WE ARE VERY BOLD
2 Corinthians 3
“Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.”
Perhaps it may be a bit difficult to understand what Paul is trying to get across, what with veils and glory, but it is not difficult to figure out what he wants to express: as ministers of the Gospel we are very bold.
The basis for his conclusion is the superiority of the Gospel compared with the Law. It is a little theological and for us non-Jews perhaps a little difficult to appreciate. But if you consider Moses and all that happened around him you can be forgiven that you are in awe over his experience.
In one sense, the story of Jesus is not so awe-inspiring if you overlook small details like the resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are often impressed by loud expressions of power that defy nature and logic.
Paul simply appealed to the outcome of Law, death, and Spirit, life. The Law can only constrain, the Spirit deals with the human heart to bring about life. The Law holds us back from going too far into sin, the Spirit is confident to give us freedom so that we can blossom in righteousness.
There is simply no comparison.
But that is not the point that Paul wants us to arrive at. He wants us to have absolute confidence in the Gospel—a confidence that is not about ourselves but about Christ himself.
We are mired in self-doubt, in our weakness and inability to do better and that seeps into our regard of the Gospel and of the Holy Spirit.
This is not about power, as many in the modern church like to get behind. They want to claim loudly about the power of prayer to bring about resurrection, to bind the forces of evil, to overcome obstacles and difficulties in life, to heal diseases, even to enrich the believer.
Christ did not reveal himself in these ways, except to heal and cast out demons. What Jesus emphasised is the fact that we must know God and live in conformity to his ways. God himself loves us to the extent that he gave his Son so that we can overcome the destiny that sin has condemned us to. Christ did not proclaim power except the power to be righteous. And in this, we must be bold and hold fast to the promise of God.
“You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence we have through Christ before God.”