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Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 3:7-11, 18; John 17:1; Luke 24:26; Acts 3:15; Rom. 6:4
The shining of the glory of the new covenant is actually the living of Christ. This means that to live Christ is to shine forth the new covenant glory.
In 3:7 and 8 Paul says, “Now if the ministry of death, in letters engraved in stone, came in glory, so that the sons of Israel were not able to gaze at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, which was being done away, how shall not rather the ministry of the Spirit be in glory?” Paul says that the ministry of death, that is, the ministry of the old covenant, came in glory. He does not say that the old covenant ministry had glory.
The proper translation of verse 9 should be this: “For if the ministry of condemnation came in glory, much rather the ministry of righteousness abounds in glory.” The ministry of death came in glory but it did not have glory. We may use the matter of riding in a car as an illustration. Although you may not have a car, you may come to the meeting in a car belonging to someone else. The fact that you came in a car does not mean that the car belongs to you. Hence, to have a car is one thing, and to come in a car is another thing. In the same principle, having glory is very different from coming in glory.
Furthermore, in verse 9 Paul says that the ministry of righteousness abounds in glory. There is a great difference between the two predicates came and abounds. Once again using the illustration of riding in a car, we may say that one person comes in a car, whereas another may own several cars, that is, he abounds with cars. The old covenant came in glory, but the new covenant ministry has glory and abounds in it.
What was the glory with which the old covenant came? Paul speaks of this glory in 3:7, where he says that the sons of Israel were not able to gaze at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, a glory which was being done away. That glory was the light which was shining temporarily on the face of Moses. The glory in which the old covenant came was a temporary glory. It perhaps did not last even a day. The shining on Moses’ face lasted for only a short time.
What, then, is the glory of the new covenant? What is the glory which the new covenant has and with which it abounds? Basically, in the Bible glory signifies the expression of God. Whenever God is expressed, that is glory. The expression of God is God glorified. Therefore, to say that God is glorified simply means that He is expressed.
When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He was God incarnate. He did not come as God expressed; He came as God concealed. God was concealed within the physical body of the Lord Jesus. Inwardly there was God; outwardly there was the flesh. With this flesh there was no glory. According to John 17, when the Lord Jesus was about to die, He prayed, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You” (v. 1). In John 17:5 the Lord went on to say, “And now, glorify Me with Yourself, Father, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” In His prayer the Lord seemed to be saying, “Father, now is the time for You to glorify Your Son. Father, let Your Son glorify You. The disciples have not yet fully seen what Your Son is and what You are in Me. Father, You are concealed, and I am hidden. For this reason I pray that You will glorify Your Son so that Your Son may glorify You.”
We may use the blossoming of a carnation flower as an illustration of what it means for the Lord Jesus to be glorified. A carnation seed does not have any glory. After a carnation seed is sown into the earth, the seed dies and then it begins to grow up. It sprouts, it grows into a plant, and eventually it blossoms. This blossoming is the glorification of the carnation seed. Because a carnation seed dies when it is sown into the soil, we may say that its blossoming is its resurrection. Glorification, therefore, is equal to resurrection. The sprouting of the carnation seed is the beginning, the initial, stage of resurrection. The further growth of the carnation plant is the continuation of the process of resurrection. But the blossoming of the carnation flower is resurrection in its fullness.
When the Lord Jesus prayed that the Father would glorify Him, He actually prayed that He would enter into glory through death and resurrection. In Luke 24:26 the Lord Jesus asked the two disciples on the way to Emmaus: “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?” When the Lord Jesus spoke these words, He was already in resurrection. Thus, for Him to enter into His glory was for Him to be in resurrection. This verse reveals clearly that Christ’s glorification was His resurrection. The Lord’s resurrection was His blossoming. Christ’s blossoming, His glorification, refers to His resurrection in its fullness.
With this understanding, now we are able to answer the question concerning what the glory of the new covenant is. The glory of the new covenant is actually the resurrection of Christ in fullness. In other words, the resurrected Christ is Himself the glory of the new covenant. Furthermore, this Christ in resurrection, or the resurrected Christ, is the life-giving Spirit. Therefore, the glory of the new covenant as the resurrected Christ, or the resurrection of Christ, is the Spirit. Now we have the proper understanding of the glory of the new covenant. The glory of the new covenant is the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit.
To say that Paul was shining forth the glory of the new covenant means that he lived out the resurrected Christ. Paul lived Christ in resurrection; that is, he lived the life-giving Spirit.
Second Corinthians 3:18 says, “And we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” The glory in this verse, the glory of the new covenant, comprises many elements. It is the glory of the Lord as the resurrected and ascended One, the One who is both God and man. This One passed through incarnation, human living, and crucifixion, entered into resurrection, having accomplished full redemption, and became a life-giving Spirit. As the life-giving Spirit, the resurrected Christ dwells in us to make Himself and all He has accomplished, obtained, and attained real to us so that we may be one with Him and may be transformed into His image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit. This is the glory of the new covenant.
Some Christians have rather strange concepts concerning God’s glory. I know of some believers who regard this glory as nothing more than a physical light. In their meetings they even claim to see a great light of this kind. I once attended a meeting where someone shouted out claiming that he had seen a great light. This has nothing to do with what Paul means in 2 Corinthians 3 with respect to the glory of the new covenant.
The glory of the new covenant is the reality of the resurrected Christ, who is now the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit indwelling our spirit. We need to live this resurrected Christ by walking and behaving ourselves daily and even moment by moment in our spirit. On the one hand, we need to live in the spirit. On the other hand, we need to allow the life-giving Spirit to saturate our entire being. The Spirit must not only permeate our inward parts; it must even saturate our physical bodies and thereby make them the members of Christ. This is to live Christ, to shine the glory of the new covenant.
If we live Christ by shining Him forth in resurrection, then wherever we go, we shall be shining. When others meet us, they will realize that with us there is a certain kind of shining. Parents will realize that with their children there is the bright shining of Christ in resurrection.
Recently I gave a message about becoming living letters of Christ. In that message I pointed out that when Christ is inscribed into us, others will be able to read Him in us. In particular, the parents of the young people should be able to read the Christ who has been inscribed into their children. After that message was given, many saints testified that their parents have been able to read Christ in them. I was very happy with those testimonies regarding living letters of Christ. I hope that among all the saints in the Lord’s recovery there will be many more such testimonies.
We need to have bright testimonies, testimonies of the shining of the glory of the resurrected Christ. When we live Christ, He as the shining light will come out of us. Then others will not only read us; they will also be under our shining. This is the proper understanding of what it means to shine the glory of the new covenant.
Living Christ by shining forth His glory in resurrection is very different from merely trying to improve our behavior in an outward way. Living Christ by shining Him forth is not the same as trying to be a submissive wife or a loving husband. An ethical person may endeavor to be such a wife or husband. This, however, is not the shining of the glory of the new covenant.
A person may live an ethical life by following the teachings of Confucius. However, this is altogether different from what is revealed in the Bible regarding living Christ. The revelation in the New Testament is that we live Christ, not that we have mere outward improvement of our behavior. Furthermore, from 2 Corinthians 3 we see that to live Christ is to shine forth Christ.
Today Christ in resurrection as the life-giving Spirit indwells our spirit. This is a reality. Christ as the life-giving Spirit is not a mere doctrine, theory, philosophy, or system of ethics. He is the living Triune God as the all-inclusive Spirit to be our life and life supply. He wants to saturate our being, including our mind with all its thoughts, our emotion with all its feelings, and our will with all its determinations, resolutions, and decisions. He desires even to saturate our physical bodies, making our bodies healthy, strong, and living and causing them to become the members of Christ (1 Cor. 6:15). To be saturated with the life-giving Spirit in this way is to live Christ.
Living Christ by being saturated with Him and shining Him forth is very different from having a life that is simply ethical or moral. Living Christ in this way is much higher than human ethics or morality. Living Christ is a matter of the processed Triune God becoming our life supply to saturate our entire being so that we may live Him out from within us. This living is our shining forth and also Christ’s glory. This living is the testimony of Jesus, the real expression of the Triune God in a local church. This is what the Triune God, the Lord Spirit, is seeking today.
