Paul continues by saying that the Lord Jesus is the transforming Spirit. “But we all, with unveiled face beholding and reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18). Doctrine, culture, religion, and knowledge can only confine us. They could never change or transform us. But the living Christ has come into us not to confine us, but to transform us, to change our life. He does this by saturating our whole being with His being. His holy, divine, spiritual, eternal, and heavenly element has not only been added into our being, but it is saturating what we are. Eventually we will be transformed into His image. That means to be transformed to what He is. And this transformation is from glory to glory. It is from one degree of glory to another. Day by day we are being transformed.
I have been in Los Angeles for twelve years, and there are many saints here whom I have come to know in these past years. I am so happy to say that many have become more like Christ. This is the transforming effect of the indwelling Christ. Transformation comes out of His indwelling. His indwelling implies the life giving, the liberating, and the transformation, and it also implies a kind of killing of whatever we are. His indwelling kills our natural being. This is in order that He may transform us into His being.
Jesus is not religion or doctrine. He is a living reality, not only in the heavens, but even more real in our being. And He is all the time moving within us. I realize that especially among the young people, the sky is always fluctuating. At four o’clock in the afternoon the sky was clear, but just thirty minutes later, it is cloudy. It is continually fluctuating. We would all like to be stable; if not in the third heavens, at least in the air. No one likes to be down on the earth. However, whether we are up or down does not make much difference. Jesus is still doing a work within us. I can testify concerning so many young people that I have been watching over during the past ten years. They have been up and down, up and down. But praise the Lord! They had the up and down transformation. Regardless of whether we feel we are in the third heavens or in the deep hell, Jesus is still moving within us. When we are up, He is moving. When we are down, He is moving. He never stops. His intention is to work Himself into us.
The Lord Jesus knows our heart. He knows that we love Him. This is the thing that I treasure so much, to see so many young people loving the Lord. This is the real mercy in the church life. I never saw so many young people in other Christian groups loving the Lord. This is a great grace upon us. As long as we love the Lord, His intention is to work Himself into us. Whether we feel we are up or down, makes no difference. When we are up, He is working. When we are down, He is still working.
I believe that many of us are disappointed when we lose our temper. I don’t encourage you to lose your temper, but neither would I advise you not to lose it. Whether I tell you not to lose your temper or to go ahead and lose it makes no difference. When you lose your temper, you will just lose it. I cannot help you, and the Lord Jesus wouldn’t help you either. This is because He knows, when we lose our temper, He is able to work more within us. Many times Christ has been wrought into our being through the losing of our temper more than through other things. But don’t think that I am encouraging you to lose your temper.
When I was a young man, for a long period of time I was nice to everybody. But I can testify that through that long period Christ was not wrought so deeply into me. Then the Lord took my goodness away. I would praise the Lord in the morning, but I would lose my temper with my wife at noon. Then I would be down. I just couldn’t live. I would say, “O Lord Jesus, forgive me. I lost my temper.” Later I realized that when I was down to that extent, Christ was wrought into me much more.
As long as you love the Lord Jesus, I can assure you that you will be the elevator going up and down, up and down. But praise the Lord! It is through this kind of experiences that Christ is wrought into us. This is especially true in the first stage of our Christian life. To lose our temper affords much opportunity for Christ to be wrought into us.
This is the work of the indwelling Christ to work Himself into us that we may be transformed into His image. It is not merely by studying, reading the Bible, or praying. Of course, I don’t mean that we shouldn’t do these things. But many times Christ has to be wrought into us through our failure. Our failure affords a good opportunity to the Lord that He may work Himself into us. Of course we should not try to lose our temper. That is a kind of performance. But as we are loving the Lord Jesus in our up and down situation, He is working within us as the life-giving Spirit. He is working by His indwelling to transform us. This is His main work today.