The Veil Taken Away in Christ

… rises and spreads out the glory of its brilliance, the light of the moon is overcome by what surpasses it and seems, somehow, never to have shone at all. In the same way, I think, you will take the sense of the words before us. For “what was glorified,” he says, that is, the ministry of the law, though it received its glory from God, seems somehow not to have been glorified at all, because of the surpassing glory, the glory, that is, given to those who serve the divine proclamation of the gospel; for the lesser always somehow gives way to what surpasses it.

“For if what is being set aside came with glory, much more will what remains be in glory” (2 Corinthians 3:11). What is being set aside? The shadow and the law, that is, the type. And what remains? The decrees of God. So the shadow too was in glory, but the things of Christ are in a brighter glory; for they remain, since they will prevail over the whole world under heaven.

“Since, then, we have such a hope, we use great boldness” (2 Corinthians 3:12). What hope? That of being made sufficient by God and fully fitted through grace to be “ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter” (2 Corinthians 3:6). It befits such men to speak with great boldness, ashamed neither of the weakness of the types nor of the lack of learning in their hearers; for the Holy Spirit, settled in the souls of the faithful, makes them understand with ease even the deep sayings.

“And not as Moses, who put a veil over his face” (2 Corinthians 3:13). In this too, again, the disciples of Christ are brighter in glory, because the word of their preaching was clear and not to be withstood, and had nothing hard in it, as the word through Moses did. For since the sons of Israel had proved unworthy, making the calf after so many wonders (Exodus 32:4), Moses put a mask over himself (Exodus 34:33), and in speaking the divine law to them he used veils, teaching through riddles. For they would not have been able to see the true face of the law, that is, Christ, but could barely approach, as it were, a second face, the shadow, which has no glory; and this, the shadow and the type, is being set aside. For it has ceased now that the new covenant has been brought in, and Christ is the end of the law that is being set aside (2 Corinthians 3:13; Romans 10:4).

So the hidden glory of Moses, Christ, was the end of the law that is being set aside. For if anyone takes away the shadow and strips off, as it were, the outward and second face, the face in the letter, he will see Emmanuel taking shape in many ways in each one, enduring slaughter for the world and saving all under heaven, so that He may be glorified by us and worshiped by the holy angels. So the light of the Savior’s glory is beyond the reach of Jewish minds. For since all spiritual contemplation looks to the mystery of Christ, and the unhappy Jews do not accept faith in Him, the veil has remained upon them, though it is set aside in Christ (2 Corinthians 3:14).

“But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away” (2 Corinthians 3:16).

The Lord Himself is the light, and He “reveals the deep and hidden things” (Daniel 2:22); He shows the true and glorified face of the law to the wise, who are sanctified in the Spirit and made radiant through faith in Christ. For the law leads us like a tutor to Christ (Galatians 3:24); and one appointed to lead others to someone else does not have his pupils stop at himself, but rather carries them on to something better and greater than himself. That is why the inspired Paul says that he counted the things in the law as rubbish “because of the surpassing worth of the knowledge of Christ” (Philippians 3:8).

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17). We must therefore become spiritual, for in no other way is it possible to behold Christ, who is “the end of what is being set aside” (2 Corinthians 3:13), I mean the law. Then “the veil is taken away” (2 Corinthians 3:16) wholly and completely, and they will see holy Moses with his face bare and uncovered, no longer wearing the mask that comes from the letter, that is, the shadow cast by the …