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Blindness and the Old Covenant Veil

1 Corinthians 3:6 describes the Old Covenant as “the ministry of death,” and verse 9 calls it “the ministry of condemnation.” The reason for this is because the Old Covenant was based on man’s decision (or vow) to obey God in order to remain in a covenant relationship with Him. The New Testament treats this as a requirement for man’s “works” to attain salvation (immortality). The problem is that man cannot work enough to pay his debt for sin, nor can he even begin to obey God fully in his deeds and in his mind.

For this reason, a New Covenant is required, one where God takes the responsibility upon Himself to save mankind. Hence, He makes the vow, or promise, and man then receives this by faith alone. Good works, then, come as a byproduct of the Spirit’s work within our hearts, rather than as the cause of salvation. As the Holy Spirit writes the law on our hearts through the New Covenant, works are evidence of the Spirit’s work in us, not the cause of it.

The Old Covenant, then, is a “ministry of death,” because immortal life cannot be attained through the Old Covenant. The law sets the standard of righteousness, but it does not impart the ability to keep the law—that is, to be righteous. So the Old Covenant sets an impossible standard for all mortals, and the law, which cannot acquit the guilty, must condemn all men.

Exodus 23:7 says,

⁷ Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not acquit the guilty.

This literally reads, “I will not justify the wicked.” Psalm 14:2, 3 adds,

² The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. ³ They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.

Paul quotes this in Romans 3:10, 11.

What Happened At Mount Sinai?

God came down as fire, covered by a cloud, on Mount Sinai, where He spoke the Ten Commandments to Israel (including the foreigners among them). This frightened the people, and they insisted that Moses should go up the Mount to hear God’s voice and then return to tell them what God said (Exodus 20:18-21).

If the people had not been so fearful, they would have been able to receive the New Covenant at that time by hearing the word directly for themselves. Paul refers to this as “the ministry of the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:8), because only the Spirit of God is able to write the law upon the heart.

However, by keeping their distance, and by insisting upon an indirect relationship with God, they entered into an Old Covenant relationship with God and were given an external law written on tables of stone. This external law demanded obedience but did not empower them to keep the law. Failure was inevitable.

Whenever men reject the word of the Lord, whether through fear or through rebellion, the immediate result is that a veil is placed over their eyes. In other words, they are blinded in some way so that they are unable to see the full glory of God. After Moses received the law, he came off the Mount with his face glowing with the presence of God (Exodus 34:29). The people were then afraid of him, just as they had been afraid of God Himself, so he had to put a veil over his face while talking to the people.

Paul explains this in 2 Corinthians 3:13-16,

¹³ and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. ¹⁴ But their minds were hardened [or “blinded”]; for until this very day at the reading of the Old Covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. ¹⁵ But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; ¹⁶ but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

Notice that even though the veil was put upon Moses’ face, the blindness was upon the heart of the people. Why? Because the people were unable to see the glory of God and to know God as He wants to be known. So Moses took off the veil when he went into the tabernacle to talk to God. He had a direct relationship with God with no veil to hide His glory.

Israelite Blindness

As long as the people were under the Old Covenant, they were spiritually blind (and deaf). A veil does not hide everything, but it prevents a clear picture. So Isaiah 6:9, 10 says,

⁹ Keep on listening, but do not perceive; keep on looking, but do not understand. ¹⁰ Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed.

Again we read in Isaiah 43:8,

⁸ Bring out the people who are blind, even though they have eyes, and the deaf, even though they have ears.

The source of their blindness and deafness traces back to Mount Sinai, where the people refused to hear God’s voice, and where the people were unable to see the glory of God in Moses’ face and approach His glory on the Mount. As long as they were confident that the Old Covenant made them “chosen” (regardless of their heart condition), they were both blind and deaf.

Paul tells us that to remove this Old Covenant veil, one must turn to Jesus Christ, the Mediator of the New Covenant. Only through Him is this veil removed. But what happens when the Church remains under the Old Covenant?

Church Blindness

Church doctrine claims to be under the New Covenant, but in practice, it remains under the Old Covenant. The Scripture defines “church” (Hebrew: qahal; Greek: ekklesia) as “congregation, convocation, assembly, those called to assemble,” as in Deuteronomy 9:10. But today, most denominations have redefined the word to mean the organization, corporation, or a building where they meet.

This redefinition shifts the people’s dependency upon Christ to dependency upon the organization. This creates an indirect relationship with God, because it is claimed that men cannot be in covenant with God without going through an earthly organization that claims to be "the true church." To meet with God, one must go to a building each week where God lives, much like the Israelites had to go to the tabernacle (later, the temple) where God’s presence was located.

In many denominations, priests largely imitate the Old Covenant priesthood of Levi with their robes, rituals, incense, etc. Further, the people are told that they must be members of their denomination in order to be saved. Salvation is no longer by faith alone but by membership, and anyone who disagrees can be cut off from heaven.

In prophetic interpretation, too, many denominations teach that we now live toward the end of the “Age of Grace,” and that the age to come will be a Jewish kingdom with a resumption of animal sacrifices, another temple in Jerusalem, Levitical priests, and—worst of all—the right to murder anyone who gets in the way.

Whatever extent a denomination believes and teaches these things is the level of Old Covenant blindness that it is under, and the people who submit to its authority have a veil over their eyes whenever they read the Scripture.

This is a serious problem, especially as the climax of the present age approaches. The big issue today is whether we are Old Covenant believers or New Covenant believers. Do we still approach God and read the Scriptures through an Old Covenant veil? Do we claim to have removed that veil, yet still retain an Old Covenant view of God, His law, and prophecy? Is Jesus Christ the High Priest of a Levitical Order that will serve Him with animal sacrifices?

I trust that you who have heard the truth of the word of God are able to see and hear God without a veil over your eyes.