7
not as Moses, which put a vail over HIS FACE, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of
that which is abolished' (2 Cor. 3:7,13).
`But if our gospel be vailed (not hid as A.V.), it is vailed to them that are lost ` For God ` hath shined in our hearts,
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in THE FACE of Jesus Christ' (2 Cor. 4:3,6).
A great deal of speculation has been occasioned by endeavouring to explain the words `From glory to glory'
(2 Cor. 3:18), but the context makes it clear, that:
`We all, with UNVAILED FACE beholding as in a glass (mirror) the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same
image' (see 2 Cor. 4:4).
of the old covenant which was to be done away,
of the new covenant which was
FROM THE GLORY
TO THE GLORY
established in Christ.
Comparable in measure with this contrast between Old and New, is the apostle's attitude between `the word of
the beginning of Christ' (Heb. 6:1) i.e. the Gospels, and the fuller revelation contained in the subsequent revelation
of the Ascended Christ, in the epistles:
`Wherefore (i.e. consequent upon His resurrection) henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have
known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (or new things have come into
being). And all (these new) things are of God, Who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ' (2 Cor.
5:16-18).
In this ministry of reconciliation, God is seen on the one hand `In Christ' reconciling the world unto Himself, and
the apostles were `In Christ's stead' urging men to be reconciled to God.
So the witness of the apostle continues, every phase of grace and glory, of experience and doctrine, is centred in
Christ, but we are conscious that in condensing this, only a selection from the fourteen epistles of this witness to
Christ is possible.
o- o - O - o - o
`CHRIST IS ALL'
A suggested study for `Bereans' to round off this attempt to exhibit the essential place that Christ occupies in the
epistles of Paul, and which should also be true of all who confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
GALATIANS
`The liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free' (Gal. 5:1).
1 and 2 THESSALONIANS
`Comfort'
`Wherefore comfort one another with these words' (1 Thess. 4:18).
`Good hope through grace, comfort your hearts' (2 Thess. 2:16,17).
1 and 2 CORINTHIANS
`Christ the firstfruits' (1 Cor. 15:20,23).
`That mortality might be swallowed up of life' (2 Cor. 5:4).
HEBREWS
`Better'
Better hope, covenant, promises, sacrifice. (Heb. 7:19; 8:6; 9:23).
ROMANS
`Christ ` the end of the law for righteousness' (Rom. 10:4).