2 Corinthians 3: 17-18

Nathan Davies
Oct 4, 2023
6 min read

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces, contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

2 Corinthians 3: 17-18

The first thing that leaps out at me here is the phrase “And we all, who with unveiled faces”. This reminds me of Moses in Exodus 33. Having met with God Moses had to cover his own face before the Israelites because it shone with the reflected glory of the Lord. When Moses went to speak with God he removed the veil, the veil was put on to hide Moses from the Israelites, for they couldn’t even stand the reflected glory of God. Paul is teaching us that now it is no longer simply one person who can go before God, and then they have to hide their face from the rest of the people. Now we all can contemplate, or reflect the Lord’s glory and there is no need for a veil.

My question is how well am I reflecting the glory of the Lord? Am I spending enough time in His presence to reflect His glory? My prayer is that I would increasingly reflect the glory of the Lord to the world around me.

“Now the Lord is Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces, contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

2 Corinthians 3: 17-18

Reading these verses we see that the work of the Spirit is to transform us more and more into the image of God. This is how mankind was supposed to be. Genesis 1: 26 tells us that the Trinity made mankind in their image. We know, from the rest of the story, that mankind messed up, sin entered the world, and the image has been corrupted ever since. Here, those who believe in Jesus, who accept Him as Lord, receive the Spirit. The work of the Spirit is to restore that image. This is a sanctifying work, the Spirit sets right what has been corrupted. Not in an instant, but over time as we continue to contemplate the Lord’s glory. As we continue to seek God, continue to spend time with Him, the Spirit is at work transforming us, restoring us to the way God intended us to be.

2 Corinthians 3: 17-18

“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom”. Paul is speaking of liberty and of not being enslaved. The Spirit frees us from slavery. Before we believed in Jesus, before we accepted Him as our saviour, before our salvation we were enslaved to sin and death. We may not have felt enslaved, we may have felt we had all the freedom we wanted, but that is the biggest lie of the enemy - the lie that you are free and fine when you put yourself in charge. Actually, Paul says, that is slavery. If we read the verses before this we see that he mentions those who do not believe, and who they still live with veiled faces, and still are not free. They are not free to contemplate the glory of the Lord, those who believe and accept Jesus are free to contemplate His glory, free to engage with God, to be in His presence, and the result is ongoing transformation - the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3: 17-18

When we receive salvation we receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in each believer, and so, in each believer, there is freedom. It is in that freedom that we can contemplate God, and we can be changed. Now, unlike Moses, who after meeting with God, needed to be veiled, we do not need to be veiled. Rather, the transformation God works in us should be made visible to all. We should allow the freedom that the Spirit brings to let us be free to show Jesus to the world around us. I think that sometimes we can add our own veils, I know I do this. Veils that hide away my love for God, my relationship with Him, and the work of the Spirit in my life. Why do I, or we, do this? I suspect it is to fit in in any given situation. But Paul is teaching us here to not veil our faces. We do not need the veil when we contemplate, or look upon, the glory of God and we do not need a veil afterwards. Part of the freeing work of the Spirit is to help us be free enough to let others see the work of God in our lives.

Let’s be those who live with unveiled faces, who come openly before God to contemplate His glory, and let us be those who live with unveiled faces so the world around us can encounter God through the work He is doing in our lives.

2 Corinthians 3: 17-18

The question that jumps into my mind as I think about this verse today is when was the last time I contemplated the Lord’s glory?

In all honesty I’m not sure. The reason I’m not sure is that I’m not certain what activity, or lack thereof, constitutes contemplating the Lord’s glory. Is it those moments of peaceful, centring prayer, or perhaps those times of exuberant praise and worship? Maybe it is periods of dedicated study, or impassioned prayer for a given situation? What about those times of simply beholding the beauty of creation, or marvelling at the power of natural forces like the wind and the waves?

Perhaps it is all of this, and more.

I do all of these things, some come more naturally to me than others, whereas some I have to work at doing - like centring prayer. I find that hard, thanks to my active imagination and always on the go brain. So, I think maybe it is some of these activities. But I also think that the word contemplation hints at something more. The word means to look thoughtfully at something for a long time. In this case, that means looking thoughtfully at God for a long time. Many of those activities can be said to be doing that. But, when we look at the word in the Greek, katoptrizō, there is a sense of reflecting that which is being looked at.

As we look at God, we should be reflecting Him to the world around us. That puts a different focus on my opening question. That question is now also asking when was the last time you reflected God to the world around you? A much harder question to consider. Well, the verse itself provides us some guidance and hope here. As we contemplate the Lord’s glory, we are being transformed, we are given ever-increasing glory, in an ever-increasing way we will reflect God to the world around us. The more time we spend looking thoughtfully at God, in worship, in prayer, in study, the more we will naturally reflect God to the world around us. This happens because the Holy Spirit is at work in us transforming us into the image of God - the original intention for all of humanity was to be image bearers. That is the transforming work of the Holy Spirit as we contemplate the Lord’s glory.

Now the Lord is Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces, contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

2 Corinthians 3: 17-18

These verses bring together two ideas - freedom and God’s original design for humanity.

We see here something of the nature and work of the Holy Spirit - He is God, and He brings freedom to those who believe, the freedom comes as we are transformed into image bearers.

Image bearing is God’s original intention; Genesis 1: 26-27. It is also in the garden of Eden that there was true freedom. Freedom to walk with God, freedom to rule over creation, freedom from sin, shame, sickness, and death. This is the freedom that the Spirit brings as we are transformed, restored, to being image bearers. In the here and now we can, through Jesus and the transforming work of the Spirit, know freedom from sin and shame. We can know healing from sickness, and in the age to come, when God makes all things new, we will know complete freedom from sickness and death too. That is the future hope that the Spirit now guarantees (Ephesians 1: 13-14).

All of this is captured in the ideas of freedom and being transformed; the Spirit working this transformation in us as we keep our focus on Jesus.

2 Corinthians 3: 17-18

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