The veil of condemnation is taken away when we turn to Jesus, and then just by beholding Him, we are transformed into His image.
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 by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18)1
“We all” have unveiled faces today. We have no veil and Jesus has no veil. We can now look full in His wonderful face. When that happens, we move from one glory to another. And the divine instrument of that change is the Holy Spirit who has enlightened the eyes of our understanding to His love and power and goodness. Everything He is and everything He has is now ours.
“Transformed” is the Greek word “metamorphoo”2 which means a change from one state to another state, like the caterpillar to the butterfly. This is what happens to us when we turn to the Lord and behold Him in His glory. We are transformed from the passing glory of our own righteousness as servants into the unveiled glory of Christ’s righteousness as sons.
Paul was speaking of two very distinct glories:
- The veiled, passing glory of the Old Covenant where man saw God through the unbending judgment of the law. In this glory, no one could see the Lord and live. In this glory, Moses could only look upon the back parts of God.3 In this glory was the wrath of God, shame, and punishment.
- The unveiled, eternal glory of the New Covenant where God sees us as perfectly righteous through grace. We have become a whole new creation in Him that is perfect and holy, and believing this truth will transform our actions and works into the Christ-likeness of our spirit. In this glory, we not only see God and live, the more we see Him, the more alive we will be! In this glory is acceptance, approval, and love. In this glory, God is always with us; He will never leave us or forsake us. In this glory is liberty!
The unveiled glory of the New Covenant is the life of the Spirit within. It’s no longer, “Do this, and God will bless you. Do that and God will curse you.” We live by the power and love of the endless life of the Spirit within, not by the demands of performance from the outside. Religion tells us that if we perform better, then we will become more like Jesus and have fellowship with Him through our righteous actions and good attitudes. What an affront to the cross! We have been transformed into the perfect counterpart of Jesus by the power of the cross and the resurrection.
(from pages 200-201 of Unveiling Jesus)
Want more from Tricia Gunn? Check out excerpts from the Unveiling Jesus 20-part series!
Unveiling Jesus, by Tricia Gunn, is a verse by verse study of the pure gospel of grace. It’s an amazing journey of love, identity, and freedom in Christ.
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1Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
2G3339 (metamorphoō), Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, website: http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=G3339&t=KJV, accessed on 6-2-14
3Exodus 33:18, 20″
