150315 We All, With Unveiled Face, Are Being Transformed

•LESSON 11(March15)• We All, With Unveiled Face, Are Being Transformed    Christians have been granted extraordinary access to the throne of divine grace.Jesus, the Lamb provided by God,has become our high priest. Entering once for all into the holy places by means of his own blood, Jesus has secured an eternal redemption and inaugurated a new and better covenant“enacted on better promises” (Heb 8:6). But what makes this new covenant better?It’s important that disciples of Jesus know the answer to that question. Consider these better promises and blessings from 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 • We Are the Aroma of Christ to God Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.   The LORD repeatedly described the sacrificial offerings of the Israelites as “a pleasing aroma” (Exo29:18, 25, 41; Lev 1:9, 13, 17; 2:2, 9, 12; 3:5, 16; 4:31; 6:15, 21; 8:21, 28; 17:6;23:13, 18; Num 15:3, 7, 10, 13-14, 24; 18:17; 28:2, 6, 8, 13, 24, 27; 29:2, 6, 8, 13, 36). What then does Paul mean when he describes Christians as “the aroma of Christ to God”?   This “aroma” spreads to saint and s inner alike—“to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.” What does this mean?  In what way is this new “aroma” better than the Old Testament offerings? 2 Corinthians 3 • We All, With Unveiled Face, Are Being Transformed Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, 2 written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.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.Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed,in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.