Transformed by Beholding God’s Glory | 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 | 2/22/26

Well, when you look at your life, uh,

what do you want to change? Now, I know

there's a small percentage of us here

who are perfect. I'm not speaking to you

this morning, but most of us have

something in our life that we want to

change, want to see be different. Some

of it's internal inside of ourselves.

Others, you want to change the things

around you, the things that are external

that you think are maybe impacting your

life. I think we can look at our lives

and think about things we wish that were

different. And again, some of us want

change in our jobs, for example. We want

to climb the career ladder. We want to

shift work to a different situation that

might be better. And so, we take classes

or training or we update our LinkedIn.

Some of us desire change in our beauty

or appearance or our health and so we

make these big changes in our lives or

try to at least. Some have big spiritual

goals this year. You want to read

through the Bible for the first time.

You want to grow in your study of

scripture. You want to give more

generously. These are all really good

goals.

And a lot of us look back on last year

and we think, "No, things in 2026 will

be different."

But then it's February,

right? February is where goals go to

die.

You've put forth your human effort.

You're You've hit the limit of your

self-discipline.

And so the gym empties out.

You've hit Leviticus in your Bible

reading plan.

You remember that gluten and dairy

tastes good.

By the way, if you're in your Bible

reading plan in Leviticus, it's a great

book. Don't give up. You're in Leviticus

8 right now. If you've been following

along, it's a great book.

But this brings the question,

what gives you the power to change?

what gives you the power to change.

And there's wisdom in the advice of the

world. There's experts that will tell

you to create community around the

change you want to see happen, to start

new micro habits, not to think about one

big thing, but think about all the small

things that lead up to that big change.

They would tell you to put in

checkpoints along the way, to identify

obstacles, to remove the obstacles, to

plan for the obstacles that come into

place. But for the majority of people,

and I don't mean to be hyper cynical

here, but for the majority of people,

this kind of change doesn't work.

It doesn't work.

And this is a hard truth. I have to tell

you that when it comes down to it, many

of us don't find lasting change in the

areas of our lives that we desire to see

change happen. Because what gives you

the power to change is a new desire.

Not just new actions, but a new desire.

What you do flows from what you desire.

And I think also when many of us think

about change, we actually set the bar

too low.

Many of us are seeking temporary

improvements through our grit and

determination

and because we're not satisfied and

think that those changes will fix things

in our life. And if you're a Christian,

you know what God desires for you right

now?

More than anything else, what God

desires for you right now. He doesn't

desire your self-improvement.

He actually desires your transformation.

And that's why it begins with a new

heart. It begins with new desire.

And God would have you transformed more

and more into the image of Jesus Christ.

And that is the lifelong project for the

Christian.

When we're converted, when we're made

alive by the spirit, we begin that

lifelong project of transformation to

become more and more like Christ. And

our passage today tells us how this

transformation happens. Paul tells us we

become like what we behold.

We become like what we look to.

And in our response to sin and

brokenness and separation from God,

God's [clears throat] made a way in

Christ for us to become transformed

people, to become as we follow Christ,

more and more like him, what it means to

be truly human, to be more like the

image of God and Jesus Christ. And over

the last two weeks, we looked at this

thought about the Christian critiques

against Paul, the Corinthians critiques

against Paul, and Paul's picture of what

authentic ministry in Christ looked

like. And specifically, the Corinthians

have been struggling with sexual sin,

gossip, slander, unforgiveness, and

division in the church. And you could

easily imagine somebody in Paul's

situation

as the apostle of this church when

called to bring the gospel when called

to minister to the church. You could

imagine him saying, "I give up. These

people will never change."

And he'd be justified in many of our

eyes to do that because of years and

years of imploring and pleading and

begging and teaching and showing

that they're being changed.

And yet listen to his words today.

2 Corinthians 3:18, the conclusion of

2 Corinthians 3:18

our passage.

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.

Paul had this radical confidence that

they could be transformed because in

Christ we have unveiled face. More on

that later. which means unrestrained

access to God.

And if you're in Christ, your change is

certain.

There's no doubt. It's not in question.

And so I want us to see this morning as

we explore this passage that we become

what we behold. We become what we

behold. And as we look to the glory of

God in Christ, we're transformed to be

more like Christ. And so we'll explore

this big picture concept by looking at

three marks of authentic transformation.

three things that happen when you're

being changed by God to be more like

him. And we'll interact with Christ in

this passage as we go through that. And

the first mark of authentic

transformation,

softened hearts and minds. The first

mark of you being transformed by God is

that God softens your heart. He softens

your mind. Let's look at what the text

of scripture says. 2 Corinthians chapter

3:12. If you look there with me, we'll

read down to verse 15. This is the word

of the Lord through Paul.

Since we have such a hope, we are very

bold. Not like Moses who put on a veil

over his face so the Israelites might

not gaze at the outcome of what was

being brought to an end.

But their minds were hardened.

For to this day when they read the old

covenant, that same veil remains

unlifted because only through Christ is

it taken away. Yes. To this day,

whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over

their hearts.

First mark of authentic transformation,

Paul calls out their hardened hearts,

hardened minds, and their veiled hearts

that don't follow Christ. Last week, we

have been in the section of second

Corinthians where Paul wrote about

authentic ministry. It means to serve

and share Christ with one another. that

we've been freed by Christ and are being

led by Christ in what Paul called the

triumphal procession that our lives are

on display showing the life and freedom

we have in Jesus. Then Paul responded to

his critics and Pastor Jason emphasized

last week that Paul's ministry was

authentic because he was called by God

and the Corinthians themselves were

experiencing supernatural change. He

didn't need letters of recommendation

proving his apostilhip or his ministry.

He could just say, "Look at the

Corinthians. Look at them changing. Look

at them growing. This is my evidence

that God's called me into ministry.

And this week, Paul again focuses on how

that change happens. Look at verse 12.

He says that they're bold. Very bold. He

points to the boldness because we're not

under the old covenant, but under a new

covenant. Those terms old and new

covenant may be new to you, may be

unfamiliar to you. But the old covenant

or what Paul called earlier in chapter

3, the ministry of the letter is

referring back to the Old Testament law.

The law of Moses, what we get in Exodus,

Leviticus, Deuteronomy, over 600

commandments in scripture about how they

were to live as God's people as the

nation of Israel. Now the old covenant's

bigger than that, broader than that. But

Paul here is using that term to refer

back to the letter uh the ministry of

the letter he calls it. Um the law had

the purpose, the goal to restrain sin,

to highlight what God loved and to point

them to their need for a savior, to

their need for God. But the shocking

truth from Paul is that the letter, the

law couldn't change someone's heart. It

could not change someone's heart. And it

was temporary and was meant to point us

to Jesus,

but it could not bring life. Only the

spirit could bring life. And so Paul

went even as far as to call this

ministry the ministry of death and the

ministry of condemnation

in chapter 3. Those are hard words.

He still calls it a ministry of glory,

but it was limited in what it could do.

And so what did God promise?

God promised through the prophets a new

covenant.

God promised a new covenant that would

come when his king arrived, when Jesus

came, that would give them a new heart

and a new spirit. That he'd write his

law on their hearts, that he'd shape

them from the inside out. We see this

very clearly in Jeremiah 31 verse 31-34.

Jeremiah 31:31–34

It'll be on the screen above my head

right here, but this what Paul wrote.

Now Paul wrote, Jeremiah wrote to the

war, "Behold, the days are coming,

declares the Lord, while I make a new

covenant with the house of Israel and

the house of Judah, not like the

covenant that I made with their fathers

on the day when I took them by the hand

to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

My covenant that they broke, though I

was their husband, declares the Lord.

For this is the covenant that I will

make with the house of Israel after

those days, declares the Lord. up my law

within them. I will write it on their

hearts, and I will be their God, and

they shall be my people. And no longer

shall each one teach his neighbor and

each his brother, saying, "Know the

Lord, for they shall all know me from

the least of them to the greatest,

declares the Lord. For I will forgive

their iniquity, and I'll remember their

sin no more."

Paul wants us to understand that the

power to change starts with that new

heart. It starts with that new heart

where God promised to write the law on

the hearts of his people that they shall

know God and be his people. And that's

what's behind Paul's boldness here in

verse 12.

He knows that he was preaching a greater

glory than what Moses preached, than

what Moses taught.

And so the question here is if the old

covenant was meant to point to the new

covenant, to point to Christ, how did

the people of God miss it? How did the

Jews in the days of Paul miss it? How

could so many Jewish people in the time

of Paul know the Hebrew Bible so well

and not see Jesus in it?

Look at verse 14.

Their minds were hardened.

and verse 15, there was a veil lying

over their hearts.

The word of God, the old covenant was

veiled to them. It could not produce the

transformation they needed. Sure, they

could live righteous and moral lives.

They could live by the law, but

ultimately it did not change their

hearts. They couldn't see Jesus. It's

why Jesus told people like the Pharisees

in John 5 that they looked at the

scriptures the wrong way. In John 5:39

John 5:39

and 40, he tells the Pharisees, this

group of highly devout religious Jews in

the days of Christ this, you search the

scriptures because you think in the

scriptures you have life.

You think the scriptures are an end in

and of themselves,

but it's that they bear witness about

me.

Yet you refuse to come to me that you

may have life.

But the old covenant existed to point us

to Jesus, to lead us to Jesus.

But the people of God missed it. Hearts

were hardened.

They were veiled.

They needed to be softened in their

minds and their hearts. They needed the

veil over their hearts to be removed.

And so to make his point, Paul pointed

back to the story of Moses in Exodus 34.

When Moses received the law of God on

Mount Si, he went alone to the top of

Mount Si

and out of the hundreds of thousands of

people of Israel only Moses met with God

face to face. He met with God on the top

of Mount Si and later in a place called

the tent of meeting and he would speak

to God face to face. They would set up

this tent of meeting outside the camp.

And you can imagine Moses walking

through the camp of Israel through the

wilderness, right? Walking through the

camp of the people of God, going outside

the camp, the pillar of the cloud, the

symbol of God's presence with them,

would then descend as a visual

representation of what was happening, go

into the tent of meeting, and Moses

would go in and speak with God face to

face.

We're told in Exodus 33:1 that Moses

Exodus 33:1

spoke to God face to face as a man spoke

to a friend.

There's a time in the book of Numbers,

Numbers 12, where Miriam and Aaron,

Moses' own family, complains to God

about Moses.

And God tells Miriam and tells Aaron,

"If I speak to a prophet, it's through

dreams and visions. If I speak to Moses,

it's face to face."

Church, that sounds crazy. This is going

to sound crazy,

but Paul's point here is that if you are

a follower of Christ, you have the same

access to God that Moses had.

You don't go to the tent of meeting, God

makes you his dwelling place of the

spirit. You have the same access to God.

That's the shocking truth of our text

that you can access God as a friend.

You don't have to go to a special

location. You can behold God with

unveiled face. And I don't think we

realize what we have.

In Exodus 34, Moses was up on the top of

Mount Si. He received the stone tablets

of the law of God after spending 40 days

and 40 nights in God's presence. And he

came down the mountain with his face

shining. He got that glow up.

He was radiating the glory of God so

bright the people of Israel couldn't

look at him. So he veiled himself in

their presence.

Whenever he went to God's presence, he

would unveil his face.

Not to be too silly, but you know how

glow-in-the-dark stuff works.

You glow-in-the-dark toys or whatever.

Like it works because it spends time in

the sun.

It works because it absorbs the UV

light. And when you put it into the

dark, it then glows.

But you know what happens? That glow

fades.

When it's not exposed to the sun, the

glow fades.

And Paul makes the point that the same

thing happened with Moses being in the

presence of God. That the glory radiated

off of Moses to the people. But look at

2 Corinthians 3:13.

2 Corinthians 3:13

He says it was coming to an end.

Moses is uh Paul's telling us here that

Moses actually veiled his face not only

to um not freak out the Israelites but

to also not show that the the glow was

diminishing

that the radiating of the God's glory

was diminishing.

He highlights two things actually with

the story Paul does. First, the glory of

God radiating off Moses was temporary.

It was not permanent. It was an image or

a picture of something to be fulfilled

in Jesus. Actually, keep your eyes on

the text of 2 Corinthians over the next

few weeks because Paul starts to point

out all these temporary things and

starts to compare them to things that

are eternal. This is one of them here.

He starts to point out temporary versus

what's permanent. I'll talk about the

old covenant being temporary. The new

covenant being permanent. Our suffering

being temporary, but our eternity with

God being permanent. Our earthly bodies

being temporary, but our heavenly bodies

being permanent.

Paul wants us to understand that we have

in Christ is the fulfillment of God's

promises and cannot be taken away.

So, he makes the point that what Moses

experienced was temporary.

And second, he makes the point that the

veil Moses wore was a symbol of their

hardened minds and their veiled hearts.

Their failure to embrace the fullness of

the glorious redemption and relationship

we have in Christ Jesus that Christ

desires for us.

And the sad reality is that even today

for many people this veil remains

unlifted.

Verse 15,

he says, "I tell you to this day,

whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over

their hearts."

A Christian, an devout Jew, and an

atheist,

and that sounds like the start of a

joke, but it's not.

They can all read the same Bible, the

same passage,

and only the Christian can see the glory

of Christ in it.

Others may see something beautiful

or compelling,

but only the Christian can grasp the

spiritual reality

that's in the text. because of what Paul

wrote in his first letter to the

Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 2:13, he

1 Corinthians 2:13

wrote, "We impart this in words not

taught by human wisdom, but taught by

the spirit, interpreting spiritual

truths to those who are spiritual."

The Holy Spirit helps you understand

Christ in the scripture.

A person can be a Bible scholar. They

can know more about the Bible than even

the smartest person in this room, and

they could still miss Jesus. I had a

professor in college. I've mentioned him

before a few times. He was an expert in

the Bible, taught world civilization. He

was kind of guy that was on the History

Channel and stuff like that. He knew the

Bible really, really well. Knew the

Bible better than I did. And he would

really try to unsettle the faith of

Christians in his class.

How could someone know so much of the

Bible so well and still miss the main

idea of the Bible?

a veil lies over his heart.

And so the first kind of mark that God's

changing us that our hearts are being

unveiled. Our our minds are being

softened. We're being softened to the

things of God.

And that happens through the spirit. The

second mark of authentic transformation

is that it's spirit empowered. The Holy

Spirit's behind it.

Let's look at back at verse 14 and read

down to 17 with me here. But their minds

are hardened. For to this day, when they

read the Old Covenant, the same veil

remains unlifted because only through

Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this

day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies

over their hearts. But when one turns to

the Lord,

the veil is removed.

When one turns to the Lord, the veil is

removed. Now, the Lord is the spirit.

And where the spirit of the Lord is,

there is freedom.

Only in Christ is the veil taken away.

When one turns to the Lord, the veils

removed. And this comes from the Lord

who is the spirit.

What's the role of the Holy Spirit in

our change, in our transformation? What

does the Holy Spirit do for us as the

people of God to make us more like

Christ? Well, first, the spirit removes

the veil.

This points to what theologians talk

about as the doctrine of regeneration.

The doctrine of illumination.

Regeneration being that we were once

dead in our sin, but God has made us

alive.

And illumination that the spirit helps

us understand the things of God. Think

of it this way. Regeneration, new heart,

illumination, new eyes,

new eyes to see. And church, this is

good news. Just as Moses removed the

veil that he wore in the presence of

God, so too we can have the veil on our

hearts removed so we can see the glory

of Jesus. And Paul experienced this

personally.

Paul knew this. Paul knew what it was

like to not be able to see Christ

clearly and have a veil on his heart

removed.

Paul, one of the best, most

self-controlled, disciplined,

determined, gritshaped people in

history. He was the best of the best.

Trained with the smartest religious

teachers, knew his scripture really

well, able to talk to philosophers.

He worked in the trades. He was someone

to everyone.

Yet, when these crazy fishermen started

to preach about a resurrected Jesus in

Jerusalem

and thousands of people were coming to

faith claiming that God took on a human

body, that God himself in that human

body died on the cross and rose again,

that this is the Messiah, that the

savior they've been longing for,

Paul opposed it so much he got the power

given him to lock up followers of Jesus

and even put them to death.

[snorts] And in Acts nine, he was on his

way from Jerusalem to Damascus to go and

persecute a group of Christians in

Damascus.

And Jesus met him on the road. He showed

up in a blinding light. He called out

Paul, "Why are you persecuting me?" And

Paul was struck with blindness

until he got to Damascus

where a bold and courageous Christian

named Ananas was used by God to lay

hands on Paul, pray for him, and we're

told something like scales fell from

Paul's eyes,

and he rose and was baptized and

followed Christ.

Paul's veil was removed so he could see

clearly.

The Lord loves to remove the veil.

The same thing happened in Acts 16 to a

woman named Lydia, a Jewish woman

gathering to pray with other women. In

in the book of Acts, get this, Acts

Acts 16:14

16:14, the Lord opened her heart

to pay attention to what Paul was

saying. God removed the veil from her

heart and her mind so she could hear and

respond to the gospel. 2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 3:16

3:16, this happens when one turns to the

Lord. Turning is repentance. That's

repentance language. The word repent in

Hebrew means turn around. go the other

direction. In Greek, the word repent

means change your mind.

Your mind softened to the things of God.

You may ask, why doesn't God just remove

the veil from everyone's heart? That's a

natural. That's a good question. I think

we all wonder that question.

Some of our minds are hardened, right?

And we should focus on what's clear.

What's clear is that we need change

outside of ourselves

because those hardened minds and veiled

hearts. And what happens when someone

turns to the Lord, right, is that we

have that veil lifted. We need someone

else's help to see clearly. We need

change outside of ourselves. We need to

turn to the Lord.

Now, this doctrine can feel challenging

to us because it makes us feel

powerless.

It makes it sound like we're helpless to

change our hearts and to change our

desires.

I think you're right.

But listen to what Augustine wrote in

the 4th century. Augustine was a church

father. He wrote in his book of

Confessions. He wrote this. Why are you

relying on yourselves

only to find yourself unreliable?

Have you had that experience?

Have you ever thought about that? You

know, you're in a mess and you think

you're the best person qualified to get

yourself out of that mess.

Also, just imagine how scary it would be

if your salvation depended on you.

Think of the good news that your

salvation and growth in Christ does not

depend on how well you crushed it

yesterday. It doesn't depend on your

works or your strength to be faithful.

This truth also means that we can

approach God's word and expect him to

reveal himself to us through the spirit.

It means that God desires relationship

with us even though we're sinners.

If you feel powerless, that can be a

really good feeling because the good

news is that God is mighty to save.

God is mighty. And so Augustine finished

those thoughts with these words. He

said, "Why do you rely on yourself only

to find yourself unreliable? Cast

yourself upon God. Do not be afraid. He

will not withdraw himself so that you

fall.

Make the leap without anxiety. He will

catch you and heal you."

You find in your heart right now that

you want this new life. You want the

scales to fall from your eyes, the veil

to be removed. This is God's invitation

right here, right now to repent of your

sin, to turn to him so you could have

the new life, the new heart he promises

you could be forgiven, have the veil

over your heart removed. You can be

reconciled to God and have that access

to his presence that you desperately

long for.

The spirit does this. The spirit lifts

the veil from your heart. If you find

yourself longing for these things,

that's probably a sign that God is doing

that work.

Repent. Turn to the Lord. Ask him to be

your God. Seek part of his people.

The spirit lifts the veil. The second

thing the spirit does too, verse 17 in

our transformation is that the spirit

brings freedom. The spirit brings

freedom.

Verse 17. Now the Lord is the spirit and

where the spirit of the Lord is, there

is freedom. With the removing of the

veil, with the presence of God's spirit

comes freedom. Imagine what it'd be like

to not be dominated by sinful desires,

by vices or habits. Imagine what it'd be

like to experience real and lasting

change and growth and godliness, to do

what is right and to the desire to do

what is right.

That sounds some impossible thing that

only superchristians get. That is the

norm for followers of Jesus to be freed

from sinful desires to be freed to

follow Christ. Now Paul wrote something

really curious here. He says this comes

from the spirit who is the Lord.

Now we shouldn't equate Paul saying that

the Holy Spirit and Jesus are the same

person in the trinity. That's not what

he's saying here. The word Lord often is

used by Christians refer to the second

person to refer to Christ.

but rather I think he's taking us back

to the story of Moses in Exodus 34

where Moses stood before God in Paul's

day to say Lord was to say God say the

triune God in our understanding but to

say God and he's calling us to

understand that the presence of the Holy

Spirit in the lives of Christians

dwelling in our hearts through faith is

the same type of experience that Moses

had in God's presence the Holy Spirit is

the Lord. It isn't a lesser thing that

we receive. believe it's a greater thing

that we have that kind of access. Now,

we think of freedom as being the absence

of rules, the absence of restrictions to

do what we want to do.

But rather, Paul's saying freedom is

serving the right Lord, the right

master, to live as God designed. that

we're freed from being slaves to sin,

slaves to our selfish desires,

and we're freed from being slaves to the

ministry of death, the ministry of

condemnation.

We're freed from being um pursuing

religion through our works based

actions.

This freedom then brings us to a place

we're able to please God from the heart.

We're freed from perfectionism. We're

freed from being controlled by sinful

desires. We're freed actually to follow

Christ and live as we were designed by

God.

And that's great news.

That's great news for us. The spirit

brings freedom.

Now, that happens like again, this is

God's lifelong project for us. As we

follow Christ, we'll experience greater

degrees of that freedom from these

sinful desires.

And so Paul lands this passage in the

question, how do you experience it?

If the spirit brings freedom, the spirit

removes the veil. How do you experience

it? How do you experience this kind of

transformation in your life? And Paul's

answer, behold Christ with unveiled

face.

Verse 17, this comes from the spirit

who's the Lord. Where the spirit of the

Lord is, there is freedom. And we all

with unveiled face beholden 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.

We become like what we behold.

We become like what we admire. We become

like what we love. We all with unveiled

face beholding the glory of the Lord are

being transformed. Notice the active

aspect here. Beholding something we do,

something we engage in.

And then there's a passive aspect,

something that happens to us. We're

being transformed.

That's the Greek word metamorpho. We get

metamorphosis.

The idea of being changed from the

inside out. The idea of the caterpillar

going into the cocoon, coming out as a

butterfly, a new creation.

Both the beholding and becoming are

ongoing.

Again, the lifelong project of God in

us. Meaning that we will never fully

arrive at what we are to be on this side

of eternity.

That God will always be at work in us to

make us more like Christ as we behold

him. And so consider

what are you beholding right now? What

has your attention? What has your love?

What do you admire? What do you look to?

Beholding has this idea of looking at

something intently. The association in

the word in the New Testament here is

actually closely tied to looking into a

mirror.

Looking into a mirror. Now, I don't know

this from experience, but I know that

some people have those really intense

mirrors in their bathroom that are

magnifying an image like exponentially

larger than anything should ever magnify

it in their lives.

I they're called uh are they concave

mirrors?

Right. So

why would you want to see your face that

closely?

Now these mirrors magnify your face so

you can see places to put on makeup or

heaven forbid an imperfection you may or

may not have.

That kind of mirror brings precision and

clarity and despair. lots and lots of

despair.

But you know what's really funny about

those mirrors that magnify the image so

much? You know what people still do when

they look in them? They get closer.

Like there's something about a mirror

that when you're looking into it draws

you closer.

Now you would think that if this thing

can magnify like a hundfold or 300fold,

you wouldn't need to get close to it.

But that's what we all do. It's just

habit.

You draw close to what you behold.

The writer of Hebrews tells us in

Hebrews chapter 1:3 that Christ is the

radiance of the glory of God and the

exact imprint of his nature.

That when you behold Jesus, you behold

the glory of God and what it means to be

fully and truly human and become more

like him.

And so Paul by inviting us to behold,

he's inviting us to draw near, to get

close, to lean into the mirror, like

when you pull that mirror close to see

Christ for who he is.

This is why spiritual practices like

reading scripture and prayer and

learning about God through sermons and

studies and Bible study and theology,

it's why it's so important.

And you have to hear this. I'm not

trying to be harsh here.

But I have not met a Christian who was

growing in their faith, who is not also

actively reading scripture and beholding

Christ in it.

Some of you are like, I don't know why

I'm not growing. I don't know why God

feels so far from me. I don't know why

this is happening. I can't shake this

sin. And all we have to do is just dig

into your spiritual practices and

understand that you're not actually

accessing God, beholding God like he's

given us to do.

Now again, your salvation doesn't depend

on you, but this is a means that God's

given us a means of his grace to behold

him. And if we believe that what we

behold, we become, this is lowhanging

fruit for change in our lives.

God uniquely uses his word to transform

us.

We're to let the word of Christ dwell in

us richly. Colossians 3. And get this,

his goal is not that we know more,

that we become more, become more like

Christ.

And so the first thing we need to

consider with this text is what are you

beholding? Are you beholding the glory

of God in the face of Christ? Are you

drawing in drawing close to him?

Second implication here is that we

reflect God's glory as we see God's

glory in Jesus. The implication again is

that we too can climb the mountain with

unveiled face and be transformed where

we radiate the glory of God to the

world. Christ using us to show himself

to the world. That as we spend time

beholding God, we also will glow in the

dark. It's like how the moon reflects

the light from the sun at night or how

the mirror reflects an image. And so

church, we have this incredible access

to God. Moses again was the only person

who got to experience the radiating

glory of God in the tent of meeting and

on top of the mountain. And instead of

one person going up to God's presence,

God sent his presence, he sent the

spirit to dwell in our hearts through

faith so that we can behold God, be

transformed more and more like him into

the image of God's son. And what this

means practically

is that as a Christian, the more you

become like Christ, the more your

desires change in your heart and the

more your actions follow.

And so this idea of transformation is

inside out change. It's internal first.

And it's not that our actions don't

matter. It's just that they're not

usually what changes our hearts. Our

actions can usually reinforce godly

desires,

but they often struggle to create godly

desires.

And so it's difficult to have godly

actions if you first don't have godly

affections, godly desires, that new

heart that he's given.

And so ask the question,

why do you read scripture? Why do you

gather with God's people for worship?

What's the point of generosity? What's

the point of giving? What's the point of

prayer?

Our hope is that as you grow in Christ,

you will radiate that image of God

wherever he's placed you. Maybe you're

in a family that doesn't follow Christ.

Maybe you're in a workplace where you're

the only Christian or a neighborhood.

Maybe you're the only Christian all

those places. You have a unique

opportunity to radiate the glory of God

in that place and space.

There's a pastor who told a story of um

his child um his child was playing Jesus

in the school like Easter pageant at the

Christian school. Can you imagine like

the the bar for that? you know, you're

playing Jesus, right? If you're a baby

playing baby Jesus, it's like, you know,

all you got to do is like be in the

manger look cute. But if you're playing

Jesus in like the Easter pageant that

the bar's high, right? And so this

family um picked up a friend on the way

to school and the kids are getting out

of the car and the kid who's playing

Jesus, that kid's friend

said to the son who's playing Jesus, "Be

a good Jesus.

be a good Jesus and play.

And the pastor shouted back, "Same to

you.

Be a good Jesus."

We get invited to be a good Jesus in the

world. Like obviously you're not Jesus,

right? But as we immerse ourselves in

the person of Jesus, as we learn about

him in the word, study his ways, put

into practice what he taught, as God

changes us by one degree of glory to the

next, we are, get this, reflecting God's

glory in the world. as he makes us more

like him. We get to be a good Christ. We

get to reflect his glory to the world.

And so last implication here in this

text here that I want us to understand

is that we also if you're a Christian,

your growth is assured in this text

here. So consider what you're beholding.

you had to radiate God's glory and that

growth is assured. Um Paul said that

we're transformed from one degree of

glory to another

and um the Greek it just reads glory to

glory.

The he the Bible writers love doing

that. Love doubling words to describe

like something growing, something

magnifying.

And so what Paul wrote is that instead

of the glory that we radiate comes to an

end like Moses when he radiated God's

glory came to an end he put the veil on

his face uh because we have a superior

covenant because God's work is permanent

in us

that as we walk with Christ we radiate

more and more glory as we're transformed

instead of diminishing for the Christian

the glory we radiate grows.

The idea that the glory we reflect grows

rather than fades as we behold and

become more like Christ. And so get

this. It should be normal in your

Christian life to look back and think,

man, I knew nothing five years ago or 10

years ago. I knew nothing two months

ago. I was a mess.

We'll all probably look back on this

time in 10 years future and think the

same thing. I knew nothing. saying I was

a mess

because

we will keep growing

from glory to glory. We will keep

growing. Now if you feel stuck,

apathetic, if you're struggling with

sin,

don't give up hope. Bring it to God.

Enter the tent of meeting. Go to the

access point you have with the Lord. Go

to the behold Christ in prayer and in

the word and tell someone that you know

loves you and cares about you and trust

that God will fulfill his promise to

transform you from one degree of glory

to the next because you're not what you

used to be

and yet you are not what you will be.

And that's good news

that you've grown from what you were and

you're not done yet.

And that God desires for his people this

transformation to be more like Christ.

He wants the change. He wants more than

self-improvement. He wants us to be

radiating his glory. and he will see it

come to be in us as we follow Christ in

faith.