In 2 Corinthians 3:3 we see the Spirit of the living God as the inscribing ink. Before ball-point pens were invented, people who wrote with ink had to refill their fountain pens frequently. At that time in using a fountain pen, I sometimes forgot to refill it. When I began to use it to write something, nothing was there because the pen did not have the element of ink. Actually, the transforming Spirit is the inscribing ink. God is inscribing Christ into our being, which is like a piece of parchment. In ancient times they did not have paper so they used parchment. You must realize that you are like a piece of parchment and God is inscribing Christ into your being. This inscribing, however, needs some element and this element is the transforming Spirit. The transforming Spirit is the inscribing ink used by God as an element to write Christ into your being. God is writing Christ, yet He needs the transforming Spirit as the writing element. Actually and in reality this inscribing ink is just Christ Himself.
The more I write with a pen, the more ink gets onto the paper. What I have written may be a composition, but the element of this composition is ink. God is also writing Christ into our being. The element of His writing is the Spirit of the living God as the inscribing ink. The transforming Spirit is the element, the reality, of Christ. God is writing Christ into us with the transforming Spirit. The transforming Spirit is the element for God to compose Christ, for God to write Christ. Therefore, the composition of Christ is altogether done with the Spirit, and the Spirit is the element of the composition of Christ.
What is on the paper after the writing? Elementary speaking, it is the ink—the Spirit of the living God. Composition wise, it tells us something—Christ. Therefore, the writing ink is the element of Christ. Second Corinthians 3:17 indicates that Christ is the Spirit. Every day the transforming Spirit is being written upon our being as the element, and it manifests Christ. The ink is Christ and the ink is also the element of Christ. Therefore, the inscribing Spirit, who is the transforming Spirit, is the very element of Christ, even Christ Himself. This is all for transformation. While God is writing with the inscribing Spirit, we are being transformed.
Also, the transforming Spirit is the Spirit of the new covenant ministry that gives life (2 Cor. 3:6). Within life, there are many elements. The transforming Spirit not only transforms us, but also constitutes the New Testament ministry. We must realize that the New Testament ministry is one with the transforming Spirit, and that this ministry is a transforming ministry. Paul’s ministry was constituted by and with the transforming Spirit. When Paul was ministering, the transforming Spirit was transforming the saints. When we are listening to a person whose speaking is the New Testament ministry, the transforming Spirit is transforming us. When we are under this speaking, this ministry, many divine elements are being ministered and imparted into our being by the transforming Spirit. Therefore, the New Testament ministry is working with the transforming work of the Spirit. These two actually work together as one to impart more and more divine elements into us for our transformation. When we are under such a ministry, we are being transformed.
Second Corinthians 3:17 shows us that the Lord is the Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord, for our freedom. The Lord is the Spirit, and the Lord being the Spirit is to free us from regulations, from rituals, from religious teachings, and from the traditional doctrines. At Paul’s time, the Old Testament law was a great bondage. The Lord as the Spirit frees us from the bondage of the law. The Jews were under the bondage of circumcision, under the bondage of dietary regulations such as not eating certain things and not eating with Gentiles, and under the bondage of the Sabbath and other Old Testament regulations. Even though one was diseased or hungry, nothing could be done for him on the Sabbath, nor could he do anything for himself. This was a bondage.
Today, however, is not the age of Moses and the law in letters but the age of the Lord Jesus being the “pneumatic Christ.” The Lord today is the pneuma, the Spirit. Moses, with the letter of the law, put all the people under bondage— the bondage of keeping the Sabbath, the bondage of circumcision, the bondage of dietary regulations, the bondage of not contacting Gentiles, and many other bondages. Man had been bound with bondage after bondage, but then Jesus came. He is the wonderful One and He is the Lord. He is also the pneuma, the Spirit. He is not the letter of the law. With Him there is no more bondage, no more Sabbath, no more circumcision, no more dietary regulations, but there is full freedom.
The Lord being the Spirit is freedom to us. We have been freed. Formerly, we were under bondage just like the Jews, and every bondage is a veil. All the bondages are layers of veils. This means bondage, blindness, and darkness, even death. But hallelujah! Jesus came! He is the Spirit and He is the Freedom. When the heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away (2 Cor. 3:16). Furthermore, the Lord is the Spirit who would give us freedom. Since the Lord is the Spirit, when the heart turns to Him, the veil is taken away, and the heart is freed from the bondage of the letter of the law. We have been freed!
We “are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18). This verse also tells us that we are beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face. Formerly our face was veiled and we could not see anything, but the Spirit took away all the veils. Now with an unveiled face we are beholding and reflecting as a mirror. While we are beholding Him, we are being transformed into His image from glory to glory. Beholding is to see the Lord by ourselves; reflecting is for others to see Him through us. When we turn our heart to the Lord, the veils are taken away, we see Christ directly, and we reflect Him. He is the life-giving Spirit. When we see Him in such a direct, open, and transparent way, He as the Spirit infuses Himself into our being, adding more of Himself as the divine element into our being and we reflect Him to others. This transforms us. This changes us metabolically. We could never be the same as we were in the past. We are being transformed into His image from one degree of glory to another degree of glory, from glory to glory. This is as from the Lord Spirit. Now we see a compound, divine title—the Lord Spirit. This is transformation.
Second Corinthians has a marvelous concluding verse— “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (13:14). Some denominations in Christianity use this verse as a benediction. Many times the pastor will quote this verse at the end of the service. At the end of his quoting, the congregation says amen and they are dismissed to go home. However, do they really know or have an idea of what this verse really means? Actually, the quoting of this verse is mostly a ritualistic, traditional benediction. The pastor repeats this every Sunday and the congregation says amen again and again with little realization of the actual contents of this verse. Actually, if we do not know what transformation is, we cannot understand this verse adequately.
The grace of Christ is the rich element of Christ, the love of God is the rich element of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is the aggregate of the rich element of Christ and God transmitted into our being practically for our spiritual enjoyment. In this fellowship we are enjoying the rich elements of the Triune God, which are the elements for our transformation. Day after day, more and more, the rich elements of the Triune God are being added into our being and we are being transformed.
This concludes the vision of God’s New Testament economy in 2 Corinthians. Second Corinthians shows us that the consummation of the Triune God is the transforming Spirit who is transmitting the rich element of the Triune God into our being to transform us into His image, making us His very expression. This is the transforming Spirit revealed in 2 Corinthians.