Text: All of us are being transformed from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit’.
The Christians at Corinth, to whom Paul was writing, were not a particularly saintly lot. There were divisions between rich and poor, some members had far too high an opinion of themselves, not least as a spiritual and intellectual elite, there were rivalries and divisions among them, and Paul had to wrestle with a range of difficult issues of conduct and morality. In his first letter he had to puncture the pride of the wisdom party, the spiritual elite. And yet it is to these people that he now writes declaring that all of us are being transformed from one degree of glory to another.’ And he puts this transformation down to the work of the Lord, the Spirit. Nor is such a transformation reserved to first century Corinthians inspired by Paul’s teaching. In the words of Charles Wesley’s much-loved hymn Love divine, all loves excelling,’ we regularly associate ourselves with Paul’s claim for his Corinthian members, as we sing: Changed from glory into glory till in heaven we take our place’. What do we mean when we sing those words? Glory as we know it in this world is fickle stuff. The media love to build it up only to knock it down again. In our daily lives most of us would be deeply suspicious of glory, even if it were an option.
And the glory of God is so awesome that we would not dare to approach it. Even Moses, who had the courage to ask to see God’s glory, was allowed to see only his back for no one shall see me and live’ (Ex 33.20). The faithful Gerontius, who is not afraid to meet his Lord, is so consumed yet quickened by the glance of God’, that at the climax of his dream he cries: Take me away, and in the lowest deep there let me be there, motionless and happy in my pain.’ The sinfulness that is inherent in our human condition simply cannot coexist with the glory of God in all His majesty and righteousness. All that is not worthy is consumed in his presence it is only because we are united in the power of the Spirit to Jesus our Lord that we can hope to survive when we find ourselves in the awesome presence of Almighty God. And yet, in Paul’s words, all of us, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image (that is to say, the image of God’s glory) from one degree of glory to another’ (2 Cor 3.18). What is going on? How are we to reconcile these conflicting images of consuming glory and transforming glory?
To-day we celebrate the feast of Pentecost, the day on which the Holy Spirit was poured out on the apostles, and ultimately on all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we respond to His love, and put our trust in Him, the very presence of God, inseparable from his glory, enters into our lives in and through the Holy Spirit. When Moses asked to see God’s glory, the Lord said: I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name The Lord’; I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But you cannot see my face and while my glory passes by I will cover you with my hand.’ Goodness, and grace and mercy. These were the aspects of the truth about God that Moses was privileged to apprehend, as he sought assurance that God would not utterly abandon his people, despite the way they had abandoned him to worship the golden calf. It was with this assurance of grace and mercy, limited and ambiguous as it may seem, that Moses could go back up the mountain to receive the tablets of the law for the second time, standing between the people of Israel and their God. His face shone with reflected glory, not just when he came down from Mount Sinai after another 40 days with the tablets of the law, but whenever he spent time with God in the tent of meeting, because his relationship with God was closer than that of any other man or woman in the Old Testament. We read that the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend’ (Ex 33.11).
It is still God’s goodness and grace and mercy that we are most likely to be able to apprehend, or at least begin to apprehend, rather than the consuming light and heat of his glory, but unlike Moses we are able to apprehend these eternal aspects of God in and through the person of Jesus. When Philip asks Jesus to show him the Father, Jesus reminds him that he and the Father are one to see the Father we need to look no further than the Son. It is Jesus who shows us God in human form, Jesus who teaches us that Love is at the very heart of God, Jesus who teaches us to approach God even more intimately than Moses could approach God, not as almighty power personified like Jove as a God of thunder and lightning, nor even as a man speaks to his friend, but rather as unlimited Love personified as Our Father, and exemplified in Jesus’ own willingness to suffer on the Cross the consequences of our sinful nature.
Like the apostles we have recognised Jesus as the Son of God. We have come to believe not merely what he says about God; we have put our trust in Him as Son of God. Believing that He died and rose again, we are witnesses as they were to his victory over sin and over death itself. And to-day we celebrate the fact that he enters our hearts and lives as the Holy Spirit, so that our knowledge of God is not at second hand, a tale from a book, but at first hand because his Spirit comes to rest on all who believe and trust in Him. It is as we contemplate Jesus and his love, seeing in Him the reflection of the love of God, experiencing what his love dwelling within us can do for us and for others, that we too are gradually transformed by the Spirit into the same glorious image.
Of course, what we see when we look into the mirror, is still very much ourselves, with all our faults and failings. But there is, as we might say, a family likeness which we see more readily in others. The transformation of which we speak is not a quick fix but rather a gradual process of change, implicit from the moment we recognise Jesus as our Lord, and from then on a work in progress. It is perhaps most apparent in those who have come closest to their Lord through their own experience, shared with Him, of deep suffering borne for love’s sake. But we are all different. There is no best practice in this, no one model to follow; and there are others whose experience of God’s love may be more akin to that of St John the Apostle, deepening and strengthening reflectively as the years pass.
We have come a long way from that understanding of the glory of God which filled the people of Israel with such fear that Moses had to cover his face with a veil to protect them from even the reflected glory. Our God is still full of majesty and power, but the Cross teaches us more surely than anything Moses was privileged to see, that his glory finds expression in love and mercy and the utmost compassion. That is the glory that we should contemplate, moved to do so by the Spirit dwelling within us. And that is the path we all called to follow, id gradually, even imperceptibly, and almost certainly unknown to ourselves, we are to be transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.