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Pathways Through Paul
Daily Devotional
October 25
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Today's Pathway:
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Yesterday we saw Paul teaching that there was a veil over the hearts of the Jews because of their unbelief, and this veil is shown by their inability to understand the purpose of the Old Covenant. In Roman 10:3-4 Paul described the condition of Israel this way,
"For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth."
This ignorance that existed in Paul's day continues today. However, according to verse 16, there will come a day when that veil is lifted and Israel will turn to the Lord. Paul addressed this issue in Romans 11. He wrote concerning Israel,
"(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them: Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see...because of unbelief they were broken off...And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in...And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins" (verses 8-11,20,23,26-27).
In verse 17 Paul indicates that the Lord provides liberty to those who receive Him. He does this through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Back in verse 6 he wrote that "the spirit giveth life". Romans 8:2-4 reads ,
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us".
As mentioned previously, there was apparently a group in the Corinthian church who were trying to place those who had accepted the New Covenant back under the bondage of the Old Covenant. This was also a problem for the Galatians, to whom Paul wrote,
"And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage" (Galatians 2:4).
Paul wants the believers to understand that they have been freed from the Old Covenant because it no longer exists. It has been replaced by Christ.
In verse 18 Paul writes that believers now have an open, or "unveiled", face. We who are saved are able to behold the glory of the Lord. Remember that Moses' face glowed because he had "face to face" encounters with God. The other Israelites, who were only seeing the majesty of the Lord from a distance, did not have that shine, and were in fact troubled by it (Exodus 34). But we can have it spiritually by beholding the glory of the Lord ourselves. As we gaze upon Him through the Scriptures, we begin to reflect His glory in our own lives. Paul says that we behold His glory "as in a glass", which would refer to a mirror. As we see Him, we start to be transformed (Romans 12:2) into His image, by the Holy Spirit. We are changed "from glory to glory". We are continually growing in grace. We move from one level of Christ-likeness to the next. Bruce Hurt put it this way,
"The change is from one degree of glory to another, the bondservant gradually becoming more and more like the Master, Christ Jesus."
God intends for us to grow in our Christian lives, and become conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). He has given us everything that we as believers need to accomplish this. Are you continually increasing your "reflection" of Him?
Pastor Mark J Montgomery
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