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So, 2 Corinthians 3:18 provides the biblical foundation for understanding that growth in holiness comes through beholding the glory of Christ. How does the Holy Spirit work this transformation in us? John Piper suggests this: “The work of the Holy Spirit in changing us is not to work directly on our bad habits but to make us admire Jesus Christ so much that sinful habits feel foreign and distasteful.” Sam Storms puts it this way, “ doesn’t eliminate human effort, but rather makes it possible. This does not mean we just sit back and passively wait for the Spirit to sanctify us. But the Spirit comes and shines in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. Our hearts are hardened our minds are blinded. Apart from the work of the Spirit, we do not see Jesus Christ as glorious. Two more things to notice about our text.įinally in our text, the source of this transformation: “For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” The One who enables us to behold the glory of the Lord, and the One who does the work of transformation in our hearts is the Holy Spirit. We get a taste for His glory that seems better to us than all the things the world has to offer (1 Pet. Our hearts are stirred, and we love Christ and see Him as infinitely glorious. What becomes visible in this transformation is our behavior, our character, our manner life.īut also, as we behold the glory of Christ our affections are transformed. The same word is used in Romans 12:2: “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” As we behold the glory of the Lord our thinking becomes less conformed to the world and its values, and more conformed to Christ. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:16 “our outer self is wasting away,” but “our inner self is being renewed day by day.” So the transformation now is inward. 8:23).īut that is not the transformation we experience now. We groan, eagerly awaiting the redemption of these lowly bodies (Rom. Paul says in Philippians 3:20-21, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body.” We long for that. What does this transformation look like? One day it will affect our whole being, including our bodies. And as we behold him, we are being transformed into His likeness, restoring God’s purpose in creation. It’s the real thing, Jesus Christ, the image of the invisible God (Col. It is interesting this word “image” is the Greek word eikÿn, from which we get our English word “icon”. Second Corinthians 4:4 makes that clear when it speaks of “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” The text says we are being transformed into “the same image.” What is that? It’s the same image we see mirrored, namely Christ. But the main point of 2 Corinthians 3:18 is that through beholding this glory of the Lord we are transformed into the same image. This raises all kinds of questions about how we see it and what exactly we see. In fact, we could say the mirror is Christ because “believers see in Christ the reflection of the very nature of God.”5 The glory of the Lord is “mirrored” in the face of Jesus Christ. So, what we behold as in a mirror is God’s glory as it shines forth in his Son. Paul also speaks in 4:4 of “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Colossians 1:15 calls Christ “the image of the invisible God.” Hebrews 1:3 declares that “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.” John could say, “We have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father” (Jn. So “the glory of the Lord” is God’s glory revealed to us in the face of Jesus Christ. What is it that we behold as in a mirror? Nothing less than “the glory of the Lord.” Paul describes it further in 4:6 “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
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