2 Corinthians, 3:18
Hal Molloy · Aug 22, 2004
2 Corinthians (2004-05), No. 08
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262311436539

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

OK, turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 3. We're going to finish chapter 3 this morning. And I should say this, because some of you may not have been here when we made a decision several weeks ago. There have been several comments from the class concerning zipping through the book of 2nd Corinthians and why not just take it at a pace that is more consistent with, let's see, without us having to to run through the book and and to do maybe some more explanation on particular passages. So we took that into account advice and we said, OK, wherever we are at the end of six months, that's where we are. And we'll probably as I look at it now in terms of where we are now, will probably be about halfway through the book of 2 Corinthians, which says that we'll just continue it then for another six months. So that's kind of where we're at. Okay, 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 18.

So today we're going to be looking at one passage of scripture, one verse. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Now I'm reading from the King James, and I know that your New American Standard is a little different, but we'll talk about that in a minute. This passage of scripture, we've talked in the past about God's eternal purpose, and as you go through from the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation, I've summarized God's eternal purpose this way. He's declaring His glory. He declares it in several different ways.

The heavens and earth declare His glory. We declare His glory as we've seen in a previous class. We declare His glory to heavenly beings, believe it or not. He reveals His glory. He reveals it in many different ways. He reveals it obviously through the Word of God. He reveals His glory as we will see today through believers. He shares His glory as the Spirit of God reveals His glory to us and we behold that by faith. He shares that very glory with us. Not only does He share His glory with us moment by moment, but He also has shared His glory with us, and we'll see that. God is to be glorified. And the only response to all of this is to glorify God. That's our only response.

So as you go through Scripture, this is what you see. So it would be interesting, any time you study a book, any time you study a passage of Scripture, keep this in mind and you'll see where that particular passage or chapter or book in Scripture fulfills His eternal purpose. So that's what I want you to do this morning, just keep in mind His eternal purpose as we go through this one passage of Scripture. And as you've seen, as both Jim and Bob have gone through the previous verses in Chapter 3, that we've seen God's eternal purpose unfolding. in looking at three eighteen.

And I'm going to put it up on the overhead here in both versions, if you will. But we all and the King James has open face. The new American standard says unveil face beholding as in a glass King James or mirror in terms of the new American standard beholding. in a mirror or the glass, the glory of the Lord are changed. And the New American Standard says, being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Now, question, what does all this mean? What is that? What does it mean? What does it mean to you? What does it mean to me in our in our life?

One way to understand what a passage is saying is to find who the subject is and what the main verb is. So the so the subject is we all. and the verb, or the action part, are being changed or transformed. Therein lies, that's the whole sentence, we all are being changed or transformed. You can summarize verse 18 in just those words, by the subject and the verb. That's the main thought in the passage. Everything else in this sentence are just modifiers. They're either prepositional phrases, they're participles, they modify either the subject or the main verb. And in this case, in this particular case, everything modifies the main verb.

So the modifiers tell us different things. the modifiers tell us the direction of the change. That the direction of the change is into or unto the same image, unto Christ's very image. Then the extent of the change is from glory to glory, from ever increasing amounts of glory. The means of the change, in other words, how are we being changed or transformed, is by beholding, as in the glass or in the mirror, the glory of the Lord. So that's the means, that's how we're being changed. Then, God gives us an appointment.

An appointment, there is listed by a prepositional phrase in the Parsiple, which says, with open or unveiled face. Now, we talked about that last week. What does that mean? What does open or unveiled face mean? an unveiled face, and Moses had a veiled face in the preceding verses.

So that's our appointment. The verse talks about the agency of the change. Who is making the change? And it's even as by the Spirit of the Lord. And it's a subordinate clause. You don't have to know all of this. But if you're interested in Greek and taking Greek next year, these are the parts of the sentence. So, we're through. There you go. I mean, it's it's all done. Right. All right. What we're going to do is just take a look at each one of these. Take a look at the subject and the verb and et cetera. If you have any questions as we go through this, don't hesitate to ask.

Now, the interesting thing is this, that in Greek you do not need a personal pronoun for the subject. Like in English, we need a personal pronoun for the subject. So if you say he hit the ball, he is a personal pronoun. You have to put a personal pronoun in he. In Greek, it's all part of the verb. So the Greek has different endings for first person, second person, third person, singular and both plural.

So you don't need, you do not need a pronoun for the subject. But here, there's a pronoun. We. There is an actual pronoun. When there is a pronoun, an actual pronoun, and it's not part of the verb, it's emphasizing something. It makes it emphatic. We. We are being transformed. Not only that, but there's an adjective that describes that describes we. And it's the word all. And it's. And the adjective says we not we all.

Every single believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, bar none, are being transformed. Because there are many believers that don't, first of all, don't realize that this is happening in their life. That this is what God is doing in their life. As I've indicated here, God's eternal purpose of this transformation process, it doesn't depend on how mature you are in Christ. It doesn't depend upon your ministry that God has given to you. It doesn't depend on the spiritual gifts that God has given you, spiritual gifts, singular, or gifts that he's given you. It depends only on the fact that we're walking by faith, abiding in Christ. So that's the dependence in terms of what verse 18 is talking about. All right, let's go to some of the modifiers now, or to the main verb, I should say. Here's the main verb.

We are being transformed or changed or transformed. Now, the word for changed or transformed here in the Greek is metamorpho. Metamorpho. Think about it. Listen to it. Metamorpho. What word in English do we get? metaphor, metamorphosis. OK. In terms of change. And so when you think of change, metamorphosis in art, how do we use that in English? What do we refer to in terms of when we talk about metamorphosis? OK, get a caterpillar to to a butterfly.

So there's a there's a change. OK, this this word in the Greek, as you see, broken down, meta implying change. And then more fat, more fellow means form. And it simply means to change in form. And Morfeo lays stress on the inward change for believers. So we're talking about an inward change. So now the question is, what inward change is being made in your life and in my life? There's a change that's being made. The change that's being made, or this transformation that's being made, it's an inward change and it's a continuous process.

We know that because it's a present tense. It's continual, durative action, always happening. And we know this, that you're not making the change, you're not transforming yourself, I'm not transforming myself, but God is doing it. And we know that He's doing it because it's a passive voice. Passive voice simply means that the subject is being acted upon. Oh, Marilyn, that's a no-no. Not only that, the transformation process is a reality. It is really happening in your life and my life. And we know that because it's an indicative move.

Remember when Christ went up on the Mount of Transfiguration? What happened? was transformed, and how was he transformed? His inward was seen outward. And what was his inward that was seen outward? His glory. And it says in Matthew 17, we won't turn there, that his face shone like the sun, and his raiment was white as light. And so that inward glory became outward. He was transfigured. That glory was suppressed during his whole ministry. And then he allowed Who was it? John, Peter, James? On the Mount of Transfiguration, to see that glory.

So the inward became outward. And that is very true about us. As we're being changed inwardly, that inward glory will manifest itself outwardly. It's intrinsic. It's an intrinsic process. It will happen. Now, was Christ being changed inwardly? Why? Why not? OK. I mean, he was the express image, the exact representation of God the Father. Right. Holy. Righteous. Yes. There didn't need to be a change. Now, here's the big question.

What is God changing or transforming in your life and in my life? Is it the old man? Is he changing our old man? So, for example, I might not be a very patient person. So is this whole process in my life that's going on, is he trying to change that old man so the old man becomes more and more and more patient. The old man becomes more and more and more loving. Is that what he's doing? It's a trick question. Okay, no. What has he done with the old man? He's condemned him. He's crucified him on the cross. He's done everything he's going to do with the old man. The old man is done. He's crucified.

So what else is there to be changed? It's inner change. in your life and my life. Okay, so then there's a new man. So the new man is being transformed or being changed. Now, why and how? Why does the new man have to be changed or transformed? It's an inner process of change. Okay, excellent. Right? It needs to be viewed from a positional and conditional point of view.

Do we have the glory of Christ in our life, positionally? Turn to John 17, verse 22. I'm probably blowing my lesson in terms of sequence and order here, but just to get this point across. John 17, verse 22. Some of you want to read that? Listen, this is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking, and He's praying to the Father, and He's praying to the Father for you and for me. Because in that prayer, he acknowledges the apostles that God gave to him. And then he goes on to say, and those that believe on their word, then he prays for those that believe on their word, that's us. that Father, the glory that you have given me, I have given them. And it's a perfect tense. That means it's a completed action that we have the very glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Where? Positionally. We don't need any more of his glory positionally. But when you became a believer, Did you have any clue that you had the fullest extent of God's glory, positionally, and what that glory is? You didn't have a clue. So what's happening in our life now is that the change that's being made in the new man, or the inner man, is that the new man, or the inner man, is growing in that grace and knowledge, in that glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Coming to know who we are in Christ.

Coming to know what that glory is. I had a picture, but my computer went out and I couldn't. But anyhow. Let's look at some of the modifiers. Let's look at the direction of the change. And the direction of the change and the extent of the change is into the same image from glory to glory. So, we're being changed into Christ's very image. Now, help me. to understand, or if I ask the question, when we talk about Christ's image, what are we talking about?

Okay, the essence of who He is. His attributes. And what are some of those attributes? What is His essence? Same as God. He's holy. He's omnipotent. Omniscient. OK. OK. Love. OK. Righteous. Eternal. Life? And might? Okay. And grace and mercy and compassion and all of those wonderful aspects of his image. And we're being transformed into that very image. Let's talk about omnipotence. Are we ever going to be omnipotent? Are we being transformed so that we become omnipotent and omniscient and omnipresent like he is?

Because that's part of his essence. Those are parts of his attributes. So what's the reason you're a fan of him? Okay, good. That's the reason why we're in him. So, Gail? Does it have to do more with character traits than essence? Okay. And Gail's point is, does it have to do more with character traits than essence?

That's a good point. And Jack makes a good point too, the fact that we're in him. So, he certainly makes his power available to us, right? He makes his might, his power available to us. As long as we're trusting and resting in him, It's available to us. And the thing is this, we have to remember that we are never going to be the creator. The creator is God. We're the creation. So we're never going to be equal to God.

But he is going to be sharing those character, his character with us. He's going to be giving us some of his attributes in terms of utilizing some of his attributes like like like power. OK. Here's the other interesting thing. When it says that we're transformed into the same image, the word image is the word of a cone. We get our word icon in in English. And and this word in Greek, a cone involves two ideas.

It involves the idea of representation and manifestation. That we are a representative. of God, we are representative of Christ's glory. Not only are we representative, but we are utilized to manifest Christ's glory. So that's, when it talks about transforming into the same image, it's talking about the fact that we're representative and we are ones that manifest His very glory. Isn't that neat?

And so God reveals his very glory through us to the world. So as we go through this change process, this transformation process, we both represent and manifest the very character of Christ, his love, his joy, his peace, his long-suffering, his compassion. And when you think about this, All I can say is, wow, just think about this in terms of what God is doing.

He's revealing his glory to us, and we'll see in a minute how he reveals his glory to us, but he reveals his glory to us through his work. And then as we, by faith, trust in what He's revealing to us, He shares that very glory with us. Our inner man, our new man, is growing in the very same image as Christ, growing in glory. Then, as his representative, he manifests that very glory that he's forming in us to others, that others may see Christ.

I asked a question somewhere. I've asked this question before. Can man see Christ's glory from any other source than a believer? Sure. Nature reveals its glory to everyone. Okay. Okay, nature reveals its glory. What aspects of its glory or its essence does nature reveal to man?

His power, his creation, and the fact that he's God. So if you go to Romans chapter 1, it says that the invisible things of God can be clearly seen by the things that are made. So man can look at creation and know two things, as it says in Romans 1. His Godhead, His deity, and His eternal power.

Okay. How about His love, and His grace, and His mercy, and His compassion, and His faithfulness, and all of those aspects? So creation is only a very small portion of the revelation to man. So how else can man know of those other aspects of His glory? Can he.

I believe. OK. Okay, and that is true. A believer is an epistle of Christ, and as an epistle of Christ, an unbeliever can see somewhat dimly, darkly, through us, Christ's very glory. OK. But as I indicate here, this whole process that's going on, it will be completed when we're when we see him face to face. And when I have time to look at some of these passages, I want to do is I want to get through this and then we could come back to some of this. All right. The means of change. and means of change, as it says, beholding, as in the glass or in the mirror, the glory of the Lord.

That is all one word in the Greek. OK. Many different words in in in your translations. But it's one word in the Greek. And the one word is captured. So. And if you take a look at this particular word. This first part of the word is old preposition. Qatar is down. And and you see this Omicron P or Omicron Pi or whatever you call it that comes from the word ops or an eye or sight. OK. And.

And so what this word means, and it's in the middle voice, it means to behold intensely what is being reflected. So we're beholding, we are the ones that are beholding in a mirror something that is reflecting the glory of the Lord. So the question is, what is reflecting the glory of the Lord? Somebody held up their Bible. This is a true, clear reflection of the glory of the Lord. This is the only true, clear reflection that we have. And as I've indicated, what can we behold with our eyes that reflects the totality of Christ's glory?

And creation doesn't do it as we just talked. Creation only reveals the fact that he's deity, he's eternal power. Beholding other believers, you beholding me, doesn't do it. me beholding you doesn't do it, in terms of the totality of Christ's glory, only the word of God. So when it talks about beholding in the mirror, the mirror is the word of God.

I want you to turn to John chapter 17. I had you there a minute ago. John chapter 17, and we will start with verse 22. And again, this is Christ's prayer for you and for me. And the glory which you have given me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one. and you and me, that they may be made perfect in one, or complete in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as you have loved me." Now this is, here's verse 24, which I want to emphasize.

Listen to the Lord's Prayer. This is truly the Lord's Prayer. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, and who's that? Us, believers, okay, be with me where I am. Question, are we with him where he is? Okay, here we go, position and condition again.

Positionally, we are seated in the heavenlies with him, Ephesians 2.6, right? We are seated with him in the heavenlies. We are with him right now. Spiritually, we are with him right now. Do we communicate with him right now? We sure do.

And listen to his prayer here, that we be with him, and here's a purpose clause, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. So here's Christ's desire for you and me, that we be with him. which we are positionally, and we can be with him conditionally, in fellowship with him, for the purpose that we may behold his glory. That's his desire for us.

Now, the interesting thing is this, that the word for behold here in John 17.24 is not this word kaptrzo, but it's theoreo. It's a different word, that we may behold him, theoreo, that we may behold his glory. So now the question is, why the two words? What's the difference in beholding Christ in a mirror, that which reflects Him, which is the Word of God, versus beholding His glory?

If I say this word slowly, what English word does it make you think of? Now, we get our word theater, theater from this word, to theater, okay? And think about theater. When I think about theater, I think about, what's that theater down on Hamden and I-25. Continental, where they have that huge theater, where you sit down and you lean back, and they have the seats that recline, and they have the 3D Dolby surround sound, and a wide screen, and you're theatering.

And when you're theatering, You are getting involved with the characters that you're observing, that you're theatering, that you're beholding. And there is an identification between you and one of the characters. When that character is sad, what are you? Sad. When a character is happy, you're happy. And in the situation, you get so identified that sometimes tears are rolling down your eyes. You get so identified. That's this word, theater. And it's to gaze upon with an interest, because you are interested in that person, and there is an integrity there.

So this word theater, in John 17.24, this word beholding to theater, has an intimacy involved, where this word up in 2 Corinthians 3.18, beholding in the mirror, doesn't involve the intimacy aspect of it. What that word involves is just observing, beholding the facts, the truth. the objective truth about the word Jesus Christ. And then when we understand and by faith take that objective truth and start making it subjective, then that process is this theatering process. Does that make sense? It doesn't, because no one. Huh? It's the real thing. So. So anyway, therein lies the difference. It's between. Second, 15, 3, 2 and John 17, 24. It's making the objective, beholding the cut up. So a subjective.

And the thing is this, Christ's desire that they may be with me and that they may behold my glory, his desire is that we have that close intimacy with him. And the only way we're going to have that close intimacy with him is to know who he is. And to know who he is, that's the beholding in 2 Corinthians 3. It's interesting. We won't go there, but in John chapter 1, the apostles beheld him. It uses the same word, theator, and the word became flesh. And we beheld his glory. We theatered him. He was there. We had this intimacy with him. And we beheld his glory. The glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So they had that intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ as they entered Him, and that intimacy of grace and truth, it became real in their life.

So now, can you say that there's two phases to the beholden death? Maybe 1 Corinthians is initiating the I'm going to take one of your holding of the objective, but then John's page will be beholden to the subjective. Yeah, I, I think that's true. And and that is true. And that is part of the transforming process.

Because what good is it just to have knowledge, just to have objective truth? We can know all we can know, Genesis to Revelation, just know the objective truth. But until we enter into it, and have the intimacy with Christ, I don't want to say it's not a value, it's a value to know the objective truth, tremendous value to know the objective truth. But the thing that the Lord desires is that we enter into Him, that we know Him, that we behold Him, that we theater Him, that we have that intimacy with Him. And the only way we're going to do that is to know the objective truth. That comes first. So as Jim says, can you look at it in two phases or two aspects? And I believe that, yes, absolutely true. It's still a process. I mean, you can know a fact and then also become even not knowing all the facts. Right. Yeah, exactly.

Stop me if I told you this story. You know, I was just in the hospital here in June, right? Put three stints in my heart. And when they do that, they have to go up through your groin, through the artery in your groin, and put a catheter up in your heart and do that whole process.

There's a problem that comes in. And I didn't know it. And you're awake and you can see all this going on. And they take you back to your hospital, to your room, right? On this cart. And I felt great. And I was going to hop from the cart into the bed. And I went to get up and the nurse said, Why not?

I feel, she says, you put strain, you put tremendous pressure on your groin and that artery can open. Well, the artery opened. So I've got blood pouring out of this artery. So they closed the curtain and for two hours these two nurses are working with me trying to stop the bleeding and putting a device on, I forget what it's called, with a pressure that puts like 100 PSI on and they have to let the pressure up every now and then and they have to take your pulse beat to allow some blood back into your leg and all that. So the process took several hours. And then finally when they felt that the bleeding was stopped and it was going to heal, they opened up the curtain.

This guy in the next bed, who I was unaware of, comes over and he says, my name is George. I said, well, hi George. And here's what he says. He says, I have never met anyone that had such peace about them, and such love. And I'm laying there saying, what is this guy talking about? Now, I was talking to the nurses for the two hours.

But anyway, he detected something which I didn't even have a clue, not a clue. So I said, George... If you detected any peace from me, or any love from me, I want to tell you something, it's not my peace, it's not my love. And he looked at me kind of strange, he said, what do you mean?

I said, I'm not the source. The source is the Lord Jesus Christ. Any love or peace that you detected, that came out of me, is all I am, is a branch I'm just a vessel, and I'm plugged in to define my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's what you're observing, is Him.

He sat down. And we had a discussion for the rest of the day, the next morning, and I was hoping, Lord, don't send any visitors. No visitors came and we were able to talk. But anyhow, that's this wonderful process that goes on in our life. And as the Lord is transforming us, it's automatically, to the image of Christ, it intrinsically manifests itself outwardly and we don't have a clue. We don't have a clue.

And that's the neat part about it. Because otherwise, we're going to be there saying, well, I've got to be more patient and gritting our teeth. Oh, I've got to show more love and gritting our teeth. And if it was up to us, that's what would happen. OK. Now, here's our appointment. It says, with open or unveiled face.

Now, isn't it interesting in terms of the contrast here in 2 Corinthians 3.18, with the contrast that is in verse 15, where Moses put a veil on his face. And we talked about that last week, right? As to why he put a veil on his face. And some thought that he put a veil on his face because the children of Israel couldn't steadfastly look upon the glory that was on Moses' face, so he covered his face. Is that the reason why he covered his face?

Now, if you want to be right. If you really want to be right, I think here's the answer. If you look at the text carefully, if you go back to Exodus, if you look at the text carefully, Moses comes down from the mount and he speaks to the children of Israel. And after he speaks, he puts the veil on his face because the glory was diminishing, it was fading away. He goes back into the tent, and he's talking to the Lord, and he comes out, and his face, the glory has been restored back in his face. And he talks again to the children of Israel. And then what does he do? After, it says, after he puts the veil on his face, after the glory is diminishing, Here are we with unveiled face, and here's the question, does God ever want to hide his glory? That's the question you have to answer. Does God ever want to hide his glory?

So that if you take Moses, I don't think God was trying to hide his glory in his face. If you take the word Jesus Christ, as we talked about on the Mount of Transfiguration, Did God try to cover up that glory? His face shone like the sun. His garments were white as light. Was there any indication that God was trying to hide Christ's glory? none. So I don't think that God ever wants to hide or suppress the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we, with unveiled face, are growing from glory to glory. And the Lord wants that glory to be visible to man. He wants man to see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ through us. Amen?