The Complete Eclipse
W. Carl Ketcherside
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"And while it is true that the former temporary glory has been completely eclipsed by the latter, we do well to remember that it is eclipsed simply because the present permanent plan is such a very much more glorious thing than the old." (2 Corinthians 3:10, 11).
Our more immediate fathers in the faith, when dealing with the evolution of revelation, divided history into three eras which they designated Patriarchal, Jewish and Christian dispensations. In order to show that God's light was given on an increasing scale of intensity, they spoke of the Starlight, Moonlight and Sunlight Ages. The Moonlight Age began with the covenant announced at Sinai, the Sunlight Age with the covenant at Mount Sion.
In the chapter from which our initial statement is taken, the apostle Paul refers to these two as the old covenant and the new covenant. His purpose is to show the superiority of the latter as compared to the former, and provide for us an incentive to fulfill our role in the significant reflection of the glory of God. He did not write to provide "sermon material" for a formal address on the subject, nor to furnish argumentative fuel for debate. The design was to enable us to translate into life "the ever-increasing splendor" which comes from seeing the glory with unveiled faces.
When God directly steps into the arena of human affairs, that splendor which accompanies the ultimate purity dazzles those mortals who catch even a glimpse of it. I use the term "catch a glimpse" to imply that if one were suddenly to see it in its fulness he would die. God appeared on Sinai to announce the terms of the covenant which he made with liberated slaves. He identified himself by saying, "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." When Moses asked to see God's glory, he was told that to look upon God's face would result in death. The Lord said, "Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand upon the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen." This is another way of saying that Moses could see the receding glory of God, or behold the afterglow of divine radiance.
The reflection of this glory in the face of Moses was so great that it was necessary for him to put a veil on his face while talking to the people. The apostle writes that, "The administration of the Law which was engraved in stone (and which led in fact to spiritual death) was so magnificent that the Israelites were unable to look unflinchingly at Moses' face, for it was alight with heavenly splendor." He reasons that if a transitory system had such heavenly splendor, even though destined to end in condemning men, surely "the new administration of the Spirit of life would be a much more glorious thing."
It is at this juncture he states that "it is true that the former temporary glory has been completely eclipsed." This means that the moonlight age has been blotted out or obscured. It is very difficult for most people to concede that this is true. They prefer to think of a merger rather than a complete change of economy.
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But the language employed will not justify such an interpretation. We are said to be free from the law and dead to it. It is affirmed that the law has been done away, disannulled and abolished. It is distinctly said that we are not under law, that we have been redeemed from its curse, and that it was a yoke of slavery from which we have been freed.
It is not, however, merely the law given by Moses from which we have been freed, but law as a means or hope of justification. It was the old economy of legalism, the idea of a written code as a basis of righteousness, from which we have been set free. "For Christ means the end of the struggle for righteousness-by-the-Law for everyone who believes in him" (Romans 10:4). That is what was completely eclipsed!
The glory of the law was temporary. It was given until faith should come. We are now subjects of a "present permanent plan" much more glorious than the old. It is unfortunate that among the Jews "to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their minds." But it is even more unfortunate that a veil lies over the minds of many who read the scriptures growing out of the new agreement.
These epistles of love are changed into a written code to be interpreted by judgmental men whose interpretation must be regarded as final. The honest souls who dissent are subjected to threat and excommunication by the arrogant usurpers of power. Their hearts are hardened like those of the Jews who cannot realize that Jesus did away with the veil.
When a man turns to the Lord the veil is removed. "For the Lord to whom they could turn is the Spirit of the new agreement, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, men's souls are set free." Let us remove the veils from our faces so that we may see clearly that we are not under law but under grace. The glory of the Lord in grace has completely eclipsed the glory reflected by the law.
"Now that we stand clear of the Law, the claims which existed are dissolved by our 'death', and we are free to serve God not in the old obedience to the letter of the Law, but in a new way, in the Spirit" (Romans 7:6). The eclipse was total. It was complete.