Transformed into His Image

(2 Corinthians 3:17-18)

I. Introduction.
A. Orientation.
In our passage, Paul points
To the greatest difference
Between the Old and New Covenants
Basically, the same thing
To which the author to the Hebrews
Draws our attention:

Its not so much

The shadowy nature of the Old Covenant
Versus the clearer revelation of the New;
Or that the Old Covenant
Was mainly promise and prophecy
While the New is fulfillment;
Rather, he directs us to the glory
Of the New versus the Old
To what God provides in the new
That was lacking in the Old:
The work of His Spirit in the heart.

The author to the Hebrews,

2
Quoting Jeremiah 31, writes,
BEHOLD, DAYS ARE COMING, SAYS THE LORD, WHEN I WILL EFFECT
A NEW COVENANT WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND WITH THE
HOUSE OF JUDAH; NOT LIKE THE COVENANT WHICH I MADE WITH
THEIR FATHERS ON THE DAY WHEN I TOOK THEM BY THE HAND
TO LEAD THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT; FOR THEY DID NOT
CONTINUE IN MY COVENANT, AND I DID NOT CARE FOR THEM,
SAYS THE LORD. FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE
WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD:
I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MINDS, AND I WILL WRITE THEM
ON THEIR HEARTS. AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL
BE MY PEOPLE (Heb. 8:8-10).

In the Old Covenant,

God gave the Jews His Law
Written on stone tablets.
Having that Law was a great blessing.
It told them how they could please God:
How they could love Him
And their neighbor.

But sadly, it wasnt enough.

It could show them what was right,
But couldnt give them the power to keep it
And they needed that power
Because of the sinfulness of their hearts.

It did, though, highlight the problem

Their sin
And what their sin earned

The wages of sin is death.

Having the Law,

But being unwilling to keep it,
Cant save you;
It can only condemn you.

Thats the same condition

You and I were in
Apart from Gods mercy to us in Christ.

But God showed mercy

Thats what the Old Covenant was pointing to:
His mercy in Jesus Christ.
God sent His Son into the world
To obey and to die
To provide a perfect righteousness,
And a payment for sin
So that He could give you
The power to obey through His Holy Spirit.

If youve trusted Jesus,

You know this blessing.
God has taken His Law
That was written in stone,

And by His Spirit

Put it in your mind,
And wrote it on the fleshly tablets of your heart
He opened your eyes
To the beauty of that Law
So that you love that Law,
And keep it.
Thats what it means to be spiritually alive.

Does that mean no one in the Old Covenant was saved?

No. Some were
But not by the commandments
Written on stone tablets
At least not directly.

The commandments did what they were supposed to do:

Convict them of sin
And drive them to the One
God had promised Abraham
The Seed through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed.
And those who trusted Him were saved.

B. Preview.
Paul goes on to tell us

5
That because it couldnt save
God gave indications in the Old Covenant
That one day that covenant would be replaced
By a better one
By a much more glorious one.

In our passage, he points to Exodus 34

Where we read that Moses face
When he spent time with the Lord
On Mount Sinai and in the Tent of Meeting
Would shine with Gods glory;
And because the people were afraid to look at him,
Moses would cover his face with a veil.

Paul tells us that veil

Actually had two other purposes:

The first was to keep them from looking

At that glory that was fading away (2 Cor. 3:13)
The glory of the Old Covenant
Which had to fade
To make room for the surpassing glory
Of the New in Jesus Christ.

The second was to show them

6
Their spiritual condition
It pictured the blindness of their hearts;
The sin that kept the Jews of Moses day
From seeing the glory of Christ
In the Old Covenant shadows,
As well as the Jews of his day
From seeing the same in the Gospel (vv. 14-15).

This is the same veil

That lies over the heart
Of everyone who hasnt heard
About what God has done through His Son,
Or who has heard it
But hasnt really trusted Jesus.

Here is the glory of the New Covenant:

Through the Gospel,
God takes away that veil
And opens your eyes
To see His glory in Jesus Christ
By His Holy Spirit,
And by His Spirit,
To transform you into His image
From one level of glory to the next

7
To set you free from sin,
So that you may freely follow Jesus.

Lets consider this transformation

The Lord works in your life
Through the power of His Spirit
Two things in particular:
1. That He sets you free from sin.
2. That He transforms you into the image of Jesus Christ.
II. Sermon.
A. First, in the New Covenant, the Lord sets you free from sin by His Holy Spirit.
Paul writes, Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there
is liberty (v. 17).
Let me just mention in passing
That this is a very clear statement
Of the deity of the Holy Spirit
The Lord is the Spirit.
The title of Lord
Applies just as much to Him
As it does to the Father and Son.

But notice,
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Liberty from what? From the Law? From obedience? No.
But from what would have destroyed you

8
Disobedience your sin.

You were a prisoner of sin

When you came into this world
Because of Adams sin:
Paul writes, Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin,
and so death spread to all men, because all sinned (Rom. 5:12).
Adam sinned
As your representative
His sin was your sin,
And one sin was all that was needed
To condemn you.
Through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men (v. 18).

One sin was also all that was needed

To kill your soul
Thats why you came
Into this world spiritually dead
And the captive of sin.
Paul writes to the Ephesians,
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the
air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them
we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest
(Eph. 2:1-3).

This spiritual death is the veil

Paul is speaking about

The veil that darkens your mind,
And hardens your heart
That blinds you
To what is really good
To Gods holiness
So that you hate God
And His Law.
Paul writes, The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject
itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the
flesh cannot please God (Rom. 8:7-8).

But in the Gospel

God changes this by His Spirit.
When you were dead,
He made you alive.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with
Christ (by grace you have been saved) (Eph. 2:4-5).
He removed that veil
And gave you life
And with that life, liberty.
Now you see the beauty of Jesus Christ.
Now you want Him as your Savior.
Now you trust Him.

10
Now you want to walk with Him in obedience.

All He needed to do
Was to give you His Spirit
To take away that veil
To free you from sin
And to change the whole direction of your life.

That doesnt mean

Youll never sin again
You will virtually every day.
Everything you do will still be imperfect
The difference is you will want to be perfect
And so youll keep working
By Gods grace,
Towards that goal.

B. And that brings us to our second point:

In the New Covenant, the Spirit
Is transforming you
Into the image of Jesus Christ.
Thats His goal.

He doesnt leave you as He found you

He doesnt set you free

11
To choose your own direction
But works to make you more like your Lord.
Paul writes, 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 (v. 18).

What is this mirror

Paul refers to?

While youre here on earth

You wont be able
To see Him face to face.
But that doesnt mean
You cant see Him at all.
You can in the Gospel.

When you read the Bible

The Spirit shows you what Jesus is like
He shows you how good He is
And as He does
He makes you
Want to become more like Him.

Thats one of the reasons

Behind this series.
As we look at Jesus,

12
The Spirit shows you His glory,
And draws your heart out
To become more like Him.

What have we see

That Hes like?

Weve seen
That is was more important to Him
To please His Father
Than to meet His basic needs
Of eating and drinking:
My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work (John
4:34).

That He loved others

As He wanted to be loved (Matt. 7:12);

That He didnt come to have others serve Him,

But that He might serve others (Matt. 20:25-28).

That He resisted the temptation

To gain even the things His Father promised Him
In the wrong way (Matt. 4:1-11).

That He was zealous

For His Fathers worship and honor (John 2:12-17).

13

That He had compassion on the lost,

By reaching out to them with the Gospel (Matt. 9:35-38),
And was willing to suffer for so doing (Matt. 5:10-12).

That He lived everyday

In the presence of His Father (John 8:29),
Always doing exactly
What He called Him to do (John 14:31).

That He didnt go after the pleasures of this world,

But fixed His eyes on the glory
And the holy pleasures
Of the world to come (Heb. 12:2; Luke 12:13-21).

This is what the Spirit

Is working in you,
If you know Jesus.

But He doesnt do it all at once:

He does it step by step,
From one level of glory/holiness to the next.
And one day
He will make you just like Him
When you see His face in heaven.

14

This is what the Spirit does

In the heart and life of every believer.
This is how you can know
That you have come to know Him:
When you see Jesus image
Being formed in you.

Is this what Hes doing in your life?

Has the Spirit set you free from your love for sin?
Has He removed the veil from your eyes?
Do you see the beauty of His holiness?
Are you being transforming into that same image?
Are you walking with Him in holiness?
Can others see Jesus being formed in you?

If not, then come to Jesus.

He is the only One who can remove the veil
And show you His glory by His Spirit,
Who can give you a new heart
And transform you into His image,
So that youll want to turn from this sinful world
And follow Him to heaven. Amen.
http://www.graceopcmodesto.org