This phrase comes from Paul, the Apostle of Jesus. 
Here it is with some more context. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself (Philippians 3:20-21 ESV).
People may gain “glory” from this world. How much changes? Heavenly citizenship is another matter.
From 1 Timothy we read: Without any doubt, the mystery of godliness is great:
He[a] was revealed in flesh,
vindicated[b] in spirit,[c]
seen by angels,
proclaimed among gentiles,
believed in throughout the world,
taken up in glory (1 Timothy 3:16 NRSVUE). This statement obviously points to Jesus Christ. Did Paul himself actually see Jesus "in flesh" (or, CEV, as a human). Seems doubtful - he did not recognise the voice when Jesus spoke to him (Acts 9). Although Paul's presence would have been natural, he was not identified as being in Jerusalem until well after the crucifixion (Acts 8). He made no reference to having also, with the crowd, demanded the death penalty.
The Son now has the glory he had before the world began - glory he always had. "Taken up in glory" he is no longer "in flesh".
The people who are united to Jesus await (see above) their transformation. Then they too will have a glorious body. That issue, of the necessary and total change of human constitution, Paul examined in detail in 1 Corinthians 15. So: What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor can corruption inherit incorruption (1 Corinthians 15:50 CSB). Paul replies to the questioners who think that the whole notion of resurrection is just too implausible. Certainly the mortal has no place in immortality. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality (1 Corinthians 15:53 ESV). The risen individual must have an "immortal body". Paul compares the transformation of the human with the sowing of a seed resulting in a plant, no longer a seed but the result of a seed's germination. This immortal body is not simply a change in appearance. (In regard to Jesus’ resurrection, see previous post.)
What then is a glorious body? The body for which we must "wait". What can we know; is it comprehensible? Since I am trying to look into eternity here, I have to accept the answers will be neither simple, nor complete. I have to remember: Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.[a] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:9-13 NLT). Ancient polished metal mirrors could not give a crisp image. Our mirrors tell a truer story; nonetheless, current knowledge is not perfect, temporary, and never complete.
However, very clearly Paul does tell us Jesus now has a glorious body. That is, the Lord Jesus Christ has a glorious body. That is a tremendous change for the person of Jesus of Nazareth, carpenter, executed victim and giver of his life.
Aside: Changed matter? I was interested to read that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) had turned atoms of lead into atoms of gold! (No effect on gold prices!) That story would once have seemed an impossible dream. Tremendous power was required and vast ("Large") equipment.https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/scientists-turn-lead-gold-1st-time-split/story?id=121762241We can not see it for ourselves. Does it seem improbable? To any who reject science, it must surely seem so. Can the scientists be trusted?
Paul tells us that tremendous power, Jesus-raising-from-the-dead power, will transform the bodies of those who have citizenship in heaven. This will not be a fleeting effect, as with the LHC; this will be a permanent change, an eternal state, a glorious one.
What is the changed (glorious) body like? We cannot see it for ourselves.
Sometimes there are references to those "asleep" in the cemetery. That is the idea of that word, but not all those with citizenship in heaven have remains in cemeteries! I suppose some trace of everyone who has ever lived, burial plot or not, can be imagined, but such invisible and scattered traces are inaccessible to us.
The clearest glorious body hint I see is in relation to the risen Lord. He rose ultimately to the glory he had before the world began. Another way to look at it is that he is now at God's right hand, where we do not see him. Nonetheless, post crucifixion he was encountered by people - lots of them!
A caution (again): Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is (1 John 3:2 NLT). Naturally you and I are able only to think in normal human terms - we are likely to imagine "seeing" the glorified Jesus "when" he appears, as it were in an entry to the city. But, God "has not yet shown us". We must wait.
Considering the recorded information about the risen Lord may give us some inkling of the resurrection body truth, as much as is possible? It is hardly surprising that the first encounters with Jesus risen should produce uncertainty and confusion. Resurrection just did not happen! Look again at the peak reactions on that first day and gather what is indicated about Jesus' post-resurrection body:
As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish[a], and he took it and ate before them (Luke 24:36-43 ESV). This was late in that day. It was enough to make them jump, even though they had just been talking about Jesus being risen and having appeared to Simon. Incredibly, there he was right there in their midst, and "in flesh". I assume their initial thinking went along the commonplace lines of a spirit (or ghost) having mysteriously appeared. Jesus firmly rejected that interpretation of his risen body. He emphasised his flesh and bones (his body) and ate some food. Their notions of ghosts would not fit with eating earthly food. (That does not mean Jesus continued to hunger.) What about the real damage done to the body of Jesus? I find no information on that, except that some damage clearly remained. Thus: Then (Jesus) said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe” (John 20:27 NIV).
John gives a comparable visit report: When it was evening on that first day of the week, the disciples were gathered together with the doors locked because they feared the Jews. Jesus came, stood among them, and said to them, “Peace be with you” (John 20:19 CSB). They were locked away but Jesus came and stood among them. Peace. No terrifying knock on the door! Nonetheless, the door was no barrier.
Earlier that day there were moments when people conversed with Jesus but they did not at first know it was Jesus. He was unknown. The angels asked Mary, “Why are you crying?”
She answered, “They have taken away my Lord's body! I don't know where they have put him.”
As soon as Mary said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there. But she did not know who he was. Jesus asked her, “Why are you crying? Who are you looking for?”
She thought he was the gardener and said, “Sir, if you have taken his body away, please tell me, so I can go and get him.”
Then Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
She turned and said to him, “Rabboni.” The Aramaic word “Rabboni” means “Teacher.” (John 20:13-16 CEV). Mary's instinct was to cling to the Lord she had lost and had not recognised. Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’” (John 20:17 NIV). Mary thought she could cling to him. Though at that moment it was possible, not so very long after that none would ever have the possibility of holding Jesus, after his departure. Jesus' direction to Mary is puzzling - "I am ascending". From their point of view, and ours, there was a time lapse before the final event we call the Ascension; see below for Luke's report in Acts, chapter 1.
With Mary's experience, compare the two distressed disciples who had had a lengthy conversation with unrecognised Jesus as they walked along: When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight (Luke 24:30-31 NIV). Then, only then, they recognised him. They had known their time was special, but they did not recognise the source - Jesus, now having his risen body. They were able to identify him, once they knew!
On that day of Jesus' appearing risen amongst his people we also read in Luke:
Then he said, “When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said, “Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die and rise from the dead on the third day. It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations,[a] beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’ You are witnesses of all these things.
“And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.” (Luke 24:36-49 NLT). They needed minds opened by Jesus, as do we all. The original task was not ended - far from it; there was to be a brief delay.
John ended his account of Jesus with a subsequent day back on the shores of Lake Galilee. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”
“No,” they answered.
He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.
Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards.[a] When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.
Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead (John 21 :4-14 NIV). At first it seemed to them they were interacting with a helpful stranger. It was Jesus, but Jesus unrecognised. Neither his voice nor his appearance identified him. However, Jesus' actions revealed him to the one who "got it", who then told his companion, Peter. Peter in turn reacted very strongly! He realised his companion, the disciple Jesus loved, was definitely right. This was no stranger!
They did not dare ask. Why would they need to ask who this was? How different was his appearance I wonder? Well - they just knew it was the Lord. Jesus had prepared breakfast for them all. With their questions subdued, they doubtless accepted the invitation to breakfast. (I also assume Jesus joined them - there was precedent.) This was an extended broad daylight encounter in such an everyday setting.
So Jesus invited his fearful followers to look and to touch. He also ate before them. He suddenly came amongst the gathered group. They could not believe it was their Jesus. He shared food and gave them reminders, teaching and instructions. This was all so unexpected but it was certainly unforgettable! There was to be a time of waiting. Yet, as I reported above, the following days included many interactions between Jesus and his people. It was Jesus, returned, but changed.
In the book of Acts, Luke gave a summary of the period following Jesus' resurrection. The risen Jesus spent time with his people; he appeared to them and even ate with them. Ate!
During the forty days after he suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God.
Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. John baptized with[a] water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?”
He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!” (Acts 1:3-11 NLT). So it was that Jesus' was last seen amongst people in his risen body. Once again the language can hardly be literal, but it was the Risen Jesus who finally departed and will return as the Glorious Saviour. He had said that he would go away and would be replaced - see John, chapter 16. (Whatever the people of Bible times thought, we know that Jesus is not now just above the clouds!)
The last report of Jesus in direct human perception comes from the account of Saul's (later called Paul) encounter on the road. There, Jesus' voice is heard, though there is no indication Paul knew that voice. He did recognise that he was hearing "the Lord"? This was a critical moment for the world, as well as for Jesus' agent, which Paul became. Here it is:
Now Saul was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. He went to the high priest and requested letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he traveled and was nearing Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly flashed around him. Falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
“Who are you, Lord?” Saul said.
“I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting,” he replied. “But get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the sound but seeing no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing. So they took him by the hand and led him into Damascus. He was unable to see for three days and did not eat or drink.
There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias” (Acts 9:1-10 CSB). Yes, Saul (Paul) meant business, but so did the Lord!
"Who are you, Lord?" Paul heard a voice and responded to that voice. He recognised the Lord was speaking to him but not that it was Jesus speaking. Not that it was Jesus, whom he was persecuting by attacking the followers. There is no mention of a visual aspect to the encounter. In fact, Paul's companions were struck dumb for they heard something from somewhere, but where? Ananias heard Jesus in a vision - had he ever seen or heard Jesus in the flesh? Perhaps.
Sometime before that encounter we find (doomed) Stephen's vision of Jesus' glorious body: He looked toward heaven, where he saw our glorious God and Jesus standing at his right side.[a] Then Stephen said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right side of God!”
The council members shouted and covered their ears. At once they all attacked Stephen and dragged him out of the city. Then they started throwing stones at him. The men who had brought charges against him put their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul[b] (Acts 7:55-58 CEV). Wherever Stephen fixed his gaze, this is not a literal report but we are given a concept of Jesus' glorious body in the presence of God. This was clear to Stephen, even if alone to him, and he could only tell the truth he saw. The opponents could not accept such a vision.
Much earlier, In Matthew 17 (and Mark 9 and Luke 9) we can read about a unique mountain-top day when Jesus' appearance was described. His face shone and his clothes, whatever they usually looked like, were dazzling white. By Jesus' direction, the event was not public knowledge until later. As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed so that his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light (Matthew 17:2 NLT). Was this a glimpse of Jesus' glory? The later appearances of the risen Lord do not exactly match; in fact there is variation in what we are lead to imagine.
In the opening part of John's Gospel we can read: “The Word became a human being and lived here with us. We saw his true glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father. From him the complete gifts of undeserved grace and truth have come down to us” (John 1:14 CEV). His true glory. Did the author mean the accumulated revelation of Jesus over the time of his ministry and resurrection, or was this a reference to the above day on the mountain? Or both? What do you think?
Here is a troublesome passage which comes in Matthew's record of Jesus dying.
At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and[a] went into the holy city and appeared to many people (Matthew 27:51-53 NIV). After Jesus' resurrection many of God's holy people, who had been entombed near Jerusalem were raised to life and were seen in the city. What kind of bodies did they have? How did that event end? Did it? We are told no more.
Late in the days of Jesus' ministry there is a particular antagonistic encounter which had resurrection as its focus.
Then Jesus was approached by some Sadducees—religious leaders who say there is no resurrection from the dead. They posed this question: “Teacher, Moses gave us a law that if a man dies, leaving a wife without children, his brother should marry the widow and have a child who will carry on the brother’s name.[a] Well, suppose there were seven brothers. The oldest one married and then died without children. So the second brother married the widow, but he also died without children. Then the third brother married her. This continued with all seven of them, and still there were no children. Last of all, the woman also died. So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her.”
Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God. For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In this respect they will be like the angels in heaven.
“But now, as to whether the dead will be raised—haven’t you ever read about this in the writings of Moses, in the story of the burning bush? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said to Moses,[b] ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’[c] So he is the God of the living, not the dead. You have made a serious error” (Mark 12:18-27 NLT). They were leaders of a religious group amongst the Jews. They seemed to think they had the last word with an unanswerable objection derived from applying the Bible. They were in error because they did not fully know the Scriptures, nor God's power. They were attempting to be "black and white" users of Scripture.
Consider those enduring words from Paul: Look, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die,[a] but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality (1 Corinthians 15:51-53 NRSVUE). Or, in the CEV translation: I will explain a mystery to you. Not every one of us will die, but we will all be changed. It will happen suddenly, quicker than the blink of an eye. At the sound of the last trumpet the dead will be raised. We will all be changed, so we will never die again. Our dead and decaying bodies will be changed into bodies that won't die or decay. That is not in the same category of body, is it! We have nil experience yet of that kind of body.
"We"? These treasured words Paul originally wrote to a specific group: To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours (1 Corinthians 1:2 NIV). For sure, with those gone before, all who today call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ can see themselves as "we". That we, who will all be changed.
And - Jesus prayed and spoke of glory given: that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me (John 17:21-23 NIV). The full realisation of that glory comes with the awaited glorious body. As Paul put it: What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:50 NRSVUE). Your body, my body, must pass. It makes way for the complete and perfect and eternal.
And what is the complete and prefect and eternal? It is beyond us now to know. Remember these words of timely caution and encouragement: See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he[a] is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure (1 John 3:1-3 NRSVUE).
And: Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections... (1 Corinthians 13).
From the surveyed observations of Jesus risen from the tomb I see change, amazing change, in his body. In the tomb, about 2000 years ago, were laid human remains of a man of Palestine. (Those remains were comparable to what mine will be, and what yours will be.) Jesus left the tomb, unobserved, and with an amazingly changed body. This itself is beyond human experience. We are pointed to the fuzzy mirror and the fact that we do not know, for "what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears[a] we shall be like him" 1 John 3:2 ESV).
To be like Jesus is the mysterious and glorious future of all God's children. Is it yours? Certainly it can be. Just ask.
It is beyond comprehension, but it is all of a piece. Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace[a] with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory (Romans 5:1-2 NLT). The glory; the privilege and the prospect of everyone ever made right in God's sight.
May you be blessed by God
Allen Hampton
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