Draw Near Into the Presence of God

The Apostle says: "If the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away; how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory." 2 Cor. 3:7-9. He does not put us in the place of the children of Israel, but he shows our place to be like that of Moses when he drew near into the presence of God without a veil. This is our position now, and not as that of the children of Israel. In short, it is not the man veiled, and the children of Israel afraid of him because of the glory of his countenance which they could not look upon, but the man unveiled in the presence of God, when he turns, not to the people with a veil upon his face, but to God in glory without the veil.
Such is our position now; such is the position of all Christians if they only knew it. This comes out fully when Paul writes, "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Cor. 3:18. "We all" is in contrast with the one man. Moses—not with all Israel. The position of the Christian is typified by Moses in the presence of God, not by the children of Israel in the presence of Moses veiled. It is "We all" —for God makes not the smallest difference in this respect: the weakest Christian has exactly the same position before God.