HOW STRONGLY DO WE REFLECT THE LORD’S GLORY?
Rev. Mark F. Bartels
Epistle Lesson;
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Old Testament Lesson;
Exodus 34:29-35
Gospel Lesson;
Mark 9:2-9
Sermon Text;
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Before we talk about our text today, it is very important to go through the difference between the Law and the Gospel, just in case there is someone here who may not know the difference between the Law and the Gospel. (For some of you this will be review. But, for others of you, this may be new.) We firmly believe that if you don’t understand the difference between the Law and the Gospel, the Bible will remain a dark book to you. And then, you won’t understand what the Bible is really saying to you. And so, it is critical for every Christian to clearly know the distinction between the Law and the Gospel.
The Bible is broken up into two main topics. Those two main topics are the Law and the Gospel.
Up here I have the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments represent the Law of God. First of all, let’s define the Law. The Law that God gives us is simply defined this way. The Law is what we are to do and what we are not to do. Can’t get simpler than that! The Law is what we should and should not do. And, the Law is summarized in the Ten Commandments.
In the Ten Commandments, God tells you, "Here is what you are to do and here is what you are not to do." And the rest of scripture fleshes out the Ten Commandments. For example, it doesn’t just mean that we should not kill, but then the Bible explains, "Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer." The Bible doesn’t just say that we should not commit adultery. The rest of scripture fleshes that out and says, "Whoever lusts after a woman in his heart, has already committed adultery."
And so, the Law is what we are to do and what we are not to do. It is a command. It is a command from God.
And, who does it put all the weight on? The Law puts all the weight on you and on your shoulders. This is what you must do and this is what you must not do. That is the Law.
Then, over here I have the cross, which represents the Gospel. The Gospel is very different from the Law. The Gospel does not tell us what we should do and what we should not do. The Gospel tells us what somebody else did for us. The Gospel tells us that Jesus lived a holy, perfect life according to the Ten Commandments. He never once, never once sinned against one commandment in thought, word, or deed. He kept them perfectly for you. The Gospel tells us that Jesus went to the cross. And, there on the cross, He paid for every single sin that you have ever committed against any of the Ten Commandments. They have all been fully, completely, and 100% paid for. That is the Gospel. And, who does the Gospel put all the weight on? The Law puts all the weight on you. The Gospel puts all the weight on somebody else. The Gospel puts all the weight on Jesus Christ.
The Law is a command. The Gospel is not a command. It is a promise. It is a promise from God to you. So there is a big difference between the Law and the Gospel.
Now, why does God give us these two very distinct teachings in scripture? The reason God gives us these two very distinct teachings in scripture is because they have two very distinct but very important purposes. What is the main purpose of the Law? The Bible tells us,
"No one will be declared righteous
in God’s sight
by observing the Law,
but rather through the Law
we become conscious of sin."
The main purpose of the Law is to show that you are a sinner. As we compare ourselves to those Ten Commandments and we ask, "Have I had perfect thoughts, according to those Ten Commandments? perfect words, according to those Ten Commandments? perfect deeds, according to those Ten Commandments?"
As we go through our own lives, it becomes very, very evident, "I have not kept the Ten Commandments, at all." It is very evident. The Bible tells us that God expects perfection, when it comes to the Ten Commandments. And, He not only expects it, He demands it. God says, "Be perfect." Be perfect!
So, as we look at the Ten Commandments and they show us our sin, then what happens? Then, it is as if God takes us by the back of the neck, pushes our face into a window, and says, "Look into that window. That is what you deserve, because you have not kept my commands."
And, what does He show us? There, He shows us Hell. The Bible says,
"The soul that sins,
it shall die."
It says,
"Cursed is everyone
who does not continue
in everything
written in the Book of the Law to do it."
And so, we peer into that window and we see, "That is what I deserve, because I have not followed God’s commands." And what does that do? That troubles my heart. It troubles me to see what I deserve, because I have sinned against God’s Law.
Now, why in the world would God want to trouble me? Why would God want to trouble me, with the Law? Here is the reason. If I don’t see my sin, if I don’t see the result of my sin, I will never look for a cure. I will never long for a Savior. Why would I need a Savior, if I didn’t see my sin, and didn’t see what I deserve because of my sin? And so, the Law troubles us, brings us to repentance, and causes us to say, then, "I need a Savior."
And then God comes to us with the Gospel. Once we have been troubled by the Law, and we repent of our sins, He pours out that Gospel message. And there, instead of pushing our face up against the glass, He takes our hand and leads us to another window and says, "Look. That is all yours."
And what does He show us? He shows us Heaven! He says, "When my Son, Jesus, hung on the cross, He did not say, ‘It is 10%, or 20%, or even 99% finished.’ He said, ‘It is finished.’"
"It is,
It IS finished!"
"Your sins are 100% paid for. You are forgiven. I will never hold your sins against you again for the rest of eternity. The holy life of my Son is yours. And because of that, Heaven is yours."
And what does that do? It shows us our Savior. And it brings us absolute comfort and absolute confidence. Why can we be so confident? We can be confident, because our salvation is not based on what we do. It is not based on a command. It is based on a promise of God. And, God does not, and will not break His promise. He says,
"Whoever believes in Jesus Christ
will be saved."
So, we have the Law and the Gospel. And, it is very important to know the difference between the two.
This gets us to our scripture reading. In the New Testament, sometimes the New Testament uses shorthand, and it assumes you understand what it is talking about, because it assumes you have a full knowledge of the Old Testament. And so, in the New Testament, sometimes the name ‘Moses’ is used for shorthand. Do you think Moses is shorthand for the Law, or for the Gospel?
Moses is shorthand for the Law.
Moses went up to Mount Sinai. It was there on Mount Sinai, amidst peals of thunder and flashes of lightening that shook the land, there in the presence of God, (Moses stood in the very presence of God!), God gave to Moses the Ten Commandments. Moses then went down from the mountain. And having been in the presence of God, he did not realize it, but his face was shinning with the radiance, it was reflecting God’s radiance! And the Children of Israel were terrified, when they saw Moses reflecting the glory of God. And so the Bible tells us they wanted Moses to cover up his face. They wanted him to put a veil on his face. Listen to what our scripture reading says, on the basis of that. It starts out this way.
"Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it, while the radiance was fading away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old convent is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day, even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts."
There it talks about a veil, covering up people’s hearts. I want you to think about this. The Ten Commandments reveal the powerful glory of God. They reveal God in His glory. In the Ten Commandments we see what a holy, perfect God is. In the Ten Commandments we see a holy, perfect God, who demands absolute holiness and perfection. And anything short of holiness and perfection, God cannot tolerate. It shows us the bold glory of the holiness of God. And that Law is like a bright beacon, a blinding beacon that shines into every, single, corner of your life, no matter how dark and hidden away it may be. That Law of God shines. And the Law of God reveals all the sins we have committed against God.
And, you know what? That troubles us. It troubles us. That bright glory of God, His holiness, troubles us. And so, what did the Children of Israel do? It says, "Even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts." They wanted to cover up that glory of God. It was just too bright. It was too bright to see the full glory of God, that He demands perfection and holiness. And so, the Children of Israel wanted to cover up the glory of God. They wanted to cover up the full demands of the Law. The Children of Israel said they would still look at the Commandments, but look at them through a veil, covering up the full glory.
And so, what happened is the Children of Israel began to look at the Ten Commandments and say, "We don’t want to see all of our sin. We don’t want to see that the Ten Commandments show us that we are lost and condemned creatures. We don’t want to see that. It is too troubling. It is too frightening. Rather we want to look at the Commandments through a veil. We want to say that if we try to keep those Commandments, God, who loves us, will take us to Heaven. We can do good things and earn God’s favor."
People still do that to this very day. To this very day, it is troubling for people to look at God’s Law. They don’t want to hear, "I am a lost and condemned creature." People don’t want to hear how far we have fallen and how corrupt we have become. And so, they cover up that glory of God and the Ten Commandments, and try to earn God’s favor through the Ten Commandments, by doing good works. But, I am going to tell you something, when you cover up God’s glory that way, when you cover up the Ten Commandments that way, guess what happens to the cross? The cross gets veiled, too. The cross gets covered up. If you don’t use the Ten Commandments to show you your sin, to show how deeply you have fallen, and how corrupt you have become, then why would you need the cross? Why would you turn to Jesus and say, "You are my Savior. Your perfect life is what I cling to, not mine. Your death on the cross is what I cling to, in full payment of my sin." And so, whenever we cover up the Law, we cover up the Gospel.
And, that is very dangerous.
On the other hand, as we continue with our scripture reading, what does it say? "But whenever anyone 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 freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."
There that passage tells us that whenever anyone comes to the Lord, the veil has been dropped. What does that mean? Anybody who turns to the Lord, sees the Law in all its strictness and all its sternness, and confesses in their heart, "When I compare myself to God’s demands, I truly am a lost and condemned creature. I cannot save myself, and I only deserve God’s wrath and punishment.
However, I am sorry for my sins, and I cling to the Gospel. I cling to the full glory of Jesus Christ that shines forth in the Gospel. And there I cling to God’s promise. I cling to His promise, that bright glory of Christ, which covers over all my sin. I cling to the promise that His blood covers every sin, no matter what nook and cranny in my life it is in. It is covered. I cling to His promise that every sin has been blotted out, no matter how deeply hidden it is to the rest of the world. It is blotted out for Christ’s sake. And there I find my salvation!"
That is the unveiled glory of God - the Law in all its sternness and the Gospel in all its sweetness. And this passage says you and I "reflect the Lord’s glory", the glory of God. That means, as we go out into this world, we reflect the Law in all its sternness and we reflect the Gospel in all its sweetness.
Now, in the Bible, what happened, when people saw the full glory of God? They were afraid. They were afraid and they wanted to put a veil over the glory of God. When you go out into this world and you reflect the full glory of God, (the Law in all its sternness and the Gospel in all its sweetness), don’t be surprised when people put up a veil and don’t want to hear it.
Don’t be surprised, when people say, "I don’t want to hear about my sin. I do not want to hear that." It is our natural, sinful tendency to put a veil over God’s Law.
Don’t be surprised, when you point out sin and the world says, "Oh, that can’t be sin." The world wants to put up a veil.
And, don’t be surprised when the world puts up a veil over the Gospel, when you tell people, "There is no other way to be saved, but Jesus Christ." The world puts up a veil and says, "Oh, that can’t be. Certainly if we are good people, we can get to Heaven." The world is afraid. The sinful world is afraid to see the full glory of God.
However, our scripture passage goes on and says, "Therefore, since we have God’s mercy, we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. We do not lose heart. Rather, we renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the Word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscious in the sight of God."
There that Bible passage tells us, as people who know the full glory of God, we don’t lose heart.
We don’t lose heart.
We don’t use deception.
We don’t try to cover up part of God’s Word.
We don’t distort the truth and say, "Well, they might not want to hear that."
We don’t do that. It says, "by setting forth the truth plainly." We set it forth plainly - the Law in all its sternness and the Gospel in all its sweetness. In that way "we commend ourselves to every man’s conscious." When you do that, on Judgment Day, no one will ever be able to look at you and say, "Why didn’t you, why didn’t you tell me the Law in all its sternness? Why didn’t you tell me that I was a lost and condemned creature and that I needed Jesus Christ?"
If today you set forth God’s Law and Gospel, plainly, then on Judgment Day, no one will be able to stand before you on Judgment Day and say, "Why didn’t you tell me, why didn’t you tell me that Jesus paid for all of my sins and that He is the only way of salvation?"
No, it says, "by setting forth the truth plainly, we commend ourselves to every man’s conscious in the sight of God." We set that forth. And then, it is not on our conscious, anymore. It is on theirs. It is on their conscious, as to whether they keep a veil over the Law and the Gospel, or they cling to the Gospel, which forgives sins. Out of love for the truth, out of love for our Savior, out of love for lost souls, it is our privilege in this life to reflect the glory of the Lord in ever increasing brightness. God grant that to every one of us.
Amen.
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