In today’s devotional podcast, we embrace the profound message of 2 Corinthians Chapter 3, where the Spirit of the Lord offers freedom and transformation. With personal anecdotes and reflections from decades of Bible reading journals, the episode sheds light on how the new covenant’s glory surpasses the old. Unearth the personal relationship one can foster through daily scripture reading, encouraging a closer walk with Jesus and an intimate understanding of divine truths.
Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. Allen J. Huth shares a Bible passage with comments from over 35 years of his personal Bible reading journals and applies the Word of God to our daily lives.
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Today brings us to 2 Corinthians chapter 3, only 18 verses, and we’ll listen in to Faith Comes By Hearing’s reading of 2 Corinthians chapter 3. 2 Corinthians 3
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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, 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.”
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Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything is coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
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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.
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Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.
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But their minds were hardened, for to this day when they read the Old Covenant, that same veil remains unlifted because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses has read, a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And 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.
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As I get into 2 Corinthians chapter 3, I just want to remind you that what I do is share my personal Bible reading journals. I’m not a pastor. I’m not seminary educated. I’m just a guy who reads his Bible every day and tries to figure out what the Lord is saying through the passage and to me. So in this passage, there’s a lot of difficulty in here. And that’s why I go to church. That’s why I go and get taught the Word of God. That is not my intent in AdBible. It’s just to relate to common folks like you and me who should be reading our Bibles and seeing what the Lord is saying to us on a daily basis. As I look at my English Standard Version Study Bible, though, on this chapter, there are more footnotes than words in the Scripture. In other words, in my Bible, three quarters of the page is footnotes instead of just the Word of God. So when I’m reading a passage like this, I do read all the footnotes so I can get an understanding, if I have a hard time with the passage, about what other people think about what this passage says. But AdBible is not a Bible study, so I don’t intend to read you all these footnotes on 2 Corinthians chapter 3. I do encourage you, though, to get a good study Bible or do your Bible study on your own. Not just listen to these AdBible podcasts, but to feed yourself in the scriptures daily. I also encourage you to be part of a Bible-believing church where you can get an understanding of what these kind of passages mean. So with that backdrop, let me now go to my journals in 1994, when I did read 2 Corinthians chapter 3, and I wrote, we are letters being read by those around us. I continued to write in my journal, comparison of Moses and the law came with such glory, Moses wore a veil. How much more glory comes with the Holy Spirit? The law is dead, but the Holy Spirit remains forever. And then I wrote, the veil is removed in Christ. And then finished with, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. The summary of the chapter might be a little chopped up in my journal. Remember, first of all, that was back in 1994. Second of all, I just wrote some summaries of what I was getting out of the scriptures. Truly, I never intended to be reading any of this publicly. So if it’s a little chopped up, it’s because those were my journal entries as I read this passage many, many years ago. I have selected also to share out of my journal in 2004, where I was reading the Bible chronologically. And there again, I read 2 Corinthians chapters 1 through 4 in the same day, and did not have an entry on this chapter. And in 2015, you might remember from yesterday that I was over the Pacific. In other words, I was on a flight from Denver to Australia, so I went across the timeline. And so I was reading my Bible on the airplane over the Pacific Ocean, And I was reading a couple of chapters, so I read 2 Corinthians 2 and 3 on that day. And I wrote about chapter 3 after my, quote, Christian work. Do I leave letters of changed lives? My effectiveness is not authored in me. It comes from God always. Having the Spirit of God results in freedom. Transform me, Lord, into your image. May people see the Spirit of God in me. I only have one verse underlined in this chapter in my Bible, and I want to close with that verse and some thoughts about it. It’s actually going to start the verse before it in verse 16. The verse I have underlined is verse 17. So let’s go to verse 16. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And 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. That’s what happens when we come to faith in Jesus. The veil gets lifted from our faces and the veil gets lifted from our minds and the veil gets lifted from our hearts. The things of the Spirit begin to make sense to us. The Scriptures, the Word of God begins to enlighten us because the veil of misunderstanding or hardness of heart has been lifted. I praise God for that in my life. I hope you do too. It’s almost worth shouting a hallelujah for. When that veil is lifted, we have freedom in Christ. Not a freedom to be misused or abused, but a freedom to lead us closer to him. And as the last verse in this chapter says, and being transformed into the same image. That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to become Christ-like as we live our lives here on this earth. And doing so only comes from the Lord, only comes from the Spirit. We won’t do it in our flesh. We’ll do it when we are led of the Spirit, when that veil is lifted from us and we behold the glory of the Lord. Lord, we thank you. Those of us who the veil has been lifted and we have life in the Spirit and in you, we thank you that you are transforming us into Christ-likeness. For some listening to this Ad Bible podcast, maybe the veil is still over your eyes. Maybe the veil is still over your heart. May you be willing to have God lift it right now. May the spirit of the living God infiltrate your heart and your mind so that you can also be transformed. May you maybe even for the very first time behold the glory of the Lord. and holy spirit lift the veil from anyone who is praying this prayer right now thank you and we give you all the glory in jesus name amen By the way, if you’re listening to these podcasts and it ever touches your life in a special way and you ever want to reach out to us here at the Ezra Project, you can do so by visiting EzraProject.net. There’s a contact page. Tell us what you think. Tell us where God has touched your life. We love to get testimonies of how AdBible is touching your heart. Share with us at EzraProject.net. Thank you and God bless you. Thanks for listening to AdBible today. You know, sometimes we need a plumb line, a true north, a solid basis of truth to live life. We’re not going to find it in the media or in social media or Google or your friends, but it is available right at your fingertips. Pilate asked Jesus in John 18, 38, what is truth? The chapter before, Jesus had answered the question in his prayer to God for his disciples. In the 17th verse, Jesus pleads with the Father, Sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth. So what would it be like if everyone, everywhere, read the Bible every day? Wow, it might be heaven on earth. What would it be like if every Christian read the Bible every day? Would we be better ambassadors for Christ? What would it be like if everyone in your community read the Bible every day? Would we have greater impact in our communities? And what would it be like if you personally read the Bible every day? Could you use a closer walk with Jesus? Could you use a light unto your path and a lamp unto your feet to walk through this life? Could you use a spiritual power surge in your life? Matthew 22, 29, Jesus speaking to the Sadducees said, You are mistaken not understanding the Scriptures or the power of God. Yes, the Scriptures can give us power to live this life. So I’m going to give you three easy action steps to make the Bible worth your time each and every day. Number one, commit to daily Bible readings. Commit to seek God and His Word daily, every day. And if you miss a day, start again the next day. Change your belief about God’s Word to behavior in God’s Word. Use any of our Ezra Project resources to help you. Visit EzraProject.net to get an Ezra Project Bible reading journal. or one of our day-by-day through the Bible books. Commit today and visit EzraProject.net for easy-to-use resources for your daily time in God’s Word. Number two, be intentional. Decide what you want out of your Bible reading. I got to visit the headquarters of Back to the Bible once in Lincoln, Nebraska, and in one hallway down one side, they had scribbled all the reasons people say they don’t read the Bible. On the other side were all the reasons people do read the Bible, and I want to give you some of those to encourage you. On that wall, it said, God wants me to. Yes, God wants you to read the Bible. Do you want to meet with Him daily? Because He’ll meet with you every day through His Word. Number two, it changes me. Where could you be in one year with more Bible reading in your life? Number three, it improves my outlook on life. Yeah, turn out the bad news and saturate yourself with good news from the Word of God. Number four, it keeps me grounded. Yes, when the storms of life come, and they will, can you stand? Yes, you’ll stand better and more solid because you’re in the Word of God. Next, it keeps my heart soft. Yeah, Nehemiah 8, when people heard the Word, they wept and they worshiped. You will do the same as the Word softens your heart. Lastly, on the wall, it said, it keeps my daily focus on God. Yeah, that’s a great reason to read the Bible. You’ll gain the spiritual power to live life in our secular world. And then thirdly and lastly, feed your soul. Let God minister to your soul. Hebrews 4.12 says the Word of God pierces between your soul and your spirit, between joints and marrow, and is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of your heart. Nothing else goes that deep. I don’t know where the place is between my soul and my spirit, but I want to put the Word of God there each and every day of my life. I hope you do too. God bless you as you spend time in God’s Word.
