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.