The Spirit’s task is to restore glory to a fallen creation. As Calvin well says, this world was made as a theatre for God’s glory. Throughout it he displays visibly the perfections of his invisible nature. Particularly in man and woman, his image, that glory was to be reflected. But they refused to ‘glorify’ God (Rom 1:21); they defiled the reflector (Rom 1:28) and fell short of his glory (Rom 3:23).
But now, in Christ who is the ‘radiance of God’s glory’ (Heb. 1:3), that glory is restored. Having become flesh for us, he has now been exalted in our flesh yet in glory. The eschatological goal of creation has been consummated in him as its firstfruits. Now he sends his Spirit, the intimate companion of his entire incarnation, to recover glory in us. So it is ‘we, who with unveiled faces reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit [or, the Lord of the Spirit]’ (2 Cor. 3:18).
The purpose for which the Spirit is given is, therefore, nothing less than the reproduction of the image of God, that is transformation into the likeness of Christ who is himself the image of God. To receive the Spirit is to be inaugurated into the effects of this ongoing ministry.
Sinclair Ferguson, The Holy Spirit, 91-2.
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