Behold the Glory of the Lord

Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

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Today, we are going to take a deeper look at this verse:

2 Corinthians 3:18 KJV:
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

“With open face”

Look at the phrase “with open face.” Consider what it is not. “With open face” is not a brief look or glance. An open face is free, open, and looking directly. It’s also not a vacant stare. Beholding the glory of the Lord with open face involves focus and concentration.

With an open face is not having a critical or judgmental attitude or having a covering over your face.

If you look at yourself, you get discouraged. You realize how you fall far short of the glory of the Lord.

If you look at other people, you get depressed. If you look at the world, you get depressed.

Looking with an open face is where your face is completely open, focused, concentrated, and you’re looking up. You’re not looking down at what is wrong with yourself, other people, or the world. You’re looking up at God directly, openly.

“Beholding”

Beholding is an interesting word because it can also be translated as “reflecting!” The Greek is in the middle voice, which indicates something is being done; you are doing it. It’s an action that the person is doing.

The simple idea is that you are the one that is beholding. You are beholding the glory of the Lord. But there’s also the idea that you are reflecting the glory of the Lord.

When you look at yourself and get discouraged or at others or the world and get depressed, it’s like you have a covering or a veil over your face because your gaze is critical or judgmental. That’s not beholding or reflecting.

You can see this idea of reflecting in the King James Version, which says, “beholding as in a glass,” which means as in a mirror.

For a long time, I had the idea that I was the one looking in a mirror, and in the mirror, I should see Christ in me. I don’t know about you, but when I look in a mirror, I see all my flaws and failures.

It’s hard to see Christ in yourself. But you actually are the mirror! You are the mirror. When you look at the light, the light shines on the mirror and reflects.

We are the mirror, and we can either reflect the glory of the Lord or reflect all of our failures and flaws.

We reflect what we are focusing on. And that’s what other people see.

Psalm 27:1, 4 KJV:
¹ The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
⁴One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.

“To behold the beauty of the Lord,” the Lord that we worship is so beautiful. You can spend your lifetime looking at and adoring it.

Psalm 27:5–6 KJV:
⁵For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock. ⁶And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.

The result of beholding the glory of the Lord is that you really want to sing praises of joy.

Psalm 27:7–8 KJV:
⁷Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me. ⁸When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.

“Ye” is plural, this invitation is to everyone. It is up to each of us, individually, to choose to seek God’s face. No one can do it for us. We are the ones who have to say, “yes.”

Psalm 34:4–5 KJV:
⁴I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. ⁵They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.

That word “lightened” (and were lightened) in the King James is better translated as “radiant.” They became radiant! If you were looking at God, you could not help but start shining.

Back in 2 Corinthians, the context is about how Moses came down from the mountain and his face was shining. The people of Israel couldn’t believe how Moses’s face shone.

2 Corinthians 3:7-8 KJV:
⁷But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: ⁸How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
Remember the verse we’re examining:

2 Corinthians 3:18 KJV:
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Let’s talk about that word “glory.”

“Glory”

Glory is a difficult word to define. But here’s a definition you can picture.

In Aramaic, the word for “glory” comes from a verb that means “to be heavy.” Or to have weight.

The simple definition of glory is to have value or character.

There is a weight, a value to God, based on his character. He is heavy. He has character.

You can think of it like, “behold the value, the character of the Lord. All that makes Him who He is.”

Let’s look at the record of the last time Moses was up on the mountain. He had asked God to show him His glory.

Did you know that Moses actually went up the mountain seven times? These visits covered more than just the Ten Commandments. During these visits, God showed Moses the details about the tabernacle and how it was to be built. God taught Moses about the types and shadows in the tabernacle about the Messiah. Every detail in the tabernacle would point to who the Messiah would be. Moses also learned laws about how the people were to live and treat each other.

Exodus 33:18–23 KJV:
¹⁸And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. ¹⁹And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. ²⁰And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. ²¹And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: ²²And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: ²³And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.

God had told Moses what He would do and what to expect.

Exodus 34:5 KJV:
⁵And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.

God had told Moses that he would proclaim what His name was, and He did. Of course, God’s name would be a whole other teaching.

Exodus 34:6–8 KJV:
⁶And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD [יהוה “YHVH” or “YHWH,” commonly pronounced as “Yahweh”], The LORD God [YHVH EL], merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, ⁷Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. ⁸And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.

Imagine God passing by Moses, with His hand blocking Moses’s view, and proclaiming Yahweh, Yahweh El (in the West traditionally pronounced as Jehovah, Jehovah El). El means mighty God. He is the mighty, mighty God and He’s also merciful, gracious, and loving. That’s when Moses came down from the mountain with his face shining.

Now we can literally look on the Lord, face to face. He is now our Father. We are not limited to only seeing the back parts or only entering the holy of holies once a year.

Rufus Mosely was a minister who preached in the middle of the twentieth century. He would call one foot “Glory” and the other foot “Halleluiah.” Glory Halleluiah!

Psalm 19:1–4 KJV:
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. ²Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. ³There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. ⁴Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun.

God declared His glory in the heavens. The closer you look at anything in God’s creation, the more beauty you see. That is what God is like. That is what His character is like.

Psalm 18:1–3 KJV:
¹ I will love thee, O LORD, my strength. ²The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. ³I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.

Where the King James says “O LORD, my strength,” it is the word El again. He’s the mighty God, the El Shaddai. His names tell us about Him. Jehovah Rapha, I am the Lord who heals thee. Jehovah Jireh, God is my provider. Jehovah Shamah, the Lord is there, always present. There are many, many names.

El is perhaps my favorite. He is the mighty God, the one who has all strength. When my strength fails, which it often does, that’s who I can rely on. It’s His ability, His strength. And He created the heavens and the earth.

Here’s a brief list of characteristics of God. He’s:

Perfect
Holy
Eternal
True
Pure
Good
Just
Faithful
Righteous
Honorable
Wonderful
Sure
Unchanging
Wise
Merciful
Understanding
Forgiving
Gracious
Kind

You could spend hours looking at the verses that address each quality, and be refreshed.

In 1947, Rufus Mosely wrote:

“In the spring of 1926, I made another visit to St Louis. Reaching there the 1^st of May. On the following Thursday, May 6^th, while in prayer at the home, I asked the Lord if He had anything He would like to say to me. I commenced laughing at myself for my stupidity in not asking this before. I realized how ridiculous it would be to have an hour with, let us say, the president of the United States, and monopolize the conversation. Then ask him as you said goodbye, if he had anything to say. How much more stupid to monopolize the conversation in prayer and communion with God. As soon as I was ready to listen, these words came through to me: I want you in me all the time and I give you the key. I had realized since Jesus manifested himself and came within me, and I had come out of the marvelous, enveloping glory, that my great need was to take up my abode in Jesus and to abide in Him. Without ever going out anymore. Just as He had taken up his abode in me to abide to abide forever. We need to be in Him perpetually. As we need Him to be in us everlastingly. It is in the double union of Him in us and us in Him, and in the bearing of the fruit of that union, that we become like Him. And joint heirs with him in the services and in the inheritance of time and eternity. His full revelation in us, and our full revelation in Him, is our full salvation, redemption, and glorification.” —Rufus Mosely, 1947

One of God’s greatest characteristics is that He is love.

1 John 4:16 KJV:
And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

You see the ideas of dwelling or abiding in these last phrases. In the last phrase, “and God … in him” is the figure of speech Ellipses, where the emphasis is on the word that’s missing. We are to abide in Him, understand who He is, understand His glory, and then we will become like Moses was when his face shone.

Let’s return to where we began this teaching.

2 Corinthians 3:18 KJV:
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

The Greek word translated “changed” is in the passive tense: we are changed, transformed, metamorphosized. We are changed. We don’t do the changing; we are changed. We are changed and transformed as we behold the glory of the Lord. Then we become that mirror, and we reflect it back to other people. So when they see our faces, it’s a reflection of who God is. God in Christ in you. We are changed into that image of Christ that is within us.

From “glory to glory” is like from “faith to faith.” It’s from the beginning of glory to the end of glory. From the moment you got born again, you have a face-to-face relationship with God almighty, El Shaddai. And you can talk to Him face-to-face.

Throughout our lives, we can continue to be transformed to reflect the character and beauty of who God is.

The only thing we can do is to shout hallelujah, praise him, continue to seek His Word, and show forth His character. The more we do this, the more people will see something different about us.

Peter was with Jesus on the mount of Transfiguration, when Jesus’s face shone brightly.

2 Peter 1:17–21 KJV:
¹⁷For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. ¹⁸And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.
¹⁹We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: ²⁰Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. ²¹For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

And now, we, too, are God’s beloved sons. We have the Word of God. We are God’s children and no one can ever take that away from us.

Notice in verse 19, where it says, “whereunto ye do well that ye take heed,” the connection in the Greek is to “heart.” “Ye do well that ye take heed in your hearts.”

The light is shining. Are you going to look at the light, or at yourself? We just keep looking at the light until the day dawns and the day star arises in our hearts.

You be the one when God says, “Seek ye my face,” you say, “Yes! I will seek your face.”

We are the mirror, and our hearts are changed as we behold the glory of the Lord.

This teaching is also available on the Acts Now Fellowship website.

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