2 Corinthians 03 Round Two: God Qualifies the Called

What if qualification isn’t the starting point, but the byproduct of calling? We open 2 Corinthians 3 and find a radical shift: from law on stone to life by the Spirit, from letters of recommendation to “living letters” written on human hearts. As Paul contrasts Moses’ fading radiance with the enduring glory of Christ, a bigger truth emerges—God doesn’t wait for us to be impressive. He removes the veil, gives us freedom, and equips us to serve with courage.

We talk about how the old covenant revealed our need while the new covenant meets it, why humility is not self-deprecation but self-forgetfulness, and how beholding the Lord transforms us into his image. The more we look like Jesus, the less we chase being copies of other people. That shift frees us from the pressure to perform and the trap of comparison. It also reframes credibility: the proof of ministry isn’t a name-drop or a resume; it’s people whose lives bear the mark of God’s grace.

This conversation gets practical. We ask what it means to live boldly when we feel ordinary, how to read the Old Testament through the lens of Christ, and where the Spirit’s freedom needs to enter our habits, hopes, and relationships. We highlight comfort as a resource meant to be shared, turning our personal struggles into someone else’s strength. If you’ve felt unqualified, underprepared, or unseen, this is your invitation to step forward: the One who calls you is the One who qualifies you.

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Theme: God Qualifies
• 1:18 Community Updates And Subscriber Goal
• 2:08 Setting The Scene In 2 Corinthians 3
• 3:41 Letters Of Recommendation Versus Living Letters
• 5:08 Old Covenant Glory And Moses’ Veil
• 7:15 Christ Removes The Veil And Brings Freedom
• 10:10 Becoming Like Christ, Not Copies
• 12:05 Unique Calling And Daily Surrender

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's Word together. Well, hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, 2 Corinthians chapter 3. And if I were to give this one a title, it would be God Qualifies the Called. God qualifies the called. Now, I got some good news for you, and that is this that if you were voted most likely to succeed when you were in high school, if you were everybody's friend, you are the most popular person in class. Every time you go for a job interview, you get it. Every time you ask for a date, they say when are you going to pick me up? If everything always seems to fall your way, I've got good news for you. God can still use you. But often he uses the least likely to succeed, those who wouldn't expect them to actually do the things. Whatever it is, God does not call you because you are qualified. And then he qualifies you because you are called. You have everything you need to do everything that God has called you to do. And so we're going to talk about that in just a moment. But as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube channel. We are over halfway there. We are getting so much closer to our goal, our road to 1,000 subscribers. Thank you so much. And all of our podcast listeners, I love you too. Make sure you're leaving us a five-star review. And I would love for you to do me a favor. If you are a podcast listener, I would love for you to go to YouTube, pull up my name, Brandon Cannon, Bible Breakdown Podcast. Somewhere down there, you're going to see my face. I'm not the, I'm not the most popular Brandon Cannon out there. This is like some kid who's like a wrestler. I don't know. He's awesome. But somewhere down there, you're going to see me. And I'd love for you to go and subscribe to help us get over a thousand. It's a goal that we're reaching for, help us reach that goal. And then also, everybody, if you will, I want you to gather with us at the Bible breakdown discussion. Man, the more we dig, the more we find. And I'm excited to see what they come up with today. So if you got your Bibles, I'm going to open up with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 3. We're going to be looking at this idea of God qualifies the called. I love the idea of how Paul is just sharing with us so much about what goes on in his life and all the different things that happen. But then also he talks about the freedom that comes through the Lord. One of the things I love about Jesus is that Jesus, he saves us and then he walks with us toward freedom. And he gets nothing out of it. It's all because he loves us. That's one reason why when the Bible talks about in the gospels how Jesus was humble. We have this idea about humility that is not accurate. We think that humbleness is where someone is like broken and they're horrible and they're like, they're just like this sad excuse for a human being to think that's what's humble. That is not what humbleness is. Humbleness is not thinking less of yourself. Humbleness is thinking of yourself less often. And so the reason why a good description of Jesus was humbleness is because the things that he is doing for us, he gets nothing out of it. He's already the king of the universe. What else can you add to the Lord? The things that he does for us is for our benefit. Because his greatest joy is to see his creation set free. I love the verse it's going to say in a minute. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. It's because he wants us to be free. And I love that idea that God qualifies the called for his own good pleasure. So I can't wait to read this together. It's going to be so much fun. Don't you read this with me? 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 1 says this. Here we go. We are are we already messed it up. Let me try this again. 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 1. Here we go. Are we beginning to praise ourselves again? Are we like others who need to bring you letters of recommendation or ask you to write us such letters on your behalf? Certainly not. The only letter of recommendation we need is you yourselves. You yourselves are the letter written on our hearts. Everyone who can read it and recognize our good work among you. Pause. Now, the reason why he's saying that is a lot of times when a new person would come into a community, they would bring letters of recommendation. You know, people would get letters of recommendation from Paul. And that way, when they go, hey, you know, I got anytime someone name drops, you know, hey, so-and-so, I know them, that's what they're doing. Is they're saying, trust me, because I know them. Paul is saying, I don't need that. I already have my credibility with you because all of you are my family. Yeah, all of you are my spiritual family. I was the one that God used to reach all of you. So I trust you and you trust me. Verse three. Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the results of our ministry among you. This letter is written not with pen and ink, but with the spirit of our loving God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts. I love this. We are confident of all of this because of our great trust in God through Christ. It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not written with laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death, but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life. The old way is laws etched in stone that led to death, though it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses' face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away. Shouldn't we expect far greater glory under the new way, now that the Holy Spirit is giving us life? In this old way, which brings condemnation, it was glorious. How much more glorious is the new way which leads us right with God, makes us right with God? In fact, that first glory was not glorious at all compared to the overwhelming glory of this new way. If so, if the old way which has been replaced was glorious, how much more glorious is the new which remains forever? What Paul's talking about is a difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. He's saying when God came down on the Mount, uh Mount Sinai, the Bible said that there was lightnings and thunderings and smoke, and God showed himself to Moses in such a way that when Moses came, get this picture. When God came or Moses came off Mount Sinai, his face glowed. Okay. I ain't never seen somebody's face glow. But the Bible said that that was just the residual of being in the presence of God, that Moses' face glowed so much so that they had to put a lampshade over his face. I mean, not actually, but like a like a veil over his face because I mean, think about it. The Bible says it scared them when they looked at Moses and Mo's face was glowing. It terrified them. And they said, Man, can you put a veil over your face? You're scaring us half to death. So Moses would have to walk around with a lampshade over his face until he got back in the presence of God and then could take it back off again. Paul is saying, that's how awesome the law was. That's how awesome all that was. This now, God has made us right with him, is so much better than that, that that looks like nothing compared to this. And that is that Jesus has rescued us, that we have been forgiven. Verse 12 says this since this new way gives us such confidence, we can be very bold. We're not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory, even though it was destined to fade away. In other words, what he's saying is that the longer he stayed out of God's presence, the more it would begin to fade because it was it was a residual. But the people's minds were hardened, and to this day, whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed but only by believing in Christ. Yes, even today, when they read Moses' writings, their hearts are covered with that veil spiritually, and they cannot understand. In other words, what Paul is saying is that when you understand who Christ is, you can look at the Old Testament and see how beautiful it was. If you don't look at the Old Testament through the lens of Christ, it's a bunch of laws, it's a bunch of rules, it's a bunch of regulations that end to just a miserable life. But when you see it through the eyes of Christ, and when you see what Jesus has done, you look at the Old Testament and it's beautiful. It's this amazing moment where God comes down on Mount Sinai to reconnect. He'd been separated from creation all the way back from Genesis chapter three, and he's on this journey to reconnect with his creation, and he's trying to help them get back to him. And the only way to do that is you got to get the sin out of your life, and the sin out of your life is impossible. That's why the law was impossible, is because it's impossible for us as fallen creation to be sinless so that we can get back to God. That's why Jesus came on the rescue mission was so that he could be that perfect sacrifice, he could pay the penalty for sin so that we could be reconnected. So he's saying when you see the Old Testament through what Christ has done, it's beautiful. Verse 16, but whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Verse 17, for the Lord is the spirit, and whenever, wherever the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord, who is the spirit, makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. I love that so very much. He's saying that as we encounter God, as we are transformed into his likeness. I love this phrase. I heard someone say this. They said, the more you look like Jesus, the less you look like everybody else. We spend so much time in our life trying to be as much like other people as we can. And that's okay to admire people and to emulate certain characteristics, but we have to be so very careful that we don't try to become that person because that person is fallible, that person is human. It's okay. We need to lower our expectations of people and raise our expectations of God. And the more that we try to become like Christ, live according to what Christ has taught us. He says that we are changed into his glorious image, and the more we look like Jesus, the less we look like everybody else. And therefore, we're no longer trying to be like everybody else because we realize that we don't have to become the very best replica of somebody else in order to be qualified by God. God qualifies us for his own purposes and for his own good reasons. And then he after he calls us, he qualifies us to do what he's called us to do. And so I love this idea that this theme is that he is the God of all comfort. And I wonder if the comfort for you today would be this that you're not like everybody else. You're not a carbon copy of anybody else. And you know why? Because out of all creation, out of all time, God only made one of you. Now that doesn't mean that we give excuses to our weak points and our our our weak areas. We work on those. We submit submit and surrender them to the goodness of God and let him heal us from the inside out. But at the same time, God has given all of us gifts, talents, abilities, and opportunities that are unique to us. We have a gift mix that no one else has ever had in the history of creation because God wants us to become more like him every day, follow him, and as he does that, he is going to bring about his unique plan for your life to bring you glory. Which means then you are infinitely important. Not important to have all your dreams and desires come true, but for you, you're infinitely important because he wants you to fulfill his dream and his goal and his desire. And that is for him to have his way in your life. And can I tell you, that way of his is greater than anything you can imagine. So I hope that comforts you today. That God has a plan for your life. That plan is to bring him glory, and that he has called you, and you have everything you need to do everything he has called you to do. Let's pray together. God, thank you so much that you are the God of all comfort. I pray today that as we submit and give our lives over to you, you will have your way in our life one day at a time. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Don't forget, God's word says in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. God has a calling and a purpose for you. God is comforting you every day. What kind of comfort do you need to share with somebody else today? I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for 1 Corinthians chapter 4.