“But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord.” ~ 2 Corinthians 3:18
There’s a lot to unpack in this amazing verse…
The extraordinary implication is that we can behold the Lord now, today. We can gaze upon Him in His glory and experience the light of His literal presence. To do that, Paul says we must have an unveiled face.
A mirror reflects what it sees. Naturally, if a mirror is covered or veiled or aimed the wrong way, it can’t reflect the right image. It has to be unveiled and pointed in the right direction.
Paul explained what he meant by a veil when he wrote: “Indeed unto this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.”
Paul’s beloved fellow Jews didn’t avoid or hide from Moses’ teaching; they revered it. They memorized it and studied it. They nailed it to their doorposts and wore symbols of it on their clothes. But it was what they thought they knew about Moses’ teaching that became a veil over their hearts. Because of that, they couldn’t see that Moses’ writings revealed Christ.
Even Jesus’ disciples couldn’t see it. In that beautiful account of Jesus on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection, he opened the scriptures to them, “beginning from Moses and from all the prophets,” to show how the entire Old Testament was pointing to Him. All along, these writings hadn’t been revealing a religion of rules for people to follow, but a wonderful Person, Jesus Christ. To see Christ, they had to stand directly in His light.
Veils hide us. The point of a veil is to hide things. When we allow a veil to cover our heart, it’s because we’re hiding. Adam and Eve hid in the Garden after they sinned because they were afraid and ashamed of what they’d done. Their hiding demonstrated the separation that now existed between them and God. Veils can creep over our hearts anytime, with the same tragic result.
Paul explained the beautiful remedy in 2 Corinthians 3:16: “But whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” Veils are removed when we choose to look upon the Lord.
What an awesome encouragement that is! In the times when we feel like God is out of reach and we can’t see Him or sense the light of His love, we only need to turn. Turning removes the veil. We just have to turn away from whatever is occupying our hearts and return our gaze to Him.
He doesn’t require us to be perfect to turn. Perfecting us is His job. It happens when we reflect His image.
As incredible as it sounds, this transformation happens when we look at Christ.
Exactly how do we do that?
The heart is described in the Bible as the embodiment of our mind, emotion, will, and conscience. Our heart is the spiritual organ with which we love God, people, and things. Our heart is also the gateway of our being, determining whether we’re open or closed to something. Our heart is central to our relationship with God. The heart, as the Bible describes it, represents our spiritual eyes.
Turning our hearts toward Christ is a simple act of the will. Yet it is only truly possible in response to His light shining upon us.
What a comfort this is! We’re not charged by God with fixing ourselves by ‘looking inside ourselves.' It doesn’t take long to realize that there’s not much natural raw material there for us to work with. For the most part, we’re pretty barren.
Christian transformation doesn’t happen through improvements in our own behavior, or by acting in a way we think is more Christ-like. Instead, it can only result from God’s life operating and reflecting off of us.
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