For us to be transformed, we need to be like a mirror, beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord. Therefore, our faces must not have the covering of any veil so that we can see clearly and reflect accurately. If a mirror is proper in every respect and rightly placed, it is able to behold and reflect an object, but if the mirror is covered with a veil, it loses its function. A veil causes a mirror to be unable to behold or to reflect. In like manner, if we are covered with a veil, we will be unable to behold and reflect the glory of the Lord.
From experience we know there are different types of veils upon the believers. They may be religious concepts, natural concepts and opinions, or racial and national characteristics; these veils are related to the natural constitution in man. In order for the veils to be taken away, our heart must be turned to the Lord. Second Corinthians 3:16 and 18 say that whenever our heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away, and then with an unveiled face we behold and reflect the glory of the Lord. Unveiled face is in contrast to the veiled heart in verses 14 and 15. This indicates that when our heart is turned to the Lord, the veil is taken away (v. 16). Furthermore, the Lord being the Spirit frees us from the bondage and covering of the law (v. 17) so that there is no insulation between us and the Lord, and we can behold and reflect the glory of the Lord with an unveiled face.
By beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord, we are gradually transformed. Beholding and reflecting like a mirror in 2 Corinthians 3:18 is only one word in the Greek. A mirror beholds and reflects what it beholds. These are the two functions of a mirror. Beholding is to see the Lord by ourselves; reflecting is for others to see Him through us.
The glory in 2 Corinthians 3:18 refers to the glory of the new covenant, the glory of the resurrected and ascended Lord, the glory of the resurrected Christ Himself. Christ as both God and man passed through incarnation, human living on the earth, and crucifixion, entered into resurrection, accomplished full redemption, and in resurrection became a life-giving Spirit to dwell in us. When we behold and reflect Him, what He is and what He has accomplished, obtained, and attained become the new elements to supply us inwardly to replace and discharge the old elements in our natural life and to become our reality that we may be one with Him and transformed into His image.
Second Corinthians 3:18 indicates that the goal of transformation is to be “transformed into the same image” of the resurrected and glorified Christ. To be transformed to have the same image as Christ means that we are gradually being conformed to the resurrected and glorified Christ, to be made the same as He (Rom. 8:29).
When we behold and reflect the glory of the Lord, the Lord infuses and dispenses into us the elements of what He is and what He has done. Through His life power and by His life essence, we are gradually transformed metabolically to have His life shape, and through the renewing of our mind, we are gradually transfigured into His image.
Every kind of life is constituted with a life essence, life power, and life shape. As the seed of a carnation grows by its life essence and through its life power, it takes on a characteristic shape. The divine life is the same. This life has an essence, power, and shape. The shape of the divine life is the image of Christ. Therefore, when we grow by the essence of Christ’s life and through the power of His life, we are gradually transformed into Christ’s image, that is, into the image of the resurrected and glorified Christ.