2 Corinthians 3:12-18 Audio
Today
is Trinity Sunday. This is the day in the Church Year that we
celebrate the Godhead, three in one, Father, Son, and Spirit. The
holy mystery of the Trinity, three persons yet one God, is one that
has caused many questions throughout the centuries. The main councils
in the early church debated the very issues of how we are to
understand the Godhead. All we can say is that God is one being in
three persons, separate yet united, unique yet the same. For the
brightest of us to understand this great mystery is like the average
elementary math student attempting to understand advanced calculus.
More
simply, if I am a child who has only recently learned to add and
subtract, I have no understanding of how to identify the
circumference of a circle. But if my math teacher were to show me
that the circumference of a circle with the diameter of 4 is 12.56,
even though I don't understand my teacher's explanation, I trust that
my teacher is correct. I don't trust my teacher because I spent my
time picking apart every bit of my teacher's explanation, but because
this is the same teacher who taught me addition and subtraction. I
trust my teacher because I was taught by my teacher. Since my teacher
has proven trustworthy in simply the simple truths revealed to me,
then I know I can trust my teacher in the more difficult truths.
Last
week, I spoke about how Jesus revealed the fullness of God's glory in
himself. That the law of the Old Testament was fulfilled in the
person of Jesus Christ, very God of very God, who died as a payment
for sin and rose again to bring us life. As Paul wrote to the
Corinthians, “if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation,
the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.”
God
has revealed his great love for us by coming to us in the flesh and
taking our place on the cross. If he has revealed himself in this
way, and if we trust him in that revelation, then we are called also
to trust him in the deeper things he reveals to us. Paul continues in
his letter to the Corinthians, “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.”
Moses
covered his face because the glory of the Law meant death for the
people because the people could not keep the Law. But we no longer
need to turn away from God's glory because the glory he has revealed
in the Spirit is one that does not bring death, but brings new life
for those who believe. The Law brought condemnation for sin. The
Spirit brings freedom by grace through faith. Our boldness comes from
this freedom. Moses could not be bold with the Law because he knew
that the glory of the Law would mean death for those who see it. But
if we have been revealed the greater glory of life through the
Spirit, we are bold because it means life to all who receive it.
Moses
had to hide the glory revealed to him to spare the lives of the
people. We now share openly the glory revealed to us because it is a
glory that saves. When Paul says we can be bold in a way that Moses
could not, it means we can now share openly with others what has been
revealed to us. “But their minds were hardened,” Paul continues
about the people of Israel, “for to this day, when they read the
old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through
Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a
veil lies over their hearts.”
Paul
is calling the Church to be a source of truth to those who are still
under the old covenant. Paul writes that “when one turns to the
Lord, the veil is removed.” He writes a similar thought in his
letter to the Romans, “how then will they call on him in whom they
have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they
have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone
preaching?” We have been given this great gift of glory. Jesus
reveals God's true character in himself and he wants the whole world
to see it. The deeper we grow in the knowledge of God the deeper the
call on our lives to bring others with us.
If we
are to go deeper into the knowledge of God, we must see that Christ
is the source of all truth. It is the Spirit of Truth that reveals
him to us. We need to trust that he loves us. We need to put our
faith in him to guide us into life. He has shown that he is
trustworthy in his death and resurrection. Because we know that he
loves us and the full extent of his love, that he would even die for
us, we can trust him in all other things. If we are not seeking truth
through Christ, we are also searching with veiled faces. We must turn
to Christ in all matters of life. When we seek after Jesus first, all
other things come into perspective.
I need
to wear my glasses all the time. Without them, I wouldn't be able to
see much at all. I can make out blurry images and guess at what
things are based on color and general shape. But, I cannot navigate
through my life without having my glasses on at all times. The same
principle is true with Jesus. We should go through our lives—how we
make our decisions, how we act toward others, how we respond to
trials and joys—with Jesus in the forefront at all times. Our minds
should be set on Jesus. We can't reveal his glory without him acting
through us. “Now the Lord is the Spirit,” Paul writes, “and
where the Spirit of the Lord Is, there is freedom.”
The
Spirit frees us from worries and allows us to trust in something
greater than us. Not just something, but someone. If we put our faith
in Jesus, the Holy Spirit will be with us and act for us. He doesn't
do this because we have proven ourselves worthy. He doesn't do this
because we have filled out any requirements. The Holy Spirit fills us
and guides us because he loves us and he wants us to love others like
he loves. When Isaiah appeared before the throne of the Lord, he
cried out, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my
eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts!” And an angel of the
Lord touched a burning coal to his mouth, saying, “behold, this has
touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned
for.”
Like
Isaiah, we have unclean lips and dwell in the midst of a people of
unclean lips. But the Holy Spirit cleanses us of our sin. The fire of
the Spirit in the Word of God, the Good News of Jesus on our lips,
takes away our guilt. This cleansing is what frees us to be able to
do the works of God. We are agents of God's will. We have been given
the freedom to share the Good News of Jesus with others and not have
to show any merit of our own to do so. When Jesus met a Samaritan
woman at a well during his travels, he asked her to give him some
water to drink. As it turned out, this woman was an outcast from her
people because she had had five husbands and was living with a man
that wasn't her husband. When this woman found out who Jesus was, she
ran into the town and told all of the people, “Come, see a man who
told me all that I ever did.” This sinful woman ran through the
streets using her sin as a witness to who Jesus is. It was no longer
her sin that identified her, but the man who knew her sin and loved
her anyway.
When
we accept that we are sinners and receive God's forgiveness, we are
accepting a call to witness. We are accepting the call to show God's
forgiveness to others by revealing his forgiveness to us. The woman
could announce her sin to the entire city because she knew the one
who could take away sin. Isaiah was ashamed of his sin, and God
empowered him by taking away his guilt and making him a prophet. Our
strongest weapon in the mission field is the story of God's grace
toward us. He has taken away our guilt and washed away our sin. In
fact, the more sinful you were before Jesus came into your life, the
stronger your witness is for his sake. His power is made perfect in
our weakness.
The
freedom of the Spirit is the freedom to be weak. The freedom of the
Spirit is the freedom to know that though we can never earn God's
love, we are loved by him. It is the freedom to approach God even in
our sin and know that he will always welcome us. Without this
freedom, our spiritual growth is impossible. We trust in God to do
what we can't. We trust in God to make us his own. We trust in God to
remain faithful when we lose faith, and to give us the faith we need
to follow him more fully. Because of the freedom that comes from the
Spirit, Paul writes, “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the
glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one
degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the
Spirit.”
If you
accept Jesus as your Lord and savior, ask and the Holy Spirit will
come to you. The Spirit will dwell within you and your sins will no
longer be counted against you. It is in this freedom from guilt that
we are able to then be transformed into his image. God receives us as
his own and gives us his Spirit to make us his children.
A few
years ago, I was with my extended family. My uncle, my dad, my
cousin, and I, were all standing together and talking. At one point,
my sister came over, laughing and pointed out that we were all
swaying back and forth in sync with one another. We noticed it as
well, and realized that this was a strange habit picked up in our
family. My uncle and dad said our grandfather used to do the same
thing, and eventually, my cousin and I picked it up as we got older.
We had been passing down a very odd family trait without our even
realizing it. My dad never took me aside and told me, “Now, son.
Whenever you're standing still for an extended time, you need to
start swaying back and forth like this.” I also never stood alone
in my room practicing swaying back and forth to imitate the way my
dad did this. By being with him and having a relationship with him,
his habits naturally influenced me. I picked up this little family
quirk just like the rest of our family, simply by being with one
another.
When
we allow ourselves to dwell in the presence of God, we are naturally
influenced by his character. When we meditate on the Scriptures,
spend time in prayer, and worship with his people, we are being
transformed even when we don't realize it. When we turn to Jesus, we
don't do it just to practice being better people. We do it to see
him. To spend time with him. To have a relationship with him. As we
grow closer to Jesus, we become more like Jesus. We don't become more
like Jesus because we work hard at it every day. We become more like
Jesus because when we spend time with him, we are transformed into
his image by his Spirit dwelling in us. There are times when we do
have to work at being more forgiving or more patient, but the real
change happens when we simply dwell in his presence.
The
thing about children is that even if they rebel, they necessarily
carry the image of their parents. I have many friends with children
of all different ages. And in each one, I can see their likeness. I
can see a mother's eyes, a father's nose, even a grandmother's smile.
Children don't have a choice in bearing the image of their parents.
But they can either highlight that image or cover it over. In Jesus,
our veils are torn and that image is now visible. We can see him and
he can see us. We can see him in each other, and grow to be more like
him every day. The first step to doing this is trusting in him. We
need to allow him to transform us for the better. And we need to
trust that his image is better than any other image in this world.
I
opened this morning by talking about the image of God in the Trinity.
This is the image that we are to replicate as Christians. We, as the
Church, are eternally united as one, none greater than the other, yet
each of us individually are of infinite worth. Together, we reflect
the eternal love found in God. His love isn't for us alone. As the
Father sends the Son, so he sends us into the world. As the Spirit
overtook Mary to make Jesus incarnate, God of God, yet fully man, so
he fills us with his Spirit to be his Body and his ministers in the
world. As he loves us, we are to love others. And we don't do this
because we are qualified. We do this because of his transforming
love. We remain united in Christ even when we split off into a
hundred thousand denominations. The bond of the Spirit can't be
broken by human failings. And just as he unites us with one another,
he also unites us with himself. We are united with him no matter how
terribly we fail at following him. Our faith isn't built on our
ability to be like Jesus. Our faith is built on his ability to love
us even when we don't deserve it.
This
truth is something that we will always struggle to understand: That
God loves us no matter what. And he'll keep loving us, even if we
turn our backs on him. He has proven his love for us on the cross. He
has proven his transforming power in the resurrection. Now we can
trust that he will continue to transform us into his image even if we
don't understand how it works. We can trust that he unites us even
when we think our disagreements are too big to overlook. We can trust
that God will use us to share him with the world, even when we don't
think we can. God has called you to be his ministers in the world
because he will be working through you. You don't need to go to
seminary to love your neighbor. You don't need to be ordained as a
minister to pray for one another. These are the things that God has
called us to do. If we trust in him rather than measuring ourselves
against others, he will do great things through us. If we act out of
faith in his promise rather than faith in our abilities, he will
surprise us.
Be
transformed. Not by trying harder, but by giving yourselves over to
God. By spending time with him. Jesus said the greatest commandment
is this, “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and
with all your soul, and with all your mind.” We can't follow any
other commandment, or be his witnesses in the world, without it. If
we trust him, then we must also trust that what he said is true. The
greatest thing we are called to do is first to love God. By giving us
his Spirit, he has provided a way for us to do that. We can do it
without shame and without guilt. Even if it's hard to believe at
times, all of our sins have been wiped away. They no longer hold any
power over us. So now we are free to approach God confidently. By
doing so, we will be changed. We will be transformed into the same
image from one degree of glory to another.
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