2-Corinthians 3:17-18 Transfiguration

A little quick review. In verses five and six, we looked at not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.

Then in Hebrews, we went through Hebrews 12 last week where we talked about, and we have been brought to, we have been brought to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the sprinkling of blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel. So, Well, we've been talking about the covenant and who the Lord Jesus is. He's one side of the eternal covenant. The Father's the other side. And we as believers have not been brought necessarily to the covenant itself, but to the one who mediates it. And we find as we go through that our association in Christ puts us in a covenant relationship. Not under it, but in it. And so a mediator is somebody in any covenant or transaction arrangement, the mediator is the person who's designated with the responsibility to carry out the tenets of the covenant.

And that's what the Lord Jesus is. And really that's what our ministry is. And I think next week Roger will start to talk about the gospel. And that's part of what the responsibility of the tenants of the eternal covenant is. So following up what has already been said in verse six, Paul concludes in this section at the beginning of verse 17 when he says, now the Lord is that spirit.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the spirit of the Old Testament. Turn wherever you want in the Old Testament, and what do you run into? One theme, and that theme is Christ. He is the spirit of the whole Old Testament. If you just see the letter and don't see him, you've missed the purpose of which God gave this book. The purpose is the Lord is that spirit. And where the spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom.

Even the Lord Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. So the law puts a man in bondage. Christ brings him out into liberty. And that's what this verse tells us. Where the Lord is the spirit, where the spirit is of the Lord, there's liberty. So our verse today, first one is verse 17. I'll repeat it for the fourth time if you're not paying attention. The Lord is the spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty.

That's interesting, because the Holy Spirit is hidden. And it requires faith above all else to kind of get involved with what he's doing. He directs and he controls countless details of our daily life. Those who have faith and are dependent upon his direction will never be disappointed. But the spirit leads according to scriptural directions. That's why that which is called the leading of the spirit, which has not the truth of the word underneath it, for its line of thought and action is necessarily false. H.F. Witherby is a man, I found this today, or this week, talked about this very issue. Witherby is one of those older brethren writers that I really like his stuff.

He says the principle of walking in dependence upon the Holy Spirit must never be abandoned. However, we may fail to carry it out. We must steer by divinely given principles. Even if the winds and waves at times do throw us off course, to give up the Father's principles because of opposing elements is to court shipwreck. Being led by the Spirit is the principle by which the Father deals in grace with believers. Not law, but principles. Outside the circle of the Spirit, men are led by the flesh. It's the only other choice we have. Under the law, his people were in bondage, and they were under the schoolmaster. Now in Christian privilege, the Spirit leads.

Galatians 5.18 tells us if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

The Lord Jesus in glory is the standard of perfection. And the Savior on the earth is the pattern for the walk. So the gospels are the pattern for the walk. The Lord Jesus in glory is the standard. No one's walk is perfect. But the Spirit of Christ who dwells in us is perfect. And as a believer yields to the Father, as one alive from the dead, the desires of the flesh are not fulfilled, and the Spirit will bring forth fruit in his life.

Constable said of verse 16, but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. We talked about that last week. And he says only when the light of the glory of God shines on a person from Jesus Christ, for example, he or she perceives the gospel, can the individual fully understand the revelation. But before God removes the veil, that person can't perceive clearly. This applies to all people. In the context of the verses, it's more to the Jews, but it does apply to every single human being.

Whenever a person comprehends that Jesus fulfilled the Mosaic law, Romans 10.4, that person then understands that the responsibility or the dispensation of grace has superseded the responsibility or the stewardship of the law.

So when we read last week, turn to the Lord, what we really were talking about, it means that they were converted. They came to Christ. When we get to verse 17 now, it helps explain verse 16. The Holy Spirit is mentioned in 3.6, 3.3, and 3.8 as a member of the Trinity. who causes a person to understand and believe that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the law. Paul described the Spirit's function and equated Him with Christ back in verse 14.

So, believing in the Lord Jesus liberates one from sin, it liberates you from death and the Mosaic Law, but not from the responsibility to respond. to respond faithfully to God's new revelation in Christ. Even though the Spirit is Lord, His presence liberates the believer rather than enslaving him.

Romans 8.15 tells us, for you have not received the spirit of bondage or slavery, leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons, whereby we cry, Abba, Father, one of Courtney's favorite terms, Abba, Daddy, Daddy, Father.

So I want to take a little trip through Romans 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. We'll be here for two days. No. This little journey is interesting. Romans 2 tells us about God's judgment of human action. How does he judge us? There's seven principles under which he judges us. He judges us according to truth, which is verse 2, Romans 2, 2. He judges us according to accumulated guilt. He judges us according to our works. He does it without respecter of persons. He's not interested in whether you're rich or famous or poor or not famous. He just judges you as a person. According to performance and not what you know, his judgment reaches the secrets of one's heart and he judges according to reality, not your religious profession.

So chapter three tells us it's a sweeping 14-fold indictment from the Old Testament scriptures. All men, Jews and Gentile, brought in guilty before God so that all mouths might be stopped. But grace is also presented in this chapter, however, for the guilty ones. God's righteousness by another way. Another way than law through faith in Jesus Christ, verses 21 through 31. What you find is many a new believer has obtained relief in his conscious from his sins because he has faith in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That is, he does not see further than Romans 3. He has faith in the work of Christ, but he has not yet come to faith come in faith to Christ. Understand what I just said? He has faith in the work of Christ, but he has yet to come in faith to Christ. He is like a woman who touched the hem of his garment, assured of his work, but not yet acquainted with him. J.B. Stoney. Sorry, back four.

Chapter four tells us that righteousness is also apart from ordinances like circumcision. It tells us that Abraham is an heir of the world, not at all by law, but by promise. And so only believers are all made certain of the blessings. The way and the walk of faith wonderfully exemplified in Abraham, the father of all believers. And the connection of our justification with Christ arisen in verses 23 through 25. Then chapter five tells us the glorious results of this justification. by faith that we have peace with God, we have a standing in grace, we have unlimited access to God at any time. We don't need to go through anybody, we go direct. We have a sure hope of his coming, glory. We have present patience. We have joy in God.

Then you get to verse 12, and the theme changes. It starts to talk about two men, Adam and Christ, and who they are, and they're contrasted. One brings in death to all humanity. The other brings justification of life to all humanity. And then we see that grace transcends everything. Grace now reigns through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So this great chapter naturally falls in two parts. The first 11 verses we have, the blessed results of justification by faith along with the most comprehensive statement in the Bible of the pure love and grace of God, first 11 verses, in giving Christ for us sinners.

The second part, 12 through 21, God goes back in the history and state of human sin, which is talked about in chapter 1, 21 through 320, to Adam, who is our representative head, who stood for us and whose sin became, excuse me, condemnation and death to us, and shows us Christ as the other representative man, whom Adam was a prefigure of. by his act of death on the cross and bringing us justification of life. The emphasis of this passage is that each case upon the fact that the act of the representative and not the one represented brought the results to pass. In other words, Adam sinned, I sinned, consequences. Christ died, I believed, I died with him, brought the results to pass, justification.

Verse six, we find out that we died with Christ. Our baptism being witnessed, being a witness, and we're to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. We're to count that to be so. Why? Because Romans six says, don't you realize that when you were baptized, you were baptized into Christ's death? That he was buried, you were buried, he was risen, so were you. And then we are to present ourselves to God. How? As those who are under the law? No. As those that are alive from the dead and who live under grace and risen ones and do not have sin as a dominion over us anymore because we're not under the law.

Then chapter seven. It's interesting, back up, sorry, keep going. What I did was I had them all on one slide and then I combined them, because I was running into too many slides. Seven is the release from the legal principle that's been illustrated. Jewish believers to whom the law of Moses was given, dead to the law by identification with Christ, Christ made sin, now joined with the risen Christ, thus bearing fruit unto God and rendering glad service to him. First six verses. Then Paul's struggle, which everybody has a struggle, I think, to be holy by the law.

Before he knew of indwelling sin and the principle of sin itself, and his helplessness to do anything about it. and his helplessness against it, that he had died with Christ to sin and to the law, and the law gave sin its power. And he cries out, finally, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And he sees that that deliverance is in a person rather than in a system, or rather than in a law system, or in anything that he can do. His faith had to be outside of himself to Christ.

Then in chapter eight, it's the Holy Spirit's work in the believer as against the flesh, verse one through 13, as witnessing our sonship and heirship, even those suffering, as helping our infirmities by intercession, And this is the great point that all of this I'm leading up to, and Jim read it.

In this chapter and in this verse, there is this thing called God's great purpose for his elect. And that great purpose is that we should all be conformed to the image of Christ. He works everything on the earth for that purpose. We have this wonderful position that we have found out about, but he wants that position to be manifest in our condition, and in order to do that, his purpose is to conform us to Christ. That's our destiny. and God won't be deterred. He has foreordained for that to happen. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.

And then the rest of the chapter is a triumphant response of faith in these things, verse 31 through 34, and the last is the great question, who shall separate us? from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And the answer is nothing and nobody. So at this point, we get down to the issue.

Does your eye rest on him? If you see him in death and you see the sacrifice for your sins, what happens? You're sheltered from judgment. All is accomplished in the eye of God, but you don't enjoy the fullness of the gospel yet. We have assurance of salvation. God testifies of the excellent sacrifice, but we're like Israel, under the shelter of the blood of Egypt, but still exposed to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and because of that, we don't have any peace.

And we can't have peace until every unsettling element between God and us has been removed. There's often an attempt made to approach God through ordinances, religious service, under some sort of law principle. But in order to enjoy peace with God, you must believe that God has raised Christ from the dead. And when our blessed Lord came into the midst of his disciples after his resurrection, what did he say to them? Peace be unto you. When this point is reached, peace is known and the Spirit is received. We understand. But that's still another hindrance.

It's a tendency that we've learned in Corinthians so far That is being now at rest to our own salvation, we may become engrossed with our own blessings. Christ personally not being before our hearts and dominating our minds, the greatest light is overlooked and therefore the natural light gets a place. So in verse 18, Paul says, but we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, just as from the Spirit of the Lord. I'm gonna read another translation of Convery that I really like. And we all, while with face unveiled, we behold in a mirror the glory of the Lord. are ourselves continually, are transformed continually into the same likeness. And the glory which shines upon us is reflected by us even as it proceeds from the Lord, the Spirit. So I found something from Ron Merriman that I thought I'd share.

And he points out four issues in contrast in this verse. First of all, he says, it's not one, but it's all of us. Under the law, only one man radiated God's glory, our friend Moses. But under the new gospel, all radiate that glory. all have unveiled faces. We do not see the Lord obscurely. We all, some more, some less, not just one.

Two, the contrast in clarity. The Old Testament types and shadows are abstract. Under the New Testament, it is unveiled face, no obstruction for any believer, Whether you're a pastor or a pew sitter, you radiate equally, you can equally radiate. The question is, is do we look at the mirror? We see in his word the glory of God. The third contrast is between the transforming glory in the New Testament ministry and the Old Testament fading glory. When we look, we are changed. No one was changed by looking into Moses' face. We see the glory of Jesus Christ and we are changed into that glory. The last contrast between the means, the spirit and the letter. We live the Christian lives by the spirit and not by the law. We have a ministry by the spirit. So unveiled face, the glory of the Lord, same image. I'm not sure we really understand this until we give it a try, until we prove it for ourself. I would illustrate it this way. Let's say you suffer from severe headaches. And someone says, you know how to cure those headaches? You say, no, how? Go get acupuncture. Well, okay, acupuncture will cure it.

I can't know that it will unless I try it. Beholding the glory of the Lord, we have come to a spot where the flesh can't go. Self is in abeyance. In 2 Chronicles 9, three through six, maybe it's a good Old Testament explanation. I'll paraphrase it until I get down to where I want you to understand. This has to do with the Queen of Sheba going to see Solomon.

When the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, the house which he had built, the food at his table, the seating of his servants, the attendance of his ministers, and their attire, the cupbearers, their attire, his stairway by which he went up into the house of the Lord, she was breathless.

Then she said to the king, it was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. Nevertheless, I didn't believe those reports until I came, and my eyes have seen it. And behold, the half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told me. You surpass the report that I heard. As the Queen of Sheba was in the presence of Solomon, The King James says there was no more spirit in her. She was breathless.

My question is, have you ever been there? Would you like the taste of the blessedness of what the Lord Jesus is talking about here? The flesh is in activity when you are beholding the Lord's glory. But you must behold it. We might hear about it continually. and we might really admire the concept, but yet never know it for ourselves. The Queen of Sheba came from the Asmode parts of the earth because she heard about the wisdom of Solomon.

How often we spend our Christian lives trying to get rid of self, but this is only affected by the displacement. It's only affected by beholding the glory of the Lord and we are transfigured. If we want to taste the effect of it, we would long to enjoy it more.

It would not then be the fear of losing some things. You would be filled with more that you could possibly want. The problem is a man who's led by his own wisdom has never yet been in the company of Christ in his glory. If he were, he'd be transformed into that same image.

It affects a moral transformation into the likeness of Christ. No traces of this moral transformation can take place When we are looking on the glory of God in the face of Jesus, it may be easily noticed. How differently does it make us regard the same things so that when we feel them most, we are often through this wondrous power most above them in spirit.

In other words, our little idols cease to be idols. They've been replaced by the glory of the Lord Jesus. It is slowly, I think, that believers or souls enter into the counsel of God and his grace to us and see that it is a manifestation of their own hearts and the person of the only begotten son, who is the center of glory. And that's where the grace which has reached us has its origin in the glory and belongs to it, so to speak.

Understand, beholding the glory of the Lord Jesus is to be in the glory with him. Seeing Christ in glory made Paul a blind man. But he never lost the memory of it, ever. And therefore, when he cries out that he desires to do anything to reach the mark of the high calling of God, towards which he pressed through his whole life, that was where he wanted to be, beholding the glory. Do we know what it is to go in and behold the Lord's glory without a veil? What it is to sit before Him and contemplate Him and contemplate His glories, His beauties, His excellencies?

Do we know that? How blessed to know that now, instead of God claiming from you, according to the law, righteousness, Righteousness is ministered to you from the glorious man in heaven. And it is this spot the spirit of God would lead us to. He comes from heaven to conduct us to the things there. It is a great thing to get a sense of the blessedness of beholding the glory of the Lord. Oh, the blessedness of having boldness to enter into that place where he is. The line is open for each one of us. Stephen was the first to travel that line. It is opened by the Spirit of God.

If you go and read Acts 6, 11 through 15, you will see in 11 through 14 that Stephen had been arrested and accused falsely of all kinds of stuff. And he hadn't yet stood up to give his defense. But in verse 15, listen, I never saw this before. Listen to this. The Jews sitting in the Sanhedrin, fixing their gaze on him, all who were sitting in the council saw his face like the face of an angel. What did they see? They saw the glory of God. But the light of the glory and Jesus in it so transformed Stephen that he was superior to the deadly violence inflicted on him.

Though deeply affected For those who perpetrated it, for one trace of a moral effect of the glory is a greater sensitivity to evil, while there is a marked and sensible elevation above it. Now on the contrary, the nearer we are to the glory, the more we are assured that it's our place. We belong there, and we belong there according to God. And the effect is that your heart is absorbed by Christ personally, more than the Queen of Sheba by Solomon. You behold the Lord's glory. The glory is the expression of God's satisfaction according to all of Christ's attributes.

Is it not that though? I found this interesting information from Louis Berry Schaeffer I thought I'd share with you. The Transfiguration of Christ Incarnate. He says the word transfigure, and I won't attempt to pronounce it, is used but four times in the New Testament.

Matthew 17 and Mark 9, which are the Mount of Transfiguration, Romans 12.2, which is be transformed or transfigured by the renewing of your mind, and here in 2 Corinthians 3.18. And it conveys a meaning which is peculiar and distinctive when contrasted with the next Greek word that I'm not gonna translate, which is translated conforming or transformed. The first word is transfigure. The second word is transform.

He says, where Satan is said to be transformed as an angel of light, in Philippians 3.21, also the believer's body is to be changed. But here's the evidence.

It's evident that a thing is transformed by influences from without. While a thing being transfigured by the outshining of a light or vitality which is resident within, Christ's essential glory was veiled when he was upon the earth, but in the moment of transfiguration, his intrinsic Shekinah glory was allowed to break forth. He was not merely assuming a glory or standing in the radiance of an outward glory which fell upon him. The glory was his own and originated in him and emanated from him.

And this is the truth which lends so much importance to the two passages where transfiguration is mentioned. As I studied that, I thought, so am I gonna be transformed? Are you gonna be transformed or transfigured? I think he's right about the transfigured.

You know why? Who dwells in each one of us? It's the glorified Christ. That glory is to come out of us. It isn't coming on us. It comes out of us because it's Him. Only believers can say that. Romans 12.2 says, and don't be conformed to the world, but be transfigured by the renewing of your mind. Why? That you might prove what the will of God is, that the good and acceptable, which is good, acceptable, and perfect. The believer is subject to transfiguration and not mere transformation.

The divine presence within is a light. And this is to have its normal outshining and will work great changes within the heart where that nature dwells. So there are three vital factors that will help us on the path in the power of spiritual growth. The first one is to study, to know God's purpose in saving us is to conform us to the image of his son. Every time you pick up God's word, you should keep that in mind. I know why I'm reading God's word because I'm moving towards his great purpose, which is conformity.

And I learned through that process, number two, to reckon upon the finished work of the cross as his provision for that purpose. What did he do? He crucified me with Christ. I was buried and resurrected in Christ in newness of life. I have the position, the conformity is the working out of that position in manifestation. and I'm to let the Spirit of God do what he wants to do. He wants to carry out this process in our daily lives. My job is to let him do it. God has but one way of revealing himself, and that is Christ in you. He has no other way of showing himself to man except that Christ lives in us.

Not by the Shekinah glory in a temple built with hands, but in lives that are redeemed, freed, and cleansed as they walk about in this dark world with Christ living in them from the hungry heart by a man named Letgers. The needs generated by the realization of sin, of the sin of self-produced, the necessary motivation and hunger which cause us to focus upon the Lord Jesus in glory in order to become transformed into his image. In Hungry Heart back in April 31st, part of it is titled, Why Struggle? The responsibility or the responsible law, man, is not before God now. It is now the day of grace. Everyone who receives his grace is set free from the dominion of the old man. The appeal to the believer now is not to do, but to look. So in closing, a hungry heart called look and live. As a plant to the sun, we look to the sun, S-O-N, for growth.

I can't conceive of anything more satisfying or more cheering to the heart than the consciousness that I may not only draw near, but that I draw near in answer to the thoughts and interests of the Lord Jesus that he has about me. So much so that, let me back up. and that I draw near to enjoy myself in his presence where there is so much thought and interest about me. It is there my heart goes out in acknowledgement of him, in answer to his deep, gracious, and everlasting love. In closing, by means of the word, look to the Lord Jesus in faith. Exercise the blessed trust that he's yours and that he has given himself to you and that you have a claim to all that is in him. It is his purpose to work out his image in you. Behold him with joyful and certain expectation. The glory that I behold in him is destined for me. Andrew Murray.

For instance, the Word tells me that if I behold the Lord's glory, I shall be transfigured, transformed. It doesn't transform me. How clearly I may see what it states. It communicates to me a very great thing, but it is the Spirit who makes it experiential to me.

Notice our verse. Even as by the Spirit of the Lord, the Holy Spirit wants to do this. This is his job. When the Lord said, I will send a comforter and he said, remind you of everything that I said, he will show you me. They didn't understand that the me was a glorified Christ in the heavenlies. And that's what he intends to do. So let's close.

Our dear Father, how we thank you. This purpose of yours is overwhelming when we take a look at it. We desire to be sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus, beholding his glory, to be transfigured into his very image before we do anything else. We so desire that, and we so look forward, and that's our prayer today, and we thank you. We pray in your son's precious name, amen.