Book of Common Prayer
Death and glory
7 But just think about it: when death was being distributed, carved in letters of stone, it was a glorious thing, so glorious in fact that the children of Israel couldn’t look at Moses’s face because of the glory of his face—a glory that was to be abolished. 8 But in that case, when the spirit is being distributed, won’t that be glorious too? 9 If distributing condemnation is glorious, you see, how much more glorious is it to distribute vindication! 10 In fact, what used to be glorious has come in this respect to have no glory at all, because of the new glory which goes so far beyond it. 11 For if the thing which was to be abolished came with glory, how much more glory will there be for the thing that lasts.
The veil and the glory
12 So, because that’s the kind of hope we have, we speak with great freedom. 13 We aren’t like Moses: he put a veil over his face, to stop the children of Israel from gazing at the end of what was being abolished. 14 The difference is that their minds were hardened. You see, the same veil lies over the reading of the old covenant right up to this very day. It isn’t taken away, because it’s in the Messiah that it is abolished.
15 Yes, even to this day, whenever Moses is read, the veil lies upon their hearts; 16 but “whenever he turns back to the Lord, the veil is removed.” 17 Now “the Lord” here means the spirit; and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And all of us, without any veil on our faces, gaze at the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, and so are being changed into the same image, from glory to glory, just as you’d expect from the Lord, the spirit.
The rich young ruler
17 As he was setting out on the road, a man ran up and knelt down in front of him.
“Good teacher,” he asked, “what should I do to inherit the life of the age to come?”
18 “Why call me ‘good’?” replied Jesus. “No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments:
Don’t kill.
Don’t commit adultery.
Don’t steal.
Don’t swear falsely.
Don’t defraud.
Honor your father and your mother.”
20 “Teacher,” he said, “I’ve kept all of them since I was little.”
21 Jesus looked hard at him, and loved him.
“One more thing,” he said. “Go away, and whatever you possess—sell it, and give it to the poor. You will have treasure in heaven! Then: come and follow me.”
22 At that, his face fell, and he went off sadly. He was very wealthy.
23 Jesus looked slowly around. Then he said to his disciples, “How difficult it is for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!”
24 The disciples were astonished at what he was saying. So Jesus repeated once more, “Children, it’s very hard to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter God’s kingdom.”
26 They were totally amazed, and said to each other, “So who then can be saved?”
27 “It’s impossible for mortals,” Jesus said, looking hard at them, “but it’s not impossible for God. All things are possible for God.”
28 “Look here,” Peter started up, “we’ve left everything and followed you.”
29 “I’ll tell you the truth,” replied Jesus. “No one who has left a house, or brothers or sisters, or mother or father, or children, or lands, because of me and the gospel, 30 will fail to receive back a hundred times more in the present age: houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and lands—with persecutions!—and finally the life of the age to come. 31 But plenty of people at the front will end up at the back, and the back at the front.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.