Glory

“If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!”

(2 Corinthians 3:9)

It’s dangerous to take a single verse of Scripture out of its surrounding context, and attempt to extract maximum (or even accurate!) meaning from it. The above verse should be read in its full context and I encourage you to do so - 2 Corinthians 3:7-11.

But it’s a curious one, isn’t it? In context, Paul was describing the moment Moses came down Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments written on stone tablets, and the Israelites couldn’t look him full in the face, because he was still radiant from being in the presence of God. Paul drew a contrast between the glory from Moses’ “ministry”, and the surpassing glory from the ministry of the Spirit.

What strikes me as interesting is the contrast. Paul compared the ministry that brought condemnation (Ten Commandments - for more on this, see Romans 7:7-12), with the ministry that brings righteousness (or right-standing with God, through Christ, by the Spirit). Most people (myself included) probably wouldn’t say that righteousness is the opposite of condemnation. We might say grace or mercy, but not righteousness. Unless…

What if we’ve made such a big deal of grace, that we’ve forgotten God’s priority of righteousness? I want to tread carefully here - we absolutely should make a very big deal of grace, because none of us would be saved without it. But we needed to be saved precisely because we could not be righteous - and only the righteous can enter eternity with a holy God. Grace, then, is the means by which God renewed the possibility of us being made righteous.

For this reason, the ministry of God’s grace in Christ, ministered to us by His Spirit, is surpassingly and eternally glorious, because it achieves for us what we cannot achieve ourselves! I love to picture the day I stand before my Father and He asks me to give an account of my life. I imagine Jesus stepping forward at that point and saying, “It’s okay, Dad… he’s with me.” And I will walk into eternity with Jesus’ arm around my shoulder, cloaked in HIS righteousness. Hallelujah!

- Ps. Nigel