“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord.
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What less than such a splendor of hope would be worthy of the revelation of Jesus? Filled with the soul of their Father, men shall inherit the glory of their Father; filled with themselves, they cast him out and rot. The company of the Lord, soul to soul, is that which saves with life, his life of God-devotion, the souls of his brethren. No other saving can save them. They must receive the Son, and through the Son the Father. What it cost the Son to get so near to us that we could say Come in, is the story of his life. He stands at the door and knocks, and when we open to him he comes in, and dwells with us, and we are transformed to the same image of truth and purity and heavenly childhood. Where power dwells, there is no force; where the spirit-Lord is, there is liberty. The Lord Jesus, by free, potent communion with their inmost being, will change his obedient brethren till in every thought and impulse they are good like him, loving the Father perfectly like him, ready to die for the truth like him, caring like him for nothing in the universe but the will of God, which is love, harmony, liberty, beauty, and joy. I do not know if we may call this having life in ourselves; but it is the waking up, the perfecting in us of the divine life inherited from our Father in heaven, who made us in his own image, whose nature remains in us, and makes it the deepest reproach to a man that he has neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. He who would thus live must, as a mirror draws into its bosom an outward glory, receive into his “heart of hearts” the inward glory of Jesus Christ, the Truth.
Commentary
by Leah Morency
2 Corinthians 3:18 is in a context of verses that shed light on this "mirror" analogy and how it illustrates deeper truths. To conclude The Mirrors of Our Lord, I laced scripture with quotes from MacDonald's sermon to bring clarity to this passage and to bring us to the introduction of the next sermon series beginning tomorrow, The Truth.
2 Corinthians 3:5-7, 11, 16-17 interlaced with excerpts in quotes from The Mirrors of Our Lord.
v.5...our sufficiency is from God,
v.6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
"Filled with the soul of their Father, men shall inherit the glory of their Father... The company of the Lord, soul to soul, is that which saves with life, his life of God devotion..."
v.7 Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end...
v.11 For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.
v.16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
"...when we open to him he comes in, and dwells with us, and we are transformed to the same image of truth, purity and heavenly childhood."
v.17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
"Where power dwells, there is no force; where the spirit-Lord is, there is liberty...the will of God, which is love, harmony, Liberty, beauty, and joy...He who would thus live, must as a mirror draws into its bosom an outward glory, receive into his "heart of hearts" the inward glory of Jesus Christ the Truth."