The Spirit’s transforming work is different from Christ’s secreting work. Without Christ’s secretion of life, the Spirit has nothing as an element with which to transform us. Christ secretes His resurrection life over you and following this the Spirit works to transform you with the life element. In other words, the transforming work of the Spirit continues the secreting work of Christ. When we received Christ, we received God the Father as the divine nature into us. Then as we remain in the death of Christ, we enjoy His life secretion in us. The Spirit then uses this secreting life to transform us. The secreting work is only an addition to add more of the divine life to our natural life, but the transforming work is to change our being metabolically. In order to change any living being metabolically, there is the need of some new element. This new element is the very life which has been secreted into our being. After Christ’s secretion, the Spirit comes and continues to transform our being with this secreted life. Then our entire being will be gradually transformed not only in form but also in essence.
Second Corinthians 3:17-18 shows us the transforming work of the Spirit. Verse 17 tells us that the Lord is the Spirit. The One who died on the cross was Christ the Lord and the One who proceeded out of Him was the Spirit. Now we see, however, that the Lord is the very Spirit who proceeded out of Himself. This is a mysterious fact which is beyond our understanding. Verse 17 goes on to tell us that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. The Spirit of the Lord is the Lord Himself, with whom is the freedom from the letter of the law.
Verse 18 indicates that we need to behold the Lord with an unveiled face. Originally our face was veiled, but many of us today have unveiled faces. This means that our heart has turned to the Lord so that the veil has been taken away, and the Lord as the Spirit has freed us from the bondage, the veiling, of the law, so that there is no more insulation between us and the Lord. Now with an unveiled face we look at the Lord. The more we look at the Lord, the more He secretes the resurrected life over our being. While we are looking at the Lord, we are being transformed. Verse 18 tells us that we “are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” Eventually, the transforming work is done by the Lord Spirit. The Spirit who transforms us is “the Lord Spirit.” The Lord is the One who secretes life into you, and the Spirit is the One who transforms you with the life secreted into your being by the Lord.
The Spirit’s transforming work is with His bountiful supply of the divine element (Phil. 1:19) for the building up of God’s building (Gen. 2:12b; 1 Cor. 3:12a; 1 Pet. 2:4-5). Consummately, the transforming work of the Spirit issues in the New Jerusalem, which bears the image of God for His expression. God appears like a jasper stone in Revelation 4:3, and the New Jerusalem, having the glory of God, shines like a jasper stone (Rev. 21:11). Also, the first layer of the wall’s foundation, as well as the entire wall of the New Jerusalem is built with jasper (Rev. 21:18-19). This indicates that the main material in the building of the holy city is jasper. Since jasper signifies God expressed in His communicable glory (Rev. 4:3), the main function of the holy city is to express God in bearing His glory.
The transforming work of the Spirit produces the precious stones for God’s building. Pearls which are used for the gates of the holy city bear an attractive appearance. Pearls are good for attracting, but they are not good for the building of the wall. To build the wall there is the need of some solid material. Pearls are good material for the gates since they are for attraction, but precious stones are the solid material for God’s building of the wall. The transforming work is an advancement of the secreting work. The secreting work is the initiation and the entrance into the holy city, but the transforming work is for the building of the wall. Life secreting makes us into pearls, but for us to be precious stone there is the need of a further step—the transforming work of the Spirit.
First, we have the golden nature as a gift from God the Father; second, we are enjoying the secreting work of Christ to make us pearls; and third, we are experiencing the transforming work of God the Spirit to make us precious stones. God the Father imparted His divine nature into you as a piece of gold and this gold is a part of the city proper of the New Jerusalem, the holy mountain. Then if you stay in the death of Christ, you enjoy His secreting work to add more and more of the divine life with the divine element into your being. Finally, God the Spirit will continue by using the secreted life to transform your entire being from a piece of rock to a jasper stone, which is good for the building of God’s eternal dwelling place. This dwelling place has been initiated today in the church life and we are proceeding toward the ultimate consummation, the New Jerusalem.