INTO THE GLORY

"The Lord said to Moses, 'Come up to Me on the mountain and stay there so that I may give you the stone tablets with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.' When Moses went up the mountain, the cloud covered it. The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day He called to Moses from the cloud. The appearance of the Lord's glory to the Israelites was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop." (Exodus 24:12, 15-17 HCSB)

I'll never forget a phone call I received four years ago. One of our church members had two tickets to the ACC Basketball Tournament in Charlotte and wondered if I could work it out to go! Are you kidding me? Does a cat have a tail? It was awesome! I saw my favorite team--the Tar Heels--win that championship, led by the great Tyler Hansbrough! Unforgettable!

Have you ever been invited to go to such a big-time event?

The invitation Moses received, surpasses such by an incomparable measure. He was summoned to come be God's guest on His holy mountain. Moses was invited into the glory--the fiery cloud that rested atop Mt. Sinai--to be taught by the LORD! Incredible! Indescribable!

For forty days and nights, that man of God, would be immersed in wondrous glory. It was transformational! For a period of time, his skin literally shone, basking in the light of that experience. But, the rest of the Jews could only speculate. They weren't invited. In fact, to approach the holy mountain was a fearful thing and to touch it was to meet a horrible death.

But, that was the other side of Calvary!

On this side, we are now invited to come into the glory--not just the preacher, not merely a select few, like Peter, James and John on the Mountain of Transfiguration--but every child of God! We do not come with trembling knees, as a servant to a tyrant, but are invited to come confidently, "Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time." (Hebrews 4:16 HCSB). We are summoned as sons to the Father!

You see that first mountain was full of frightening thunder and lightning--a mountain quaking in God's majestic presence. That was Sinai--and it represents the Old Covenant of the Law--which can only condemn us as sinners.

But, all that has changed because of another Mountain called Calvary! It was there the perfect Man absorbed the lightning bolts of God's wrath, as that mountain shook. He was excluded, that we might be included. He experienced the fierceness of judgment that we who place our faith in Him can experience the freedom of justification!

We are summoned to enter the glory!

Already, it is transforming us. That glory which changed Moses did not last. It began to diminish. Yet, the glory we can gaze upon grows daily. Paul saw that brilliance when He met Jesus, and consistently looked unto Him, becoming an even more radiant Christian. It is something every believer should experience and the Apostle wrote of it:

"Now if the ministry of death, chiseled in letters on stones, came with glory, so that the Israelites were not able to look directly at Moses' face because of the glory from his face-a fading [glory]- how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness overflows with even more glory. In fact, what had been glorious is not glorious now by comparison because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was fading away was glorious, what endures will be even more glorious.

Therefore, having such a hope, we use great boldness. [We are] not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the Israelites could not stare at the the end of what was fading away, but their minds were closed. For to this day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains; it is not lifted, because it is set aside [only] in Christ. Even to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts, but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit." (2 Corinthians 3:7-18 HCSB)

So, the glory grows until one golden daybreak we are summoned into the fullest glory of eternity!

"When by His grace I shall look on His face,

That will be glory, be glory for me." (Charles Gabriel)

Glory!