2 Corinthians 3

     3:1-11.  Paul himself once carried letters of commendation from the Jewish high priest, as he went about persecuting the church (Acts 9:1-2).  Those he refers to here were apparently Jewish teachers of the circumcision party, who were contradicting the gospel of the new covenant.  V.3 points to a key difference between the old and new covenants.  The old is external, written on stone.  The new is internal, written by the Holy Spirit on human hearts (cf.Jer.31:33; Ezek.36:25-27).  Paul’s letter of commendation is what Christ has written by the Spirit on their hearts.  Pray that the Spirit would write Christ’s letter boldly enough on our hearts that it would be known and read by all men (2).

     3:6.  The Law, written externally, can only arrest, convict, and punish lawbreakers.  The same law written internally on the heart gives birth to a new nature, which grows up more and more into righteousness.  (Cf. John 6:63; Ro.7:5-11; 8:1-2; Heb.7:18-19, 22; 8:13; 9:13-15.)

     3:7.  Cf. Ex.34:29-35.

     3:12-13.  The hope we have is of an unfading glory (12).  The fading of the old covenant; (13; cf. Heb.8:13).

     3:14-18.  Christ is “the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature” (Heb.1:3).  Without him, we read the OT with a veil over our minds.  He is the key to understanding the OT Scriptures.  The veil is removed (lifted) in Christ (14-16).  When Moses talked directly to the Lord, he removed the veil, just as we have the liberty to do by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit (cf.Ps.27:8).  We behold him as in an ancient dark mirror (1 Cor.13:12), but nevertheless, we behold him when we turn to Christ, the radiance of his glory, and are transformed to become more and more like him (18).  When Moses went in before Jehovah, his veil was lifted.  Just so, it is removed in Christ (14).

3:17-18. See Richard Sibbes, Glorious Freedom.

     The Lord (that same Jehovah Moses appeared before) is here explicitly called the Holy Spirit (17-18).  In the OT, sometimes Jehovah is the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus, and at other times the Holy Spirit (Hillyer).  He is always the one living and true God, in three persons, the same in substance, equal in power and glory (WSC Q.5-6).  The mystery of the trinity is beyond our comprehension, as we should expect God to be.   But we know that the entire unity of the trinity is at work in both creation and the new creation which is our hope and salvation (cf.4:6; 13:14).