Or, The Heart of TEC (Pt 1)
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 3:18
Date: July 10, 2022
Speaker: Sean Higgins
Twice in 2 Corinthians 4 Paul says, “We do not lose heart.” The phrase comes from one Greek word (ἐγκακοῦμεν) that could be taken a few ways: not fainting, not quitting, not losing heart. The chapter beings (verse 1) and ends (verse 16) with the claim. We have heart.
2Co4 may be the chapter that has heartened me the most for the last dozen years. It has built categories and set a trajectory for my heart as a follower of Christ and minister to the flock. A number of crucial, critical concepts come from this chapter and, whether or not you’ve heard these paragraphs explicitly referenced, you have certainly been affected by them. This chapter of God’s Word is at the heart of TEC.
As we begin our occupation of our first owned facility it’s relevant to revisit the heartbeat of our ministry. This short series will have some overlap with the TEC 101 seminar but come at it from a different angle. But we want the glory of God, the glory of Jesus Christ, the glory of the gospel, the glory of ministry, the glory of every Christian, to shine all over this place.
Where does it start? It starts in 2 Corinthians 3, or in other words, it starts with worship. Worship itself starts and ends with glory, from glory to glory.
Follow the glory thread through 2 Corinthians 3:18-4:18:
Glory is the starting point, glory keeps us going, glory keeps us dying, glory keeps spreading, glory is the end. The “heart” of TEC is glory, God’s glory and His gift of glory, letting us see it and transforming us to share it.
We become like what we worship. That’s the key point for this message: We always become like Who (or what) we worship. This reality is taught throughout the Bible, but consider one negative example before we look at the positive.
Their [the nations, v.2] idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak;
eyes, but do not see.
They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.
They have hands, but do not feel;
feet, but do not walk;
and they do not make a sound in their throat.
Those who make them become like them;
so do all who trust in them.
(Psalm 115:4–8)
Men who worship senseless gods become senseless: dumb, deaf, unable to smell or feel or walk. They are lifeless. They are mere shells, dead weight on the shelf. Of course that’s why a culture that worships false gods becomes futile.
The opposite is true, too. Those who worship the living God live. Those who worship a loving God love (or at least we’d say that they are in the process of learning to love like God). Those who worship a patient God wait. Those who worship a righteous God walk justly. Those who worship a glorious God bow before His glory and are being transformed into glory.
2Co4 hinges (“Therefore”) on the last verse in chapter 3.
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. (2 Corinthians 3:18, ESV)
G. K. Beale summarizes: “what you revere you resemble, either for ruin or for restoration” (We Become What We Worship, Loc. 52).
In verse 18 Paul states as fact that Christians are being transformed; something unmistakable is happening to us. Transformation is the heart of this verse, and in it we see five veins of gospel transformation: the goal, the condition, the manner, the progress, and the agent of transformation.
What are we changed into? In other words, what will we look like when the change is complete? What is the goal of our transformation? We all…are being transformed into the same image. That’s clear, but what is “the same image”? The image is the glory of the Lord mentioned in the previous phrase. We see the glory of the Lord, as if it were a template, and we are molded and sculpted into that same image.
The “Lord” is God, and specifically the second person of the Trinity, Christ. Paul writes in the next chapter about “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (4:4). There is a connection between glory, Christ, the gospel, and us.
Not only do we see greater glory, we are also being transformed into glory, into righteousness, into Christlikeness, into the image of God.
Observe, that the design of the gospel is this—that the image of God, which had been effaced by sin, may be stamped anew upon us… (John Calvin)
In Genesis 1 language, we are being restored to the fullness of the imago Dei. We are being more and more restored to our image-bearing glory.
Change is not just for change’s sake. This isn’t a meandering “spiritual journey” to nowhere. The goal of the gospel is to create a resemblance of Christ, who is the perfect image of God.
And before we move on, note that Paul says we all. Our individual souls change, yes. But God has much bigger plans than that. He changes the entire body. The culture of an entire group grows in glory.
What does change require? We are all being transformed with unveiled face. “With unveiled face” describes a state on which transformation depends. Veiled faces prevent transformation.
Having a veiled face is no good in context. Veiled faces are compared to hardened minds (verse 14). Veiled faces cannot understand God’s Word (verse 15) even though they hear it. Veiled faces are compared to blinded minds (4:4) even though they think they see. Those who are perishing have veiled faces (4:3); those who are separated from Christ (verse 14).
That means that not everyone is in this transformation process; not everyone undergoes this change into Christlikeness.
The prerequisite of transformation is a supernatural unveiling. Transformation will not occur until God shines “in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (4:6). An unveiled face is no small grace, and unless the veil is removed, men perish. Ours is a culture of veiled faces, unable to see God, and so unable to properly reflect Him. No wonder we are so confused.
How are we changed? This is the blood-pumping question. We all are being transformed by beholding the glory of the Lord.
The NKJV and NASB add, “beholding as in a mirror” because the verb (a form of κατοπτρίζω) is related to a common term for mirror (κάτοπτρον). The NIV goes a different route, “we all reflect the Lord’s glory,” also playing off the mirror idea.
Because we were made to reflect another’s image rather than produce a self-image, we cannot know who we are supposed to be without examining the original. Copies depend on the master. He is our vision, our best thought by day or by night. As we behold our God—which can be any time, not only corporately—we become like Him. Because of this, worship is the center of everything, the first step and foundation of our week.
We are not reading the Bible merely as an instruction manual as much as a mirror to behold Christ. We’re changed as we fellowship, as we spend time with someone else, as we linger in His presence, not by following a three step formula or accumulating more life hacks. We are not outlines because God is not an outline. If the outline is our focus rather than God, we fail.
Family, work, school, friends, social media fights, are only as fruitful as they are rooted in reverence that leads to restored resemblance.
This is what is dangerous about Facebook, video games, endless movies, etc.: that men look at reflections that are only echoes. They become mirrors mirroring mirrors, getting smaller and hard to see.
The way we’re transformed is by contemplating deep and wide on the God of overwhelming greatness. Souls shrink to the size of their considerations and concerns. Put on your Lord-beholding glasses.
When does change occur? We all are being transformed from one degree of glory to another (NAS - “from glory to glory”). Note that we start at a pretty good place, and it gets better from there.
Change is normal for Christians. We are constantly being conformed, rather than all at once. Christ’s image in us doesn’t appear in its fullness overnight. Gospel transformation is progressive, even if it seems slow, and persistent. If you love Jesus, it’s okay. He will grow you.
Who changes us? For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
The point is not merely to affirm the lordship of the Spirit, but rather to point us to the source of the power which produces the Lord’s image in us. Transformation is Spirit-ual. We can’t buy it, borrow it, or build it. We can fake it, but only for so long. Just as we cannot grasp Christ’s glory apart from the Spirit, so also we cannot grow in Christ’s image apart from the Spirit.
The agent of our ongoing change is God’s Holy Spirit dwelling in and filling us; it’s a supernatural work.
“What you revere you resemble, either for ruin or for restoration.” We become like what we behold.
Everything flows downstream from this.
How a church looks at God in worship is the second mark of maturing. We behold God in our liturgy (through each of the 5 Cs): God is great, He is holy and gracious, He is true, He is generous, He is interested.
He is the Lord of glory, strong and mighty, and we are His people.
Christian, it is almost scary to think about the glory that God has purposed for You. The power of positive thinking will get you nowhere near this glory, but the same power that raised Christ working in you will. You are a child of the Father of glory, and He cares for glorifying you more than you.
[M]ay the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. (Ephesians 1:17-20a, ESV)