THE GLORY OF CHRIST
Richard J Gray
2 Corinthians 3: 17-18; 4: 1-7
I feel impressed to say a word as to the glory of Christ, and what I was thinking of particularly, and the reason I have read these scriptures, is that a view of the Lord in glory and the knowledge of His present position is to have an adjusting effect upon us, it is to change us.
I recall the incident in Exodus 33 where there was a question of Jehovah going with His people and Moses in speaking to God says, “Let me, I pray thee, see thy glory”, v 18. God answers that by saying, “I will make all my goodness pass before thy face”, v 19. Jehovah says to him that he could not see His face, “Thou canst not see my face; for Man shall not see me, and live”. “And Jehovah said, Behold, there is a place by me: there shalt thou stand on the rock … And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see me from behind; but my face shall not be seen”, v 20-23. Moses was able to see something of God’s ways historically, but it was not a dispensation in which God had been fully revealed, so that Moses’ view in that way was limited. In contrast to that I thought about the present dispensation and the greatness of the time in which we live, a time marked by the Lord Jesus enthroned in glory and the Holy Spirit here. John records, “the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified”, John 7: 39. That looked on to the present time: the Lord Jesus is glorified. Speaking very simply, I think a view of the Lord in His present position changes everything; it changes our outlook on everything here and gives us a view of God’s thoughts and God’s desires; and we see that His purposes are all centred in Christ. It is a great point to get hold of, that everything for God is centred in Christ. We might make plans for this world, but the Lord Jesus is not the centre of this world, He is the centre of another world, and as we get a view of His glory it changes things.
I thought of this scripture in Matthew 17. Peter, James and John had already come to the Lord Jesus and they had given up everything to follow Him here. I suppose that, at this point, they still thought that Jesus was going to restore everything to Israel and that there was going to be earthly blessing. They say that in Acts, “Lord, is it at this time that thou restorest the kingdom to Israel?”, chap 1: 6. In that connection, I thought about the Lord’s service to these disciples here when He takes them up into this high mountain so that they might get a view of His glory. He is transfigured before them. I was particularly thinking of Peter because he is the one who speaks here, but it involved change and adjustment for all three disciples; they were not the same again. Jesus tells them to keep the vision, “Tell the vision to no one, until the Son of man be risen up from among the dead”. From that point of view, it was special and needed to wait until the Lord Jesus had suffered and been glorified before the truth of it could come out.
I wanted to refer to this passage in relation to its effect on these three disciples, and I read this account, rather than in Mark and Luke, because Matthew records the fact that, “his face shone as the sun”. Think of that! Where we read in Corinthians Paul says, “who has shone in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”; that is the present time. How assuring and stabilising for our hearts and our affections to think of the place that God has given Christ. He has completed everything for God’s pleasure and that glory is shining. It says, “his face shone as the sun, and his garments became white as the light”. These disciples received a view of Jesus that they had never seen before. What a thing it is to get a view of the glory of the Lord Jesus.
Then they see Moses and Elias who “appeared to them talking with him”. That was remarkable, but Peter puts Moses and Elias alongside the Lord Jesus. He speaks about the three together and he has to be adjusted in relation to that. How important it is that the Lord Jesus is not to be compared with anybody else; He stands alone in His glory because He is the only One that can take up everything for God; He is the only One that can secure all God’s thoughts of blessing. Peter has to be adjusted: and “they saw no one but Jesus alone”. I feel how important that is for us in these days that our view should be fixed on the Lord Jesus where He is in glory.
Then they hear this voice, a voice out of the cloud saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight: hear him”. What an adjusting and expanding thing for these disciples to get an impression of what the Father thinks of Christ. We might have our own thoughts, but think of this voice coming, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. He was not speaking now of Moses or Elias, great men as they were, but pointing to His beloved Son. I thought of what John said, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand” (chap 3: 35); everything is secure there. As we consider the circumstances of the testimony and other exercises, we are to think of everything secure in the hands of the Lord Jesus. So it is a question whether that is true in our own experience; have we committed everything to Him? The Father would desire that. Mr Walkinshaw once said about that scripture in John 3 that we are sometimes rather doubtful about the competency of the Lord to handle everything for God, but the Father has implicit confidence in Him and that everything is in safe hands. The Lord Jesus in His greatness and His glory is not to be compared with any other. It was an important lesson for these disciples that the Lord Jesus is to be viewed alone. It was an adjustment for them because they were thinking of things in terms of earthly blessings for Israel but the glory coming on to view was a heavenly one and our blessing is heavenly because it relates to the Lord Jesus where He is in glory. Do I really believe that? The Lord Jesus is glorified, He is a living Man in heaven, and everything for God is centred in Him.
I also thought of this beautiful reference in verse 7, “Jesus coming to them touched them, and said, Rise up, and be not terrified” - how we need that, the personal touch of the Lord Jesus in relation to making progress in our souls, getting a greater view, a fresh view, of His glory. The touch of the Lord Jesus is necessary for us, and the Holy Spirit’s service too; we spoke about that in the reading, how He would point to the greatness and the glory of Christ. The Lord Jesus then descends from the mountain and He tells them, “Thus also the Son of man is about to suffer from them”. I thought what an expansion of thought and affection that was for these disciples, that they not only had a view of the glory of Christ and an impression of the Father’s delight and confidence in Him, but that He was also going to descend, to suffer and to die so that everything that was in the heart of God for us might be brought about. It was a suffering way: the Lord Jesus descended; how affecting that is. It must have laid hold of these disciples.
Peter speaks about this in his second epistle, showing the way that the impression that he had received on this occasion had grown with him, it had expanded his affections for Christ, and expanded his thoughts in relation to what God was doing. In 2 Peter 1 he refers to three things particularly in relation to this experience: firstly, “eyewitnesses of his majesty” (v 16), what a tremendous impression that is of the greatness of Christ, “his majesty”. The Lord Jesus is able to take up everything for God; the government is going to be upon His shoulder (Isa 9: 6), He is going to put everything right here in this scene, what glory belongs to Him personally. Then he refers to, “honour” (v 17): “For he received from God the Father honour and glory”. What moral worth was found in Christ that He could receive honour from God the Father, honour not due to anybody else but due to Christ. Then he says, “and glory” and I thought of that precious reference in the Lord’s prayer to the Father in John 17, “I have glorified thee on the earth, I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it”, v 4. He glorified the Father, and God’s answer to that is that Christ is glorified: “Thou has crowned him with glory and honour”, Heb 2: 7.
I wanted to refer to these other scriptures to emphasise the adjusting and expanding effect for us of having a view of the glory of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 3 it is to have a transforming effect. The apostle says, “But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit”. That is, there is to be a permanent result in us from seeing the glory of Christ. What a wonderful thing it is that we can look upon Him, we can see the glory of Christ, no longer with the veil as in the old system, but “with unveiled face”. There is to be a permanent change and how important in our soul history to get such a view of the glory of Christ, to fix our gaze on the Lord, and to take our bearings from Him. Everything else becomes clear: things become clear in relation to our own pathway, in relation to the fellowship and our links together, in relation to the purpose of God and the fact that our portion is not earthly but heavenly. So that someone looking on the glory of the Lord would not be seeking to build up things here, but as Paul says, “seek the things which are above, where the Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God: have your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth”, Col 3: 1-2.
The passage in 2 Corinthians 4 shows that as we are occupied with His glory it is to come out in testimony, “Because it is the God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine who has shone in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. It is to shine forth; this transforming effect is to come out in testimony. We see that in relation to the saints, how impressions of Christ are taken on and there is some spiritual gain, some expansion in relation to the Lord Jesus and in relation to His things. I feel how important that is. The apostle speaks of the glad tidings, “the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God”. That is the present time; the glad tidings are going forth because of the place that God has given Christ; they speak of Him. Sometimes we think we are the focus of the glad tidings; the gospel does involve our blessing, but in the preaching what should also come out is some impression of the glory of Christ. I just commit that thought to the brethren, that we might be in some way expanded in our affections and in our thoughts in relation to the glory of Christ. Mr Stoney has a reference (vol 6 pp1 & 4) as to looking on the glory of the Lord; he says we are to try it, and so prove the truth of it. What gain there is as we make time to contemplate His glory, to see what is so precious to the Father in Him, so that there might be more for Him in testimony and that there might be a shining out increasingly from our hearts.
I read about Paul in Acts: in a way you could not get a bigger change than the one that Paul experienced as he saw this light out of heaven. He was on this course to Damascus and “suddenly there shone round about him a light out of heaven, and falling on the earth he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me?”. Immediately Paul is changed. He says, “Who art thou, Lord?”. He had never said that before, but in this transaction with the Lord Jesus from the glory he receives an immediate impression of His greatness, and that the One he was seeking to persecute was actually in heaven. What a change that was to Paul; how it must have taken away everything that he trusted in and changed everything for him: “Who art thou, Lord?”. The other tremendous adjustment is that he is led by the hand and brought into Damascus. He is brought into touch with the local assembly in Damascus; he has to do with Ananias, and he receives the Holy Spirit. I thought simply that receiving a view in this way of Christ in glory would adjust us in relation to the testimony, and perhaps in relation to our brethren as to how we are in our local places. Paul had not been accustomed to being led by the hand, but he receives help from Ananias. It says, “And he was with the disciples who were in Damascus certain days”, v 19. The local brethren in the place protect him: later in the chapter there is the plot when the Jews sought to kill him, and the disciples in the place “took him … and let him down through the wall, lowering him in a basket”, v 25. I thought that a practical effect on the apostle Paul of having to do with Christ in glory was that he also received a view of the local assembly, a view of the saints, and he was adjusted in relation to them.
In 1 John it says, “what we shall be has not yet been manifested; we know that if it is manifested we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is”. What a hope that is to think of the glory of Christ, and that when we see Him we shall be like Him. What a hope! We spoke about hope in the reading. John says, “every one that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure”. That is, if we have this hope of being in glory with Christ, and being like Him, it will have a present adjusting and purifying effect, so that perhaps things here that hold us and keep us would have a lesser hold upon us. The apostle is very honest and plain in what he says, “what we shall be has not yet been manifested”: the greatness of the heavenly bodies of the saints and our heavenly portion “has not yet been manifested”, but he says, “we know that if it is manifested we shall be like him”. What a comfort to have this hope, that we will be with Christ and we will be like Him. It is to have its effect now: “every one that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure”. I thought how wide ranging that is: that everything in relation to our pathways, our thoughts and our outlook is to be related to this hope of seeing Christ and being like Him.
May we be encouraged, dear brethren, with this hope and may it increasingly have a practical effect upon us. I feel the edge of that myself, but John says, “every one that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure”. May it increasingly be our experience and our exercise and may we be encouraged in keeping our eye on Christ where He is in glory.
May the Lord bless the word.
Maidstone
22nd November 2025
Edited and Published by David Brown and Andrew Burr
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