The Day of New Beginnings

The Greater Glory

 

As great as the relationship was that Moses had with God, it is to be exceeded in the sons God is bringing forth now. In spite of the wonderful way in which God related to Moses, it was still limited. And yes, Moses knew the Lord beyond what most people even today can comprehend. 
 
Heb. 3:
1 ¶  Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession;
2  He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house.
3  For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house.
4  For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.
5  Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later;
6  but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.
 
Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant. But Christ was faithful as a Son over God's house, whose house we are. As great as Moses’ relationship with God was, it was still in the servant realm. We have been granted access into Christ’s very sonship. Verse 3 says Christ has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses. We have such great potential. We are just now exploring the beginnings of what God has provided for us in Christ. There is something about this sonship we haven’t grasped yet. We are to share in all that God is. 
 
It’s interesting that God said He spoke to Moses face to face, just as a man does to his friend. Abraham was called the friend of God. Jesus told the disciples in John 15 that He no longer called them slaves, but friends. He then said, “Greater love has no man than this, to lay down his life for his friends.” There is something about this “friend” realm. Although it’s the closest man can walk with God under the limitations of the Law (the old covenant), it still falls short of what God is creating in His sons. This is why it speaks in 2nd Cor. 3:
 
7  But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was,
8  how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?
9  For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory.
10  For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it.
11  For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.
12 ¶  Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech,
13  and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away.
14  But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ.
15  But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart;
16  but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
17  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18  But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
 
We will come back to these passages, but let’s read now about John the Baptist. The friend realm, as great as it was, was limited.
 
John 3:
22 ¶  After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He was spending time with them and baptizing.
23  John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people were coming and were being baptized—
24  for John had not yet been thrown into prison.
25  Therefore there arose a discussion on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about purification.
26  And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him."
27  John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.
28  "You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’
29  "He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full.
30  "He must increase, but I must decrease.
 
Verse 30 has been preached thousands of times with the emphasis on how our self life, etc. must decrease and Christ’s life in us must increase. While that is surely a valid point, that verse, when taken in context with the rest of these passages, is teaching us something entirely different. John called himself the friend of the bridegroom. “…but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice.” When the friend realm begins to hear the voice of the Bridegroom, there is rejoicing because its time to transition into a higher realm. John said his joy had been made full. That was where he got off the train. Then we get the phrase, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” The friend realm must decrease in our lives and the sonship realm must increase. He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend realm never partakes of the intimacy of the sonship/bride realm. The awareness of our sonship in Christ must increase and the limited realm of Him knowing us as friend must decrease. There must be than transition from knowing a God apart from us to knowing one abiding in us. This is why Jesus made the statement in Mat. 11:11: “Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
 
 Let’s go back now to verse 18 of 2nd Cor. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” Transformed into Christ’s image is the higher realm of glory. Col. 1:25-27 says,
 
25  Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God,
26  that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints,
27  to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
 
What Moses could only see in part, (God only showed him His backside when Moses prayed for God to show him His glory) we are being granted to see in the fullness. This is why Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus laid His life down to bring us out of the realm of limitation into fullness. The average Christian doesn’t have an inkling of what God has prepared for us or our potential in Christ. We ourselves, who are learning of sonship and being brought into this full provision, only see a small portion. In 1st John 3:2 it says, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” “When He appears” is not referring to the second coming when every eye shall see Him, but the appearing that takes place within us by the Spirit. The more Christ is revealed to us in our spirits, the more we are changed into His image. 
 We are not to look at what was and hope for it, as great as it might have been, but we are to look forward to what is that we might fully experience that. It’s this realm of sonship that we are to focus on. In it is the greatest glory of all because it’s an eternal glory.