“And we with unveiled faces are beholding the glory of the Lord as in a mirror and are being changed into the same image from glory to glory, through the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Lets break down this verse, it holds such treasures to the believer. First, the glory of the Lord is the presence of God, this glory that we are to behold is the same glory that pinned the priests to the floor in Solomon’s temple. “And the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the temple.” (1 Kings 8:11) These priests were paralyzed under a weight of glory that rendered them useless.

When the bible speaks of glory, it’s not just another word to praise Him, it includes that, but glory is the tangible substance of God Spirit, His weighty presence. So when you see “glory,” think of God’s weighty presence.

So “beholding the glory of the Lord,” is speaking of encountering the very presence God, and then as a consequence we are transformed into His image. His presence transforms the very substance of our being. A good example of this would be how a caterpillar goes through a metamorphosis process in the cocoon and becomes a butterfly. It takes time, but the little critter changes from one form to an entirely different one. For children of God this metamorphosis happens from “glory to glory,” in other words from one intensity of presence to the next, from one degree of encounter to another. Each new depth of glory produces a greater manifestation of the character of Christ within us. Greater glory, greater transformation.

This is the determining factor of success: the more we drink, the more we’re changed, and the more we are changed, the more ability we have to drink. Becoming like Christ is the most intoxicating thing on the planet if we do it by means of the Holy Spirit rather than by independent self-effort.

Transfigured

It’s interesting to note that the word “transformed” in this verse is the same greek word used for Jesus’s transfiguration on the mountain. Greek (Metamorphoo) meaning transformed, or metamorphosis.

“And after six days Jesus took Pater, James, and John His brother and brought them up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured (transformed) before them: and His face shone as the sun, and His clothes were white as light.” (Matthew 17:1-2)

“But we know when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” (1 John 3:2)

“Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom.” (Matthew 13:43)

If we are to be like Him, then when Jesus was transfigured on that mountain, He was not only revealing His glory, but ours. He was demonstrating what a child of God looks like in the Spirit. Christ was the prototype model for a new creation race of humans. He is the last Adam, the model for all sons and daughters to be recreated in. We become what He is, because He became what we are. He became sin, so that we could become His righteousness, He became poor so we may become rich, and He became man so that we might become partakers of His divine nature!(see 2 Peter 1:4)

When Adam sinned it created a race of fallen humans, but when Christ was raised from the dead, His obedience now recreates a race humans that are restored in the image of God. Our union with Him makes us more than mere humans, we have the everlasting God living within us, and what’s even crazier is that He has fully united Himself to us, we are one spirit. We are now what God had intended for humanity from the beginning, a breed of people that are possessed by God, and pour forth from within themselves the rivers of His glory.