From Two-Faced to True-Faced

2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV)

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

CONSIDER THIS

ME: THIS IS THE WAY—
YOU: FROM GLORY TO GLORY!

Finally, it’s time to get to where I thought we were going when we first began this journey: Moses and Mt. Sinai. It took Elijah and a trip to Mt. Carmel to get us all the way back to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Such is life, right? We will finish this leg of the glory to glory pilgrimage here—where we began:

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

A veil is a covering, something meant to prevent us from seeing what is underneath. It obscures the reality. 

We need to back up a few verses to understand what’s going on here. 

We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. (2 Corinthians 3:13)

When Moses was in the presence of God, his face would almost glow. In other words, his face was radiant with the glory of God. As soon as Moses left God’s presence and came into the community, the radiant glow would immediately begin to fade. Moses did not want people to know so he wore a veil over his face. (Certainly Moses was not so much trying to hide something as he was trying to preserve something and yet maybe Moses was more like us than we realize). 

There is a massive principle to be drawn out here. There is the external and the internal; the source and the surface; the inside and the outside. There is our identity and then there is our image. When there is a disparity between our identity and our image we refer to it as being “two-faced.” The law exposed the massive internal problem of the human race: Call it sin, corruption, depravity, or fallen human nature. The law offered an external solution to this internal problem: Blood sacrifice. Because sin brings death, it must be atoned for with life—and as the Scripture teaches, the life is in the blood. These are very primal and ancient realities but are as current and real as they ever were—no matter how technologically advanced or morally sophisticated things may seem to be. 

The glory of God in the law was an ever decreasing glory as the law was powerless to actually transform people. The law brought consciousness of fallenness and sin but it did not cure it. In fact, it actually brought condemnation which required propitiation or atonement. The law created the possibility of a legal or forensic righteousness which restored a semblance of order and yet it held no power to effect change on the heart.

The glory of the law is ever-decreasing. The glory of the gospel is ever-increasing. The law deals with the external image. The gospel deals with the internal reality. Now, in that light, read this text very slowly and aloud. 

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1–4)

The gospel doesn’t heal our image—from the outside in. The gospel completely restores our identity—in the very image of God—so much so that our identity and our image become one in the same. This is complete integration, deep wholeness, irresistible, ever-increasing, glorious radiance from the inside out. We go from being two-faced to being true-faced. 

Tomorrow we will touch on this matter of veils and what they are, how we wear them, and how they are removed. 

Now, once more for good measure:

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

This is the way—from glory to glory.

THE PRAYER

Abba Father, this is what we want, an inside out radiant glory—the very same glory you gave to your Son, Jesus, which he has given to us. We are tired of the veils that maintain the disparity between our image and our identity. We want to live with an unveiled face. We want to behold your glory with an unveiled face. Holy Spirit, lead us into this way and make it so. Increase our understanding and even more our faith.

Finish, then, thy new creation;
true and spotless let us be.
Let us see thy great salvation
perfectly restored in thee.
Changed from glory into glory,
till in heav’n we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee,
lost in wonder, love and praise. 

Praying in Jesus’ name, amen.

THE QUESTION

Are you gaining better understanding of the relationship between the law and the gospel, of the ever-decreasing glory and the ever-increasing glory? 

P.S. For All Who Will Join. . . 

We meet at Noon Today (Eastern Time) with Jesus for a time of intercession in preparation for the upcoming New Room Conference. Join and leave when you need to. Please join us at this Zoom Link. David Thomas will lead us. 

For the Awakening,
J.D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com

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