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In 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 Christ is presented as the Spirit and the Lord Spirit.
Second Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” This verse tells us first that the Lord is the Spirit; this proves that the Lord and the Spirit are one. Yet the verse goes on to speak of the Spirit of the Lord; this seems to show that the Spirit and the Lord are two. The expression the Spirit of the Lord, however, indicates that the Spirit and the Lord are in apposition to each other. This shows that the Spirit is the Lord and the Lord is the Spirit and that the Spirit and the Lord are one. The Spirit of the Lord is actually one with the Lord.
According to the context of 2 Corinthians 3:17, the Lord here must refer to Christ the Lord (2:12, 14-15, 17; 3:3-4, 14, 16; 4:5). This then is a strong word in the Bible telling us emphatically that Christ is the Spirit. “The Lord Christ of v. 16 is the Spirit who pervades and animates the new covenant of which we are ministers (v. 6), and the ministration of which is with glory (v. 8). Compare Rom. 8:9-11; John 14:16, 18” (Vincent). “The Lord of verse 16, is the Spirit...which giveth life, v. 6: meaning, ‘the Lord,’ as here spoken of, ‘Christ,’ ‘is the Spirit,’ is identical with the Holy Spirit...Christ, here, is the Spirit of Christ” (Alford). “All that transforming and indwelling Spirit is Christ Himself. ‘The Lord is the Spirit’” (Williston Walker).
Some deny that the Lord in 2 Corinthians 3:17 refers to Christ the Lord. They claim that it denotes God in a general way. Furthermore, using John 4:24, they claim that 2 Corinthians 3:17 is simply saying that God is the Spirit. However, if we consider this verse according to the context, we will realize that the Lord in verse 17 must refer to Christ. Therefore, this verse tells us emphatically that Christ the Lord is the Spirit.
Throughout the centuries there have been a number of teachers who believed that, according to verse 17, Christ the Lord is the Spirit. Many Christians, however, are still under the influence of the creeds, especially the Nicene Creed. At the time of the Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325), the book of Revelation had not been officially recognized. This may be the reason that in the Nicene Creed nothing is said regarding the seven Spirits. In the book of Revelation the third of the Trinity is the seven Spirits of God. Furthermore, according to Revelation 5:6, these seven Spirits are the seven eyes of the Lamb. For those who claim that the Spirit is a separate person from the Son, we would like to ask how the third person, the Spirit, can be the eyes of the second person, the Son. We cannot deny what the book of Revelation says concerning the seven Spirits, that the third of the Trinity is the eyes of the second. For this reason, we should not speak of Christ and the Spirit as being two separate persons.
The Spirit, who is the ultimate expression of the Triune God, was not yet in John 7:39, because at that time Jesus had not yet been glorified. He had not yet finished the process that He, as the embodiment of God, had to pass through. After His resurrection, that is, after the finishing of all the processes, such as incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, that the Triune God had to pass through in man for His redemptive economy, He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). In the New Testament, this life-giving Spirit is called “the Spirit” (Rom. 8:16, 23, 26-27; Gal. 3:2, 5, 14; 6:8; Rev. 2:7; 3:22; 14:13; 22:17), the Spirit who gives us the divine life (2 Cor. 3:6; John 6:63) and frees us from the bondage of the law.
In 2 Corinthians 3:17 Paul tells us that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. The Spirit of the Lord is the Lord Himself, with whom is freedom. According to the context of 2 Corinthians 3, this freedom is freedom from the bondage of the letter of the Old Testament law, that is, the written code of the Old Testament. At Paul’s time the Judaizers and those influenced by them were bound by the traditional code of the law. Nevertheless, the Lord Jesus came to release His followers from this bondage, in particular from the Judaic fold that was formed according to the code of the law in the Old Testament. All those who followed the Lord Jesus were freed from that bondage. Later the Lord appeared to one of the strongest Judaizers, Saul of Tarsus, called him, and brought him out of the bondage of the law. Therefore, in 2 Corinthians 3:17 Paul could say that we have been freed from this bondage by the Spirit of the Lord.
We know that we are freed by the Spirit because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Now the Spirit of the Lord is with us, and we have full liberty, full freedom, from the bondage of the Old Testament code of the law.
The Lord being the Spirit is to free us from regulations, rituals, religious teachings, and traditional doctrines. At Paul’s time the Jews were under the bondage of circumcision, the bondage of dietary regulations, and the bondage of the Sabbath and other Old Testament regulations. Today, however, is not the age of the law of letters but the age of the Lord Jesus being the pneumatic Christ, the Spirit. Moses, with the letter of the law, put the people under bondage — the bondage of keeping the Sabbath, the bondage of circumcision, the bondage of dietary regulations, the bondage of not contacting Gentiles, as well as many other bondages. But the Lord being the Spirit is freedom to us. With Him there is no bondage, no Sabbath, no circumcision, and no dietary regulations. Rather, with Him there is full freedom. The Lord is the Spirit, and He is our freedom. When the heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away (v. 16), and then the Lord as the Spirit gives us freedom. Because the Lord is the Spirit who gives freedom, when the heart turns to Him, the heart is freed from the bondage of the letter of the law. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is no bondage, no deadness, no entanglement of letters and regulations. Because Christ as the freeing Spirit is within us, we are free from the law, regulations, and dead letters.
As the liberating Spirit, He liberates us from all things that bind us. Paul tells us that whenever the heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away and that wherever the Spirit is, there is freedom (vv. 16-17). To be liberated, according to 2 Corinthians 3, is to have all our veils removed. He delivers us by taking away all the veils so that we can behold and reflect Christ with an unveiled face. When we are veiled, we are bound and imprisoned and do not have freedom. The Lord is the Spirit in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:16). If we keep ourselves in the spirit, the veil is immediately gone. When the veil is gone, we are released. This freedom comes from the Spirit of the Lord. It is by the Spirit of the Lord that we look unto the Lord with an unveiled face to be transformed into His image from the Lord Spirit. We must turn our heart to the Lord, who is the Spirit, and set our mind on the mingled spirit; then the Spirit will free us that we may enjoy the full freedom in grace.
As the liberating Spirit, Christ liberates us from the letter of the law, from the letter of doctrines, teachings, and knowledge, and from regulations, rituals, religion, and culture. Religion, culture, doctrine, and knowledge confine us. On the one hand, they may restrain us from being wild; on the other hand, they actually bind us and even kill us spiritually. As the liberating Spirit, Christ is within us to liberate us from all bondage. Most Christians think that Christ liberates us from the outside by His power, but Paul indicates that as the liberating Spirit in us, Christ liberates us from within by being our life. The more we take Him as our life and person, the more we are liberated from all bondage.
The Spirit is the liberating Spirit. Where life is, there is always liberation. The more we grow in life, the more we become liberated. The more mature we become in life, the more we are freed from all kinds of bondage. The many habits that we have according to our flesh and our natural constitution are bondages. The liberating Spirit can free us from the bondage of our habits. Many of us are bound by religion and religious practices; hence, we need to experience the liberating Spirit. As we grow in life, we are released from our bondage. To enjoy the liberation of the Spirit to the uttermost, we need the growth in life.
Second Corinthians 3:18 says, “We all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” In this verse Paul speaks of the Lord Spirit. The Lord Spirit may be considered a compound title like the Father God and the Lord Christ. Again, this expression strongly proves and confirms that the Lord Christ is the Spirit and the Spirit is the Lord Christ.
The Lord Spirit is the transforming Spirit. He transforms us into the image of the Lord of glory from one degree of glory to another degree of glory. Today we should be constantly under this transforming work. Surely this experience of Christ as the Lord Spirit is full of enjoyment.
We are told in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that we are being transformed “even as from the Lord Spirit.” The preposition from here indicates that transformation is proceeding from the Spirit rather than being caused by Him. In order for the Spirit to do His transforming work in us, there is the need for a certain essence to be dispensed into us by the Spirit. Therefore, the Spirit is working in us to transform us in life, nature, essence, element, form, appearance, and every aspect of our being by dispensing the divine life, nature, element, and essence into us. This means that the divine life, nature, essence, element, and being are dispensed by the Spirit into our life, nature, essence, element, and being to cause a metabolic change within us. This change is organic, because it is a change in our being by another being, in our life by another life, in our nature by another nature, and in our element and essence by another element and essence. This transformation is from the Lord Spirit.
Christ as the Lord Spirit is now doing a transforming work within us as He imparts Himself into us as life. When we open to Him, behold Him, and reflect Him, we are under the process of transformation. All that He is, is transfused into our being. Through being transfused with what He is, we will be completely transformed. Today we are being transformed into His image from one stage of glory to another, until eventually we will be the same as He. This takes place only by means of Christ as the Lord Spirit.
The glory in 2 Corinthians 3:18 is the glory of Christ as the resurrected and ascended One, who as both God and man passed through incarnation, human living, and crucifixion, entered into resurrection, accomplished full redemption, and became a life-giving Spirit. As the life-giving Spirit, the resurrected Christ dwells in us to make Himself and all He has accomplished, obtained, and attained real to us, that we may be one with Him and may be transformed into His image from glory to glory. When we with unveiled face are beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord, He infuses us with the elements of what He is and what He has done. Thus, we are being transformed metabolically to have His life shape by His life power with His life essence; that is, we are being transfigured, mainly by the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:2), into His image. This transformation is from glory to glory, that is, from the Lord Spirit to the Lord Spirit. The Lord Spirit is upon the Lord Spirit. This means that the Lord Spirit as the rich supply is continually added into our being.
To be transformed is to have Christ added into our being to replace what we are so that Christ may increase and our natural life may decrease. As the process of transformation takes place within us, the old element of our natural being is carried away, and the glory, the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit, is added into us to replace the natural element. The process of transformation is both organic and metabolic. It is organic because it is related to life, and it is metabolic because it is related to a process in which an old element is discharged and a new element is added.
There is a difference between change and transformation. Transformation involves the process of metabolism. However, something may change in an outward way without any inward metabolic transformation. In the process of metabolism a new element is supplied to an organism. This new element replaces the old element and causes it to be discharged. Therefore, as the process of metabolism takes place within a living organism, something new is added to it to replace the old element, which is carried away. Metabolism thus includes three matters: the supplying of a new element, the replacing of the old element with the new element, and the discharge or the removal of the old element so that something new may be produced.
Transformation is a metabolic process, a metabolic change. The Spirit’s work in transforming us involves a change in our whole being — in life, nature, essence, element, form, and appearance. Transformation is not outward change, correction, or adjustment; transformation is altogether an inward, metabolic change of our being. Therefore, we may define transformation as a divine, spiritual metabolism wherein a new element is added to the old to discharge the old and to produce something new.
In 2 Corinthians 3:18 Paul tells us that we are in the process of being transformed into “the same image.” This is the image of the resurrected and glorified Christ. To be transformed into the same image is to be conformed to the resurrected and glorified Christ, to be made the same as He is (Rom. 8:29).
When we behold and reflect the glory of the Lord, He infuses us with the element of what He is and what He has done. In other words, He dispenses this element into us. The result is that we are being transformed metabolically to have His life shape by His life power with His life essence. We are then transformed into His image.
The constitution of life involves the life essence, the life power, and the life shape. Every kind of life has these three things — the essence, the power, and the shape. For example, a carnation flower has an essence and a power. Therefore, it is formed into a certain shape. As it grows with the life essence and by the life power, it is shaped into a particular form. It is the same with the divine life. This life has its essence, power, and shape. The shape of the divine life is the image of Christ. Thus, in 2 Corinthians 3:18 we have the thought of being transformed into the same image, the image of the resurrected and glorified Christ. This means that we will be shaped into the image of Christ. Based upon this fact and upon Paul’s use of the word transformed, we may speak of being metabolically constituted into the image of Christ.
In 2 Corinthians 3:18 Paul also tells us that we are being transformed into the same image “from glory to glory.” This means that we are being transformed from one degree of glory to another degree. This indicates an ongoing process of life in resurrection. Transformation does not happen once for all; rather, it is gradual, from one degree of glory to another. In the pathway of transformation, we proceed progressively from one level of glory to another level of glory. Transformation is a pathway of glory; it increases from one degree of glory to another degree of glory until we are transformed into the image of the firstborn Son of God.
We need to see that the glory is Christ blossoming in resurrection. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He was God incarnate. God was concealed within the physical body of the Lord Jesus. Inwardly there was God; outwardly there was the flesh, and with this flesh there was no glory. In John 17:1 the Lord Jesus prayed, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You.” When the Lord Jesus prayed that the Father would glorify Him, He actually prayed that He would enter into glory through death and resurrection. In Luke 24:26 He asked the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into His glory?” When the Lord Jesus spoke these words, He was already in resurrection. Thus, for Him to enter into His glory was for Him to be in resurrection. This verse reveals clearly that Christ’s resurrection was His glorification.
We may use the blossoming of a carnation flower as an illustration of the glory in 2 Corinthians 3:18 being Christ’s blossoming in resurrection. After a carnation seed is sown into the earth, the seed dies and then begins to grow up. It sprouts, grows into a plant, and eventually blossoms. This blossoming is the glorification of the carnation seed. Because a carnation seed dies when it is sown into the soil, we may say that its blossoming is its resurrection. Glorification, therefore, is equal to resurrection. Christ’s resurrection was His blossoming. This blossoming Christ, the resurrected Christ, is glory.
Furthermore, the resurrected Christ as the glory is the life-giving Spirit. Therefore, we may go on to say that the glory in 3:18 is actually the life-giving Spirit. As previously mentioned, from glory to glory in verse 18 means from the Lord Spirit to the Lord Spirit, because in this verse the glory and the Spirit are synonyms. Therefore, to be transformed from glory to glory is to be transformed from the Spirit to the Spirit. Now we are in the process of being transformed from glory to glory. The more we live and walk in the life-giving Spirit, the more glory is added into our being, and the more we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory. To be transformed from glory to glory far surpasses a mere outward improvement of behavior according to religious or ethical teachings.
Today the glory is the resurrected Christ, and this Christ is the Spirit. This means that the Lord as the glory is the Spirit living in us and dwelling in our spirit. Now that we have the Spirit indwelling our spirit, we need to exercise our spirit more and more by praying, reading the Word, and calling on the name of the Lord. The more we exercise our spirit with an unveiled face, the more we will behold the Lord. As we are gazing on Him, we will also reflect Him. While we are beholding and reflecting Him in this way, His element will be added into our being. This new element will replace and discharge the element of our old, natural life, and we will experience transformation, a metabolic change.
