Cutting Through The Veil
I chose this text because it has something today that is incredibly relevant to us today. The text today shines a light on how:
• our lives have purpose
• we are susceptible to bad influences
• we have a privileged responsibility
• we have a specific enemy that has a specific tool of oppression
• all of this is overcome by our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ
Text
2 Corinthians 4:1–6 CSB
Therefore, since we have this ministry because we were shown mercy, we do not give up. Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful things, not acting deceitfully or distorting the word of God, but commending ourselves before God to everyone’s conscience by an open display of the truth. But if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we are not proclaiming ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’s sake. For God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
Outline
• We have a purpose (v1)
• We have a responsibility (v2)
• We must realize the schemes of the devil (v3-4)
• We proclaim the solution to the problem (v5-6)
Before we get into the text, I need to set up some context.
2 Corinthians was written because:
1. The believers needed refinement (there was a lot of tension between them and Paul)
2. Paul was fighting against deceitful teachers who were trying to undermine his authority
We have a purpose (v1)
Paul had a ministry. But what is it? To answer, we must leapfrog backward, but before we do, I want to point out the reality that Paul was shown mercy – Paul recognizes his inability. God’s mercy gave him this mission in the first place (though he previously was a persecutor of the church).
Ministry of the new covenant:
Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 2 Cor 3:4-6
Old covenant = obeying the law of Moses. This + sacrificial system brought right-standing with God. It revealed sin, but could not produce righteousness.
New covenant = right-standing with God and imputed righteousness through Jesus’ sacrifice. Our works no longer matter concerning salvation & justification (though they matter a great deal concerning sanctification and holy living)
We are fragrance spreaders
Looking back a few chapters, we see one specific aspect of this ministry.
2 Corinthians 2:14–17 CSB
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in Christ’s triumphal procession and through us spreads the aroma of the knowledge of him in every place. For to God we are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To some we are an aroma of death leading to death, but to others, an aroma of life leading to life. Who is adequate for these things? For we do not market the word of God for profit like so many. On the contrary, we speak with sincerity in Christ, as from God and before God.
Christ has gained ultimate victory and we are active members in his triumphal procession. We spread the fragrance of Christ himself, which is beautiful those who are being saved, and a rank stench to those who are perishing. Note that the fragrance itself doesn’t change. It is different based on the receiver.
Ministry of Reconciliation – Moving forward one chapter, he will go on to explain that the ministry is one of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:17–19 CSB
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.
2 Corinthians 5:21 CSB
He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
So, this is what Paul means when he said “we have this ministry.” But now, he has to deal with the reality that not everyone handles this ministry in the right way.
We have a responsibility (v2)
2 Corinthians 4:2 CSB
Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful things, not acting deceitfully or distorting the word of God, but commending ourselves before God to everyone’s conscience by an open display of the truth.
To reject deceit
• Likely a response to Paul’s adversaries who are trying to discredit him and his ministry.
• He has already defended his integrity in 2 Cor 1:12-14
Paul refuses to be secretive or cunningly underhanded and thereby degrading his ministry. A few of the word choices even suggest a parallel to Gen. 3:
1. Secret & shameful – eludes to the fall where Adam & Eve hid in shame when they sinned
2. Cunning – the same description of Satan as he deceived them
The term that Paul uses for “deceitfully” (panourgia; pas-ergeō) implies not only trickery, but the readiness to do anything, even that which is underhanded, in order to achieve one’s aims.
So, in essence, he is paralleling deceit in the ministry of the Spirit to Satan’s cunning in the garden.
Unfortunately, it is far more common that we would like to admit for today’s evangelical preacher to edit God’s Word:
1) by plucking text from its context, and using it to say whatever the you like
2) by moralizing the text, so that it is reduced to an ethical idea that can apply however you like
3) by using the text to promote an ideology instead of letting it dictate one (eisegesis vs exegesis)
We have to be careful what influences we allow into our minds. In the age of the internet, our culture is filled with bad voices that will do the things stated above. Spiritualize texts, twist scripture… whatever it takes to build a following.
We – as co-laborers with Paul – who have the same ministry of reconciliation, also have the same responsibility to do the hard work of correctly understanding God’s word so we can rightly divide the word of truth.
To be faithful to the Word
In stark contrast, Paul embraces openness and candor: “but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God” (v. 2b).
We see that displayed in Paul’s life as well as how he mentored Timothy:
2 Timothy 2:15 ESV
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
“Rightly handling” is based on the Greek word orthos (“straight”). So Paul was charging Timothy “to impart the truth without deviation, straight, undiluted” — to get it straight and give it straight!
This is done “in the sight of God,” meaning that he he refuses to pander to the tastes, opinions of men, but is solely concerned about having God’s approval. He was performing for an audience of one, which allowed Paul preached the undiluted Word of God with bold simplicity and clarity.
With that settled, Paul now explain why this matters.
We must realize the schemes of the devil (v3-4)
The veil is within
• The glory of the gospel is not the issue, but rather the internal barrier to it. A boulder blocking the sun from view doesn’t make the sun any less radiant.
• Paul knew about veiled hearts and blind eyes. He experienced both on the Damascus road.
Paul just fleshed this out in the previous chapter, which is why he is circling back to it now:
2 Corinthians 3:7–18 CSB
Now if the ministry that brought death, chiseled in letters on stones, came with glory, so that the Israelites were not able to gaze steadily at Moses’s face because of its glory, which was set aside, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry that brought condemnation had glory, the ministry that brings righteousness overflows with even more glory. In fact, what had been glorious is not glorious now by comparison because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was set aside was glorious, what endures will be even more glorious.
Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness. We are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from gazing steadily until the end of the glory of what was being set aside, but their minds were hardened. For to this day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains; it is not lifted, because it is set aside only in Christ. Yet still today, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts, but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Chapter 3:7-18 speaks to an OT veil when Moses came down from Mt. Sinai. That glory was an inferior glory compared to the glory we have in Christ.
These verses are double-edged
1- Warning for their own congregation
They are in danger of fulfilling the pattern of hardening and blindness that came upon “the sons of Israel” who were prevented from seeing through Moses to Christ (3:14-15). In a manner very similar to his admonitions in 1 Cor 10:1-13
1 Corinthians 10:1–13 CSB
Now I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless God was not pleased with most of them, since they were struck down in the wilderness.
Now these things took place as examples for us, so that we will not desire evil things as they did. Don’t become idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to party. Let us not commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and in a single day twenty-three thousand people died. Let us not test Christ as some of them did and were destroyed by snakes. And don’t grumble as some of them did, and were killed by the destroyer. These things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So, whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall. No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.
And again, like verses 3:15-16 say, Yet still today, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts, but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
Are you blinded to the truths of scripture?
Paul is looking at the congregation and not assuming that they all get it or have that veil removed in Christ, and we shouldn’t either. This is a call to ensure those within our community see Jesus for who he really is.
2- Reality in evangelism
This is also an evangelical verse. When we witness to someone, we realize that the enemy has blinded that person. Our job is be to help them realize the veil exists and pray for its removal. We want to help them step out from behind that boulder to enjoy the warming and life-giving of the rays of the sun.
And not just any son, but THE SON
The light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God
Jesus isn’t just any ol’ deity. He is the only true God, perfectly representing the Father. Because Christ was the image of God, he possessed and shined forth God’s glory.
Colossians 1:15 CSB
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
Hebrews 1:3 CSB
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
What is interesting here is that Paul doesn’t use the normal word for “light” (phōs) here, but phōtismos, “illumination.” This word is only found 2x in the NT, both here in chapter 4. So, it doesn’t just speak to physical light and brilliance, but rather to an illumination of understanding… an enlightenment from God giving us a revelatory knowledge of Jesus and this gospel of his glory.
That illumination is what removes the veil!
What is this gospel of glory? It shows Jesus as:
• the God of love, which causes him to be the suffering and crucified God.
• the self-giving God, who empties himself to death in order to break us of our idols and give us life.
• the triumphal the God who triumphs over our suffering and death by entering into them for us.
• the one who reconciles us back to the Father.
Do you know Jesus in this way?
We proclaim the solution to the problem (v5-6)
We preach Jesus as Lord, like Paul, when he says, “I proclaim to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
“I Follow Paul”
“We are not proclaiming ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your servants…”
This is a subtle jab to Paul’s adversaries as well as an admonition to stop exalting the teacher above Christ.
Like much of contemporary Christianity today, the Corinthians had idolized gifted leaders, just as they had idolized God’s gifts. Remember in Paul’s first letter to this group, where he says, “Each one of you says, ‘I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ . . .” (1 Cor 1:12).
Earlier we addressed the corrupt motives of false teachers. Here, Paul addresses the heart of the believer. The hero-worship to which the Corinthians fell prey was a deeply-seeded heart issue that was cultivated by Paul’s opponents.
In a complete reversal, Paul does the opposite and proclaims himself as the slave of the Corinthians, on account of Jesus. While in ch. 1:24 he places himself next to them, here he presents himself beneath them. This is not what they expected in a leader, nor what most leaders deliver. Paul models servant leadership.
As Paul later comments ironically, the Corinthians are happy when someone enslaves them, eats them up, takes them in, exalts themselves, and strikes them in the face (11:20). As fallen human beings, they strangely desire abusive leaders and despise as weak those who would serve them. Let us not think that we are immune to the same.
A quick litmus test of any preacher is who his message points to. The American church is infected with celebrity pastors who are about a show rather than the gospel. If your favorite pastor or teacher releases books with their faces prominently displayed on it, then you need to find another source of truth, because they are only preaching for the glory of themselves.
Let Light Shine Out of Darkness
This is a clear parallel to Genesis.
First, Paul is saying that it is the SAME GOD who created the heavens and the earth that shines the light of Christ into our hearts. It is a hat-tip.
Secondly, by identifying God by his works, Paul simultaneously defines salvation as an act of creation and presents creation as an act of salvation: just as the creation of light is the work of the word of God, so the Gospel is God’s effective word that creates light in the darkness of the human heart.
Look at the wording again: “Let light (phos) shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light (photismos) of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Paul — and implicitly all others — was among those who have been blinded by “the god of this age.” Only the “light” of the Gospel, God’s effective word, has brought him the knowledge of God’s glory.
You and I were also in this situation. We were once in darkness until the light of Christ illuminated our hearts and mind and we responded. Let this pull us to our knees in worship for what God has done for us, and let us remember (as Paul then goes onto explain) that we have this treasure (light of Christ) in jars of clay (imperfect hearts) that display his glory.