5-minute Bible Study: 2 Corinthians 3:17

hi I'm pastor David with declaration Church and freedom to Americans to those of you like me that grew up in the United States is a huge deal in fact we talk about being a free country we talk about being free to make all the choices we want and regardless of what those choices may be as long as they don't hurt someone else we think we should be able to make that decision now there are a lot of things in the United States with our legal system where there are negative consequences attached to certain choices we might make that we might argue don't affect other people but freedom means a lot to Americans to those of us who are from the United States and there are a lot of verses actually in Scripture that talk about freedom especially in the New Testament they talk about the freedom we have in Christ freedom from the law freedom from the legal system freedom from the Old Covenant freedom from all kinds of different things and one of those verses that often comes up is found in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 with 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 verse 17 it says now the Lord is the spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom and so that has a lot of things we can do we can take that a lot of different ways we can put that in a lot of different contexts we could just take that verse on face value and we could apply it all over the place you know the Spirit of Lord is within me so I'm free on the inside the Spirit of the Lord is with me all the time because God promised to be with me and so because he's with me I'm free to do whatever I want and we could interpret it a lot of different ways but if when we put it into the context of what Paul is actually writing about it takes on a specific meaning that I think is really important for us you see what he's talking about just before that is the Freda he's really talking about the situation with the law and with the reading of Scripture with the understanding that people have or don't have based on the constrictions in the system within which they are found he says that the minds of the people of Israel the minds of the Jewish people were basically clouded they were veiled they were unable to see Jesus for who he is because of this veil and what he's talking about with this veil he compares it to the situation in the Old Testament with Moses when Moses would go in and he would speak to God inside the tent of meeting when he came out his face according to Scripture literally shown it was glowing with a light and so that he wouldn't bother the people he would put a veil over his face he would cover that up so that they weren't uncomfortable around him and what Paul says here is he in verse 16 he says when one turns to the Lord the veil is removed so before that he says you know with these people they hear Moses they read Moses they study Moses the scriptures that the Torah the first five books of the Bible they read the books of Moses and the veil is still there they're still unable to see the reality of who Jesus is but then when somebody turns to Jesus when their heart is turned to Jesus all of a sudden the scripture is opened up in a brand-new way and the first Testament the Old Testament takes on a whole new meaning and we see where things point to Jesus and who he really is and right after he says that the veil is removed he says now the Lord is the spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom so what kind of freedom is he talking about if you continue on in verse 18 he says 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 so he's saying is we have freedom to remove the veil and truly show off who Jesus is to everyone around us we have the freedom to be who Jesus made us to be we have the freedom to go out and live like Jesus in the world we're not bound by our slavery to sin we're no longer bound by the systems of the world but now are set free as citizens of a new kingdom to go and live a new way so that who we are the way that we think the way that we speak the things that we do reflect Jesus that's what he means when he says that we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image image of what the image of Christ the image of Jesus in the world we're being transformed into Jesus in the world we should look like Jesus if we're his disciples that's what he's saying and now because of Jesus we have the freedom to let go of all of those things that we've covered ourselves with to try and make ourselves more acceptable to the world have you ever done that have you ever tried to do something or act in a certain way in order to fit in with a certain group of people that is really difficult and it binds us and wears us out it is so exhausting to try and be something or someone that we aren't and so what Paul is saying here is that because of Jesus the Spirit of God dwelling within us we no longer are bound by those societal constraints but now we can be who we really are in Jesus we can let go of all of those things that the world says we should be and start living the life that Jesus created us to live we are free to be us to be the true reflection of God that we were created to be in the beginning we are free to be who we really are because when we are who we really are doing what we've been created to do we are living that abundant life that Jesus came to give us and we are showing the world Jesus we're showing the world God in a way that only we can so I hope that's encouraging to you today I hope that is uplifting to you that you can go out into the world and you can live and be who you really are and not have to put on any pretense not have to put on any masks not have to disguise who you are to the people around you to try and find acceptance because the Spirit of God within you has set you free from all of that he set you free from all of that so you can be free to be who you really are and free to fulfill the purpose for which you have created you know what this video is meant encouraging to you I hope you'll give it a thumbs up and share it with some of your friends that may also need to hear that message but I also hope that if you're enjoying these videos if you really like this video that you'll subscribe to the channel as well so that you don't miss any of these videos going forward I hope this video helped you out I hope that this scripture makes so much more sense to you than it did before and that the Spirit of the Lord has really used it to set you free to be who you really are as always I'm Pastor David and I'm out

Channel: Declaration Church

Views: 295

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Bible, Study, Truth, Bible Study, Discipleship, Christian, Christian Bible Study, Reading, Scripture, Reading Scripture, Bible verse, Declaration, Church, Declaration Church, Gering, Nebraska, Gering Nebraska, Bible Study How To, 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 3, 2 Corinthians 3:17, Freedom, Free, Veil, veiled, You Be You, Jesus, The Life, Life

Id: QKLmCVcqdcM

Length: 7min 50sec (470 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 09 2019