Casting off the Veils

UV 2735/10000 Casting off the Veils
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.
2 Corinthians 3 v 18
There are many veils covering our spiritual eyes or blinding our inner vision. This is the reason that Jesus described the world as “the blind leading the blind.” These veils keep us from perceiving the presence, the power and the glory of the Lord. God the Father made man in the image of Christ at the beginning of time. But man chose to separate Himself from God by his acts of omission and commission. Man departed from the perfect model on which basis he was created. When Jesus died on the cross the veil of the Temple that separated the altar from the rest of the temple was torn from top to bottom, indicating that God Himself had torn the veil that separated mankind from Him. The veils that separate us from the Lord are our sins, our pride, our lusts, our self deception, our ignorance, our traditions, our past conditioning that limits our faith, our desire to please people, our belief in our own limited knowledge, understanding and wisdom, our lack of sincerity and willingness to compromise with the world.. We can throw off all these blinkers and enjoy full 20/20 vision that enables us to gaze into eternity. We are now being restored like works of art that have been damaged back to the pristine glory of the original- the image of Christ.

The blinded mind of man cannot know what it cannot see. With our human nature, we cannot perceive the Lord face to face but we can see His perfect image in the mirror of His word. We see the perfect image of the Father in His Son Jesus and we see the perfect image of Jesus in the word . We are not to conform to the patterns of the world but conform to the patterns of the word. We are to conform to the image of Christ. We discern His character, we understand the depth and other dimensions of His love, power and grace by studying the word and applying it to our lives. The law given through Moses subjected people to judgement and death. Yet, it was a glorious leap forward for mankind to have received the ten commandments through Moses. But it is much more glorious to perceive Christ in the word and to become like Him, degree by degree, little by little, day by day, moment by moment. Instead of the letter of the law that sears our conscience with guilt since we fall short of it by any measure, we now have the spirit of liberty that sets us free from all guilt and condemnation. The Spirit convinces us of the truth of the word and convicts us of salvation. A believer can never be set in his ways. He has to be always learning, always growing, always changing for the better.

Transformation is conforming to the perfect image of Jesus by obeying, practicing, applying the truths hidden in the word but revealed by the Holy Spirit. The transformation does not happen overnight but it is a lifelong daily process of imbibing the word and removing all the veils that hide the invisible image of Christ from our vision. We are to conform to the new patterns revealed in the word: new patterns of thinking, feelings, speech, priorities, goals, plans, actions, reactions and relationships. As we do so, with such unveiled or open vision, we experience both the liberty and the effulgent or fullness of glory of the presence and the power of the Lord at work in our life’s patterns and experiences. When we are fully restored, we become like the first born Jesus, brothers and sisters of the same family with the same spiritual, emotional and intellectual DNA.

Prateep V Philip