Lifting the Veil on Sanctification

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Exodus 32-34 details Moses’ response to Israel’s worship of the golden calf. In their false worship, Israel broke the Ten Commandments they’d twice previously agreed to obey. In his anger at their sin, Moses slammed the two tablets of stone to the ground, illustrating Israel’s disobedience.

One result of Israel’s sin was God’s refusal to dwell in the midst of His people. Instead He’d remain far off (Exodus 33:7). Sin separated God and man.

From outside the camp, Moses would enter the tabernacle of meeting to hear from God and then bring God’s message to the people. Moses became the mediator between God and man.

Whenever Moses met with God, his face shone like a lamp, reflecting the majesty and glory of God. The glow terrified the people because it revealed God’s perfect holiness and the darkness of their sin-corrupted hearts. After delivering God’s word, Moses would veil his face – not to hide the glory of God – but to hide the fact that the glory quickly faded from his own face (Exodus 34:30; 2 Corinthians 3:13). Moses’ veil protected the people from God’s judgment but also kept them from being transformed by God’s glory.

In Second Corinthians 3, Paul uses the shining face of Moses as an illustration. Many people only see the Bible as a series of stories, God’s wrath, commandments impossible to comprehend or comply with, and difficult sayings. Sin veils the heart from seeing Jesus in Scripture, the primary reason Scripture exists!

But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away (2 Corinthians 3:16). When we follow where the Scripture leads – which is always to Jesus – we see Him in all His glory and can’t but help to love, adore, obey, and worship Him alone.

Now we all, we who trust in Jesus by faith, have the veil of separation removed and we find ourselves looking in a mirror. The shadows are replaced by a crystal clear revelation of Jesus. As we lovingly gaze at His image revealed in Scripture, something remarkable happens to us: the Bible becomes ever clearer and we find our own image being transformed bit by bit, from glory to glory, into Christ’s moral likeness and character. This is sanctification!

The Tabernacle and Christ in You

Replica of the Tabernacle in Timna Park, Eilat, Israel

When Israel reached Mount Sinai, God called Moses to the mountain and there gave the people a covenant of law. Obedience to the Law brought God’s blessing, disobedience brought His curse. As Moses descended the mountain, he found the Israelites engaged in gross sin, violating each of the Ten Commandments of God.

In his righteous anger, Moses smashed the two stone tablets to the ground breaking them into pieces, symbolic of Israel’s literal breaking of the Law.

Moses was so disgusted with Israel’s sin that he took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting (Exodus 33:7). Outside the camp, Moses pleaded for God not to abandon him and the Jews in the desert, but to personally go with them to the land He’d promised (Exodus 33:12-17).

Moses’ own tent was soon replaced by a tent of God’s own design. The Bible spends one chapter describing the creation of the universe, but 5 chapters describing the Tabernacle of Meeting (Exodus 35-39)! God’s design was portable so it could be erected and taken down at His command. It was a visible symbol of His presence with His people all the way into the land He promised and was personally taking them to possess (Exodus 33:15; 40:34-38; 2 Samuel 7:4-7).

But once Israel was firmly established in the Promised Land, God and His people we no longer on the move. David and his son Solomon built a permanent temple structure in Jerusalem (2 Samuel 7:8-17). Neither He nor His people were moving. He was with them and worthy of their worship, and the world would see His glory.

No building today symbolizes God’s presence. Jesus came into the world to tabernacle among us (John 1:14), but when He ascended to Heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within His people. We are the temple of the God (1 Corinthians 3:16), the symbol of His presence in the world (Ephesians 2:14-18, 21-22). His glory is exhibited within you (2 Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians 1:12; 3:21; 1 Peter 4:14). As the world looks at the believer, it gets a glimpse of Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).