To Encourage You

2 Corinthians 3:15-16 “To this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.”

When Moses received the Law from God on Mount Sinai, we are told that his encounter with God was so glorious that his face shone with the glory of God. It was a glory so bright that the people were afraid to look at him, so he placed a veil over his face.  In effect, this veil hid the glory of God that was associated with the presence of God and His Law from full view of the people.  In the verse above from the New Testament, we are told that a veil is now over the hearts of those who don’t know God.  They may read God’s Law, as the Jews today read the Torah, yet their eyes are hidden from the Law’s glory.  And unless the Lord removes the veil, the glory of God remains hidden. 

These symbols point to the fact that the things of the Spirit, like God’s Word that has been given to us in the pages of the Bible, are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14).  It is only as one turns to the Lord in faith that the Holy Spirit is given and the glory of God is revealed to us.  Otherwise, we can study the Scriptures and even memorize them, but we will never understand them. 

When Jesus walked the earth, the most religious people in Israel were the scribes and Pharisees. They were experts in the Law of God, or so they thought. Yet, time after time Jesus confronted these people about their ignorance of God’s Word.  In one such incident Jesus told them, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39-40). These men had Jesus right in front of them, but they didn’t see His glory, nor did they ascribe glory to Him as they should have. Jesus went on to say to them, “I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me . . .How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” (John 5:41-44). 

Belief is the first step to understanding the Scriptures.  Exposure to the Word, i.e., hearing the Word, gives us all we need to believe. But if we refuse to believe, if we are skeptical and doubt, if we are satisfied with life as it is now without exposure to God’s Truth, then the veil will never be taken away from our heart and we will never see the glory of God.  But if we believe, then God’s promise to us is that “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” (2 Corinthians 3:18). This is just another way of saying that the things of the Spirit, which are the most glorious things that exist, are only discerned by those who have been given God’s Holy Spirit. This happens whenever one is born again, i.e., born of the Spirit (John 3), by belief in the gospel. 

So, do you understand God’s Word? Do you want to? Do you want God to reveal His glorious Truth to you and be transformed by His glory?  Then you must turn to the Lord, as the verse above says, for it is only then that the veil that covers your heart will ever be removed.