But whenever someone turns back to the Lord, the veil is removed. The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Lord's Spirit is, there is freedom.

2 Corinthians 3:16-17 CEB

Coming back to Jesus.

The people Paul is writing to seemed to be stuck in a world of rules and obeying the rules made you righteous, right with God. 

Any mistake, misstep, bad decision, error or slip was condemning. 

This veil that covered Moses face when he saw God on the mountain so that the people didn't see God reflected in his face, this veil is used as a picture of what stops us seeing Jesus. 

Being good enough in my own effort, my rule keeping, my righteousness is the veil that stops us seeing Jesus. 

It's like being in prison, because where the Spirit is, there is freedom. 

(Not freedom to do whatever desires might pop into my heart but) freedom from having to strive to be enough, righteous enough, good enough to be loved by God, accepted by Him, welcomed by Him.

Jesus is our righteousness, our goodenoughness. 

So we get to live in the freedom of that in all our humanity, asking the Spirit to continue to shape and direct and lead and encourage us, all from a place of acceptance and love. 

That's the freedom.

#corinthians

#freedom

#upsidedownkingdom