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2 Corinthians 3:7-8 "Now if the dispensation of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such splendor that the Israelites could not look at Moses' face because of its brightness, fading as this was, will not the dispensation of the Spirit be attended with greater splendor?"

 

The dispensation of death Paul speaks of is the law of Moses, specifically the Ten Commandments Moses brought down from Mount Sinai. This law was given in such splendor that Moses face glowed with a brightness fearful to look upon (Exodus 34:29-30). Yet that law, which taught us what behaviors would bring death upon us, was meant to lead us to something else: to its fulfillment in Jesus Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon us. The Spirit comes not to warn us of death, as the law does, but to bring us eternal life. Thus, the splendor that accompanies the Spirit's dispensation of life far exceeds the splendor that accompanied Moses as he delivered the law, the "dispensation of death."

 

God's splendor shines through everything He does for us. Even when delivering a code of conduct that that warned of death and would prove very difficult for humanity to follow, Moses' face shown with the splendor of God because this law was a Divine gift. Now, because of the law's fulfillment in Jesus, we can be baptized in the Spirit, bringing us not a stone tablet code of conduct, but the living, eternal gift of Divine life.

 

We are endowed with a splendor far greater than that which shown on Moses' face as he delivered the law. Would that each of us allowed that splendor to shine through to the world every day! There could be nothing more attractive to those not yet in the faith than seeing the followers of Christ shining with unbearable splendor. So let's go out and spread some splendor to the world, in fact, let's be super splendor spreaders, it seems like the world could use that right now!