Dave's Diary

Daily Readings: 2 Corinthians 3 and Psalm 121

What a wonderful description of the Christian life this is:

¹⁸ And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Doesn’t that give you an incredible sense of purpose and destiny? Through our faith in Christ we have entered into the New Covenant, we have been bound to Him by His grace, and we are exposed to the incredible power of the Holy Spirit Who works in us to transform us into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Like the mysterious power God has placed within the caterpillar to transform into a butterfly, the Holy Spirit’s presence in us destines us to become just like Jesus!

When Paul writes that we are “being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory”, he’s telling us to expect a lifelong transformation. We aren’t perfectly changed into Christ’s image in the instant we are born again. Instead, the change worked in us by the Spirit is a gradual and ongoing metamorphosis. Slowly but surely He grows us to be like Jesus in our character, thinking and behaviour.

While it’s great news that this is the Spirit’s work, we also have a role to play. He “works in us to transform us” but we are to cooperate with His work by “contemplating the Lord’s glory”. I understand this to mean that we’re called to always keep the beauty of the Lord in our mind’s eye. We’re to focus on the wonderful qualities and goodness of the Lord often and to marvel at His wonderful words and works. We are to commit ourselves every day to a life of surrendering to the Spirit’s transformative work and to making every effort ourselves to follow His guidance and inspiration in a quest for Christlikeness.

Life application: Pick one aspect of the character of Christ today. Ask the Holy Spirit to grow you more fully into that aspect of Christlikeness. Then follow His prompting and trust in His empowering to imitate Christ in this area today. And do that every day!