The Transforming Glory

The Holy Spirit reveals Christ in a way that makes us like him. Paul says, “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18 ESV). Believers, in contrast to unbelievers, are “beholding” God as he reveals himself in Christ. When the Spirit pulls aside the veil of our hardness, what we see in the Word is “glory”; not just truth, but true majesty and splendid beauty in Jesus Christ—the very “glory of God” (4:6). As a result, we experience a process of transformation into “glory,” not deification into demigods(半神半人), but sanctification into the image of God by conformity to Christ (v. 4). We must approach Christology with this twofold desire: to see God’s glory in Christ (Ps. 27:4) and to become conformed to his image in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10). Do you pant after the glory of Christ like a deer pants for water (Ps. 42:1)? Do you long to be more like Jesus in his moral perfection and meek love?

 Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology: Man and Christ, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020), 733–734.