Search
Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 3:15-18
In previous chapters we have considered Romans 6 and 8 and the entire book of Philippians in regard to the experience and growth in life. In this chapter we will consider how transformation is related to our growth in life. The measure of our growth in life depends upon the measure of our transformation.
Second Corinthians 3:15 through 18 says, “Indeed unto this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart; but whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. But 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.” The main point of these verses is transformation.
In chapters 3 and 4 of 2 Corinthians, Paul primarily deals with the ministry of the Old Testament and the ministry of the New Testament. In this portion of chapter 3, he deals with the matter of transformation. God has transferred us from the Old Testament ministry to the New Testament ministry. This transfer is for transformation. Because we have been transferred, we can be transformed.
Under the Old Testament ministry a veil lies over the heart. Second Corinthians 3:14-15 says, “Until the present day the same veil remains at the reading of the old covenant...Indeed unto this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.” The present day refers to the time of Paul’s writing his Epistle to the Corinthians when Paul was carrying out the New Testament ministry. Until that time the Jews still had a veil on their heart whenever they read the Old Testament writings. Today, two thousand years later, it is still the same among most of the Jews.
Apparently, the Jewish rabbis and the Jewish seeking ones love God, but their love of God is according to their traditions. According to a recent news report, the Jewish religious leaders charged their people not to set foot on the Temple Mount, where the site for the temple is presumed to be, lest they accidentally step on the site of the ancient Holy of Holies and offend God. This is an example of their devotion to God according to their traditions. They love God completely according to their traditions and without any light from the Lord. They read the Old Testament, but they cannot see any light.
Many of the Jews are very devoted, but they are also thoroughly veiled. Apparently, their heart loves the Lord; actually, their heart is still turned away from the Lord. In 2 Corinthians 3:15-16 Paul says, “A veil lies on their heart; but whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” This means that whenever the heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. The veil is their turned-away heart. Because the direction of their heart is wrong, they are veiled. If our angle in viewing an object is wrong, we cannot see anything. We have to adjust our view; then we will be able to see clearly. Our self with the wrong angle is the veil. When we turn ourselves to the right angle, we see. At Paul’s time many of the Jews were seeking God, but the direction of their hearts was wrong. Because they were not in the proper direction, they became a veil to themselves. Therefore, Paul says, “Whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away” (v. 16).
In the New Testament the veil is taken away, and the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). In the Old Testament the Lord as the Spirit was not there, because the Triune God had not yet passed through any processes. In the Old Testament, before the processes of incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection, the Triune God remained the “raw” God. But in the New Testament, having passed through all these processes, the Lord became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Now He is no longer “raw”; He is the processed Triune God. In resurrection the Lord as the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit, not only with divinity but also with humanity. His being the last Adam indicates His humanity. The first Adam was only a created man, but the last Adam is God incarnate, the very God with His humanity who became a life-giving Spirit.
God becoming a man and this man becoming the life-giving Spirit are a great mystery. We can never fully understand this mystery. The Triune God passing through the processes of incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection in order to give life to us is the most wonderful story in the whole universe. This story is a real history. The Triune God Himself became a man of flesh. He lived on this earth for thirty-three and a half years. He then voluntarily went to the cross and was crucified for six hours to accomplish an all-inclusive death. He then was buried, and three days later He walked out of death in resurrection. When He lived on this earth, walked to the cross, was crucified, buried, and resurrected, He was in humanity. He carried out all these things in His humanity. By such a process His humanity was uplifted. He was transferred and transformed from flesh into the Spirit. His being transferred involved transformation, a transformation of humanity into divinity. This was the procedure for His being “sonized.” Sonizing is a transformation, a transfer, in which the Lord as a person with divinity and humanity became the Spirit. The Lord being the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17) implies all of this. The greatest history among all the histories is the history of God becoming a man and being transferred and transformed to be the Spirit. The Spirit is the consummation of the divine history.
We also share in this divine history, which has not yet been completed. The book of Acts is an ongoing history of Jesus through His believers; therefore, it does not have an end or a conclusion because it is still being written today. It is a history of God Himself in Christ with His believers as His expansion, enlargement, and increase.
We believers are a part of the enlarged Christ. This is the revelation Paul received when the Lord spoke to him from the heavens as Paul traveled to Damascus in Acts 9. When Paul persecuted the believers of Jesus, he never thought that he was persecuting Jesus. But when the Lord Jesus spoke to him, He said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (v. 4). This word indicates that the followers of Jesus become a part of Jesus Himself.
In 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 there are five items that show how to be transferred and how to be transformed. First, the heart turns to the Lord. Second, the veil is taken away. Third, the Lord is the Spirit. Fourth, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Finally, we are transformed by beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord.
To be transferred is to be transferred from the Old Testament ministry to the New Testament ministry. The main thought in 2 Corinthians 3 is not that we have been transferred out of Adam into Christ. This is the thought of Romans 6—8. Rather, the thought here is that we have been transferred from the old writings, the old teaching, which is according to the letter, to the New Testament teaching, which is according to the Spirit. Thus, we have been transferred from the old ministry to the new ministry.
The New Testament is often taught as history according to the Old Testament ministry in letter without any real light. This kind of teaching results in death (2 Cor. 3:6). The New Testament in one person’s hand may be one kind of book, but in another person’s hand it may be a completely different book. The book of Acts in the hands of some in Christianity has been made to be something of the Old Testament in letter. In my youth I studied the book of Acts in a Christian school. I was taught only such things as the distance from Samaria to Jerusalem and the history of the Samaritans. These things are certainly in the book of Acts, but such a study of Acts is only according to the letter. When the book of Acts is taught according to the New Testament ministry, Christ is ministered into you with light, life, and grace. This ministry of Christ will result in the kingdom of God, which is the church today (Rom. 14:17). The goal of my ministry is to help you to be transferred out of the teachings of the letter into the teachings of the Spirit. The footnotes in the Recovery Version of the New Testament have been written with this goal.
Today we are in the New Testament age and apparently under the New Testament ministry. Often, however, we are not actually under the New Testament ministry. Though we read the New Testament, most of the time our being may be in the Old Testament age and under the Old Testament ministry. Therefore, we must realize our need to turn our heart to the Lord every day. When we turn our heart to the Lord, the veil is taken away, we see the Lord clearly, and we are attracted to Him. The more we see of Him, the more we love Him. The Lord we love is the Spirit today, and where the Spirit is, there is freedom.
In 2 Corinthians 3:18 we behold and reflect like a mirror the glory of the Lord with an unveiled face. The more a mirror beholds an object, the more the mirror reflects the object. The mirror is transformed into the image of its object. We as the mirrors beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the image of the Lord.
Transformation is a metabolic process. First, we are transferred from the Old Testament ministry to the New Testament ministry. Then in this transfer we are transformed. In the transfer itself, nothing metabolic takes place, but in transformation something metabolic happens. Transformation is a metabolic process whereby a new element is added to the original element. Water as one element can be transformed by the addition of another element, such as lemon. Water and lemon can be mingled together. This mingling is a transformation. The mingling of water and lemon does not fully illustrate transformation, because no action of life is at work.
As believers, we have our human life, and the Lord who is the Spirit gives the divine life to us. These two lives are being mingled together. In this mingling there is the action of life on the part of both lives. This action of life from both parties eventually becomes the one action of metabolism. When the two living elements are added together, a metabolic process results, issuing in transformation.
In 2 Corinthians 3:18 the King James Version uses the word changed. The word transformed should be used here rather than changed, because the Greek word here is metamorphoo. The word change by itself does not indicate metabolism or transformation. If my face is pale, I can change its appearance by adding some pink makeup to it. This is a change but not a transformation, because nothing metabolic has taken place. But if I eat well by including some vitamins in my diet and sleep well, my pale face will eventually be changed into a face full of pink color. This is transformation.
In our transfer from Adam to Christ, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, from the old teaching to the new teaching, and from the Old Testament ministry to the New Testament ministry, the divine element was added into our being. Now the mingling together of these two elements has produced the metabolic result of transformation. The way the divine element is constantly added into us is by our beholding and reflecting the Lord with an unveiled face. This is why we need to have morning watch each day. Following morning watch, throughout the day we still need to behold and reflect the Lord who is the life-giving Spirit. As the life-giving Spirit, He gives us freedom. As we behold and reflect, we receive the divine element, which results in transformation.
We are being transformed into the image of the glorified Christ. Our image, which is the expression of what we are, becomes the same as the glorified Christ. He is holy, and we are also holy. He is loving, and we are loving. He is patient, and we are also patient. He is full of dignity, and so are we. This is the growth in life by transformation.
Transformation is from the Lord Spirit (v. 18). The compound title Lord Spirit refers to one person. Today our Triune God is the Lord Spirit. It is from Him that transformation, the mingling of divinity with our humanity, issues forth.
In summary, transformation is to receive the divine element into our being by beholding and reflecting the Lord, which causes a metabolic process to occur. This metabolic process is transformation, the mingling of humanity with divinity, to express the same image of the glorious Christ who is the God-man.
