection: how do I 'see' him?

1. I need to hear him as revealer.

He is God's last and final word to us. In him, through him, the Almighty shouts what before has only been whispered.

The prophets who preceded him were sent by God to bring his word to his people. Jesus comes as God's Word to those who are not yet his people. Many prophets cannot add up to the sum of all he is – even though they be multiplied a thousand-fold. The fullness of the Son's word is not, cannot be and will not be exceeded. God shines through his word – always – but in the Son there is supernova.

2. I need to know him as eminence.

Heir of all things, maker of all things, upholder of all things. The Son is the hands of God. He does what God purposes. He performs what God plans. All that is owes what it is, and that it is, to the Son. And it is his inheritance – his by sovereign right as 'the Son'.

Without him, I would not be. My life, my living, with all of its wonders, everything owes him. How can I not serve him when I have and am nothing without him?

3. I need to worship him as exalted.

I can only bow before such majesty. He owns me in every respect. All that I am and have is by his 'sustaining'; only by the word of his power. He has stooped to the lowest measure of the stained world of men to bleach out our unholiness and make it clean. And only after he has done this does he rise again above all creation to take his rightful seat in that place of eminence, the throne of glory at the right hand of the Father. That throne stands on legs of grace, truth, mercy and love.

In such a royal court, who cannot, who will not bow the knee? In the presence of such a one, what words are sufficient to sound his praise, what mouth worthy? Beholding such a sight as this, we will, like the seraphim, hide our eyes – sight will seem inadequate to perceive his being.

But, wonder of wonders, it is this Son who draws us to himself, who bids us 'come'. The glory that would consume us in an instant, instead, wraps its arms around us and speaks to our souls.

In these last days, God has spoken …

… to us!