<p>3:18- see on :5 <i>Not that we are sufficient of ourselves; </i>Jn. 11:40; Ex. 33:11.</p><p><i>But we, with an unveiled face and reflecting the glory of the Lord- &quot;</i>Beholding as in a mirror&quot; (RV). In the same way as Moses spoke to the Angel without a veil on his face, and thereby came to reflect the glory which shone from the Angel's face (Ex. 34:33-35), so we are bidden look at the glory of God in the face of Jesus, to consider his character, and be changed into that same glory by reflecting his character in our lives. By simply beholding the glory of Christ's righteousness, truly appreciating it, we will be changed (2 Cor. 3:15-18 RV). Christ-centeredness, regularly thinking of Him, grabbing a few verses from the Gospel records in the course of the day- this is the essence of the Christian life, of beholding Him with unveiled face. Paul seems to be arguing that whenever a Jew turns to the Lord Jesus and fellowships with Him, then he is living out the pattern of Moses. And further, 2 Cor. 4:3 speaks of our Gospel being 'veiled' to those who are lost- as if <i>we</i> are as Moses, the Gospel we preach being as the glory of God which shone from Moses' face. Let's keep remembering how huge and radical was the challenge of this to a first century Jewish readership for whom Moses was an almost untouchable hero.</p><p>2 Cor. 3 speaks of our beholding the glory of the Lord Jesus in a mirror; and this process slowly transforms us into that same image of Him which we see. The &ldquo;glory&rdquo; of God was revealed to Moses at Sinai in Ex. 34 as the declaration of His character. In this sense, the Lord Jesus could speak of having in His mortal life &ldquo;that glory which was with the Father&rdquo; when the Jewish world came into existence at Sinai (Jn. 17:5 Ethiopic and Western Text). It was that same glory which, like Moses, He reflected to men. But according to 2 Cor. 3:18, the very experience of gazing upon the glory of His character will change us into a reflection of it. There is something transforming about the very personality of Jesus. And perhaps this is why we have such a psychological barrier to thinking about Him deeply. We know that it has the power to transform and intrude into our innermost darkness. I have given reason elsewhere for believing that the Gospel records are in fact transcripts of the Gospel message preached by the four evangelists. The 'Gospel according to Matthew' is therefore the Gospel message which he usually preached. And it's significant that at least three of them start and end where many of us would- starting with the promises to the Jewish fathers, and concluding with an appeal for baptism. Actually John's Gospel does this too, if you decode the language he uses. This is surely the explanation of the Lord's otherwise strange remark that wherever the Gospel is preached, the anointing of His feet by Mary would be part of that message. And this is one of the few incidents that all four Gospel writers each mention. What this shows is that the Gospel message is in its quintessence, the account of the man Christ Jesus- with all that involves. It has truly been commented that &quot;the central message of the gospels is not the teaching of Jesus but Jesus himself&quot;. This is true insofar as Jesus is the word made flesh.</p><p>A mirror by its very nature, because of what it is, reflects the light which falls upon it to others. If we have <i>really</i> seen the light of the Lord Jesus Christ, we will <i>inevitably</i> reflect it to others. Jesus didn't say 'Do good works so that men may see the light'. He said &ldquo;<i>let your light shine</i>&quot; - and <i>then</i> men will see your good works and glorify the Father. Paul puts the same principle another way when he says that we're all mirrors (2 Cor. 3:18 RV). We naturally reflect to others what has been reflected into us by the Lord Jesus. A mirror by its very nature, because of what it is, reflects the light which falls upon it to others. If we have <i>really</i> seen the light of the Lord Jesus Christ, we will <i>inevitably</i> reflect it to others. Many of the Lord&rsquo;s parables portray the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God as a kind of secret force: treasure hidden in a field, the tiniest seed in the garden, wheat growing among weeds, a pinch of yeast worked into dough, salt on meat... these are all images of something which works from within, changing other people in an ongoing, regular manner.</p><p><i>Are all transformed into his likeness from glory to glory- </i>The &quot;all&quot; is in contrast with Moses, who alone saw the glory of the Lord God. But we are all in his position. No longer was Moses to be perceived as some unreachable hero of faith, as a saint in a stained glass window, to whom we poor sinners can never attain. We in Christ have attained <i>far beyond</i> him. This was a rebuke to the Judaizing element in Corinth, as well as a huge challenge for Jews of all ages. &quot;From glory to glory&quot; suggests an ongoing upward spiral. The glory is not fixed, as it was with the Angel whose face Moses beheld. It increases the more we behold. We are progressively changed into greater reflected glory; in contrast to the fading glory on the face of Moses.</p><p>The new man / person created in us at baptism by the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) is essentially a character; or at least, the potential for a character, after the pattern of the Lord Jesus. For Christ is said to be &ldquo;formed in us&rdquo;. As we gaze into His glory, we are changed bit by bit into His image. His glorious character is a mirror, Paul says; as we look into it, our image comes to reflect His glory (2 Cor. 3:18). He doesn&rsquo;t subsume us beneath Himself. Self-expression, or even self-manifestation, is one of God&rsquo;s features, and so He intends it to be in us who are made after His image. God manifestation doesn&rsquo;t in that sense mean the destruction or ignoring of the individual human person; rather, the very opposite, in that the real character, the new life, will be eternally developed and preserved. This is where Hinduism is so wrong, as wrong as any monolithic, apostate Papal or Protestant Christianity- the person disappears into the great Whole. Joash understood where &lsquo;God manifestation&rsquo; can be taken too far; he told the Baal worshippers to let Baal plead for himself, rather than them pleading for him (Jud. 6:31). This needs thinking through. He was saying that they were assuming that they had to &lsquo;play God&rsquo; for Baal; they had to mindlessly, unthinkingly manifest the god they thought existed. Joash says that if Baal really exists, he himself will act for himself, openly. And this of course is where the One True God excels; He does act for Himself, and doesn&rsquo;t rely <i>solely </i>upon manifesting Himself through men in order to achieve anything.</p><p>The fact that God is a person means that who <i>we</i> are as persons, our being as persons, is of the ultimate importance. It has been observed, in more sophisticated language: &ldquo;To predicate personality to God is nothing else than to declare personality as the absolute essence&rdquo;. Thus who we are as persons, who we develop to become, is indeed the ultimate issue. And further. Having a personal relationship with a personal God means that we in that process develop as persons after His image; for there is something magnetically changing about being in relationship with Him. We are changed from glory to glory, by simply beholding His face and inevitably reflecting the glory there, which glory abides upon us in the same way as it stuck to the face of Moses even after his encounters with the Angel of Yahweh (2 Cor. 3:18-21). And yet we live in a world which increasingly denies us ultimate privacy or isolation; the loudness of the world is all permeating, all intrusive, to the point that Paul Tillich claims: &ldquo;We cannot separate ourselves at any time from the world to which we belong&rdquo;. And at times, we would all tend to agree with him. We just can&rsquo;t seem to &lsquo;get away from it all&rsquo; and be with God, no matter where we go on holiday, with whom we go, even if we slip off for an hour to be quite alone in the local park. But ultimately, I believe Tillich was wrong. We <i>can</i> separate from the world&rsquo;s endless call and insistent pull, even if we&rsquo;re stuck with an unbelieving or unhelpful partner, sniffy kids, long hours at work, the TV always on, the phone always ringing. Because we as unique and individual persons can <i>personally </i>relate to the <i>personal</i> God and His Son, thus finding the ultimate privacy and isolation which being human in this world appears to preclude. But further, it&rsquo;s actually in the very razzmatazz of our mundane, frustrated experience in this world that we can come to know God, and in which God reveals Himself to us.</p><p><i>By the Lord the Spirit- </i>The Lord Jesus is &quot;the Lord the spirit&quot;; and &quot;the Spirit&quot; is one of Jesus' titles in Revelation, so closely is He identified with the work of the Spirit. It is He, through His Spirit, who effects this transformation of character, this progressive reflection of Him in human personality. Romans 8 has argued likewise; we who are counted as &quot;in Christ&quot; by status are transformed in practice into Him by the work of the Spirit. The Lord's activity is intense. The Lord calls men and women to Him, having first prepared their way to Him, guiding the preachers of His word. He brings people to baptism, enters into a husband-wife relationship with them (Eph. 5:24), has children by them (i.e. spirituality develops in our characters, Rom. 7:4), strengthens them afterwards, keeps them in Him, &quot;in everything... co-operates for good with those that love God&quot; (Rom. 8:28 NEB), saves them in an ongoing sense, develops them spiritually, and then finally presents them perfect at His return. He is actively subduing &quot;all things&quot;, even in the natural creation, unto Himself (1 Cor. 15:27,28 Gk.). However, the NT focuses on His work amongst us, the ecclesia. Where two or three are gathered, He manifests Himself in the midst of them (Mt. 18:20). He is like a priest constantly on duty, bringing His people to the Father (Mt. 26:29 cp. Lev. 11:9). &nbsp;</p><p>Jesus Himself is described here as &ldquo;the Lord the Spirit&rdquo;. &ldquo;The Spirit&rdquo; is a title of Jesus (Rom. 8:16,26,27; Rev. 2:7,11 etc.). To walk each day in the Spirit is to live in Him, to act as He would act. It is this &ldquo;Spirit&rdquo; which will be the basis of our new life. Living life in that Spirit is living the life we will eternally lead. If we don&rsquo;t like the righteous, clean life in Christ, if we find it limiting and boring, then we are signing ourselves out of the eternal life. There will be no point in our receiving it. The eternal life is there to be lived. It&rsquo;s there for the taking in the sense that it is there to be lived. If we live it, we have it. And our bodies will be changed at the Lord&rsquo;s coming so that we can eternally live it.</p>