Veil Taken Away

2 Corinthians 3:12ff, "Since this new way gives us such confidence, we can be very bold. We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory, even though it was destined to fade away. But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ. Yes, even today when they read Moses’ writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand. But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like Him as we are changed into His glorious image."

I was once talking to a sweet young woman about my life and she just could not understand. To her, everything that I had done, since I truly gave my life to Christ, seemed like I was walking blind. She thought that the decisions I had made, were decisions made in blindness, and it is by shear luck that they worked out the way they did. But to me, the way that I lived before was living in blindness. I was a wanderer, wandering around in the darkness of the world.

As I watch others living out their lives, I am often heartbroken because of the choices that I see them making. They think that I do not understand and I am just judging them, because I do not see things their way. But I am not. I now see things more clearly than I ever have before. I have opened my heart up toward God enough, so that I see things more clearly now through His eyes. I can clearly see sin, but I can also more clearly see how much He loves us and how He is crying out for us to see things through His eyes. Now please do not take this and think, that I think, I know it all and that I think that I am perfect. I also see my own heart more and know how truly evil I am. It is not in seeing how much we have sinned. It is not about our sin at all. It is, everything is, about His Holiness.

If we are going out and partying; If we are getting high; If we are sleeping around; If we are living for our next physical pleasure; If we are living for our next false intimacy, it is about our sin. For all that we can think about is our next time to live out that high. Everything becomes about us. What is that next big rush we are living for? Or, what is it that we are going to spend our time crying over, because we cannot get our mind off of whatever it was that we just did? All in all, it remains about us.

But we are called not to live for that next pleasure. We are called to live in His joy. 2 Cor 5:14, "Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them...This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!"

Oswald Chambers, "Being saved and seeing Jesus are not the same thing. Many people who have never seen Jesus have received and share in God’s grace. But once you have seen Him, you can never be the same. Other things will not have the appeal they did before.

You should always recognize the difference between what you see Jesus to be and what He has done for you. If you see only what He has done for you, your God is not big enough. But if you have had a vision, seeing Jesus as He really is, experiences can come and go, yet you will endure “as seeing Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27). The man who was blind from birth did not know who Jesus was until Christ appeared and revealed Himself to him (see John 9). Jesus appears to those for whom He has done something, but we cannot order or predict when He will come. He may appear suddenly, at any turn. Then you can exclaim, “Now I see Him!” (see John 9:25)."

Where is your true heart's focus? What is your true desire? We must look at ourselves with truth, in order to see Him more clearly. If you have truly given your life to Christ, there will be proof of that in the way you live, in your focus for your life. What is your focus? Do you see Him, or do you see your sin?