But their thoughts have been darkened, for unto this day the same veil remains in reading the old covenant, unremoved, which in Christ is annulled.
Moses once covered his face so Israel could not watch a fading glory. Paul says that same covering is still there — which raises two questions: what is "done away," and why do people holding the Scriptures miss their point?
Israel had the text. Their problem was not eyesight. Commentators group the word Paul uses here with words that mean hardening.
Used in a figurative sense to describe the state of man by nature under the influence of Satan (2 Cor. 4:4); also a professing Christian who hates his brother (1 John 2:11); also the state of Israel in their heartless profession (Matt. 23:16-26); and the judicial blindness on Israel (John 12:40). In Rom. 11:7, 25; 2 Cor. 3:14; Eph. 4:18, it is rather "obduracy or hardness," from πωρόω, "to harden."
In Exodus the covering lay on the face of Moses. Paul says it now lies somewhere else, and that shift is the whole force of his argument.
The whole argument of the Apostle rests on the glory being hidden in Moses' case. He veiled it so that they should not see the end of it. There is no veil on the glory of Christ. Moses was veiled — the glory is not; in Christ the veil is gone, but it is on their hearts. When the Jews turn to the Lord, the veil will be taken away from their hearts. Then the object of the Old Testament will be clear, just as Moses took the veil off when he turned to the Lord.
The veil is not on God's side any more. So why does it stay?
Their minds are blinded. They read the Old Testament and see nothing of how it keeps pointing them to the New Testament. They prefer to have the veil there, to keep them from too close — and too precious — contact with the living God. In actual fact, the veil is done away in Christ, but they refuse Christ, and choose the darkness of the veil.
"The old testament" here means the covenant God made with Israel, not a book. Older translations end the verse with "done away," where the ESV has "taken away." Paul uses that word again and again in this chapter.
The word "annulled," or "done away," sometimes sounds a little harsh here. But the apostle uses it as a set formula for the old covenant done away in Christ. Keep that in mind and the harshness disappears, and his own use of the word makes the sense clearer.
This one phrase of Paul's later gave a whole collection of books its name.
It is interesting to trace how the terms Old and New Testament arose. Here in 2 Cor. 3:14 the phrase "the old testament" is applied to the law. Little by little it came to cover the whole of the Jewish Scriptures — 39 books in all. In the same way "the New Testament" (Matt. 26:28) would take in the 27 books of the later revelation.
So what keeps a religious person from seeing? Israel's long history answers.
Their history teaches us still more. It shows us how strongly traditional religion blinds people — even when God Himself set up the system at the start. Such a system only tends to blind a man about his position before God… Think of their own history in the desert, the song of Moses testifying against them (Deut. 32), and the ministry of the prophets bringing down their pride. Then came the ministry of the Lord Himself, and later that of His apostles with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. None of it removed the veil from the face of Moses.
The veil comes off in one way only. The man who wrote this verse learned it firsthand.
The conversion of Paul the Pharisee to faith in Jesus gives us a remarkable example of the removal of the veil in Christ. The Lord appeared to him on the road. He saw that Jesus of Nazareth was in truth the Lord of glory — the same Jesus against whom he sincerely thought he ought to do many things (Acts 26:9). From that moment the veil was removed from the face of Moses as well as from his own heart.
What happened to one man is promised to the nation.
The veil is now on their hearts, because they rejected their Messiah. It will be taken away when they look on the One whom they pierced and realise that He is their long-promised Christ… The old covenant did its work: it exposed to man his complete inability to save himself, or to be for God's glory in the flesh.
- Hardness. The problem is not weak eyesight. It is a hard mind — the same state Scripture describes in unbelievers and in the Gentiles.
- Moved. The veil once hid a fading glory on Moses' face. Now it lies on the reader's heart, while the glory of Christ shines uncovered.
- Annulled. "Done away" is Paul's term in this chapter for the old covenant being set aside. That same phrase, "old testament," later named the 39 books.
- Inherited. Religion held by tradition blinds, even when God set the system up. Prophets came, Christ came, apostles came — and Israel's veil stayed.
- Turned. There is one cure. Paul saw Jesus of Nazareth as the Lord of glory, and the veil lifted at once — from Moses and from his own heart. Israel will yet see Him so.
But unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil lies upon their heart.
Paul is still tracing the shadow of Moses' veil, but now he moves it. It once lay on a shining face. Now it lies on the heart of the reader. People hear the Scriptures read week by week and still miss the One they speak of.
The verse does not say God has hidden anything. The covering is somewhere else.
The apostle's statement is this, that there is now no veil over the glory of God. If there is any veil now, it is on our hearts. This is a solemn truth. All the glory, all that God is, shines in the face of Jesus; and there is no veil over it. The veil is all on us.
"Whenever Moses is read" points to a settled practice. Synagogues read the books of Moses aloud then, and still read them, yet the hearing brings no light.
They trust in Moses, yet they do not believe his words. They admire the man falsely and boast in his name, while they refuse to believe what he wrote. So his words are darkness to them and not light... Moses is read and preached in every synagogue. Yet they never taste his blessing, and the curse still clings to the rebellious people, because the veil is still on their hearts.
The same writer shows how deep this goes. Their own study of Scripture does not lift it.
They search the Scriptures. But the veil of their fathers' unbelief is still on their hearts, so they do not recognise the One that both law and prophets speak of.
Israel's long history is a warning, and not only to Israel. People can turn a God-given system into a screen against God Himself.
It shows us in a special way the blinding power of traditional religion. This is true even where that religion is tied to an organisation God Himself set up at the start. Such a system only tends to blind a person about his position before God... Their own history in the desert, the song of Moses testifying against them, the testimony of Samuel against the evil of the priesthood, the ministry of the prophets bringing their pride low... none of that removed the veil from the face of Moses. Neither did the ministry of the Lord Himself, nor later that of His apostles with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven.
Israel treated the law as a mark of national status. This describes the nation, not every individual in it.
They used the law like a feather stuck in their cap, to give them a leading place among the nations. It is as though the veil that once lay on the face of Moses has moved to their minds and hearts. There is of course an election of grace today from among Israel. Yet it is still true of them as a nation that they read the Old Testament with the veil on their hearts.
Moses himself shows the remedy. Everything depends on which way the heart turns.
Today if there is a veil anywhere it is on the heart. What will make that veil drop off? It will drop off if your heart turns to the Lord. When Moses turned to the Lord to speak to Him, he took off the veil. In this he was a picture of Israel... So Israel is turned away in heart from the Lord now. They have turned their back on Him. While they stay in this state the veil is on their heart. But when that heart of theirs turns to the Lord, as it will in a coming day, the veil will drop off.
Another writer weighs how much this short verse tells us about Israel's future.
In 2 Cor. 3:15 we have a brief and passing, but very clear, hint that the judgment Israel lies under is not final and permanent... He speaks of Israel's restoration as a settled, established truth, and he expects his reader to know it already. Passing references like this are all the more convincing because they come in so incidentally.
The verse describes a nation, but the principle reaches any reader of the Bible.
When they read the law they cannot see the One the law points to, because of the unbelief of their hearts. The veil that was on the face of Moses is now on the hearts of Israel. When Israel at last turns to the Lord the veil will be taken away. So with ourselves: only as we turn to the Lord will the blindness and darkness of our hearts pass away.
- Veil moved. It no longer hides the glory; it covers the reader. All that God is shines in the face of Jesus, uncovered.
- Veil named. It is unbelief, not obscurity — Scripture is read, Moses is honoured, and Christ is still missed.
- Veil hardened. Inherited religion, even one God once gave, can blind a person to his own standing before God.
- Veil lifted. Moses removed his covering when he turned to the Lord; hearts that turn lose theirs the same way.
- Veil temporary. "To this day" is not "for ever" — Israel's blindness has an end, and some from Israel already see today.
But when it shall turn to [the] Lord, the veil is taken away.)
Paul has just said that a veil lies over Israel's heart whenever Moses is read. Now he adds that the veil is not permanent: it comes off at a turning to the Lord.
Nothing on God's side is hidden now. The problem has moved from God's face to the human heart.
All about God has come out. He no longer hides Himself as He once did, dwelling in "thick darkness." So if God is still unseen and unknown, the veil is on man's heart, not on God's face... There is no veil now, except on the human heart. That stands in contrast with Moses, who put a veil over his face.
Paul is drawing on a scene from Exodus. Moses wore a covering over his face in front of the people, and took it off when he went in to God.
Still a moment is coming when the veil will be removed. Verse 16 of our chapter refers back to Exodus 34:33-35. Moses veiled his face when he dealt with the people. But when he turned to the Lord and had dealings with Him, he took the veil off. This pictures what will happen with Israel. At last they will turn to the Lord in sincerity and repentance. Then the veil will be lifted from their minds, and the glory of the Christ they once crucified will burst upon them.
Older translations read "when it shall turn to the Lord," where "it" points back to the heart in verse 15; the ESV has "when one turns." Paul makes the point in passing, but it carries a settled hope.
In 2 Corinthians 3:15 we have a brief, passing, but very clear hint. The judgment Israel lies under is not final and permanent... "But when it" — Israel's heart — "turns to the Lord, the veil is removed." The apostle does not follow the subject up here. It is not the point he is developing. But he mentions Israel's restoration as a settled truth the reader is expected to know already. He brings it in as an aside, and that only makes it more convincing.
Another writer puts the same hope in four words: the judgment on that nation has run its full course, "but there is an end."
So where does the turning come from? One writer answers that no lesser power can produce it.
Only one power can turn the evil heart of Israel to the Lord, and miracles cannot do it. The history of that people was full of miracles from the beginning, and still they were "a crooked and twisted generation."... But though the Lord could do no more for Israel, He can, for His own sake, do the wonderful work in them of turning their hearts to Himself. And this will happen. "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean... And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you" (Ezekiel 36:25-26)... The Spirit gives life. God alone has life in Himself; He alone can give life. Where the Spirit works for salvation, He opens the eyes to see and the ears to hear. Then the veil drops from the heart, and the heart is won for the Lord.
One writer finds the pattern in Joseph's brothers. They stood before the brother they had sold, and did not know him.
It was as they turned to him that the veil was taken from their eyes and they knew him. So it will be with Israel in the coming day... Then they will discover who Jesus the Nazarene really is. They sold Him for thirty pieces of silver and crucified Him. He is the Lord of glory, and at the same time the very picture of generosity and love.
Israel's turning is still future. But one writer points out that the Lord has already made the first move toward us.
But we do not wait here for their turning to the Lord, which will be their portion by and by. Meanwhile the Lord has turned to us. In His great grace He has turned us to Himself. He has brought us into righteousness and peace, and into glory in hope — yes, into present communion with Him, through redemption.
The same is true for us:
So with ourselves — only as we turn to the Lord will the blindness and darkness of our hearts pass away.
- Veil — It is no longer on God's face or on the glory. If God is unseen, the covering is on the human heart.
- Turning — One movement removes it, pictured by Moses taking off the veil each time he went in to speak with God.
- Gift — No one turns his own heart. God gives the new heart and the Spirit opens the eyes; then the veil drops.
- Sight — What the turned heart sees is a Person: the crucified Jesus recognised as the Lord of glory.
- Now — Israel's national turning is still future. But the Lord has already turned to us in grace, and the rule is the same for anyone: turn, and the darkness goes.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, but where the Spirit of [the] Lord [is, there is] liberty.
Paul has just set two ministries against each other: the letter that kills and the spirit that gives life. Now he sums that contrast up in one sentence. Two questions sit inside it. In what sense is the Lord the Spirit? And what is the freedom — older translations say "liberty" — that His Spirit brings?
Kelly reads "spirit" in the first clause as the opposite of "letter":
I have no doubt about the meaning. The Lord Jesus is the spirit of the forms, figures and other messages of the old covenant. These, if taken in the letter, killed; if in the spirit, gave life. "The Lord" was their real scope; and now this comes out into the fullest evidence.
Hamilton Smith takes the same line and shows what it does to the way we read the older Scriptures:
The meaning would appear to be that the Lord Jesus is the spirit, or essence, of the old covenant. All its forms, sacrifices and ceremonies pictured Christ in different ways. The law had a shadow of good things to come, but Christ is the substance (Heb. 10:1; Col. 2:17). Unbelief fails to see Christ in all the Scriptures. Faith grasps the Lord in every part of the Word, and nowhere more clearly than in the tabernacle, its sacrifices and services.
The verse moves from "the Spirit" to "the Spirit of the Lord." Dennett explains the shift:
The apostle teaches us that the Spirit that runs through and underlies "the letter" is a glorified Christ. But in the next clause he says, "And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Here he speaks of the Holy Spirit. He is now speaking of the power by which we grasp Christ glorified, and of the liberty this brings us into.
Kelly describes the Spirit's own character, and the two errors this freedom stands against:
The apostle means the presence and power of the Holy Spirit now. He is not a spirit of bondage leading to fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. He is not a spirit of bondage, but the Spirit of the Son, whom God sent into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father… "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," as opposed to Gentile license as much as to Jewish bondage.
Hole shows why rules belong to one order and freedom to another:
Life and liberty go together, just as law and bondage are associated. The divine life is not to be held back or tied up by legal restraints… Legal restraints are necessary and suitable enough when the flesh or the world are in question. They are not effective, for the flesh and the world break through them and transgress. In another way the law is effective, for it curses and brings death in upon the transgressor. All is changed once the Spirit has given life. Then liberty can be safely given, for the Spirit of the Lord holds sway.
What occupies the mind tells the two apart. Hamilton Smith sets teachers who turn people in on themselves against the Spirit's work:
Those referred to in 2 Cor. 2:17 would bring the saints into bondage by occupation with themselves: the Spirit brings into liberty by turning the soul to Christ in the glory. Such people are not afraid of the glory of the Lord. They can look at the glory seen in the face of Jesus with no veil over it. The One in whose face that glory shines has met the claims of glory.
Wolston presses the verse as a personal question:
Bondage marks the soul under law; liberty is the portion of the one who has the Spirit. Are you in liberty? I find many dear children of God groaning, and moaning, and bowed down like bulrushes. This should not be… You are not only to know that you are forgiven. You are to know, by experience, that you are out of bondage.
- Key — The Lord Jesus is the spirit of the old covenant. Its forms and sacrifices killed when taken as bare letter. They gave life when faith saw Him in them.
- Power — The second clause turns to the Holy Spirit. He is the power by which we grasp the glorified Christ, and liberty follows.
- Freedom — This liberty comes from the Spirit of the Son, crying "Abba, Father." It stands against Jewish bondage and Gentile license alike.
- Safety — Rules restrain the flesh, and the flesh breaks through them. Where the Spirit has given life, liberty is safe, for the Spirit rules.
- Proof — A free soul stops watching itself and looks at the glory in the face of Jesus. Know that freedom by experience, not by belief alone.
But *we* all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by [the] Lord [the] Spirit.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.