Daily Word

Three Greek words give us important keys to understanding the life-changing message of the Bible.

The first is the word 'telos', which means goal, purpose, fulfilment.

We find the word in two important Bible passages.

The first is in Romans 10:4:

"Christ is the end ('telos') of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes."

This word shows that Christ is the fulfilment and realization of all the requirements of God on man: that which no man ever has or ever will be able to do, except Christ.

Therefore, when we have received and been clothed with Christ by faith, we are no longer under the law, for all its requirements are fulfilled in us, since Christ Himself has become our righteousness.

The second passage is found in a very interesting context in 2 Corinthians 3.

It concerns what the children of Israel saw when Moses came down from Mount Sinai after being in God's presence for 40 days: "the skin of his face shone after he had spoken with the Lord" (Ex.34:29).

Then we read in 2 Cor.3:13 that "Moses put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look intently at the end ('telos' = goal) of that which was passing away."

What does Paul really mean – what "goal" was it that the children of Israel could not see?

Christ!

The fading glory on Moses' face was a small reflection of the eternal and imperishable glory of Christ, which is given to all in the new covenant, but which was hidden in the old because their hearts were blinded and hard as stone.

It requires an operation in our hearts that Paul calls the "circumcision of the heart," for we all wear a veil over the eyes of our hearts so that we do not see and therefore cannot reflect the glory of Christ.

But when that has happened, we see Christ, the goal and destiny of our lives, everywhere in the Word, both in the Old and New Testament.

And when we see Him in the light of the Spirit, we are transformed into His image "from glory to glory" (2 Cor. 3:18).

Understanding the Bible requires a higher level of illumination: divine illumination!