Second Corinthians 3:18 says, “We all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” In this verse Paul speaks of the Lord Spirit. The Lord Spirit may be considered a compound title like the Father God and the Lord Christ. Again, this expression strongly proves and confirms that the Lord Christ is the Spirit and the Spirit is the Lord Christ.
The Lord Spirit is the transforming Spirit. He transforms us into the image of the Lord of glory from one degree of glory to another degree of glory. Today we should be constantly under this transforming work. Surely this experience of Christ as the Lord Spirit is full of enjoyment.
We are told in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that we are being transformed “even as from the Lord Spirit.” The preposition from here indicates that transformation is proceeding from the Spirit rather than being caused by Him. 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 dispensing the divine life, nature, element, and essence into us. 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, because 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.
Christ as the Lord Spirit is now doing a transforming work within us as He imparts Himself into us as life. When we open to Him, behold Him, and reflect Him, we are under the process of transformation. All that He is, is transfused into our being. Through being transfused with what He is, we will be completely transformed. Today we are being transformed into His image from one stage of glory to another, until eventually we will be the same as He. This takes place only by means of Christ as the Lord Spirit.
The glory in 2 Corinthians 3:18 is the glory of Christ as the resurrected and ascended One, who as both God and man passed through incarnation, human living, and crucifixion, entered into resurrection, accomplished full redemption, and became a life-giving Spirit. As the life-giving Spirit, the resurrected Christ dwells in us to make Himself and all He has accomplished, obtained, and attained real to us, that we may be one with Him and may be transformed into His image from glory to glory. When we with unveiled face are beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord, He infuses us with the elements of what He is and what He has done. Thus, we are being transformed metabolically to have His life shape by His life power with His life essence; that is, we are being transfigured, mainly by the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:2), into His image. This transformation is from glory to glory, that is, from the Lord Spirit to the Lord Spirit. The Lord Spirit is upon the Lord Spirit. This means that the Lord Spirit as the rich supply is continually added into our being.
To be transformed is to have Christ added into our being to replace what we are so that Christ may increase and our natural life may decrease. As the process of transformation takes place within us, the old element of our natural being is carried away, and the glory, the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit, is added into us to replace the natural element. The process of transformation is both organic and metabolic. It is organic because it is related to life, and it is metabolic because it is related to a process in which an old element is discharged and a new element is added.
There is a difference between change and transformation. Transformation involves the process of metabolism. However, something may change in an outward way without any inward metabolic transformation. In the process of metabolism a new element is supplied to an organism. This new element replaces the old element and causes it to be discharged. Therefore, as the process of metabolism takes place within a living organism, something new is added to it to replace the old element, which is carried away. Metabolism thus includes three matters: the supplying of a new element, the replacing of the old element with the new element, and the discharge or the removal of the old element so that something new may be produced.
Transformation is a metabolic process, a metabolic change. The Spirit’s work in transforming us involves a change in our whole being—in life, nature, essence, element, form, and appearance. Transformation is not outward change, correction, or adjustment; transformation is altogether an inward, metabolic change of our being. Therefore, we may define transformation as a divine, spiritual metabolism wherein a new element is added to the old to discharge the old and to produce something new.
In 2 Corinthians 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. To be transformed into the same image is to be conformed to the resurrected and glorified Christ, to be made the same as He is (Rom. 8:29).
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 2 Corinthians 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 will 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.