How many of you have been following what’s happening down at Asbury University in KY? If you haven’t heard, last Wednesday (February 8) there was a normal chapel service that took place just like any other week. Normal music, normal prayer, normal message. I watched the sermon that was preached and it was from Romans 12. A simple message about love. And after the chapel service was over, guess what happened? The people didn’t leave. I don’t know what all is happening down there (I’ve heard some reports), but there’s one thing I do know… the people wanted more of God at work and on display in their lives. They weren’t content with three songs and a sermon. They wanted more. And so now for well over a week, people have traveled near and far to be a part of what God is doing at Asbury University.
And one of the resounding messages I’m hearing from people who’ve gone to this revival is the simplicity of it. There’s no lightshow. No famous communicators. No order of service. Just people pursuing God because of the full access they have in Jesus. These Spirit-filled people seem to be free to pray, repent, sing, and worship. It’s actually been quite refreshing to be witnessing what appears to be the type of revival that we haven’t seen in many, many years. In fact, the revival is spilling out to other universities. Many of you know my daughter attends Cedarville University, and she is giving reports about how what’s happening at Asbury has spilled over to Cedarville. And this past Wednesday evening, hundreds and hundreds of Cedarville students travelled all over the Midwest, free to take the good news of the gospel to Wright State, UD, Central State, over 300 students (including my daughter) spending the evening at Ohio State, and there was even a group of students that travelled all the way to Michigan State University.
And it’s interesting that this is what we talked about last week in our series on 2 Corinthians. In chapter three, if you remember, Paul was showing the Corinthians that the unfiltered glory of God is accessible to us in the New Covenant and that it was far superior than the limited glory of God found in the Old Covenant. Glory is the beauty that emanates from God’s character. And here’s what we said: “Our ability to experience and radiate the glory of God is in direct proportion to how willing we are to pursue the Spirit-filled or the Spirit-controlled life.” This sounds like what’s happening down in Kentucky and at other universities such as Cedarville. People pursuing Jesus through the Scriptures, prayer, worship, and even by traveling to tell others about the hope of the gospel.
Perhaps the main theme from last week’s message was that the key to battling sin is NOT trying harder not to sin by following a list of Do’s & Don’t’s…it’s living yielded to the Spirit. It’s pursuing intimacy with Jesus knowing that obedience is the overflow of intimacy…not the other way around. “Holiness is not the path to Jesus, Jesus is the path to holiness.”
Turn with me this morning back to 2 Corinthians 3. If you weren’t here last week, I’ll admit that we experienced a little bit of a crash landing at the end of the sermon, because right when got to the exciting part of what we can expect from living a Spirit-filled life, we ran out of time and ended with a challenge to come back today. And so this week, we’re going to pick back up in chapter 3 for part 2 of our message “A Better Way to Live.”
2 Corinthians 3:12-18
Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, 13 not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. 14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. 15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Two promises for Spirit-filled Christians…
1. THE SPIRIT WILL MAKE US BOLD – vs. 12-15
This is exactly what we saw this past Wednesday in our daughter as she drove to OSU to share the hope of the gospel with total strangers. Let me start by making two quick observations about boldness. FIRST, boldness is not a personality trait…it is the overflow of living a Spirit-filled life. SECONDLY, boldness is not a synonym for rudeness. As a matter of fact, rudeness is the evidence that you are NOT living the Spirit-filled life because a part of the fruit of the Spirit (according to Galatians 5) is kindness, gentleness, self-control, and meekness. I have met far too many Christians who are really proud of the fact that they are rude and abrasive as if that were some mark of spiritual maturity. Too many people who think “I just say what I think” is a virtue to celebrate, when Scripture says “let your words be seasoned with grace” and to “esteem others more than yourself.” You may remember that the book of James says that an unbridled tongue is evidence of spiritual immaturity.
So Paul’s not talking about being abrasive, unlikeable, and rude, all in the name of shoving our idea of who Jesus is down people’s throats. He’s promoting a type of supernatural boldness that is available to us in the New Covenant that was not possible for those living under the Old Covenant who did not have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Pastor John Piper does a great job describing this type of boldness:
The old covenant, by design, caused men and women to become deeply aware of their own sinfulness and inability to do what was right before God. The result was a lack of confidence before God. The new covenant, though, removes the need for people to trust in their own ability to do right. Believers are not bold because we are confident in ourselves. A Christian places all his or her confidence in Jesus' right choices and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Because we come to God in Christ, who is perfect and sinless, we do not need to veil our faces before Him.
In other words, the word “hope” in verse 12 does not mean “wishful thinking.” It actually means confidence that God will keep his promises. And the promise being offered to us in the New Covenant is that spiritual boldness will be the overflow of the Spirit-filled life. That’s how it works.
I grew up in a house without a television and one of my favorite things to do in the summer was to try to plan it so I could be at Bobby Crosser’s house around 4 PM in order to watch Lou Ferrigno in The Incredible Hulk. And every day around 4:20 and 4:50, David Banner would have something happen that would trigger him to turn into the Hulk.
And my fear is that when it comes to the idea of spiritual boldness, we are not that different from David Banner. We think that somehow we need to become emotionally worked up or have some type of mystical spiritual experience to experience an alter ego of holy boldness. But that’s not the way it works, because boldness is not the goal, it’s the overflow. Boldness is promised for those who are living the Spirit-filled life. You don’t pursue boldness, you pursue intimacy with Jesus and the overflow of that will be boldness. To wait for the Holy Spirit to come upon you and empower you to be bold for Christ is Old Covenant theology.
So let’s make it as plain as possible. If you want to be a person who gently, kindly, loving, but BOLDLY speaks about Jesus, focus on pursuing the Spirit-filled life day by day, instead of waiting for God to prompt you through some mystical experience. Because we have the promise that we are a part of the New Covenant, whose glory is permanent and unveiled, we can speak up boldly for Jesus without fear of man, without trying to make the truth of Scripture more palatable and marketable, and we can live lovingly but openly unashamed for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not because WE are sufficient, but because Christ in us is.
Scripture tells us that the Spirit dwells in every single person in this room who has repented of their sins and trusts Jesus to be their Lord and Savior. And we know that the Spirit wants to do more than to just hang out in the back closet. The Spirit wants to be released THROUGH us as WE live out the life of Christ. And so when we surrender and submit to his Lordship in EVERY area of our lives, supernatural boldness will begin to emanate out of us…regardless of your personality type. And when we fail to tap into ALL the Spirit has to offer, it’s like living with the limitation of the Old Covenant and all of its crazy laws.
In an effort to convince us that pursuing intimacy with Jesus under the New Covenant is a better way to live, Paul takes a little jab at Moses. Look at verses 12&13 again: “Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, 13 not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.”
If you go back and read Exodus 34, we know that Moses had been in God’s presence and the glory of God was literally making his face glow. We don’t have a lot of detail other than it scared everyone…almost like they were looking at a ghost.
Look at the phrase at the end of verse 13: “what was being brought to an end.” You see, the glory of God in the Old Covenant was limited because it was external and temporary. The Old Covenant, or The Law, had a fading glory. It was not the final solution or the last word on the plight of sinners. It was like sunburn. When you are in the presence of the sun, you get a sunburn, but when you stay out of the sun, it begins to fade, just like the glow on Moses’ face. But in the New Covenant, God lives in us through the person and power of the Holy Spirit, and it is a glory that never fades. And when we tap into the power of the Holy Spirit THAT ALREADY COMPLETELY RESIDES IN US, it gives us a supernatural boldness to speak about Jesus…a boldness that is unhindered and not veiled.
Paul was speaking with boldness about a better way to live to an audience that was pursuing a rules-based righteousness. And his boldness wasn’t from special access that he had to the Holy Spirit as an apostle. Rather, as he pursued the Spirit-filled life, and the freedoms that it afforded him, the glory of God emanated out of his life in the form of boldness…the same boldness from the same Spirit that lives inside of each of you. And here is the good news – if you are a Christian, that same boldness is available to you today…but you have to tap into it intentionally. And you should do so with confidence, not because you are sufficient, but because Christ is sufficient.
You may remember last week in verse 7 that Paul referred to the law as “the ministry of death.” Quite literally, a rules-based righteousness leads to death. I remember leading a Bible Study several years ago and at the end, I prayed for those people that were trying desperately to obey all the rules but were unknowingly headed to hell. Afterwards, a young woman who had not yet professed Christ, was furious at me because she felt that I had just damned her recently deceased aunt to hell. Her aunt had never confessed Jesus as Lord but in her words was “the most moral person you’ll ever hope to meet.” And her deceased aunt was a sad example of someone that pursued a rules-based righteousness, but in the end it only led to death. In fact, Paul says that it not only leads to death, it actually hardens people’s heart against the TRUE gospel. Look at verse 14: “But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.”
The word “hardened” in the original language literally means “calloused.” When someone preaches a legalistic, performance-based religion, like the Old Covenant was, it hardens the hearts of people towards the message of grace. They cannot fathom the freedom that Paul talks about in verse 17 because all the law produces is guilt and shame. In Ezekiel 36:26, we are given a beautiful glimpse of the hope of the New Covenant: “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
What does it mean to have our hearts of stone replaced with a heart of flesh? If you’re listening, smack your neighbor and say WAKE UP. It means that God would remove our calloused heart and replace it with a heart that is sensitive to the Spirit. It means that we can now obey where we otherwise couldn’t have. It means that we can live a Spirit-filled life that wasn’t otherwise available. It means that you and I have HOPE through an access to glory that will never fade. We no longer fear coming into God’s presence like they did under the Old Covenant. Instead we can “BOLDLY approach the throne of grace.”
Now if we polled everyone in the room this morning and asked, “Are you as bold as you should be in sharing the gospel?” I think almost everyone here, myself included, would be filled with guilt. But when you understand what Paul is teaching, you can replace guilt with hopeful expectation. Think about it, as a Christian living under the New Covenant, you have access to God in a way that Moses himself did not have. And when you unleash the Spirit’s power by living the Spirit-yielded life, you will be able to repeat Paul’s words as YOUR testimony: Since we have such a hope, we are very bold. Someone had better yell AMEN.
And not only will the Spirit-filled life produce boldness…
2. THE SPIRIT WILL PRODUCE FREEDOM AND CHANGE – vs. 16-18
16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.
Here’s what Paul is saying: “Not only do we have the power to be bold, we have the power to be EXACTLY what we are commanded to be.” In other words (according to vs. 16), pursuing Jesus—NOT performing well, NOT following the rules, NOT being a good person—PURSUING JESUS removes the barriers for our spiritual potential. And what’s the spiritual potential of EVERYONE that follows Jesus? It’s freedom (vs 17) and change (vs. 18). If you’ll turn away from legalistic, performance-based religion, if you turn away in repentance from sin and self-righteousness and pursue Jesus, your life will be marked by freedom and the power to change.
Now to be fair, if were asked a non-Christian today to pick two words to describe what they think about the Christian life, would “freedom” and “potential to change” be in the top 10 choices? Would it be in the top 100 choices? I’m guessing NO WAY! In fact, I think it would be exactly the opposite. They would says, “It’s a LACK OF FREEDOM that the Christian life offers…and what’s this silliness about the potential to change? I LIKE who I am, you can’t make me change…I don’t WANT to change.”
But sadly, it’s not just NON-Christians that I’ve heard say this. And I think the reason so few Christians lay hold of the Spirit-filled life and never experience all the glory of the New Covenant, is because they settle for the limited, legalistic, rules-based, Old Covenant-style of religion. And verse 14 already tells us when that message is preached, either through word or example, it actually hardens people’s hearts against the message of grace.
As we taught last week, the reason that some Christians are scared of the term “freedom in Christ” is because they think people will take advantage of this liberty or freedom to do as they please. But that’s a shallow understanding of what Paul is trying to communicate. The freedom offered in the Spirit-filled life is NOT the right to do as we PLEASE, but the power to do as we SHOULD. It is a divine enablement to confidently live a life that pleases the Lord.
A frequent theme in Paul’s letters is that those who are living apart from Christ are actually slaves to sin…that they are literally powerless when it comes to not sinning. One of the things that drives me bonkers is to hear a Christian who thinks that the key to a flourishing society is to legislate morality. In other words, to force people to obey rules…when Scripture tells us they are powerless to obey outside of the gospel. Because it’s only in Christ that we have the freedom from sin’s power to experience the increasing restoration of our true selves in Christ that will ultimately be completed in heaven.
And as you tap into that power, your potential to grow and change only becomes limited by your unwillingness to lay hold of this Spirit-filled life, according to verse 18: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” Verse 18 is perhaps the richest statement in the entire Bible about the way believers grow and radiate the unfading glory of God. This verse is a beautiful description of the doctrine known as “progressive sanctification.”
We’ve taught this over and over and over. Justification (past grace) is when I was freed from the PENALTY of sin…it’s that moment when I repented of my sins and stepped from darkness into light. Glorification (future grace) is when I will be freed from the PRESENCE of sin once and forever…it’s that moment when I step onto the shores of heaven where the presence of sin, including my sin nature, is forever taken away. But the time in between glorification and justification is what Paul is writing about in verse 18. He’s talking about Sanctification (present grace) where I am being freed (there’s that word again) from the POWER of sin in my life. I am no longer a slave to sin.
One author that I read this week explains it like this: “As you begin to walk in these ways, confessing and turning from sin, relying on the indwelling Spirit for His power, being obedient to His Word, you will develop a habit of holiness. At first, like a toddler learning to walk, you will fall a lot. Get up and keep walking. Pretty soon, walking becomes the norm. You’ll experience the Spirit’s fullness in an ever-expanding capacity. He will control or influence your thoughts, your emotions, your words, your attitudes, your schedule, your relationships, your finances and all of life. He does not do this as a master controls a robot, but rather, using your unique personality and gifts, He fills you as the wind fills the sails of a ship, directing you in His paths of righteousness and joy.”
And the best part about this transformation into the image of Christ is that it’s empowered by the Spirit, not your willpower. I just want to shake you until you understand this. It’s no longer about trying…we are freed from that impossible task. When I gaze into the glory of God by pursuing intimacy with Jesus, I am freed from the enslaving power of sin, and every day I begin to look more and more like Jesus…with the promise that I’ll COMPLETELY look like him the moment I take my last breath on earth. Somebody say AMEN!
Church, does this not sound like a better way to live? And in this Spirit-filled life, there is holy boldness and real freedom and real hope for real change. But if you want to lay ahold of these promises, you have to first lay hold of Jesus. And the good news of grace this morning is this – everyone who runs to Jesus makes it.
