As the life-giving Spirit, Christ is also the freeing and transforming Spirit. Second Corinthians 3:17 says, "The Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." According to the context, the Lord here refers to Christ the Lord. This is a strong word in the Bible, telling us emphatically that Christ the Lord is the Spirit. Furthermore, the phrase the Spirit of the Lord indicates that the Spirit and the Lord are one. The Spirit of the Lord is actually the Lord Himself, with whom there is freedom. The freedom here mainly denotes the freedom from the letter of the law (Gal. 2:4; 5:1). When our heart turns to Christ, we are freed from the bondage of the letter of the law.
Second Corinthians 3:18 goes on to say, "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." As the Spirit, the Lord not only gives us freedom, freeing us from the bondage of the law, but He also transforms us that we may have His glorious image. 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. The image here 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). Through the process of transformation we will go on in God's life from one degree of glory to another degree until we are altogether the same as He is.
The Lord Spirit transforms us that we may have the image of Christ. This implies that the Spirit supplies us with the riches of Christ. When we receive this supply and enjoy the Lord, who is the Spirit, the Spirit infuses us with the elements of Christ's person and work to eliminate and replace our old elements and produce something new. This is similar to the way new cells and tissues are produced in our body through the process of metabolism. This is the transformation spoken of in the Bible. When we experience and enjoy Christ the Son as the all-inclusive, life-giving, freeing, and transforming Spirit, we receive continually His rich supply and are being transformed into the image that is the same as Christ's.
To the believers, Christ is also the door through which God's people leave the sheepfold and come into the pasture (John 10:9). The sheepfold signifies the law; it also signifies Judaism, the religion of the law. The pasture signifies Christ as the feeding place of the believers. In the Old Testament time, God put His elect under the custody of the law, so the law became the sheepfold in which God's people were temporarily kept and protected. When the fullness of the time came, God did not want His people to be kept in the sheepfold of the law any longer; He desired that they come out of the sheepfold and enter into Christ. Thereafter, through Christ God's people can leave the sheepfold and enter into the pasture. Those who came out of the fold of the law after Christ came were people like Peter, John, James, and Paul. Now, since we, the New Testament believers as God's chosen people, have Christ as the door for the sheep to leave the fold, we are not under the custody of the law; we are under the supply of grace.
In John 10:9 the Lord revealed that He is not only the door but also the pasture, the feeding place for the sheep. When the pasture is not available in the winter time or in the night, the sheep must be kept in the fold. When the pasture is ready, there is no further need for the sheep to remain in the fold. To be kept in the fold is transitional and temporary. To be in the pasture enjoying its riches is final and permanent. Before Christ came, the law was a ward, and to be under the law was transitional. Now, since Christ has come, all God's people must come out of the law and come into Him to enjoy Him as their pasture. This should be final and permanent.
Furthermore, in verse 10 the Lord said, "I have come that they may have life and may have it abundantly." This shows us that the Lord is the rich life supply for the sheep. If we as the sheep of the Lord desire to receive Him as the supply, we must remain in Him as the pasture. Today this pasture is the resurrected Christ, the life-giving Spirit, as our abundant life and life supply. In our daily Christian life we should have a definite realization that it is in Christ as the pasture that we enjoy His rich life supply.