Les Misery: Twisted
2 CORINTHIANS 3: 1-18
(August 29)
I have been writing several letters of recommendation lately. My daughter has been job hunting, and the places she applies would like to know more about her skills and experience. She is looking for a new job, a new way of life.
This is a much-used process to that establishes a person's identity and capabilities. It was also a popular way the New Testament churches validated the people who were sent on a mission, so that those in the places they were sent would find them credible.
In today's scripture, Paul is telling the Corinthians that he doesn't need a letter of recommendation, because THEY are his letter. Their conversion alone was proof that Paul was a minister of Christ. When they turned away from the sinfulness of their culture and chose a new way with Christ, they became his validation.
He talks about the old covenant, which was transcribed on stone tablets and brought down the mountain by Moses. But the new covenant is different. There are no stone tablets. This new way of receiving the covenant is having it written on the hearts of believers.
Because believers possessed this covenant, Paul believed that Christ equipped them with the resources to share Christ with the world, making each of them ministers in their own right. They would need no letter of recommendation either. Their life would be their validation, helping others find a new way to live their lives.
Verse 17 is one that is known by many: "For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." What did Paul mean by this?
When Jesus rose from the dead, he became a life-giving Spirit. He still has his earthly body, made better in heaven, but he also entered into a new spiritual existence when he was glorified. Because of this, he can live in heaven AND in our hearts ... all at the same time.
While this may sound like an episode of "Unsolved Mysteries", we who believe know it to be truth, and we know the mystery will be revealed to us one day.
By being able to live in our hearts, the Spirit we receive is even more glory-filled than what Moses experienced on the mountain that day. Yes, his face shone with bright glory. But even as he traipsed down the mountain, that shine had begun to fade. The Spirit within us is even more amplified as we begin to understand the truth about Christ and how absolutely wonderful God is. And we shine even brighter.
How much we shine for Christ when we discover this new way!
