Second Corinthians 3:18 says, “But 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.” According to this verse we are being transformed into the same image as the Lord by the Lord Spirit. Revelation 4:2b-3a says, “Upon the throne there was One sitting; and He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance.” It says here that the Lord on the throne was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance. Revelation 21:11b says, “Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, as clear as crystal.” This refers to glory. First Corinthians 3:12 says, “But if anyone builds upon the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, stubble.” Gold is first, then silver, and lastly precious stones.
God’s work in us is to make us mature in life. God begins His work of making us mature by working His life into us. From then on, God unceasingly works in us so that He can work His life out from within us. When He has worked His life out from within us, we will have reached maturity. When God puts His life into us, He is mingled with us. When He works His life out from within us, we are mingled with Him. When He comes to mingle with us, this is the principle of incarnation. When we mingle with Him in the Holy Spirit, this is the principle of death and resurrection.
Every person who has been saved experienced the first aspect of God’s work at the time that he was saved. The principle of incarnation is God’s entering into us and mingling with us. This is what transpired at the time when we were saved. What God is doing in us now is the second aspect of His work—the principle of death and resurrection. This aspect causes us to be worked into God and mingled with God. When this second aspect is completed, we will be mature in His life. At that time we will express His image and be conformed to His image. When we express His image, spontaneously we also will express His glory. Image and glory are actually one.
The result of being transformed into the Lord’s image is that the Lord is expressed from within us. This is the work of the Spirit. At the time of our salvation, the Spirit entered into our spirit. From that time on, the Spirit desires to spread out from our spirit into every part of our being—our mind, emotion, and will. When the Spirit is able to do this, our mind, preferences, and opinions will have the element of the Spirit and will bear traces of the work of the Spirit. Then, whenever someone comes in contact with us, they will sense the flavor of the Spirit in all of our thoughts, preferences, choices, decisions, and opinions. This is because the Spirit has expanded and spread out from within us. The Spirit who has expanded and spread out from within us is our glory.
If we allow the Spirit to do this, others will sense glory with us. They will also feel that we are noble and different. Sometimes we may come in contact with a particular saint whom we know is saved but whose speaking, conduct, thoughts, and sentiments cause us to feel that he is a person who is base and dishonorable. Why is this? It is because he has not allowed the Spirit to spread out from within him to all the parts of his being. On the other hand, sometimes we may contact a saint who does not have a high status in the world but who gives us the sense that he is noble, honorable, weighty, and bright. Although we may be more educated, have more learning, be of a higher status in the world, and be more capable and wealthy than he, we have the sense that we are lower than he is. This sense proves that this person has the glory of God with him.
This glory is the Spirit of God being expressed from within him. Therefore, when people contact him, it is like they are contacting the Lord. When people are with him, they feel that they have the presence of the Lord. This is because this person has the Lord’s image. His speaking, opinions, feelings, and moods all have the image of the Lord, because the Lord is being expressed from within him. The glory and image that we sense are the expression of the Spirit, and the Spirit is the Lord Himself (2 Cor. 3:17). Thus, the Lord as the Spirit is manifested from within him. This is a mature person.