Transforming Work of the Spirit

The New Covenant and the Spirit’s Indwelling Presence

If you have your copy of God's Word, I invite you to open it to 2 Corinthians 3 and find your place today at verse 18. We have been in a study now of the book of 2 Corinthians for several months and we have also found ourselves now in a short series within a series on the subject of the New Covenant.

It's interesting because last week a few of you made mention, kind of jokingly, that we had been in chapter 3 for quite a long time and it looked like we might end up in 2 Corinthians the same way we did Genesis.

We were in Genesis for three years, not necessarily intentionally, it just was a verse by verse study that takes a time and it's 50 chapters and we've been in chapter 3 now for several weeks. But Brother Andy, who is sick today and out, one of our elders who's not with us, he mentioned to me when I started 2 Corinthians, he said, when you get to chapter 3 you're going to slow down.

And so he's not a prophet nor the son of a prophet but he did nail that one because it is the truth. We have stopped and we have really sought to take in every part of this chapter. And the reason for it is because this is Paul's exposition of the New Covenant.

And Paul's exposition of the New Covenant is to remind us and to tell us and to tell his hearers who were the Corinthians that he is a minister of not the Old Covenant but of the New Covenant. And we all who have come into faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, who have been brought into salvation through repentance and trusting in Him, we have been made members of this New Covenant.

So I felt it was important to spend the last several weeks expressing how important this.

Is.

And so I hope that in no way are we feeling like we are bogged down. We're not. We're digging down. We're mining the depths. We are seeking the gold and the precious stones that are in this chapter and seeking to draw out from it what it has to tell us.

The Holy Spirit, Liberty, and the Veil Removed

In the last two weeks, we looked at one verse. It took us two weeks to get through one verse, and that was verse 17. Because the focus of the New Covenant is the focus on the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Obviously the New Covenant comes in the blood of Jesus Christ, but the New Covenant is applied through the work of the Holy Spirit. And when we get to chapter 3, verse 17, Paul says,. Because the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

And so we spent two weeks talking about the importance of who the Spirit is. The Spirit is the Lord. And what does the Spirit bring? The Spirit brings us liberty. Liberty from the bondage of sin. Liberty to be able to understand the Word of God.

Liberty to be able to see what the Scriptures say about Christ. That's what the Spirit does. He brings us liberty. And we noted last week where the Spirit of the Lord is. Where is the Spirit of the Lord?

According to the promise of the New Covenant in Jeremiah chapter 31, which is fulfilled in the work of Christ, the Spirit comes to set up His abode within us. We no longer have to look to a physical temple somewhere where the Spirit of God resides, but the Spirit of God resides within the heart of every believer.

Paul says, You are the temple of God. And so where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Where is the Spirit of the Lord? He is in you. So today, we're going to look at the third part. We've looked at the nature of the Spirit, which was two weeks ago.

We've looked at the liberty of the Spirit, which was last week. And today, we are going to examine the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. What is it that the Spirit does when He comes to live within you?

What does the Spirit do within the life of the believer? That is the question we are going to address today from verse 18. So let us stand together and read the Word of God. And then I'll ask God to be with me as I preach.

It says in verse 18,. And 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.

Father in heaven, I pray, Lord, that you would keep me from error. For God, you know that I am fallible. I am weak. And Lord, I know my limitations. And so I pray, Lord, that in my weakness, that you would give me strength.

That you would keep me from error for the sake of your name, for the sake of your people, and for the sake of my conscience. And Lord, as we seek to understand the Word of God today, as the Word is preached and proclaimed through this place, I pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would apply the Word of God to our hearts.

For without the Holy Spirit, not only would we not understand, but we would not be able to live out this Christian life. Your Word tells us that the natural man sees these things as foolishness. But Lord, the one who has been born of the Spirit has eyes to see and ears to hear.

So I pray, Lord, today that you would give us eyes to see. Give us ears to hear your Word. That your Spirit would be the teacher. That He, Lord, would point us to Christ. And that Christ would increase and that I would decrease.

And Lord, that you would be glorified in the preaching of your Word today. In Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. It's easy for us to sometimes get lost in the use of Christian language because it becomes somewhat second nature when we've been in church for a long time.

And sometimes we forget that not everyone knows the language. And so as we begin to throw out words that just are sort of normal, they're not normal to everyone. And so, for instance, when I say the word New Covenant, some people may hear that and it might be a little strange.

It might not be something that you're used to. And today I'm going to be using words like sanctification, glorification, justification. I'm going to talk about the distinctions between those and how we understand those from a scriptural perspective.

And again, this is not in any way an attempt to try to confuse or confound or to seek to elevate the conversation to a point that it's unreachable. But I do want us to understand that these things do matter.

Defining Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification

This past week I was given a book by a friend. He's an audio book speaker or actor, whatever you call him, a voice actor, narrator. Thank you. He's an audio book narrator. His name is David K. Martin and he's been on my podcast a few times and he and I have had interviews and I'm going to be interviewing him again because he did a book by B .B. Warfield.

B .B. Warfield, the great seminary professor and president. And so he sent me a copy of this book by B .B. Warfield which is called The Plan of Salvation. And it's a very short book. And as I was listening to it I was just amazed at the precision of language that I think is so lost on the American church today.

Warfield not only was an expert in rhetoric and teaching and theology but he was also willing to actually explain things in such a way that he brought it down to the point where I think anyone could understand it.

But he reached up to the top shelf, he broke the cookies into pieces and he fed them like a parent would a child. It was such an amazing thing to listen to. And yet he was talking about things like infralapsarianism which Mike loves for me to mention that word because we have a little inside humor about that word.

But he was talking about things that just aren't normal parts of Christian interaction and talk. And it reminded me of just how important it is that we seek to understand the Word of God and seek to understand these truths because it's so easy to get caught up in the way that many people want to think and that's just this whole mindset of just bring it down to the third grade level, bring it down to the, you know, I was told in seminary, oh don't preach above middle school level because people can't follow that.

First of all that's so insulting to the people of God. It diminishes the work of the Holy Spirit who is the one who actually teaches us and at the same time you end up with a generation of believers who don't know why they believe what they believe.

Is that not where we are? Can we not address the deeper things? Can we not go further into these conversations? Can we not actually engage? We can and we should. And so for the past few weeks we've been looking at the new covenant.

What is the new covenant? What is a covenant? A covenant is a promise, an agreement that is made between two parties where there are expectations and promises made on both sides. We see this in the marriage covenant when a man and woman come together and they make promises and expectations and those expectations are given.

That's the marriage covenant. Well God makes covenants. We see them throughout the scripture where he makes promises and sets obligations. And the old covenant the Bible describes as the covenant that God gave through Moses.

The covenant of the law. And the covenant of the law was not intended to be permanent. According to the new covenant and according to the old covenant it had an expiration date. Jeremiah 31 says I'm going to make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not like the old covenant.

Not like the covenant that came before. It's going to be a new covenant. It's going to be based on a better sacrifice. The sacrifice of Christ. It's going to be based on better promises. It's going to be a covenant that will be forever.

And when it comes it will make the old covenant obsolete. According to Hebrews chapter 8 verse 13. The new covenant makes the old covenant obsolete. That does not mean that it has no purpose in the life of the believer.

That does not mean that we unhitch ourselves from the Old Testament. Never read it, never study it and don't trust it. But what it does mean is that old covenant points forward to a greater covenant. A better covenant.

The new covenant. And that's what Paul is expressing. And what's the one great blessing of the new covenant? The one great blessing of the new covenant is that the Holy Spirit of God would now reside in the heart of every person who is a member of this covenant.

Jesus said that the Spirit will not only be with you but He will be in you. He says, Jesus says it is good for you that I go away. For if I go away the Comforter will come. And the Comforter again, the word parakaletos in Greek, points to the one who would come alongside and give us strength.

Our advocate. The one who stands beside us. The one who strengthens us, empowers us, walks with us. This is the Spirit. The first thing He does is He removes the veil and shows us Christ. And we can see Christ for who He is.

And we have the freedom to understand. And as we've talked about in weeks past, the Jewish people, according to this text, continue to have that veil over their eyes. It says, Paul says, that when they read the Old Covenant, that's referring to the Old Covenant Scriptures, when they read the Old Covenant it's like a veil is over their hearts.

And as I mentioned in previous weeks, we see this when we try to witness to the Jewish people and we point them to Christ in their own Bible. They don't see it. Jesus is not there. Jesus is not in the Scriptures.

Yes, He is, but you are blinded to it. Your eyes are covered over. It's as if your hands are over your eyes. And like the child who runs from his parents with his fingers in his ears, saying, no, no, no, I don't want to hear it.

It's there, but you don't want to see it. It's there, but you don't want to hear it. But the Spirit comes and He gives us liberty. And in that liberty, we can see and hear the Word of God. Through the power of the Spirit, we can see Christ in the Old Covenant.

So we are free. But also, we are transformed. And this moves us to our study today, which is the transforming work of the Spirit. The transforming work of the Holy Spirit of God is something that is quite debated in Christian circles as to how the transforming work of the Spirit actually applies to the believer.

There are some who take the position that when a person becomes a believer, there can be no transforming work. But a person can continue to live as they lived prior to Christ in the same condition of carnality forever and perpetuity as long as they trust in Jesus, they're still saved, even if there's no life change.

What's that called? I didn't hear. Oh, it's baloney. Well, that's true. For those who don't know, I say, what's the Greek word for that? It's baloney. That's right. That is baloney. But it also has a name.

It's called carnal Christianity. My joke's caught up to me. Carnal Christianity is the very popular notion that arose in the middle of the last century that a person could become a Christian and there be no change in their life.

That there be no outward expression of their faith. They base this on what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians where he says, I don't speak to you as spiritual, but as carnal, as people in the flesh. As Paul is chastising them for that.

They took that as a way of saying, well, this must be another way of living as Christians. So you've got two types of Christians. You've got carnal Christians and spiritual Christians. That is something that some people believe.

I don't believe that, but that is the carnal Christian view. That you can become a Christian and there be no perceptible change in your life. So we're going to put that over here. Remember how often we talk about the two ditches?

We're going to put that in ditch number one. That's the idea of the carnal Christian. But then there's the other side, which is very popular in the Wesleyan movement and which gave birth to the holiness movement and was greatly influential on the Pentecostal movement.

And that is the idea of this second blessing which provides a completed sanctification in this life, also known as sinless perfectionism. And if you are familiar with the history of Wesleyan thought and teaching, there are those who believe that they can and do receive a blessing where they no longer sin in thought, word, or deed.

So you see how there's two extremes. You have the extreme that says, just keep on keeping on. If you're living in sin, keep living in sin. It doesn't matter, just believe in Jesus. And then the other side which says, if you believe in Jesus, you will no longer sin in thought, word, or deed.

Both of those are untrue. And both of those are the extreme opposite ends on both sides. And in theological terms, we call this licentiousness and legalism. Licentiousness, the idea that you can continue in sin so that grace will abound.

Paul asked that question in Romans 6. Shall we continue in sin so that grace will abound? Certainly not, but that's that side, licentiousness. And then legalism which says, if you become a Christian, you will follow all of God's commands to the T.

And if you don't, you have every right to stop thinking that you're a Christian because you've got to live up to this law or you're not a Christian. So you get these two sides of the issue. And so is there a proper view?

Is there a way to understand this from the position of Scripture? Well, I believe that there is, and it is in what has typically been referred to, particularly in Reformed theology, by the doctrine of sanctification.

The doctrine of sanctification. Now, I don't have my whiteboard up here. A lot of times I do bring it. I just didn't bring it today. But for the sake of your understanding of language, when we talk about the doctrine of salvation, there are three words that we need to be very familiar with.

There's actually a lot more than this, but three that we need to begin to be familiar with in the beginning. The first one is the doctrine of justification. Justification is the declaration of righteousness that one receives when they trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We call that the legal or forensic change. The word forensic, you've all seen forensic files, forensic science, you've heard that phrase. The word forensic simply means legal, right? It is a legal thing.

And so when we talk about forensic justification, we are talking about the change of status that is made when a person believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. They go from being a person who is unrighteous to being a person who is declared righteous by God because of the imputed righteousness of Christ.

And by that imputed righteousness, they are declared righteous, and therefore their legal standing in the universe changes. Does this make sense so far? We're all together. That's justification. Now, justification is to be distinguished from sanctification.

Sanctification is the act whereby God... And by the way, the word sanctify comes from the Greek word hagios, which means to set apart. It's also where we get the word holy. And so it means to make holy.

Therefore, when we talk about sanctification, what we're talking about is where God takes a sinful person and He conforms that person to the image of Christ through a process of change. Through a process of change.

And we call that progressive sanctification. Progressive sanctification. Not progressive in the bad way. It's not liberal sanctification. But progressive in the sense that it begins and grows. And we're going to see that in this verse.

I'm setting up so that when we get to understand this verse and we walk through it, you're going to see that's what He says. He says we're going from one degree to another. We're moving from one degree to another.

So we have justification where God declares us righteous. We have sanctification where He grows us in the image of Christ. And then we have the word glorification. Glorification is that act where God gives us a new body.

We are glorified when we see Christ as He is. There's a passage in 1 John that says when we see Christ as He is, we will be as He is. That's called the beatific vision. The term beatific comes from the Latin and it simply means the blessed vision.

When we see Christ as He is, we will be as He is. That doesn't mean you get to be God. We're not Mormons. But what it means is that Christ, when He was in the grave, He was dead. But when He rose from the grave, He rose the glorified God-man.

And He had a body that was no longer limited by this world. But it was a glorified body. And we will receive a glorified body. In a few weeks, we're doing our end times conference. And at that conference, Brother Andy is going to be preaching on the eternal state.

What's the eternal state? That's where we're going to live forever. And beloved, it's not going to be on clouds. You're not going to be sitting on a cloud strumming a harp forever like you see in the movies.

You're not going to be a little cherub with little wings and sitting there doing nothing. But you're going to live on a new earth. And you're going to have a physical glorified body. Isn't that amazing?

To even consider the fact that it's not going to be just an ethereal reality. It's going to be a physical reality. An Edenic state. Meaning like Eden, but not Eden. That's what we have to look forward to in the eternal state.

But now that I've expressed justification, sanctification, and glorification, let us now for a moment step back and say that each one of those has three aspects. Justification is something that has already happened in my life.

The Bible says, having been justified by faith, let us have peace with God. Romans chapter 5 verse 1, right? Having been justified. Past tense, completed action. It's done. I've been justified. Yet the Bible also talks about the fact that I'm being justified.

And talks about the fact that I will be justified. At the great throne where I stand before the Lord, I will be justified. So there's a sense in which we can talk about justification as a completed action.

But there's also a sense where we can talk about justification is happening and is going to happen when I stand before the Lord and before His throne. So we say I have been justified, I am being justified, and I will be justified.

And with sanctification, same thing. I could say I have been sanctified. Because set apart. I was set apart in Christ. I am in Him. I have been set apart. I am being sanctified. I am being conformed to the image of Christ.

And I will be sanctified on the day of the Lord when I receive my new body. Completely set apart from sin. Completely made holy. And never again to have to deal with the sin of this flesh and of this world.

And glorification. Glorification is something that I've already experienced in one sense. Because the Bible says that when I was joined to Christ by faith, that I was seated in heavenly places with Him.

That's past tense. I am seated in heavenly places with Him. I've already been joined to my Savior. And because I'm already joined to my Savior, I'm experiencing a degree of glory now. And that degree of glory is increasing.

To when I receive my glorified body which will no longer desire sin. Which will no longer desire the flesh. Which will no longer desire the things of the world. But will desire Christ alone. That change is coming and boy howdy I look forward to that change.

But you see how we can look at all three of these things and see them in different aspects. If we step back and see them as they are to be understood. Now with all of that in our mind, I want us to look at this text.

And this is one of those good Sundays where I actually get to only look at one verse. Sometimes I have to look at several to make everything make sense. But today I get to do one verse. We're going to walk from beginning to end.

And I want you to see what Paul says here. Because it's so important. He begins in verse 18 with the phrase, and we all. And then the next phrase in the ESV says, with unveiled face. The word there, the word in the Greek, having been unveiled is the way it could be translated.

Is in reference to the argument that Paul made just a few verses earlier. Paul said that in the old covenant, Moses would go into the presence of God. And he would come out of the presence of God and his face would reflect.

With the refulgent glory of God which was on his face. And so Moses would cover his face with a veil. And Paul uses that as an illustration of the fact that the old covenant glory. Was coming to an end and was giving way to a new covenant glory.

And so now Paul is making an argument here. From that illustration that we who are in the new covenant. Also have a face that shines with the glory of God. But it's not veiled. Why is it not veiled? Because it's not passing away.

This is the argument Paul is making. He's saying Moses covered his face. Because it was a demonstration that that glory was fading. Remember I said the word fading really isn't the best word there. The Greek word literally means coming to an end.

That glory was coming to an end. But we have a glory that's not coming to an end. We have a glory which is forever in the new covenant. So we all having been unveiled in face. That's how it begins. And we all with unveiled face.

And then it says this phrase. Beholding the glory of the Lord. Now this is one of those times. Where the language here can be a little difficult. Because the phrase. One translation says beholding as in a mirror.

One translation says reflecting. Another one says beholding. But the issue at view here. Is that we like Moses have the glory of God. We like Moses have the glory of God. Not physically shining out from our face.

But we have the glory of God. Because we are members of the new covenant. We have the spirit within us. Therefore we are reflecting the glory of God. We behold the glory of God. We reflect the glory of the Lord.

How?

That's the question. Paul says we now all having been unveiled in face. Are beholding or reflecting the glory of the Lord. The question is how? Because it's not physical. I can't look at your face and see that you're a believer.

I cannot look at you like Moses when he came out of the holy place. And his face was shining. I can't look at you and see a shining face.

Wouldn't it be nice.

If we just knew you were a believer. Because on Sunday morning I couldn't look out there. Because it would be like looking at these lights. You just can't look. Wouldn't it be great if you knew. Because you couldn't even look in the mirror.

Because you were shining with the glory of God. But that ain't the way it is. We don't have an external marking on us. We don't have a glowing face. That shows forth our faith. But Paul says regardless of that.

We still are reflecting the glory of the Lord.

How?

Well this is where the verse goes. He says we are beholding the glory of the Lord. Or reflecting the glory of the Lord. Are being transformed into the same image. From one degree of glory to another. The word here being transformed is the key I think to the entire verse.

Because the way that we reflect the glory of the Lord. Is that the Spirit comes and lives in us. And changes us. And through that change we reflect the glory of God in our lives. You see that's what is in view here.

It's the view of the reflection of Christ. Notice the word image here. The word image here is the word icona. It's where we get the word icon in English. And in Paul's writings the word image. Is always in reference, well not always.

But most of the time it's in reference to Christ himself. That Christ is the image of the invisible God. As it says in Colossians chapter 2. So what it's saying is we are being transformed into the same image.

The same image of what? We're being transformed into the image of Christ. We're being transformed into the image of Christ. In fact if you have your Bibles. If you would just for a moment turn with me to a different passage.

Go over to Romans chapter 8. And I want to show you something in Romans 8.

Go to verse 28.

Now everybody, not everybody. But most reformed folks at least have some idea of Romans 8. 28 because it begins the section that we call the golden chain of redemption. Where Paul says that we've been foreknown.

And because we've been foreknown we've been predestined. And because we've been predestined we've been called. And because we've been called we've been justified. And because we've been justified we've been glorified.

And reformed folks like that. Because it reaffirms what we believe about what God does in salvation. By the way God is the worker in that golden chain. Every verb there has a subject and an object. God is the subject doing the action.

We are the object having the work done to us. God foreknows. God predestines. God chooses or calls. God justifies and God glorifies. That's what we see in that passage. But I want you to notice something else.

Beginning at verse 28. It says and we know that for those who love God all things work together for good. Great comforting verse there. For those who are called according to his purpose. Notice it doesn't say everything works to good for everybody.

It works to the good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. If you're not a believer I can't promise you that everything in the world is going to work out for your good. It's not.

Ultimately if you stay in unbelief everything is going to work out for your damnation. It's just the reality of it. So I can't promise you any good outside of Christ. But in Christ everything works out for good.

Even the difficulties. Even when people hurt us or harm us or damage us or do whatever they want to us or persecute us. Because Paul goes on to say all of these things are not to be compared with the glory of Christ.

And to know him. But getting back to the text. It says this. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. In order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Notice that the word predestined there. Doesn't say that he predestined us to heaven. Even though I would argue there is a logical idea that flows out of this. Because it says whom he predestined he called.

Whom he called he justified. Whom he justified he glorified. Certainly there is a logic to our predestination being a predestination to glory. But the first thing that we are predestined to. Is that we are predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ.

Beloved that is the doctrine of sanctification. That God didn't save you to leave you like you are. But he saved you to conform you to the image of his son. This is such an important thing. Because the whole come as you are movement.

Hey listen I am fine with the come as you are movement. As long as you understand that we are not going to stay as we are. Come as you are. But we seek confirmation to Christ. Is there a man or woman in this room.

Who knows the Lord Jesus Christ. That does not know that you need areas of growth in your life. Is there a man or woman in this room. Who would stand up right now and say I have arrived. In my walk. No every one of us are being drugged kicking and screaming some days.

Right. Every one of us gets a broken leg. Every one of us gets a sprained ankle. And every one of us sometimes is you know the old. What is that thing you see in people's bathrooms a lot of times. The footsteps.

What is it the poem. You know when I saw two sets of footsteps as walking with the Lord. When I saw one. You were carrying me.

What is that long line.

That is where he was dragging you kicking and screaming. That is where that long line. And sometimes that is what is happening. Right. But it is a process of confirmation. That is the doctrine of sanctification.

It is a process of change whereby you are conformed to the image of Christ. And that is the reason why you don't just die or get saved and go right to heaven. You understand that. And I have had atheists ask me that.

Well if you believe that you are going to continue to sin after you are a believer. Why don't God just take you right to heaven when you get saved.

Right.

Yeah. But there is a reason why you are here. For by grace have you been saved through faith. That not of yourself. It is the gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast. For we are God's workmanship.

Finish it. Created in Christ Jesus for good works. That he prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. God actually prepared before the foundation of the world works that you were to accomplish by the power of his spirit in the name of his son.

God predestined that for you. That you would have works that you would accomplish in his name.

By the power of his spirit.

That is how you reflect the glory of God. That is how you reflect. Going back to 2 Corinthians now. That is how we, as it says, having this unveiled face and we are reflecting the glory of God. How are we reflecting the glory of God?

By being transformed into the image of Christ. Progressively.

Progressively.

Because he says, in the ESV it says from one degree of glory to another. In the King James I think it simply says from glory to glory. In the Greek it is apodoxies eis doxon. It literally means from glory to glory.

And that is the idea. It means to be increased in our glory. To be increased in our confirmation to Christ.

It means to be increased in our sanctification.