Knowing and Growing – 2 Corinthians 3:12-18

We're looking at 2 Corinthians 3.18 and particularly focusing on verses 12-18, as you see there in the footer. And even with that, kind of the final focus is verse 18, or 17 and 18, the last part of the passage. There are several reasons why this, for me, is just a hugely important and momentous passage.

One of those is that years ago, this was probably 40 plus years ago, John Fisher, who was sort of a musician in leading at the Bible Church that Nancy and I were going to, had a recording. We still have it in vinyl. The New Covenant was the name of the recording. It was essentially this chapter set to music and themes and even a certain amount of humor built into it, but also very pointed spiritual message. So that's one of the things, when I came here as a candidate, that was almost 16 years ago, first Sunday in June, they asked me to teach on this passage. So I did that.

I've taught over several times here at Holly Hills and we'll actually be taking a look at it again several months from now for something we're actually just going to touch on and that's the it's a process from April until about October we'll be looking at what are the processes that God has in place as lifelong processes for believers But what's God doing in the life of the believer is the summary way of asking the question. What are the things, what are the processes that God has on an ongoing basis in the life of the believer? And so we'll be touching on that briefly, but actually spending about a month on that topic again as we continue through this Knowing and Growing series.

So let me start by just reading through the passage. So this is 2 Corinthians chapter 3. So I'll just start with verse 1 there. Are we beginning to commend ourselves again, or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you, or from you? You are a letter written on our hearts, known and read by all men, being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence we have through Christ toward God, not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

But if the ministry of death and letters engraved on stones came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently on the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?

9. For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. For indeed what had glory in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. For that which fades away was with glory much more that which remains is in glory.

Therefore having such a hope we use great boldness in our speech and are not like Moses who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. But their minds were hardened, for until this very day at the reading of the Old Covenant, the same veil remains unlifted because it is removed in Christ. But to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart.

But whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away, and now the spirit of The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

So there's the passage. What we're going to do is briefly address some things in the passage in a very summary fashion and kind of jump into verses 12 through 18. So one of the things, if verses 1 through 6 carry the theme of letters, and that's an if-not-perhaps, kind of logical statement, verses 7 through 11 carry the theme of glory.

And one other point to make in this, the letters on stone, what's that referring to? The letters on stone. The Ten Commandments, exactly. Actually the word stone is lithos. In geology, one of the things we studied is lithology. It's the study of rocks or stones. So, lithos is the word in the Greek, and in the Greek Old Testament, that's the word for the stones that the Ten Commandments were on. Now, who wrote the Ten Commandments on those stones? God did it, and so those were engraved by God on stone, given to Moses, and what happened to those stones? The first ones. And did it happen by accident or what happened? Moses got mad. He was ticked off. Smash! And is that quite what God had in mind? No, but God mercifully, graciously provided a Second set. Now, where were those stones supposed to go?

Was that the whole law and all the law and nothing but the law? No. You're shaking your head no. Why? Why was that not the whole thing? First of all, it's only ten, right? And how many laws in the whole Law of Moses? 613 total, 365 like the number of days, are things not to do. So a little over half is things not to do. And the remaining are things you're supposed to do. So 613 laws, so this was only 10 of them. It's not going to cover the bases at all.

So what was Moses supposed to do with those tablets? You go carry them around all over the place and show everybody the tablets and see God wrote this? What was he supposed to do with that? You put it in the Ark of the Covenant and then who looks at it after that?

The High Priest. And actually, does the High Priest go in and take the cover off the Ark of the Covenant? No. So here's an amazing thing. The Ten Commandments, as they were written on stones, were never to be seen again. Not even by the high priest. So people make a big deal about the Ten Commandments and yeah they are a big deal within the entire Mosaic Law but these tablets never to be seen again. What was written on them was included in the Law of Moses. So Moses wrote those down as the Ten and that's how we have some record of what was there but the actual stones themselves never to be seen again.

So then, verses 12-18 carry the theme of the veil and those who are veiled. So we're going to notice four things here. One, the reason for the veil, that the veil changes location. The veil is not always in the same place in this passage. Number three, how the reading of the law impacts the hearts of the Jews and what does it do? It softens their heart or Isn't that interesting? Here is the inspired Word of God, because the law is inspired. The inspired Word of God, the Jews read it, and their hearts get hardened by it. Now that's really kind of astounding.

And then the fourth thing, what it means to be unveiled. Who is unveiled? Church-age believers are unveiled, but the veil applies to those Jews who are under the law of Moses. So now, just to get some insight here, Moses and his veil in Exodus 34, 33-35, when Moses had finished speaking to them, speaking to who? the Jews out in the wilderness, right? He put the veil over his face, but whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take off the veil until he came out. Unveiled face means what? Moses would take the veil off, what does having an unveiled face mean?

Direct communication with God. Ah, big. Direct communication with God. And we're going to see a further insight beyond that. So one thing, it means direct communication with God. And whenever He came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what had been commanded, the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone. Whoa, he's been talking to the Lord and he's got the glory of the Lord on his face, right? And so Moses would replace her veil over his face until he went to speak with him, to speak with God. So what happened over time is Moses would put the veil over his face still when the glory was fading. Why? So they wouldn't notice that the glory was fading. So first it's his face is too bright, I can't look at him. Eventually, his face isn't so bright, and I want to cover that up.

Yes? Did that go on all through the time that they were in the desert? Probably not, but during the time he was on Sinai and going back and forth and getting the law, because this thing went on for a period of time, he'd go and get the law. and he'd go back up on the mountain and come back and hear some more, and go back up. So this went on for a period of time.

So now, another distinction to make throughout this chapter, we have the word for spirit, and in the Greek there is no capitalization of spirit, so it's discerned from context. So spirit is in the Holy Spirit, and spirit, lowercase s, as referring to our own spirits, or in some cases referring to that which is spiritual.

It occurs seven times. Why is that number important? Perfection. Right. This is a number frequently occurring in Jewish writings. We see it, for example, in the Gospel of John. We see it in the books of Moses starting with Genesis chapter 1 and on into Exodus 20 where it says in six days the Lord created the heavens and the earth and the seventh day he rested. So that number seven is big, we see it in the Gospel of John, we see it in the book of Revelation repeatedly. Here we see it seven times in the chapter and three of those times referring to the Holy Spirit is in verses 17 and 18.

So one of the other things we see big picture, the ministry of the Spirit, which is the ministry of righteousness, has an extraordinary hope. That extraordinary hope inspires a boldness before the Lord and before others. We all, with unveiled face, because we boldly go before the Lord, and by the way, Moses could go before the Lord, could any of the rest of the Jews.

No, what would happen if they also tried to go up on the Mount? I mean, this is death. Besides that, this thing is uninviting. You've got thunder and lightning and smoke, and this is not an inviting thing, and if you touch the mountain, you're going to die.

This is not inviting, and Moses is the only one who gets to go up, and when he goes and sees the Lord, and I mean that in terms of spending time with the Lord close, He can go then without veil. We all, and that's how many of us, all of us who believe with unveiled face. So we get to be like Moses, personal and intimate. And by the way, Moses went up and unveiled face and then he went down and what did he do with the veil? He put it on, right? And he went back up, unveiled the face and then he come back down and put the veil on. It was back and forth and back and forth. But we all with unveiled face, permanently.

See the difference? Boy, this is really an amazing contrast. So we have there, it's not like the hope of Moses, I hope the Israelites don't notice that my glory is fading. I think I'll keep this veil on so that they can't see that it's fading. Now, something else we point out, verses 14 through 16 have a poetic pattern, and the poetic pattern after starting with, but their minds were hardened, this is the response of the Jews to the law, first is, for until this very day, and you see the dotted line, but to this day, and see that? It's a rhyming, not a total repetition.

And then the next one, at the reading of the Old Covenant, whenever Moses is read. And then the next one, the same veil remains unlifted, or the veil lies over their heart. And then the final part, because it is removed in Christ, and the veil is taken away whenever a person turns to the Lord. And so those things are in parallel.

So this is a poetic pattern. There's also, in verses 17 and 18, a chiasm pattern. So now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty, in verse 17. And at the end of verse 18, just as from the Lord the Spirit, but we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, which is beholding as a process, that's why we focus on process, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, another process, And then the middle part of the chiasm, the glory of the Lord. That's the turning point.

And so think about it, when we want to emphasize something in our writing, what do we do with the lettering? Our main options are bold, italics, and underline. Sometimes people will use like all caps, which in this internet era means you're shouting, right? But nonetheless, we use letter types or enhancements to the lettering to emphasize.

They didn't use that then, but this was one of the ways they did emphasize is by repetition, and then in the center of the chiasm, the turning point was also the focal point of the whole thing. So the focal point in this is what? The glory of the Lord. That's the focal point, right? All right, so now we're on to page two in the handout.

So stepping through this one at a time, but we all, so the word prayer we all refers to all believers in the body of Christ starting from Acts 2 as we've been going through the 1015 service on to the day of the rapture, but we all is in contrast to the nation of Israel who had been under the law and who had been blinded and hardened by it.

How is it that God's inspired word blinds and hardens. Wow, how does that happen? Does that mean we should stay away from it? What's the deal with that? That's what the law was designed to do. Oh, and so here's the law is holy and righteous and good. That's out of Romans, even Romans 7. So here is the law, holy and righteous and good, but it hardens their heart.

Why would God ever intend that? Why would He say, here it is, knowing full well that that's what's going to happen? Why would He do that? Yeah. Yeah, part one, we're going to fail. And here's the Apostle Paul admitting it in Romans chapter 7, starting with verse 7.

So one of the things is, what's the problem with the law? Is the problem with the law? The law is holy and righteous and good. The problem is not with the law itself. The problem is we are not adequate for it. And so you run into groups of Christians, and we hold up to the ten, or we take away the Sabbath and change that to Sunday, and we add tithing. So you get Christians that will do that, you get other Christians that add more things to it, and then take away other things and divide up the Law of Moses like it was never intended. So you get people and they're applying the law, but the problem is man was never adequate for it.

God addresses that common need in the church by saying, okay, Christ died on the cross for us in the church. to separate us from the law so that righteousness gets lived out, not by the law, but by the life of Christ. Does Christ have a difficulty living in and through you to be holy, righteous, and good? No, he does not, and so God solves our adequacy problem by making us in the Spirit, and the Spirit in us, by Christ in us, and we're in Christ, and actually put all of the New Testament together, we're in the Father, and the Father's in us.

And that sounds like it's all the same thing, but it's not. It means, each of those things means different things. We're in the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are in us, and each one of those means a different thing for each person of the Trinity.

But God does that. God makes us adequate. Not of ourselves. We have no adequacy. The adequacy comes from God. And it is all by God's doing. All we do is believe. God says, that's it. I'll take it from there. Don't even try to do anything else. And so believers who place themselves under the law really don't understand. And that's part of what Paul's saying here.

He calls living under the law, and he even means the Ten Commandments, because this is the lithos, the law on stones, and he uses that word here in this chapter, and it's in the Greek Old Testament, where Moses has the stone, the lithos, right? Yes? You know, in Romans 5.26, the law came in so that the transgression would increase. Yes, isn't that amazing? That the transgression increases. What? Yes. We would see an inadequacy in the law. And so we look at it. Here's Israel under the old covenant. Do they have the adequacy to follow the law?

No. They're going to break it even without anybody else knowing. What other people know is the Acts. But bottom line, they're going to break it without knowing. Paul gives the example in Romans 7, thou shalt not covet. And by the way, does everybody else know that I'm necessarily coveting? No. It can be, to others, invisible.

Yeah, you can express it. Boy, I sure would like what that house that guy has. But it's really between me and the Lord. It is possible that I don't disclose that, and the Lord knows, and I know it, We're the only ones that know. Isn't the law a picture of perfection?

Those people who think that they can comply with the law are prideful. And so actually it builds pride within a person just like the Pharisees. And what you have is you'll have a pride on the one hand and an immense sense of failure on the other, and that's what Paul expresses in Romans 7. It is extremely prideful, but if I'm really honest, an immense sense of failure.

Here's one of them, it's one of the ten, and I know that I have fallen into a pit and cannot get out. So God answers it for those in the church by separating us from the law. one of them, and as this says, a ministry of death and a ministry of condemnation, is those letters written on those stones. Just the ten is all it takes. It's a ministry of death and a ministry of condemnation. What happens if you break one of them? You're dead. And here's the weird thing. You may be eternally saved, break one of the ten, be killed, and still be eternally saved. Isn't that amazing? But one misstep, and the law says you're done.

One guy picked up firewood, as recorded in the Law of Moses, after the sun went down on the Sabbath. What did they do to him? They stoned him to death. He may even have been a believer, and you may get to meet him someday. But he messed up by the law.

But this here says, But we all, with unveiled faith, so in a context wearing a veil means still being under the Mosaic Law, and the veil over the heart is removed when a person turns to the Lord in faith. So do you as a believer have a veil over your heart? You don't positionally. Can church age believers put that veil over their heart? Yes, so here's the interesting thing, positionally you do not have the veil because you're not under the law, but Christians not understanding that can put the veil, and where is it?

It's not over their face, it's over their heart. So here the veil slips, it goes from the face, which only Moses could bend, to those receiving it all had not a face problem but a heart problem. You see the difference there? And it's a huge distinction. Only Moses gets to wear the veil. Everybody else gets to wear the veil over their heart. Moses wears the veil over his face. Everybody else, veil over the heart. So we in the body of Christ are not under the law, we have unveiled faith in our position, but Christians can put themselves under the law and therefore volunteer, completely unnecessarily, to have the veil over their hearts. Isn't that astounding? It is amazing to me to ponder that. Well, think about that. Here's the old covenant.

And the thing is, we need to understand, we're never adequate to pull it off. So for us in the body of Christ, God says, okay, I'm going to have Christ on the cross, die on the cross to separate you from law. You die in relationship to, you die unto the law. Right? But what's going to happen?

How is God going to answer the adequacy question for Jews living in the Millennial Kingdom? He's going to make a provision by putting the law in their heart. He's going to put the law in their heart. The Holy Spirit will indwell them, every single one, individually and perpetually and universally, every single one will have the Holy Spirit so as to know, the rabbis, don't need them, know and live out the law. Can you imagine knowing and living out the law there and being able to see the Messiah person? That's how they're going to do it.

But Christians who don't understand the distinction between those, and I've heard it taught in numerous churches, sometimes by recording, that we have the law written on our heart. I heard it from a Church, you know, closer to downtown Denver, that was what they taught. You have the law written on your heart. Guess what? If you teach that, then you're going to have a veil over your head. And you don't need to. The law brings about death. People think they can...

There is provision for living now, but as believers who have provision for living, the life of Christ. You'll talk to frequently reformed folks or folks who come out of that tradition will have the law as a significant thing. The Westminster shorter and longer catechism has the law significantly in the catechism. The Heidelberg catechism which is another reformed catechism also has the law written into the text of the Catechism.

Between Romans 7, 1-6 and Galatians 2.19 it is very clear we have died in relationship to the law. If I somehow compromise that by saying I only died in some certain portion of the law, it brings in the question from Romans 7, 1-6, have I then only been partially joined to Christ? If I hold on to some portion of the law, any part of it, then I must not be completely joined to Christ. What part didn't get joined? It brings in some really big questions. OK, so let's look at it.

Beholding as in a mirror, these four words are actually translated from just one Greek word. It's interesting that the Roman, excuse me, the city of Corinth was famous in the Roman Empire for its mirrors. And the only place that Paul uses the words, and in this case it's a verb, The only place that he's looking at mirrors is in 1st and 2nd Corinthians.

It's 1st Corinthians 13. Randy's going to be teaching on it this morning in the 1015 service. 1st Corinthians 13 is one place, and this is the other. And in 1st Corinthians 13, it's a noun, and here it's a verb. Beholding is in a mirror, one word. And it's because here's the church that's famous as a city for its mirrors. I went to the British Museum and guess what? They had several different examples of Corinthian mirrors there at the British Museum. Okay, so then, a mirror is the word of God. James 1, 22-24 makes clear, and that's the third place that mirrors brought up.

But prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror. For once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was." So in this, the word of God is the mirror. And so this gives us clarification what's meant by beholding in the mirror. It's the word of God.

That same word is used in 1 Corinthians 13, 12. Like I say, Randy is going to be teaching on that very passage and using that very word. Yes? Yes. Yeah, reflecting, but the question you would have to ask is what would reflect in that culture? A mirror. So anyway, as a matter of fact, it's clearly, if you look at the verb, it is a verb form of that same word. So it's talking about the inconsistency of the human being, right? Yes, and James is saying the Word of God is like a mirror, and people can look at it and then walk away and forget what they've read. So that's James' point.

So then, 2 Corinthians 3.18, the glory of the Lord. The glory of the Lord is the center of Paul's chiasm, the center being typically the focal point of the chiasm. So glory is the radiant essence of who God is. All glory is derived from God since he is the ultimate source of all glory.

Even if we say, okay, the Broncos last year had this glorious win at the Super Bowl. But to say that's glory, by the way, is it a fading glory? Yeah, by the time this next Super Bowl rolls around, yeah, I think the glory had faded. But the ultimate definition is God's, the radiant essence of who He is. He is the source of all glory and the ultimate definition of all glory.

Yes? So, it's a difference like last week we were talking about peace. there's the peace that you have with God and there's the peace in the world. Yes. So you have the glory that comes from God. Yes. And then you also have glory that's in the world. Right. So it's using the same word but in strictly different... Yeah, and let's think of it, God is the source and the definition of glory. All other glory is derived and shared from God himself.

Here's John, twice makes the mistake of worshiping angels towards the end of the book of Revelation. Why? Because he sees in the angels the shared glory of the Lord. The glory that he sees in the angels is actually from the Lord himself. The angel is simply like a mirror reflection of that glory.

So here we have our Lord even prayed in the final hours of his earthly life that we would see his glory. which will ultimately be fulfilled when we see him face-to-face. Here's John 17, 26. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory which you have given me. For you have loved me before the foundation of the world. Then he also says that we are being transformed.

The Greek word that's translated beholding as in Amir is a present tense verb. So that conveys an ongoing action on our part. The action is ours as believers. The Greek word translated, are being transformed, is a present passive. So we're doing the beholding, correct? And are we doing the transforming? No. We're receiving the action, we're being transformed. What we did is behold, which is really believing. And we receive the action of being transformed, not by our doing, by God's doing, as we believe. Take him at his word.

So, let's look at the last page here, page three. So, position, process, and completion in Romans 8, 28, and 29, and we will put this together as we revisit this a few months from now. So in Romans 8, 28 and 29, for we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and to those who are called according to His purpose.

For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. So let's think about this. Being transformed into the image of His Son, is that the same end as being conformed to the image of the Son. The end result is toward the same end. The processes are different, and that's the thing we'll investigate in greater detail. Here's an amazing thing.

What does God have in mind for you as you walk through heaven's gates? and go through judgment, not sitting there with God saying, boy, I just can't wait to get my hands on Vern. I'm just going to really scorch Vern and tear him up to shreds and chew him up for the things he did and didn't do. Is that what God has in mind? No. The ultimate end is the stuff that doesn't conform and is not transformed to the image of Christ, what happens to it? It's burned away. Why? The end result is that you look like Christ. That's exactly what God has in mind.

And He has two processes going on right now, available to us, towards that end. And one is being conformed through circumstances. And by the way, that's physical and spiritual circumstances. Through circumstances, physically and spiritually, that conforming process is going on, and we're going to look at that for a month.

And we have in parallel with that this transforming process, and both of those are to the same end. Isn't that astounding? So God has these processes, He explains both of them. They are entirely different processes. And God's carrying on both of those to the end that you, through that process, are being conformed and transformed in parallel into the image of His Son.

Let's ask one other question. In the end, can I blow it so that God gets there and says, you know, I tried to conform you and tried to transform you, but you just kept messing up. You just messed up so bad that, I'm sorry, we're just going to have to put you over here with the burnt cookies.

Is that what's going to happen? No. Let's take, for instance, we prayed this morning for Claire's son John, who earlier, it very much appeared, had a faith in the Lord. The way that John is thinking, the way that John is living now, doesn't reflect these processes. Is God going to be ultimately frustrated in John's life?

What it means is there's more to be burned away, but God's ultimate predestination, that's what Romans 8 talks about, will not be thwarted. Is there value in my walking in fellowship with the Lord, beholding the Lord now, loving the Lord, and having those processes go on? Yes, there is. As a matter of fact, there's eternal rewardability. I also, and this doesn't make me complacent, this doesn't make me, no, there's nothing I can do, and in fact we're going to learn, yes, there is your part in those processes, but it means that ultimately God's not going to be pacing the floors of heaven and saying, what am I going to do with this burn guy?

He's messed it up so bad that, you know, I just can't, I've got to put him in with the burnt cookies. There isn't any such thing, right? We're not the ones judging who's saved and who's not, but from any evidence, that's what's happening with John. John Peter.

That God is not going to be thwarted. Would it be better, eternally, and now, for him to be walking with the Lord and love the Lord? Yes, absolutely. But God's ultimate will will not be thwarted. And he has predestined conformity to the image of his Son for all those who believe. Yes?

I think that those who don't try to be conformed to the image of Christ and they just go off their own way, they're just enjoying their sins and all that stuff, up until the day they die, they just have more to learn than that. Yeah, and for some it'll be, I'm sure, a shock. Just, whoa!

And the Lord will say, I just have a lot more to burn away. But you're here in heaven, and you will, because it's been predestined, you will be totally and completely transformed. I don't have to put anybody with the burnt cookies here in heaven. They'll have more to build in heaven.

OK, so maybe this is too complex to get into today, but Christ died for the sins of the whole world, and yet it says here, for those whom he foreknew. So does that have a meaning or context of fellowship and association? Yeah, let's take an extreme example here. Those whom he foreknew. Did he know that you were going to believe? Did you know? Did he know? Here's an extreme example. Here's Vern at four and a half.

I go in and wake up my parents. I'm done waiting. It's time that I believe and become a Christian. Here's my grandmother at age 87. Unbeliever her whole life, three weeks before she died. Boom. She's a believer. And though she was dying of cancer and in great pain, a smile on her face like I never saw before. Do both of us get conformed to the image of Christ? Yes. Absolutely. And it's predestined, even though she went her whole life turning this away. Here's this guy.

Now, he's not a part of the church, so we can't look at him in the same light. So he died essentially weeks before the church began. So not a part of the church. But nonetheless, he was saved by what? By faith. That's it. And saved at the last minute. Can you imagine being saved? And I think that possibly happens more often than we know.

People who may be in a place where he can communicate with them, but they go, oh, before the Lord. Both of those guys on the cross were railing against Jesus Christ at first. Initially, yes. Initially, both of them were. Save yourself and us, come on, do it. Right, yeah, get it done. But one had an amazing change of heart. Very clear. I think the emphasis too is on the, you will be predestined, you will be conformed, versus you're going to be chosen or not chosen.

Yeah, and the reality, God foreknew us, and as a matter of fact, even Ephesians 1.4 talks about being chosen before the foundation of the world. How that gets resolved logically is not something that's ever explained to us. But, I think where Christians over the centuries have gone into explain it in human terms and not realizing when God says my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than yours, it's like, you know, hey to solve this thing you need higher math than you know.

You know? So, yeah. Confirmation and transformation happen simultaneously, right? Yeah, both of them are processes. We'll be taking a look at each of those essentially for a month. As we look at each of those, they are parallel processes In some people, those processes may not happen at all for a period of time.

Nancy and I know one fellow, and if I mention, without mentioning his name, Nancy knows who this is, one fellow back in Nevada, he was a believer, he went off track for seven years, and then realized what a huge mistake he had made, and came back to fellowship with the Lord. And so, yeah, I mean, and he wasn't just an outright skeptic and nasty negative and everything else for seven years. And all of a sudden, ding, the Lord got a hold of him, and he's back in fellowship and back to learning and an amazing thing. So he has seven years in which the conforming was not happening, seven years in which the beholding was not happening, being transformed, not happening.

Those are all burned away. But he realizes that 1. God's ultimate predestined will will not be thwarted. He will be conformed to the image of Christ. And that his seven years of wandering and rebellion didn't change a thing. So we have that God is working on changing your image. Is he really working on changing your image? So we have a process being changed into the image of Christ.

From glory to glory. Glory to glory is an expression of increasing or something decreasing. You find it also in Paul's writings, faith to faith. You find it also an aroma from life to life, and death to death, increasing in death, increasing in life. It's an expression, this to this, it means increasing or decreasing, changing progressively. And then, just as from the Lord the Spirit. So the growing glory, from glory to glory, is not the result of our trying really hard to be glorious, or to be worthy of Christ's glory. It's a process resulting from ministries of the Holy Spirit. Bringing the Word of God to us, bringing us to the Word of God, and bringing about the transforming process in each one of us. So is it my job to try to be transformed?

It's not my job. And so that's one of the reasons we look at the process in more detail farther down the road here. We talk about what's God's part and what's our part. We do that because people will go one way or the other, they'll think it's all my job. Or they'll make the other mistake of saying God does it all and I just don't have anything to do. And so what we do is we start with, here's God's part and here is our part.

The Lord wants, what He wants is fellowship with us. And He does the transforming and conforming. Just to think of that, But there are many churches out there, if you said that, that the Lord just wants to have fellowship with you, you'd be stoned. Yeah, let's think about it.

Is God obsessed with sin? Is He just completely overwhelmed and engulfed and obsessing over our sin? Is that really what His focus is? No. He wants the sin out of the way. Why? Not because he's obsessed with sin and just can't stop thinking about it. He wants it out of the way because he wants fellowship with us. That's it. He even says grace full on, full out, all the way, mountains and fountains of grace. Why? He says, I'm not all obsessed about that sin stuff, I just want it out of the way because I love to have fellowship with you.

My son died on the cross to have fellowship with you. All three persons of the Trinity are involved in our having fellowship with Him. The end of Ephesians chapter 2, we go Abba Father, we run into the throne room. of heaven with the Father through the Son, who is the royal introducer by means of the Holy Spirit. All three persons of the Trinity are involved in our fellowship with the Lord.

That's fantastic. And that's what this is all about here. We all with unveiled faith, not obsessed by the law, not overtaken by it, not trying to live out one of them. are being changed, not because we try to do anything. Not because we're adequate to do anything. We aren't. I'm not. I can't. So let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for what you've laid out here. What a fantastically gracious passage. Putting aside the ministry of death and the ministry of condemnation, so that we all, with unveiled face, without having a veil over our face or our heart or anything else, beholding as in a mirror in your word, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, are being transformed as a work of the Holy Spirit ongoing until the day we see you face to face. Thank you for that. Oh, how gracious. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.