In 3:18 Paul tells us that we are in the process of being transformed into “the same image.” This is the image of the resurrected and glorified Christ. The “same image” means that we are being conformed to the resurrected and glorified Christ, being made the same as He is.
When we behold and reflect the glory of the Lord, He infuses us with the element of what He is and what He has done. In other words, He dispenses this element into us. The result is that we are being transformed metabolically to have His life shape by His life power with His life essence. We are then transformed into His image.
The constitution of life involves the life essence, the life power, and the life shape. Every kind of life has these three things-the essence, the power, and the shape. For example, a carnation flower has an essence and a power. Therefore, it is formed into a certain shape. As it grows with the life essence and by the life power, it is shaped into a particular form. It is the same with the divine life. This life has its essence, power, and shape. The shape of the divine life is the image of Christ. Thus, in 3:18 we have the thought of being transformed into the same image, the image of the resurrected and glorified Christ. This means that we shall be shaped into the image of Christ. Based upon this fact and upon Paul’s use of the word “transformed,” we may speak of being metabolically constituted into the image of Christ.
In 3:18 Paul also tells us that we are being transformed into the same image “from glory to glory.” This means that we are being transformed from one degree of glory to another degree. This indicates an ongoing process of life in resurrection. Transformation does not happen once for all; rather, it is gradual, from one degree of glory to another.
We need to see that the glory in 3:18 is actually Christ blossoming in resurrection. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He was God incarnate. God was concealed within the physical body of the Lord Jesus. Inwardly there was God; outwardly there was the flesh, and with this flesh there was no glory. In John 17:1 the Lord Jesus prayed, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You.” When the Lord Jesus prayed that the Father would glorify Him, He actually prayed that He would enter into glory through death and resurrection. In Luke 24:26 He asked the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” When the Lord Jesus spoke these words, He was already in resurrection. Thus, for Him to enter into His glory was for Him to be in resurrection. This verse reveals clearly that Christ’s resurrection was His glorification.
We may use the blossoming of a carnation flower as an illustration of the glory in 2 Corinthians 3:18 being Christ’s blossoming in resurrection. After a carnation seed is sown into the earth, the seed dies and then it begins to grow up. It sprouts, grows into a plant, and eventually blossoms. This blossoming is the glorification of the carnation seed. Because a carnation seed dies when it is sown into the soil, we may say that its blossoming is its resurrection. Glorification, therefore, is equal to resurrection. Christ’s resurrection was His blossoming. This blossoming Christ, the resurrected Christ, is glory. Furthermore, this Christ as the glory is the life-giving Spirit. Therefore, we may go on to say that the glory in 3:18 is actually the life-giving Spirit. Now we are in the process of being transformed from this glory to this glory. The more we live and walk in the life-giving Spirit, the more glory is added into our being, and the more we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory. To be transformed from glory to glory far surpasses a mere outward improvement of behavior according to religious or ethical teachings.
Finally, we are told in 3:18 that we are being transformed “even as from the Lord Spirit.” The word “from” here indicates that transformation is proceeding from the Spirit rather than caused by Him. The Lord Spirit may be considered a compound title like the Father God and the Lord Christ. This expression again strongly proves and confirms that the Lord Christ is the Spirit and the Spirit is the Lord Christ.
In order for the Spirit to do His transforming work in us, there is the need for a certain essence to be dispensed into us by the Spirit. Therefore, the Spirit is working in us to transform us in life, nature, essence, element, form, appearance, and every aspect of our being by the dispensing into us of the divine life, nature, element, and essence. This means that the divine life, nature, essence, element, and being are dispensed by the Spirit into our life, nature, essence, element, and being to cause a metabolic change within us. This change is organic, for it is a change in our being by another being, in our life by another life, in our nature by another nature, and in our element and essence by another element and essence. This transformation is from the Lord Spirit.
Home | First | Prev | Next