This weekend we sang Tim Hughes song, "Everything". The bridge of the song has the lyrics "Christ in me, the hope of glory". Preparing for the weekend, I found myself dwelling on that phrase, asking myself what that really mean. It's very poetic, and sounds really churchy. In fact it is a biblical phrase found in Colossians 1:27, but what does "the hope of glory" really mean? The passage that comes to mind is the Romans 3:23 passage regarding our own sin, in which Paul writes, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." So then, what is the Glory of God? As I read and study it, it is the fullness of God's being. It is his splendor, his brightness, his goodness, his greatness, it is everything of which God is. It is his glory.
Genesis speaks of us being created in the image of God. Unlike any other created thing in the universe, we as people were created in the very image of God. Though we were created in his image, due to our sin nature, we fall far short of his glory. We may try to be "good enough" in all that we do, but the truth is, we will always fall short of the greatness and fullness of God in and of ourselves and our own will and efforts. Our glory is far less the God's glory. We do have a glory of our own. You have often heard it said of someone naked, "there they are in all their glory", meaning there is nothing hiding who they are. But our glory, even fully revealed falls far short of the Glory of God.
But therein lies the beauty of the mystery of the gospel revealed, that what I am unable to do in my own pursuit of personal righteousness, is offered to me in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I cannot achieve God's glory by my works, but since Jesus is "the image of the invisible God" and that "God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Jesus)", that when I surrender my life and invite Christ to live in me, I have now attained the hope of the glory of God. What a beautiful picture.
It is so easy to fall back into the efforts of attaining or representing God's glory by my own works, but I will always fall short. When I surrender, and lean into the spirit of Christ living in me, I now begin to represent the glory of God here on earth, and maintain the hope of achieving fully the glory of God in heaven.

"Once you were alienated
from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled
you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his
sight, without blemish and free from accusation–" Colossians 1:21-22