Whenever a person gives his or her thoughts and life a new direction, it always involves a judgment on previous views and behavior.
So it comes as no surprise that repentance and turning to the Lord are closely related ideas in the New Testament (Laubach 1975:353). Peter, for instance, calls his Jerusalem audience to "repent and turn to God" (Acts 3:19).
Transformation is not a one-shot affair. It is transformation into a likeness that is with ever-increasing glory (v. 18). With ever-increasing glory is literally "from glory to glory."
The phrase denotes a splendor that steadily grows, in contrast to the short-lived glory of Moses' face.
It was the property of mirrors back in those days (which were made of a flat, circular piece of cast metal) that the more polished the surface, the clearer the image. Continuous elbow grease was needed to keep away corrosion.
The picture is a provocative one. The life and ministry of the believer are depicted as a mirror that is in need of continual polishing so as to reproduce to an ever-increasing extent the glorious knowledge and truths of the gospel.
This ever-increasing glory, Paul states, comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
[IVP New Testament Commentaries are made available by the generosity of InterVarsity Press through biblegateway.com]
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