HOPE IN GLORY

Dashed hopes result from false expectations leading to a sense of hopelessness. Hopelessness breeds despair. Paul understood these realities in his own life (2 Cor. 7:5-7). He has been there and done that! Ministry is hard. People let you down. Hope is the breath of life, but it must be hope that stands on the bedrock of truth if we want to stand strong when all our expectations crumble.

The choice between two glories determines whether our hope is grounded in false expectations on earth or the bedrock of eternal truth. The glory of the ministry of death (ἠ διακονία τοῦ θανάτου) and condemnation (τῆς κατακρίσεως) leads to hopelessness (2 Cor. 3:7,9). The glory of the ministry of the Spirit (ἠ διακονία τοῦ πνεύματος) and righteousness (τῆς δικαιοσύνης) leads to forever hope (2 Cor. 3:8-9). The glory we choose to pursue either leads to hope (2 Cor. 3:12) or kills our spirits (2 Cor. 3:6). The pursuit of eternal versus temporal glory will become a theme Paul develops to avoid losing heart even as our outer man decays and our earthly hopes fade (2 Cor. 4:16-18).

There is a glory in the law of God governing life on earth. Paul writes, "If the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory." The condition (εἰ) is a simple, first class, condition indicating that it is assumed to be true or presented as true. The ministry of death came with glory (ἐν δόξῃ). Again Paul writes in verse 11 using a first class condition, "If that which fades away was with glory" (διὰ δόξης). The distinction between the two prepositions (ἐν and διὰ) should not be stressed (Martin, Word, 40:64-65). The force is accompaniment, not instrumentality. The law came with glory, not by means of glory. The sense can even be adverbial or adjectival. The law was "glorious" (Moule, Idiom Book, pp57-58).

The irony is that "what had glory (δεδοξασμένον), in this case has no glory (δεδόξασται) because of the glory that surpasses it" (2 Cor. 3:10). The same verbs were used in the Septuagint translation of Exodus 34 to describe the face of Moses after coming down from Mt. Sinai where he had received the stone tablets from the hand of God. "Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone (δεδόξασται) because of his speaking with Him" (Ex. 34:29, cf. 30, 35). A strong Jewish tradition taught that beams of light emanated from his face or passed through his hair as the Shekinah glory of God shone through Moses (Martin, Word, 40:63-64).

The glory of the old covenant was in part or partial. The phrase could be translated "in this case" (ἐν τούτῳ τῷ μέρει) but the better sense is that of partiality. The noun (μερίς) refers to something that is part of a whole that had been divided (BDAG, p.505). It is a share or a portion of a greater glory. God's glory partially accompanied the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai. This partial glory was no glory at all compared to the glory that surpasses it. The preposition (εἵνεκεν) means "on account of" and can even mean "until" (Blass, Debrunner, Grammar, p.116). The surpassing glory of the new covenant made the glory of the old covenant fade away. The present participle, stressing a continuous surpassing (ὑπερβαλλούσης), can refer to light so bright that it obliterates other lights (BDAG, p.840). The greater glory replaced the lesser glory so that the lesser glory became no glory.

The old covenant glory was fading away (καταργούμενον, see vs. 7, 11, 13).  The verb meant to make powerless or even abolish (BDAG, p. 407).  It is passive - made ineffective by something else. The old glory was being replaced. The old glory was nullified by the new glory. The new glory is a remaining (μένον) glory. The participle indicates an active and continuous glory - a glory that stays or persists. New covenant glory has staying power because it is eternal and not temporal (2 Cor. 4:17). We focus on the glory that stays. This glory will get us through the hard times we face on earth.

Paul is stressing ministry (διακονία) throughout this section (2 Cor. 3:7, 8, 9; cf. 4:1) leading to his conclusion in 2 Corinthians 3:12. "Therefore (οὖν) having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech." Ministry will drain us. Ministry will consume us. Hope and boldness come from keeping our eyes on the forever glory of our lives with Jesus. Our boldness in ministry develops from our theology of glory!