Working In Working Out

From Glory to Glory: Becoming Who We Really Are

Bible Passage: 2 Corinthians 3:18, James 1:22–24, Romans 8:29, 2 Corinthians 3:17, Galatians 2:20

This theme explores how Christians are called to embody their true identity in Christ, reflecting His glory and being transformed into His image through the power of the Holy Spirit. We began our new life in glory and are transformed and conformed to the glory to come.

I pray this sermon encourages us to recognize our identity in Christ and the transformative work that God desires to accomplish in us. It provides practical steps for aligning our lives with this identity, helping us navigate struggles with self-doubt and unworthiness.

Beholding Transforms Us

2 Corinthians 3:18 “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Paul describes the transformation of believers into the image of the Lord with unveiled faces. This ongoing transformation reflects the glory of the Lord, revealing that as believers behold Christ in the Word, they are being shaped to reflect His image. The mirror of the Word has a two fold effect. One is that it reflects the Author, Jesus Christ and His glory. The second is that it reflects our natural face. (James 1:22-24).

1. Observe your Natural Face.

James 1:22–24 “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.”

This is not what an actual mirror might show, warts and all. This image as we look in the mirror of the Word of God is of the new man. This face that we observe is our positional visage. The Greek describes it as natural γένεσις genesis , face πρόσωπον prosopon. The face of our new birth

We look in the Word and see the glory of God but we also see who He has created us to be by His word.

But we often walk away and get swept up in the cares and distractions of life and forget what we look like.

2. Becoming Like Christ

James 1:17–18 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. 18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.”

The gift James is talking about here is the gift of eternal life. The new birth brought forth by the word of truth.

1 Peter 1:23 “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,”

Peter reiterates the principle of salvation through believing the promise of eternal life through the Savior as given in the Word of God.

Romans 8:29 “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

Christlikeness is the goal of our walk. It’s what we are meant to achieve.

3. Law of Liberty

James 1:25 “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”

***Forgets the word*** looks and forgets. The reason to meditate on the Word.

looks into - παρακύπτω parakupto to stoop over, to bend down to examine. This involves a close examination and a discriminating analysis of the finished work.

The law of liberty is the declared will of God in His Word.

and continues in it - our daily walk, not a

Not a forgetful hearer

is a doer of it.

our view point determines how we look

Johnny Cash - “Folsom Prison Blues” (the perspective of looking from the train or from inside the cell)

2 Corinthians 3:17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

People are content to look at the surface of things. Don’t investigate roots, causes, and organizers.

We see the effects of evil (the problems), but ignore the causes that affect it (the instigations). We focus on the outward appearances not going deep and discovering the causes. In civil disobedience they arrest the people on the street and not the organizers.

Christians don’t want to blame Satan, and his evil intentions - blame the things he causes. He escapes without even getting blamed.

Work out the Image of Who You Are

He looks into the perfect law of liberty and is a doer of the work.

Philippians 2:12–16 “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. 14 Do all things without complaining and disputing, 15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.”

Work out κατεργάζομαι katergazomai - We live our lives in the finished work knowing that God ….

Works in ἐνεργῶν ἐν - God does the initial work in you to both will and to do for His good pleasure.

This produces deliverances from the things that distract us from becoming who we are in Christ.