In 2 Corinthians 3:2 and 3 Paul uses the metaphor of living epistles: “You are our letter, inscribed in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ ministered by us, inscribed not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in fleshy tablets of the heart.” Here we see that Paul and his co-workers were writing living epistles. These epistles were their letters of commendation. The apostles were the writers, and the believers were the epistles written by them.
A fourth metaphor is that of a mirror. Paul refers to this in 2 Corinthians 3:18: “And we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” According to this verse, the believers should be mirrors without any kind of veil covering them. This means that we should no longer be covered by the veil of the law. As uncovered mirrors we should behold the glory of the Lord and thus be transformed.
In 2 Corinthians 4:7 Paul uses yet another metaphor, that of earthen vessels: “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” When we consider this verse in the light of what Paul says in verse 6, where he speaks of God shining in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ, we realize that the vessel in verse 7 may be likened to a camera. What Paul describes in these verses is actually the experience of spiritual photography. As believers, we can be compared to cameras. The divine light shines through the lens and causes an image, a figure, to be imprinted on the film of our spirit. Originally this film was blank. But now, through the shining of God, the film has the glorious image of Christ imprinted on it. This image on the film of our spirit is the very treasure in the earthen vessel. Furthermore, this treasure is a dynamo, the source of spiritual power. Nothing, including the things described in verses 8 and 9, can defeat this dynamo.
Chapter five of 2 Corinthians is an excellent continuation of chapters two, three, and four. In chapter five Paul indicates that the believers at Corinth had not yet entered into the situation described by Paul in the foregoing chapters. This means that they had not yet come into the Holy of Holies; they were still separated from it by the second veil. Thus, they needed further reconciliation. This is the reason Paul entreated them to be reconciled to God. To be reconciled in the second aspect is to have our flesh rent, torn into pieces.
We thank the Lord for what He has shown us concerning the veil and the screen and concerning the necessity to have the flesh rent so that we may experience God in the Holy of Holies. Having seen these things, we can no longer be content with the outer court or even the Holy Place. In a very real sense, the more we see concerning spiritual things, the more we are spoiled for anything else. The more we enjoy the Holy Place, the less we want to return to the outer court. Only those who live on the border between the Holy Place and the outer court would ever consider leaving the Holy Place and returning to the outer court. In the same principle, if we are in the Holy of Holies, there will be no way for us to go elsewhere. We can never again be content to live in the Holy Place. The vision we see in the Holy of Holies will imprison us.
We praise the Lord for showing us the two veils, the inner veil and the screen, and for revealing the two aspects of reconciliation. We all need to pass through both veils and experience both aspects of reconciliation so that we may enter into the Holy of Holies to enjoy the Lord to the uttermost.