Lasting Glory

Our Hope is to get lasting glory! In other words, the Hope of those who follow Christ is that we will obtain eternal glory, a glory which will never fade away.

Compare the glory to which we aspire to the glory Moses obtained. Moses obtained a certain degree of glory. His face shone so brightly that he had to cover his face with a veil.

… when Moses came down from Mount Sinai… the skin of his face shone… And Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, and, to their amazement, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid of coming near to him… And Moses finished speaking with them, and he put a veil on his face.

And when Moses came before Yahweh to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he went out, and he would go out and would speak to the Israelites what he had been commanded. And the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of the face of Moses shone, and Moses would put back the veil on his face… (Exodus 34:29-30, 33-35).

Moses got the glory of a shining face by meeting with God as a God’s minister of the Law. His service to God was what the Bible calls a ministry of death in letters carved on stone (2 Corinthians 3:7; LEB) and a ministry of condemnation (v. 9)—so it was not a greater ministry than ours. Ours is called a ministry of the Spirit (v. 8) and also a ministry of righteousness (v. 9). Our ministry is superior to Moses' ministry, therefore we have the potential to obtain greater glory than Moses.

So, Moses had a glorious ministry, the Old Covenant. It was such a great ministry based on the priesthood of Aaron. But we are ministers of the New Covenant, an even greater ministry based upon the priesthood of Jesus. It’s important to compare the two ministries. You should be able to deduce that ours is much more glorious.

… what was glorious [Moses’ ministry] has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts! Therefore, since we have such a Hope, we are very bold (2 Corinthians 3:10-12).

Such a Hope

What is this Hope, the one Paul calls such a Hope? It’s the Hope of obtaining a resurrection body, made eternally strong, healthy, intelligent, and beautiful forever. That’s the glory which lasts. So, the Hope of this passage is the One Hope—the Resurrection (Ephesians 4:4). We have the Hope of getting a resurrected body.

Moses’ face shined for a time. Our faces will shine forever. Our Hope is that we’ll have a permanent eternal glory—a surpassing glory. It will become ours at the Resurrection when we are made fit to reign with Christ. That glory was prophesied by Daniel as he looked forward to the Last Times. He said that we would be like stars forever!

Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever (Daniel 12:3).

This glory is the same glory that God gave to Jesus.

Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the World began… I have given them the glory that you gave me… Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the Creation of the World (John 17:5, 22-24).

We Will Be Like Him

Jesus also experienced the glory of God when God gave him glory, in what has become known as the transfiguration. And let’s not ignore that the correct interpretation of what happened was that ‘He received honor and glory from God the Father’ (2 Peter 1:17). In other words, the glory that Jesus had, he got from God. It wasn’t innately his.

… he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light (Matthew 17:2).

As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning (Luke 9:29).

What will we look like when we get our glory? We’ll look like Jesus—bright and shining. When the Lord appears, we will be like him. That’s our Hope. So, what happened to Moses was nothing compared to what will happen to us.

… now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2).