For many years I have been trying to understand the phrase “from glory to glory” used in 3:18. I consulted a number of books, but I failed to find a satisfactory explanation. We should not take this matter for granted or assume that we understand it. What is the glory here, and what is the meaning of “from glory to glory”? From glory to glory means 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.
We may use an illustration from our eating to understand the continual addition of the Lord Spirit into us. Suppose you are invited to stay with a family that eats a great deal of chicken. Day after day they serve you a meal containing chicken. In your eating you go from chicken to chicken. Eventually, by eating so much chicken, you will become constituted of the element of chicken. This element will permeate your tissues and cells. In a sense, your physical body will be transformed inwardly into chicken. Day by day and hour by hour Christ, the heavenly chicken, is being added to us, and we are being transformed into His image. This transformation is from glory to glory, from the Lord Spirit to the Lord Spirit.
In a previous message I pointed out that it is possible for the parents of young people in the church to read the Christ who has been inscribed into them. After that message was given, many testified that whenever they visit their parents, their parents read them, paying attention to the change in them because they have had Christ inscribed into them. I believe that eventually some of the parents will give a testimony in which they say something like this: “When our daughter came into the church life, we opposed her at first. But when she came home to visit us, we realized that something about her was different. Each time she came to see us, we noticed that the change in life had become greater and greater. To us the change was marvelous. Finally, after she paid us several more visits, we could no longer resist what was happening in her. We were subdued, and now we are here in the meeting testifying that we have read the Christ who has been written in our daughter.” If the parents of this young person had the adequate understanding, they would speak not merely of change, but of transformation. They would say, “We have realized that over the years our daughter has been experiencing transformation. She is being transformed from glory to glory, from the Lord Spirit to the Lord Spirit.”
In one of the foregoing messages we said that the glory in 3:18 is Christ blossoming in resurrection. We illustrated this glory by referring to the blossoming of a carnation flower. Christ’s resurrection was His blossoming. This blossoming Christ, the resurrected Christ, is glory. Now we are in the process of being transformed from this glory to this glory. This glory is our supply day by day. This is the reason that to be transformed from glory to glory far surpasses a mere outward improvement of behavior according to religious or ethical teaching.
Confucius had much to say concerning ethics. The ethical teachings of Confucius may be compared to copper, but what the Bible reveals regarding the Christian life may be compared to gold. Sometimes in appearance copper can be made to look like gold. This is the reason people may adulterate gold by using copper, just as they adulterate wine with water.
Some missionaries to China could not discern the difference between the ethical teachings of Confucius and the teachings of the Bible concerning the Christian life. I heard certain missionaries say that what the Bible teaches is exactly the same as what is written in Confucius’ books. If this were true, then why did the Chinese need the Bible, since they already had the writings of Confucius? What was the need, then, for missionaries to come to China to teach ethics? In Ephesians 5 Paul talks about a wife submitting to her husband. But Confucius instructed a woman to have a threefold submission: first to her father, then to her husband, and then, in the case of her husband’s death, to her son. It seems that Confucius teaches more regarding submission than the Bible does. However, I do not care for how much is said concerning submission; I care for the nature of that submission. Is it a “copper” submission or a “golden” submission? The submission taught by Paul in Ephesians 5 is golden, but the threefold submission taught by Confucius is copper. Do you want a golden submission or a copper one? Certainly, we all would prefer gold.
If we did not have the Bible, I would surely treasure the writing of Confucius. But praise the Lord that we have the Bible and that it is filled with gold! As I read the Word, I want to gain more and more gold and forget about the copper of ethical teachings concerning improving our behavior. In the Lord’s recovery we are not teaching others merely to improve their behavior in an outward way. That kind of teaching would do nothing more than help the saints to polish their copper and cause it to shine more brightly. We are not here for that kind of religious or ethical teaching. In the recovery we are having our copper replaced with gold. The more we receive the Lord’s supply, the more our copper is replaced with gold.
Today most of us are a mixture of copper and gold. Some may be twenty-five percent gold and seventy-five percent copper. But no matter what the percentage of copper and gold may be at present, gradually the percentage of copper is being reduced and the percentage of gold is increasing. The gold is being added into us to replace the copper and to discharge it.
Let us take as an example a young person in the church life who is submissive to his parents and obedient to them. He behaves himself and is a good boy. Nevertheless, we need to ask him an important question: Is this submission and obedience copper or gold? Does it come from merely trying to behave properly as a human being, or does it come from exercising the regenerated spirit to live the indwelling Spirit? It may be that his good behavior, his submission and obedience, is all derived from himself. If this is the situation, then he is a “copper” boy. His submission, his obedience, and even his love—all are copper. This copper is not glorious, for it is not the resurrected Christ. His behavior may be very good, but it is not glory.