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Lord as seen in a mirror, and the glory of God as seen in the face of Jesus Christ.
Wonderful as the inspired Scriptures are, their supreme purpose is to lead us to the
excelling glory of the Saviour Himself, the one after all but a `mirror', the other blessed
and utter reality.
"From glory to glory." Many and varied interpretations have been given of these
words, and to repeat them here would not only use up valuable space, but simply provide
an exhibition of human failure and lead to an appearance of boasting in self. When once
we have considered the two Covenants, and have noted the fading glory of the one, and
the abiding and excelling glory of the other, no interpretation can be acceptable that does
not give full recognition to these contrasts. The believer has been changed from the
passing glory of the Old Covenant, to the abiding glory of the New, and this phrase is
employed in much the same way as the words of John 1: 16, 17,
"And of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace (grace over against
anti grace) for the law (which had grace, but only in type and shadow) was given through
Moses, but grace and truth (i.e. real, antitypical grace) came by Jesus Christ."
This change is brought about by "The Spirit of the Lord". The A.V. translators were
not happy about this rendering, so they put in the margin as an alternative `or the Lord,
the spirit'. This rendering is adopted by the Revisers, but they too were not quite
satisfied, and so they have in the margin the alternative "The Spirit which is the Lord"
Kathaper apo kuriou pneumatos. The indecision arises out of the order of the words
Kuriou pneumatos under the heading `The genitive of apposition'. The reader may
possibly welcome a few illustrations of this use of the genitive "The temple of His body"
which means, `the temple, that is to say, His body' (John 2: 21). "The earnest of the
Spirit" which means, `the earnest, which is the Spirit' (II Cor. 5: 5). "The bond of the
peace" which means, `the bond, that is to say, that peace (already indicated in 2: 14, 15)'
(Eph. 4: 3).
The Apostle had already said in connection with the New Covenant, "The Lord is that
Spirit", and so concludes that the transfiguration of the believer is the work of "The
Lord", Who is the spirit of this Covenant, in contrast with the letter that killeth,
associated with Moses.
One more development of this argument from the veil awaits us, but it is of such
importance as to warrant a separate treatment. This we hope to give in our next study.