Being transformed - what is that process?
Vern Peterman · Mar 6, 2011
What God Is Doing in Believers, No. 10
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926227487891

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, we began turning a corner here. We, for the month of January, looked at what's the makeup of a believer and what part's changing and what part isn't, kind of our spiritual anatomy. And then, last month, we looked at what does the word being conformed mean? What's that all about? And then finally here we have the question that we briefly introduced, what is this being transformed? What is that process?

Why a different word? Why is one used in one place and another used in another place? The Romans 12, 1 and 2 passage that we've been looking at is there at the top of the page. Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God..." Oh, by the way, why mercies? Why plural? Why doesn't he just say, by the mercy of God? Why mercies?

Oh, my. There's a lot, yeah. One of the patterns in scripture is when you see kind of what I'll call puzzling plurals. For example, one of the names of God is not in the singular, El, but plural, Elohim. When you see puzzling plurals, in English that's puzzling. In the Hebrew mindset, the reason for the plurals is to emphasize the magnitude of it. And so when we see here the mercies of God, it's the magnitude of the mercies. The other thing that I would point out is, it's mercies here in the prior verses, it's mercy singular, plural times.

So, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. that you may prove, and you're not proving in a logical or mathematical sense, it's proving out, as in when they do an assay of ore, to prove out that this ore has the content that it claims, or if somebody bring you, say, someone says, okay, this is a gold coin, is it really? You prove it out. You make it evident what it truly is, what the will of God is, and that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Now we shift to the verse that's central to our passage for this month here. Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed in the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit.

We've been talking about conformed here. What's interesting is, and I think I may need to clarify something, I spoke partially. I said the word transformed is only used twice in the New Testament. That's in the New Testament epistles. It is used actually for Christ, but it's translated transfigured, and there's a reason for that.

What we see in the middle of page 1 there, Matthew 17, 1 and 2, and Mark 9, 2 and 3 is almost identical. Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as light.

Transfigured. Now, why wouldn't they translate it, just transform it and have it be the same, even though it's the same word? Pardon? Right arm. That's exactly it. The word is the same, but in one case it's the outward expression. But the transforming that goes on in us, certainly intended to ultimately have outward expression, but the process is inward. So that's why in the context, they translated it differently, even though the words are the same.

So this Greek word translated transfigured is the same as it's translated transformed in Romans 12.2, we've been looking at in 2nd Corinthians 3.18. there was a change in Christ's appearance which further revealed and made apparent his essential glory, the radiant essence of who he is. And by the way, that's the essay, What's Glory? Glory, just a quick definition, is the radiant essence of who he is.

Yes, Steve? Okay, but doesn't transformed have a connotation of miraculous? Yes, and we will get to that. And we will get to that. Actually, both are miraculous, but in a different way, but we will see that. Oh, I'm sorry, what I'm saying is transfigured. Transfigured and transformed are both miraculous. You're right, and we will get to that. Okay.

There was a change in Christ's appearance which further revealed and made apparent his essential glory, the radiant essence of who he is. but did not change who he fundamentally was. His basic identity remained the same. His deity, however, was gloriously revealed. And that's, I think, Carol's point is right on, that it's the outward appearance that was revealed, and that was the transfiguring in Christ's case.

For us being transformed, it's an internal transformation, and we are, in fact, being changed. Yes? Transfigured, perhaps in a slightly different way when we get our new bodies. I think it will be beyond transfiguring, because with Christ's transfiguring here, nothing changed about him, only what was apparent was changed. When we get our new bodies, that will be a radical change, and I will be very glad for it. I don't know about you, but I will be glad for a different one. It will be wonderful. I do want to address a footnote here.

I mistakenly thought that Holly had asked it, but this question, 2 Corinthians 11.14 says, no wonder even Satan disguises, or the King James has transformed himself as an angel of light.

In the King James, they use the English word transforms. It's important to note that there's a different Greek word behind it. And that Greek word, it's a word, the root there is to schematize, okay, is to make a scheme. And so the idea is that when Satan doesn't transform in the same way that we do or that Christ did, what he does is to disguise himself. It is with the intent to deceive. So that's different from the word transformed here.

So anyway, you can read the detail on that at the bottom of page one if you'd like. Let's look at page two at the top here. The transformation of the believer has some points of comparison with Christ's transformation. So here's the comparison that is what's similar, right? In Matthew and Mark, in each case, God is the one who does the transforming and Christ or the believer is the one who is on the receiving end of that transforming. So we are on the receiving end just as Christ was on the receiving end.

A second point, transforming process is miraculous. It is not a natural process originating from the physical realm. It's a miraculous process originating from the spiritual realm. And the third point, the transforming process is based on and is centered in truth and reality as opposed to deception or even mistaken perception. I make that distinction because that's different from the case with Satan, who disguises himself. He has the most specific and deliberate attempt to deceive. So, those three points. Now those are similar, those compare. Here are the contrasts.

The next two bullets go like this, Christ's change as he was transformed amounted to a glorious revealing of who he was and is as deity. It was a change that revealed his essential glory, but he himself did not change. Also, Christ never came from a place of being saved from sin, so His essential glory was not changing, only its appearance. Christ was who He was. We, on the other hand, so this is the contrast, we on the other hand are transformed from glory to glory.

That's 2 Corinthians 3.18.

That is, there is a change of an increase. By the way, an expression that you'll find in the writings of Paul, and it occurs elsewhere in 1 and 2 Corinthians, glory to glory, life to life, death to death, that expression means increasing. That's Paul's figure of speech for increasing. So when you have from glory to glory, it's not, well, what's the change? It's one glory, it's from glory to glory. No, that expression means increasing. increasing. An aroma from life to life means increasing, right? Death to death, decreasing. Yeah, Holly?

Yes, the radiant essence of who God is. You know, we think glory is when the Broncos win the Super Bowl or something, right? That's our earthly definition. But the ultimate glory is defined by God himself, the radiant essence of who he is. Why do I put the word radiant in there?

When there is a new heavens and new earth, will there be a sun? No. Why? Because of the radiant essence of who God is is so intense there will be no need for a sun. The sun, they say, is going to burn out in about a billion years. I don't think we have that long.

I have good news for you, in case that bothers you, the thought. White robes are what we're described as, right? And the gold in heaven may be see-through-ish, I trust the robes are not, right? You can go ahead and sleep well tonight. As we are changed, transformed, God brings about miraculously an increase in glory which is from the Lord Himself as He shares His glory with us. You see that? An increase in glory as He shares His glory with us. Is God's glory changing? No, not really, not fundamentally. But what's an interesting thing is that He shares His glory with us. Is His glory diminished as He shares His glory with us? No. Why? It is everlasting and infinite in resource, right? So if there is neither time nor magnitude limit, as He shares His glory with us, His glory is not diminished.

This is an amazing thing. And what a phenomenal thing that He would share His glory with us. While Christ was always who he was when he was transformed, we are increasing in glory in our continuing person, which is changing in the direction of and toward who Christ is. Wow, this is amazing stuff.

Okay, conformed and transformed, how do these compare? Remember we used the word compare to say what's like or similar. We describe being conformed as God working all things together for good, both physical and spiritual, and that's an important thing for us to realize. God has got both physical and spiritual processes in place to the end that it should be we are conformed into the image of God's Son, Jesus Christ. we compared this spiritual conforming process to the physical conforming process of slowly tapping a flat piece of sheet metal into another shape.

And we had this picture of this kind of concave indentation on the top of a piece of wood. And you start off with a piece of flat sheet metal and you sit there and you don't sit there and go bang and get it all into this concave or convex shape all at once, but tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, Bang, bang, bang. He's just sitting there constantly. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, for the longest time just to make it right. And that's what the Lord is doing. And you say, well, Lord, why did this happen to me? And how come that happened? Hey, you know, you're being tapped and banged, right? So the tap, tap, tap, tap, bang, bang, bang, tap, tap, bang, bang. The Lord is using things in the physical realm, things in the spiritual realm.

And as we come here this morning, each of us is dealing with different things. It's things my body does, things my body won't do. It's things that my kids do and won't do, right? It's things that we're dealing with in situations around us. It's things that the car suddenly does or things that the car is starting to do, right? It's things that the car won't do. It's all these things. It is also all the ministries of the Holy Spirit directed towards you.

So conforming, we gave this example of this flat piece of metal. Let's look at the last paragraph on page 2. But being transformed, though it has the same end result. What's the end result of conforming and transforming? to the image of Christ, right?

So they both have the same end, but they're different processes. And God intends both of those happen in parallel. So one is bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, and another one, as Stan has pointed out, is miraculous. Though it has the same end result which we could summarize as Christ-likeness, It is accomplished also by God, but through an entirely different means and process.

While we will explore that means and process further, that transforming takes place miraculously. Miraculously. On the one hand, you look at conforming and some of it, especially on the spiritual side, has a miraculous element to it. But a lot of people don't see what's happening. And some of the physical things that go on, you just say, well, that just is a natural process.

Conforming, in great part, may look like just natural processes, but the miracle is that God works that all together to the end that we're conformed to the image of Christ. However, I will explore that means and process further, that transforming takes place miraculously in the Word is used for the transforming of a butterfly egg to a caterpillar to cocoon to an adult butterfly. The change in form is profound and is a change that takes place from information that God has built into each cell of the egg and the caterpillar and the cocoon and the butterfly.

It's an internal process, isn't it? It's something that happens inside. One way to, where, I mean, from, like, let's say a butterfly, where does that change come from? I mean, do you see something happen? Does some little fairy come along and, you know, wave a wand and all of a sudden this egg breaks open and then you have a caterpillar and then the fairy comes along and, do you see anything on the outside? No. How, where does it come from? It's coded into the cells. It comes from within.

And I'll use this as sort of an analogy. God builds into the believer this new DNA so that this transforming process takes place. I use that as a kind of figure of speech when I'm talking about literal DNA. Yes? Well, wouldn't it come with the new self, which is a creation, and so if you go back to the original picture where you have the physical and then you have the spiritual side as a believer, you get these other... Right. You have the new self.

This new self or new man has a new nature, a new history. And so what's happening is God has this miraculous process in place that the continuing person, who we are fundamentally, the thing that makes Stan, Stan. The thing that makes Laban, Laban. Who we are is being changed into who We are in Christ. And that's the miraculous and transforming process, and it's inside.

It happens internally, much like this change from an egg to a caterpillar to a cocoon to the butterfly. It happens from something inside and from the nature of who we are. not because something happens on the outside. Right? Yes. That's our actual body and personhood, like a cocoon. And all these other processes are going on on the inside that people can't see. Yeah. And you think, well, heaven's sake, why can't I get the kids to do this? Why am I going through this problem? Why am I struggling with this? And we think, what is happening?

And the reality is God has two different processes in place. And if you look at it, that's the end result God's aiming for. If it's God's job to keep life really cool and everything's smooth and we don't get anything ruffled, then he's doing a terrible job. But that's not what God's doing. And that's one of the reasons why this elective and the topic we're studying is so important, is that we understand what God's doing.

And it's actually exciting, because rather than saying, okay, how long until the next problem? And, you know, how much do I have to moan and groan about that one? It's instead a matter of looking at what God is doing externally, and things we can see, internally, in things on the spiritual side, as well as the transformation, which is a miraculous process, all those are aimed towards making you more like Christ.

That's the end goal, not just to make life just smooth like you're on a free, smooth highway to heaven. Yes? So then praying is kind of, sort of praying to help you get through things more easily? rather than trying to change your situation. Yeah, the tendency is to say, Lord, change the situation. I want everything to be really cool. When in fact, prayer is about relationship. Prayer may in fact be more about changing us. And does the Lord, hold on, hold on, don't forget, does the Lord and can the Lord change circumstances? Yes, He most certainly can.

And I'm not saying we shouldn't ask for that. But the basic assumption should not be, God, change my circumstances magically and then that will be cool and I'll be happy with you. Or if you don't, I'm going to be really disappointed. Rather than thinking that, it's saying, Lord, I want you to work in this situation, which you will, and I want you to change me. and help me to learn the lessons that you have in place, and help me to do the changing that conforms me to the image of Christ.

Alan? I was going to say, in my own life, that's one thing I usually have been doing is praying for God to take me out of the situation. Yeah. Instead, God, what are you wanting to do in the situation, and the right direction is not out of, but through. The Lord can and may take us out of a situation, but we shouldn't assume that that's automatically God's first choice. It may not be. As a matter of fact, if you're sitting there praying, Lord take me out, take me out, take me out, you may be praying entirely contrary to God's will. Other thoughts?

Well, everybody must be completely baffled or else it's abundantly clear. Okay, let's take a look at the top of page three. We have a couple of these illustrations of this metamorphosis. That's the anglicized form of this Greek word. Metamorphosis in the biological realm helps illustrate the degree and kind of change involved. as long as one does not apply the physical, biological change too rigidly to the spiritual change. What you see there is the picture. Here's this, you know, going around from egg to caterpillar to cocoon to butterfly, and then the metamorphosis process, for example, of a frog. So one principle in common between the biological metamorphosis and the spiritual metamorphosis is that, and I have this in bold here, while the radical change called metamorphosis takes place in an environment, the change takes place largely on the basis of internal direction and information rather than through the external circumstances. It's one of, it's not the only, it's one of the big differences between being transformed versus conform. See the difference there? Yes. This is kind of a stretch, but is this... That's okay, I'm pretty stretchy. Okay.

Any basis where people that believe in reincarnation get any of their information, like you have to just, you have to keep coming back as something else until you get it right? Well, this cycle idea certainly fits with that. The only thing is, a butterfly Well, a butterfly just, you know, it goes through a life cycle and it's done, you know. There's no evidence that it goes and, you know, dies and becomes another butterfly. The reincarnation idea is that you have endless cycles of reincarnation.

There's also no evidence that karma is doing anything here, right? So, and by the way, karma is, you know, it's kind of crept into our lingo. But karma is completely graceless. Absolutely no grace with karma. And that's one way. It's not just that you only live once. But reincarnation has in it the principle of karma which is absolutely zero grace. None. And it's based on your own works? It's based on your own works and what you do will absolutely turn around and come back into the next life in the teaching of reincarnation. Karma is pure graceless.

So are you saying both of these pictures on top are an example of metamorphosis? Yes, the one is the butterfly, the second one is the frog. But if you see the second one, if you really think about that, it's not a whole lot different than the process of the human being, except for that the first one, two, three, four, five, six steps basically are internal. or you're developing inside, and then when you're born, you're born in the image of your parents, so to speak, right? So this is just an external Yeah, yeah, and this is the idea from the egg, then you go through this, but it's all external. Yeah. Right. Whereas in the human being it's internal, but we go through a similar process. Right.

And that's one reason why I show these, is just to get the idea of radical change from inside, but also we need to be careful about trying to be too strict and applying that to the spiritual process. Whereas the first one actually is a clearer picture, I think, because that's from a worm to a flying butterfly. So it's almost a different species. Now, let me ask a question. We haven't addressed it here, but I'll ask it because I think it's an interesting one.

Is the unbeliever also going through a change? But he's becoming conformed, not transformed, right? You think of, OK, the unbeliever is also going through a change. And that change is what? What's the caution that Paul gives in Romans 12? Don't be conformed to this world. This world has a conforming process that is in action, taking place with the unbeliever. He says, don't get into that.

God's got something else in mind for you. So people in the world are also going through a change, and it's not a good one. Yes. Yes. Yes. But there's a hard. There's a defiancy. Yeah. You know. We could get off on that quite a bit, but I think that's one point. There's a hardening that can take place. The Holy Spirit has a ministry with the unbeliever working against that hardening, but that can take place, and it involves that person hardening their own hearts against the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

There is also, Romans 1 describes it, a cascade of sin. Sin that tends to get worse and worse. That's the propensity of sin. There's also what we've looked at earlier, and that is what Jesus warned the Jewish leaders. If you don't believe, you're going to die in your sins. There is the accumulation of sins.

Isn't that something? They are positionally accumulating sins. And they don't leave them behind and get away with it. It just sticks to them and it's like an incrustation of like barnacles or something and barnacles and kelp and it just grows and grows and grows. It doesn't get better, it gets worse. Yeah.

Death to death, life to life. And by the way, that's a reference to the aroma which is the spiritual sense, right? Spiritual sense equivalent to the physical sense. Okay. Let's take a look here. 2 Corinthians 3, 17 and 18, as we pointed out when we were teaching through it, is in the form of a chiasm.

The first and the last part of the chiasm refer to the Holy Spirit. And so there is that. Then in the middle of the chiasm is the glory of the Lord. There are two ways the chiasms emphasize. One is by repeating. Secondly, by something being in the middle. The glory of the Lord is in the middle, and is emphasized by being in the middle of this chiasm.

So you see that form there. What's interesting is there is, in the second part of that chiasm, a process that we do, and in the next part, a process that the Lord does. What do we do in 2 Corinthians 3, 17 and 18? So, we do the beholding. That is our part. That is our part. And what does God do? The transforming. So, there is our part described and God's part described.

And we'll get into that in more detail in the next couple of weeks here. What's interesting here, this term, the Spirit of the Lord, is used here for the last time in the Bible. It's used exactly, this exact same term, used 28 times in the Bible, starting with Judges 3.10. So the Spirit of the Lord, here's a term that's used again and again and again, this is the last time. Very interesting.

Yes? Does glory always refer to Shekinah glory? No. The Shekinah glory is a specific expression of it with Israel, right? But glory always means, in the biblical sense, the radiant essence of who he is. So that when you say, does it always mean that? Yes, it always means that. The Shekinah glory was a specific expression of it with Israel as they were out in the desert, right? As they crossed into the promised land, what disappeared?

What stopped happening? The pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day stopped. What else stopped? What were they eating? Manna. That stopped. And the other thing is that as they were out in the desert, their clothing and shoes didn't wear out. Isn't that interesting? The Lord's miraculous provision for them out in the desert suddenly ended as they went into the promised land. That gives Norm one less thing to worry about. Because it didn't wear out then. Okay, cool. Don't worry, the robes won't wear out. Yep, there we go.

Now, the last paragraph there, the word pair, we all, refers to all believers, as it also does, this is a pattern, 1 Corinthians 10.17 and James 3.2. The we all is in contrast to the nation of Israel in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3. That's why he makes the difference. Here is Moses leading the children of Israel. That's them. The we all is us in the church. See the distinction there?

We all in the contrast to the nation of Israel who had been under the law who was not at liberty and who were spiritually blinded and hardened by trying to live the law of Moses out of their own strength and resources. Blinded. Hardened. By trying to live out the law. Hmm. Interesting. We all are those from whom the veil has been removed and lifted. What's the veil referring to? In 2 Corinthians 3. Pardon? Yeah, what's interesting, the veil is only used on those who are under the law. And what does it say?

The ability to see things spiritually is diminished by the law. If we try to do it on our own. If you are under law, Where, I mean, if you blow it, and you can blow it in a way you didn't even think of, if you blow it, what's the cost of blowing it under the law? It could be death.

Just like, you know, it described before they got to the promised land, they caught a guy collecting firewood on the Sabbath. So what'd they do with him? They killed him. I mean, you'd think, what's wrong with collecting firewood? Well, it's on the Sabbath, that's death penalty. Where's that going to put your focus? Is that going to put your focus on the Lord? No, it's going to be putting your focus on the calendar, because you're going to be looking like crazy for what day is it?

Because you don't want to be picking up firewood on the wrong day. No. They could gather the manna only for each day. The only exception to that was right before the Sabbath. They could collect for two days because why? One is it wouldn't keep except for the Sabbath. So this stuff is really miraculous. One, it couldn't keep for the Sabbath. Secondly, what else? You didn't get manna falling on the Sabbath. So this wasn't some natural process, this was something quite supernatural.

Wearing a veil means being under the Mosaic Law, and the veil over the heart is removed when a person turns to the Lord in faith. Looking to the top of page four, the believer's beholding of the glory of the Lord is not enhanced by the law. Is the law good and holy and righteous? Yep. The problem is we're not up to it. That's the problem with the law. The law is good. It's holy and righteous. Even the New Testament. Paul, the apostle, telling us we die to the law, says the law is righteous and holy and good. But we're not up to it. So God says we're not going to do it that way. Yes.

Well, wasn't the shining in Moses' face because he was in the presence of God, not the law? So that shining, which he had to cover with the veil, actually came from being in the presence of the Lord. And the law actually takes away from that because you stop focusing on the law, but you start focusing on your own personal works, right? takes the glory of the Lord away. Well, there's one more step. 2 Corinthians 3 reveals one more truth, and that's one of the reasons why Moses put the veil on, so they couldn't see the fading glory.

Does God intend fading glory or growing glory? Growing glory, that's exactly what he says here. And does it happen because I try harder and harder to keep the law? Do we have law lessons here at Holly Hills so we have more glory? No, the law has a characteristic of diminishing glory. The transforming process has a characteristic of growing glory, increasing glory, in sharp contrast to one another. So that's another reason for seeing the distinction between law and grace. Not to call the law bad. Not to bad mouth the law. God gave the law. But just to recognize, as God does too, the law is good, but we're not up to it. So God says, I'm going to do it in an entirely different way. Not declining glory.

Not the veil so that people can't see, you know, this glory is getting weaker and weaker. This glory is getting more and more dim. You know, you can imagine people come out and say, you know, you're not as glorious as you used to be, you know. And so instead of getting those kind of comments, you put a veil so people can imagine that you're still as glorious, right?

No. God's intent is that we grow in glory to glory as he does the transforming. Our part is beholding him. And it's one or the other, folks. It's either decreasing glory with the veil, or it's entirely by grace, increasing glory where he shares his glory with us. Increasingly growing, glory to glory.

The law, and I'm looking at the top of page four, the law in 2 Corinthians 3 always veils something, always preventing open beholding. Always preventing open beholding. Now the next thing, the four words beholding as in a mirror are translated from just one Greek word. The Greek word is used, the word is the word for looking into a polished first surface mirror. for which the Corinthians were famous.

The Corinthians were famous for, and it's very interesting, is both 1st and 2nd Corinthians, 1st Corinthians 13, and this verse here, 2nd Corinthians 3.18, both 1st and 2nd Corinthians have reference to mirrors. Paul doesn't talk about mirrors with anybody else, but interestingly, he writes to the church that's in the city famous for its mirrors, using the word in each book that he writes.

It also shows up in James 1.22-24, But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror. Once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. what, and examine each of these passages, and I think James is most clear, but the intent is that we understand the mirror to be the Word of God. The mirror to be the Word of God. Yes? What is the significance, I have a bunch of mirrors at home. Yes. I have several of my first service mirrors, but what is the significance of a mirror?

Glass was developed in the century right before the New Testament era. The glass that they had at that time was almost entirely milky, ripply, bubbled. And so you couldn't have, with the technology of the time, you couldn't have a mirror with the silver on the back. It was not technologically available as yet, and wouldn't be for some time. So they would have, for example, if you had a glass object, and it's possible that, for example, at the Last Supper they actually used glass containers. Those were available, but the surface was always bubbly and rough. and the glass was milky. They hadn't figured out how to make a completely smooth piece of glass and get all the milkiness out of it and keep the bubbles out. They hadn't figured out that technology yet. So all the mirrors were first surface, that is, not through glass and then reflecting back, but instead a very polished metal surface. So, So in the three passages in the New Testament that refer to a mirror, the mirror represents God's written word, as is evident especially here from this book of James.

The glory of the Lord is the center of Paul's chiasm. That's on the prior page there. The center being typically the focal point of the chiasm. Glory is the radiant essence of who God is. All glory is derived from God. since he is the ultimate source of all glory. Glory is not a thing or a commodity. You can't go to the store and say, I'd like a pound of glory, please.

Wrap it up. I'll take it with me. That's an order to go. You can't do that. Instead, glory is very personal. I think that's something else. It's not a commodity. We can't chop off a pound of it. Glory is personal. And if you want to go to the source of glory, that's personal. Beholding the Lord talks about relationship. It's not just some sort of technical process. See that? It's about relationship.

Our Lord even prayed in the final hours of his earthly life that we would see his glory, which will be ultimately fulfilled when we see him face to face. Here's John 17, 26, in the middle of page four. Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am so that they may see my glory, which you have given me. for you love me before the foundation of the world yes okay so since he's saying that you have given me obviously this is a prayer as man to God his father because his glory is also infinite is it not in his in his other state other than man yeah and and let's let's think also one other thing what does Philippians 2 say that Christ left behind his image of God. In other words, what he did is he left all the privileges and powers that he had to enter into time and to become a man, fully man and fully God. Now, he would very soon be in a place where he would actually...

Was the cross an awful thing? Painful? Beyond imagination. But in the end, it was glorifying. And Christ would be glorified, especially as we see in the resurrection. This being transformed is an ongoing action which is the Holy Spirit's work upon each one of us as we behold the Lord, the living word through his written word. Got that? We behold the Lord, the living word through his written word. Holly? How would you kind of say that new DNA is the Holy Spirit? It is worked through the Holy Spirit, may be a good way to put it.

In other words, the new DNA, so to speak, is actually, this is the new person, the new man, and the new nature, and the new history that drives this transforming process. See, the world's in a process where, you know, it's downhill. He says, God says, by putting you out of Adam and into Christ, we've got an entirely different process which could never before have taken place. You are now in Christ, the new man, and the new nature is placed permanently within you, and the continuing person is now, instead of being conformed to this world, instead of now being increasingly enveloped and covered and choked and gagged by this accumulation of sins is instead in his righteousness we're being conformed to the new man and the new nature and transformed as well. This being transformed is an ongoing action which is the Holy Spirit's work upon each one of us as we behold the Lord, the living word, through his written word.

The words into the same image refers to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, similar to the words in Romans 8.29. The phrase from glory to glory is Paul's expression of increasing from one level to another, increasing glory. Just as a chapter earlier, Paul wrote 2 Corinthians 2, 15 and 16, for we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, from one an aroma from death to death, increasing death, to the other an aroma from life to life. increasing death, increasing life. That's Paul's figure of speech, and he uses it consistently.

Being transformed is from the ministries of the Holy Spirit, bringing the Word of God to us, bringing us to the Word of God, and bringing about the transforming process in each one of us. We'll be taking a look at that more next week. What is God doing to make this happen? So putting these truths together, we have come to the place where we can expand and explain them. Next page.

2 Corinthians 3.18 expanded and explained, it goes like this, having died in relationship to the law and living by God's amazing grace, are right now continuing to behold as we read and hear the written word of God, seeing as one who looks into a mirror the glory, the radiant essence of who God is, the glory that comes from Christ himself. And we are in fact in the very process of being changed and transformed into the same spiritual character growing from one level of Christ's glory to the next.

And every part of this beholding and transforming is from the God-given ministries of the Holy Spirit. Does that come across clear? This is a work of the Lord. Do we have a part? Yes, and we'll take a look at that two Sundays from now. But this transforming that is going on, I think this gives us the understanding and perspective. And it is all miraculous.

It's different from being conformed. It's different from being conformed. If you go out to your car and you get ready to try to start the car and it goes... That's being conformed. When we gather here this morning and we behold the Lord through His Word, that's being transformed. See the difference? Okay, let's pray. Question? Comment?

I was just going to ask, since Jesus was born from Mary and his father was the Holy Spirit, I presume that half of his DNA was from the Holy Spirit, right? Yeah, it would have to be. Is it DNA change? He always was. That's one of the reasons why earlier I made the point we are coming from a place of having been in Adam and then being changed increasingly into our new man, our new nature, our new history. That change is taking place. He's not coming from that place, is he? So he did not undergo the same process that we do. So he was kind of like perfectly man and he was perfectly God at the same time. Yep.

Okay, let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for what you have made clear here. Thank you for the processes that you're taking us through. Our gathering together here as a church body. are looking at your word, are looking to you throughout the course of the days and the weeks, as well as the things that you have going on both about us and within us. All these things are directed towards making us increasingly into the image of your Son. And Lord, we thank you for that. We thank you for the insight into what this is.

And thank you that when things happen in our lives or when things don't happen, when we're frustrated that something doesn't happen fast enough or that it's happening too fast or whatever the issue seems to be, thank you that we can understand what you're wanting to do in our lives rather than simply being frustrated and perhaps even angry with you. Thank you for the insight and the understanding, and we pray that you would bring these truths to heart. In Jesus' name, Amen.