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Scripture Reading: 3:3, 6, 17-18, 2 Cor. 3:18; 1:21-22; 13:14
Thus far, we have seen that the first Epistle, Romans, is on the Spirit of life, and the second Epistle, 1 Corinthians, is on the life-giving Spirit. The third Epistle, 2 Corinthians, is on the transforming Spirit. This shows that under the sovereignty of the Lord, the arrangement of the New Testament books is in a good sequence. In 1 Corinthians what is stressed is the matter of the growth in life. Paul says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth” (3:6). Transformation is emphasized in 2 Corinthians. In the first Epistle to the Corinthians we see the growth in life, with the indication that this growth is for transformation. The more we grow, the more we will be transformed. However, to grow is one thing, and to be transformed is another thing. Growth needs life, and transformation needs the elements of life.
In 1 Corinthians 3 we see the growth in life for transformation. The word transformation is not used in that chapter, but the issue of the growth in life is there indicating transformation. As God’s cultivated land (v. 9) with planting, watering, and growing, the church should produce plants; but the proper materials for the building up of the church are gold, silver, and precious stones (v. 12), all of which are minerals. Hence, the thought of transformation is implied there. We need not only to grow in life but also to be transformed in life so that we may become the precious materials for God’s building.
Paul continues in his second Epistle to the Corinthians from the growth in life to transformation. In his first Epistle there are many points referring to the growth in life, but in the second Epistle there are not any points regarding the growth in life but a number of points referring to transformation. This is why we say that the Spirit in the first Epistle is the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit who always gives life for the growth in life. In the second Epistle, however, Paul points out to us the things related to transformation. This is why we say that in 2 Corinthians we see the transforming Spirit. The one Spirit is first life-giving and then transforming.
The word transformation is not mentioned in the first Epistle, but the indication of transformation is there. Both the Spirit who gives life and the transforming Spirit are mentioned in 2 Corinthians 3. Verse 6 tells us that “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life,” and verse 18 says that we are being transformed “even as from the Lord Spirit.” The life-giving in verse 6 leads to the transforming in verse 18. In the first Epistle growth in life issues in transformation, and in the second Epistle transformation is the result of the growth in life. Growth in life needs the life supply, but transformation needs the elements of life.
Second Corinthians 1:21-22 shows that this transforming Spirit is the anointing, the sealing, and the pledging Spirit. Anointing, sealing, and pledging are different from life-giving. To give life is to impart life into someone. To anoint someone there is the need of some ointment, and the ointment is full of elements. The ointment may be likened to paint. Paint is a composition of elements. Without the elements, there could not be paint. The more I paint a table, the more elements are put on the table.
In the Old Testament the holy anointing oil was the compound ointment. It was compounded with olive oil and four kinds of spices (Exo. 30:23-25). This holy anointing oil was no longer merely oil but a compound ointment composed of five elements. The more anointing there is, the more these elements are being added to us. In 2 Corinthians the Spirit is the transforming Spirit, and this transforming Spirit is anointing us. To anoint is to put more elements on. With transformation there is the need of elements.
The petrification of wood is another good example of transformation. As the current of water flows through a piece of driftwood, it carries away the old elements and brings in the new elements of minerals. Eventually, the minerals entirely replace the cell structure of the wood. This transforms the wood into a piece of stone by the continual addition of new elements. In like manner, the Spirit transforms us by adding more and more of the divine elements into our being. The transforming Spirit flowing through our being adds into us the divinity of Christ, the humanity of Christ, His human living, His all-inclusive death, and His excellent resurrection. All these elements are carried into our being by the transforming Spirit, and these elements become the factors of our transformation. Therefore, such a flowing Spirit is a transforming Spirit. The Spirit transforms us by putting into us more and more of the divine elements. This is the Spirit anointing us.
The sealing is also a matter of imparting some elements. If I were to stamp a piece of paper with a seal and the seal did not have any element of ink on it, we would not see anything on the paper. Suppose, however, that the seal is saturated and full of the element of ink. When I seal the paper, a mark or an impression is left on it. The mark is constituted with the element of ink. Without any ink element, there is no mark. Sealing is a marking. The Holy Spirit, who is the transforming Spirit, is sealing us all the time, and this sealing makes a mark that people can read. When a new convert who has just believed in the Lord Jesus is happy and full of joy in the Lord, his cousins, in-laws, relatives, and friends recognize and know that he is now a Christian. However, they do not know and they cannot see what kind of Christian he is. After two years of growing in life and allowing the transforming Spirit to seal him every day, this sealing is always putting some elements upon him. After two years all his acquaintances will be able to read some mark upon him. They will testify that he is so extraordinary, fine, and excellent in his living and character. This is a mark built up by the sealing of the transforming Spirit. Anointing imparts God’s elements into us. The sealing does the same thing, but it also forms the divine elements into an impression, a mark, to express God’s image.
The pledge of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself as the pledge. The pledge is a sample, a foretaste. In ancient times the Greek word for pledge was used in the purchase of land. The seller gave the buyer a sample of the soil from the land being purchased. Hence, a pledge, according to the ancient Greek usage, was also a sample. The Holy Spirit is the sample of what we will inherit of God in full. By enjoying the sample, we have a foretaste of what is coming. The anointing Spirit, the transforming Spirit, pledged Himself into us as a foretaste. The foretaste gives us a taste of God; this is also a pledge, a security, a guarantee, of the full taste to come.
By the anointing, sealing, and pledging, all the elements of the Triune God, including the wonderful process that He went through, are imparted into our being. The title the life-giving Spirit indicates the giving of life in a general way. The transforming Spirit, however, involves the anointing, the sealing, and the pledging of the elements of Christ into our being. As we enjoy Him and open our being to Him, the divine elements are being added to us all day long. Since I received the Lord over fifty years ago, I can testify that every day, through the anointing, sealing, and pledging, I have received more of the divine elements into my being. I believe that now a distinct and strong mark is upon me, and I must testify that I am enjoying many riches of Christ. I am also enjoying more of the pledge of God being my portion in Christ. This is all for transformation. In 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 we see that through the anointing, sealing, and pledging, the believers are receiving more and more of the divine elements into their being.
In 2 Corinthians 3:3 we see the Spirit of the living God as the inscribing ink. Before ball-point pens were invented, people who wrote with ink had to refill their fountain pens frequently. At that time, in using a fountain pen, I sometimes forgot to refill it. When I began to use it to write something, nothing was there, because the pen did not have the element of ink. Actually, the transforming Spirit is the inscribing ink. God is inscribing Christ into our being, which is like a piece of parchment. In ancient times they did not have paper so they used parchment. You must realize that you are like a piece of parchment, and God is inscribing Christ into your being. This inscribing, however, needs some element, and this element is the transforming Spirit. The transforming Spirit is the inscribing ink used by God as an element to write Christ into your being. God is writing Christ, yet He needs the transforming Spirit as the writing element. Actually and in reality, this inscribing ink is just Christ Himself.
The more I write with a pen, the more ink gets onto the paper. What I have written may be a composition, but the element of this composition is ink. God is also writing Christ into our being. The element of His writing is the Spirit of the living God as the inscribing ink. The transforming Spirit is the element, the reality, of Christ. God is writing Christ into us with the transforming Spirit. The transforming Spirit is the element for God to compose Christ, for God to write Christ. Therefore, the composition of Christ is altogether done with the Spirit, and the Spirit is the element of the composition of Christ.
What is on us after the writing? As to the element, it is the ink — the Spirit of the living God. As to the composition, it tells us something — Christ. Therefore, the writing ink is the element of Christ. Second Corinthians 3:17 says that Christ is the Spirit. Every day the transforming Spirit is being written upon our being as the element, and it manifests Christ. The ink is Christ, and the ink is also the element of Christ. Therefore, the inscribing Spirit, who is the transforming Spirit, is the very element of Christ, even Christ Himself. This is all for transformation. While God is writing with the inscribing Spirit, we are being transformed.
Also, the transforming Spirit is the Spirit of the new covenant ministry that gives life (v. 6). Within life, there are many elements. The transforming Spirit not only transforms us but also constitutes the New Testament ministry. We must realize that the New Testament ministry is one with the transforming Spirit and that this ministry is a transforming ministry. Paul’s ministry was constituted by and with the transforming Spirit. When Paul was ministering, the transforming Spirit was transforming the saints. When we are listening to a person whose speaking is the New Testament ministry, the transforming Spirit is transforming us. When we are under this speaking, this ministry, many divine elements are being ministered and imparted into our being by the transforming Spirit. Therefore, the New Testament ministry is working with the transforming work of the Spirit. These two actually work together as one to impart more and more divine elements into us for our transformation. When we are under such a ministry, we are being transformed.
Second Corinthians 3:17 shows that the Lord is the Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord, for our freedom. The Lord is the Spirit to free us from regulations, from rituals, from religious teachings, and from the traditional doctrines. At Paul’s time the Old Testament law was a great bondage. The Lord as the Spirit frees us from the bondage of the law. The Jews were under the bondage of circumcision, under the bondage of dietary regulations such as not eating certain things and not eating with Gentiles, and under the bondage of the Sabbath and other Old Testament regulations. Even though one was diseased or hungry, nothing could be done for him on the Sabbath, nor could he do anything for himself. This was a bondage.
Today, however, is not the age of Moses and the law in letters but the age of the Lord Jesus as the pneumatic Christ. The Lord today is the pneuma, the Spirit. Moses, with the letter of the law, put all 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, and many other bondages. Man had been bound with bondage after bondage, but then Jesus came. He is the wonderful One, and He is the Lord. He is also the pneuma, the Spirit. He is not the letter of the law. With Him there is no more bondage, no more Sabbath, no more circumcision, no more dietary regulations, but there is full freedom.
The Lord as the Spirit is freedom to us. We have been freed. Formerly, we were under bondage just like the Jews, and every bondage is a veil. All the bondages are layers of veils. This means bondage, blindness, and darkness, even death. But Hallelujah! Jesus came! He is the Spirit, and He is the freedom. When the heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away (2 Cor. 3:16). Furthermore, the Lord is the Spirit who gives us freedom. Since the Lord is the Spirit, when the heart turns to Him, the veil is taken away, and the heart is freed from the bondage of the letter of the law. We have been freed!
We “are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit” (v. 18). This verse also tells us that we are beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face. Formerly, our face was veiled, and we could not see anything, but the Spirit took away all the veils. Now with an unveiled face we are beholding and reflecting like a mirror. While we are beholding Him, we are being transformed into His image from glory to glory. Beholding is to see the Lord by ourselves; reflecting is for others to see Him through us. When we turn our heart to the Lord, the veils are taken away, we see Christ directly, and we reflect Him. He is the life-giving Spirit. When we see Him in such a direct, open, and transparent way, He as the Spirit infuses Himself into our being, adding more of Himself as the divine element into our being, and we reflect Him to others. This transforms us. This changes us metabolically. We could never be the same as we were in the past. We are being transformed into His image from one degree of glory to another degree of glory, from glory to glory. This is as from the Lord Spirit. Now we see a compound, divine title — the Lord Spirit. This is transformation.
Second Corinthians has a marvelous concluding verse: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (13:14). Some denominations in Christianity use this verse as a benediction. Many times the pastor will quote this verse at the end of the service. At the end of his quoting, the congregation says Amen, and they are dismissed to go home. However, do they really know or have an idea of what this verse really means? Actually, the quoting of this verse is mostly a ritualistic, traditional benediction. The pastor repeats this every Sunday, and the congregation says Amen again and again with little realization of the actual contents of this verse. Actually, if we do not know what transformation is, we cannot understand this verse adequately.
The grace of Christ is the rich element of Christ, the love of God is the rich element of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is the aggregate of the rich element of Christ and God transmitted into our being practically for our spiritual enjoyment. In this fellowship we are enjoying the rich elements of the Triune God, which are the elements for our transformation. Day after day, more and more, the rich elements of the Triune God are being added into our being, and we are being transformed.
This concludes the vision of God’s New Testament economy in 2 Corinthians. Second Corinthians shows that the consummation of the Triune God is the transforming Spirit who is transmitting the rich element of the Triune God into our being to transform us into His image, making us His very expression. This is the transforming Spirit revealed in 2 Corinthians.
