(2 Cor. chap 3 )

Whilst solemnly recognizing man's responsibility to answer for himself, Christianity puts the believer on an entirely different ground. This is the first principle and basis of all Christian truth, that there is a Mediator between man and God. Because man could not come to God, Christ has taken up the cause of man, and worked out an acceptance for him.

Two things are brought out in this chapter as the result of this. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty"-the liberty of grace; and we become the "epistles of Christ," (blotted ones in ourselves, no doubt) but we are not epistles of ourselves, but epistles of Christ, "written with the Spirit of the living God." Though in ourselves most imperfect and failing, the Spirit of God says of a Christian that he is an epistle, or transcript of Christ.

Now the natural thought of many a soul is this:"Well, if that be true, I do not know what to think of myself; I do not see this transcript in myself." No; and you ought not to see it. Moses did not see
his own face shine. Moses saw the glory in God's face, and others saw Moses' face shine. We look on the face of Christ in glory (ver. 18), and yet are not afraid; nay, we find liberty, comfort, and joy in looking at it; because Christ in glory is the expression of what by His death and resurrection He has purchased for us, and the Spirit has come to minister this to our souls, through faith. It is Christ alive in the glory that we see:not Christ down here (sweet as that was), but Christ at the right hand of God. Yet though that glory is in the heavens, we may steadfastly behold it. And that glory in which Christ is with God, does not affright us now, because this wonderful truth is seen and declared in the face of a Man who has put away our sins, and who is there in proof of it (Heb. 1:3).

How comes He there ? He is the Man there who down here mixed with publicans and sinners-the friend, the Saviour of such. He is the Man who has borne the wrath of God on account of sin; He is the Man who has borne my sins in His own body on the tree. This is the language of faith. I see Him there consequent upon the putting away of my sin:because He has accomplished my redemption. The more I see the glory of Christ, the more I see the perfectness of the work that Christ has wrought, and of the righteousness wherein I am accepted. The glory now shines in the face of Him who has confessed my sins as His own, and died for them on the cross; of One who has glorified God on the earth, and finished the work that the Father had given Him to do. The glory that I see is the glory of redemption. Having glorified God about our sin, God has glorified Him with Himself there.

When I see Him in that glory, instead of seeing my sins I see that they are gone. I have seen my sins laid on the Mediator:I have seen my sins laid upon my Substitute, and they have been borne away. So much has God been glorified by Christ about my sins that it is the title of Christ to be there at the right hand of God; so I am not afraid to look at Christ there. Where are my sins now ? They are put away for ever. He who bore them all has been received up to the throne of God, and no sin can be there.

Now, with open face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are "changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." It is the Holy Spirit, taking of the things of Christ and revealing them to the soul, that is the power of present practical conformity to Christ-delighting in Christ, feasting upon Christ, loving Christ! He is the model, and by the Spirit He is formed in the believer's heart and soul. The Christian thus becomes the epistle of Christ:he speaks for Christ, owns Christ, acts for Christ. He does not want to be rich, he has unsearchable riches in Christ. He does not want the pleasures of the world; he has pleasures at God's right hand for evermore.

Does the heart still say, "Oh, but I do not see this transcript in myself ? " No; but you see Christ; is not that better ? It is not looking at myself, but looking at Christ, that is God's appointed means for my growing in the likeness of Christ. Would I copy the work of some great artist ? It is not by fixing mine eyes on the imitation, and being taken up with regrets about my failings that I shall succeed, but by looking at my model, by fixing mine eyes there, tracing it in its various points, and getting into its spirit.

Mark the comfort of this. The Holy Ghost having revealed to your soul Christ in the glory as the assurance of your acceptance, you can look without fear, and therefore steadfastly at that glory, and rejoice at the measure of its brightness. Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, could look up steadfastly into heaven (doubtless in his case it was with more than ordinary power), and see the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God; and his face shone as the face of an angel; and like his Master, he prays for his very murderers. Stephen, died, saying, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge;" Christ had died, saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." There was the expression of Christ's-love for his very murderers. By the Holy Spirit Stephen was changed, and that in a blessed way, into the same image- Christ was shining in his face.

Looking peacefully and happily at the glory of God as seen in the face of Jesus Christ, we walk before God in holy confidence. Instead of being happy and at liberty in Satan's world, the Christian dreads Satan, because he knows himself. At ease in the presence of God, he there drinks into the spirit of that which befits the presence of God, and becomes the " epistle of Christ " to the world.

Well, what a difference! May we more and more make our boast in Him in whose face all this glory is displayed-the Lamb of God who has died for us, and cleansed away our sins by His own precious blood. -Adapted from J. N. D.