Jesus Prays With Two Disciples Kneeling BehindBible World
17:5John 17:5
And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
Having finished the work given Him to do in glorifying the Father on earth and manifesting His name, Christ asks to be restored to the Father's own presence with the glory He shared with Him before the world existed. That glory was His by eternal right as one with the Father from all eternity, living with Him upon the throne of the universe in light and peace as the beloved Son and Commander of heaven. Out of pity He had laid it aside and veiled His divinity in humanity to come as a suffering, tempted man, pledged before creation to redeem humanity and bearing contempt, sorrow and the cross without retaliation. After carrying out the plan of salvation He ascended and took again His exalted place at God's right hand, and the descent of the Spirit at Pentecost signaled that glorification and His inauguration as priest and king. His prayer is the pattern and intercession for His people, that they be one with one another as He is one with the Father, partaking of the divine nature and revealing God's love to convince the world.
Words and Setting of Prayer
The words are spoken with eyes lifted to heaven, after the farewell instruction of John 13-16, in the upper chamber after Judas withdrew, alone with the eleven as final counsel before leaving the disciples and returning to the Father. They belong to the last recorded prayer with the disciples just before betrayal, Gethsemane, trial, crucifixion, burial and resurrection, containing important truth profitable to consider. He had ended His instruction with strong, hopeful words and then poured out the burden of His soul in prayer for His disciples, having finished the work given Him, glorified God on earth, manifested the Father's name, and gathered out those who were to continue His work among men. As His work on earth neared completion He asked to be glorified again in the Father's presence, pointing to His existence with the Father before earthly life and the glory laid aside when He took humanity to face humiliation and suffering in bearing the world's sins.
Its surrounding words declare that the hour is come for the Son to be glorified to glorify the Father, that He has power over all flesh to give eternal life, and that eternal life is knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ sent by Him. They declare that He has glorified the Father on earth and finished the work given Him to do, and that He has manifested the Father's name to the men given Him out of the world who kept His word and received the words given Him. Having glorified the Father on earth and finished that work, He asks the Father to glorify Him with the Father's own self with the glory He had with the Father before the world was. To have it said they have kept His word is a glorious commendation and great honor, though self too often comes in striving for mastery. These words are to have due weight on hearts at all times and in all places as the privilege of understanding the mystery of godliness that brings up onto a higher plane of action.
He speaks in the language of One who has divine authority, giving His elect church into the Father's arms. As consecrated high priest He intercedes for His people, and as faithful shepherd He gathers His flock under the shadow of the Almighty in a strong and sure refuge, just before going forth to meet the last battle with Satan. He identifies His interests with fallen humanity, joining humanity to God and identifying Himself with His believing people in the work of saving a lost world. As the Good Shepherd and humanity's Elder Brother He prayed as a suppliant to the Father, sharing human weakness and facing temptation without sin, seeking fresh supplies of grace so He could strengthen and encourage His followers with assurance and hope. In that prayer for ministers over congregations and the churches, He presents His bruised hands bearing the wounds of cruel spikes and pleads that He has graven His church — the names of those who believe on Him — upon the palms of His hands.
Even the disciples could not fully understand the words until after the resurrection took place. The prayer was spoken in the upper chamber only to His faithful followers because the multitude could not understand the sacred truths He was unfolding, belonging with the words of comfort, counsel and prayer recorded in John 15, 16 and 17. Afterward they repeated these words again and again to stay their hearts in disappointment and trial. Through their testimony these truths have spread over all lands to comfort the desponding and give peace and hope to believers through all ages.
The prayer teaches about His intercession for people in the heavenly sanctuary after His sacrifice is completed, and about the spiritual blessings He seeks for those who come to Him humbly and trust His power to save. It is full of instruction of the highest type, showing His desire that all should be saved through faith in Him. It is a sample of the intercession He carries on in heaven within the veil for all who receive Him and believe on His name even unto the ends of the earth. It is a lesson to guide conduct, contains truth that will stand the test of ages, and illustrates the intercession He is now making and will continue to make to the end of the world for those who believe in Him.
Glory Before the World
Before the world existed Christ shared glory with the Father and was one with Him, existing with Him from all eternity. As His earthly work was finished He prayed to be glorified again in the Father's presence and restored to that glory with the Father's own self. The prayer belongs to His intercession in which He says He has glorified the Father on earth by completing the work given Him, by revealing the Father and giving His words to His disciples, and He says He is glorified in them. It was given for His disciples in every age, and its surrounding words connect knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ with eternal life. Its teachings set out eternal principles for spiritual life and the highest education.
That pre-world glory was life in the royal courts upon the throne of the universe, a home of security and peace in eternal light. There He was the beloved Son of the Most High, the loved Commander of the heavenly hosts, the Highest sharing the Father's honor, divine glory and crown of Deity. He possessed divine glory with the Father before the world existed, and after His earthly mission He receives supreme honor as God, seated at the Father's right hand and exercising divine rule. His pre-existence and personal dignity are thereby affirmed, for as Son of God before angels were created He always stood at the Father's right hand with loving authority that was not new and commands that were a joy to angels. He left that glory, home and position on the throne to come as the heavenly Sower, going forth as a suffering, tempted man in solitude to sow in tears and to water with His blood the seed of life for a lost world.
Heavenly angels had seen that glory and looked forward with intense interest to His appearing on earth as an event of greatest joy to all people. Though He stooped to take man's nature and to bear an infinite weight of woe in making His soul an offering for sin, angels desired that even in His humiliation the Son of the Highest might appear before men with a dignity and glory befitting His character. On the mountain He prayed for His disciples to witness a manifestation of that glory and His divinity. They were to know with certainty that He is the Son of God and be strengthened to face His shameful death as part of the plan of redemption.
The glory He had with the Father before the world was is the glory of His character, which He gives to His true disciples in answer to His prayer. Through the impartation of His Spirit He appears in their lives, abiding in their hearts as the Comforter, making joy full and His words bread of life. That same glory is the glory of the Father's presence and the Father's house, the unapproachable splendor of the Father and Son's converse together when the plan of salvation was laid, to which even the angels were not admitted. This same glory is to be revealed to all who are saved as the gain and enjoyment of the eternal life prepared for them, and the great joy of the overcomer will be to behold it in the presence of Christ. Human beings who seek to intrude into these secrets of the Most High show ignorance of spiritual and eternal things and should instead humble themselves in the dust and plead with God to teach them His ways.
Finished Work and Request
Having glorified the Father on earth and finished the work given Him to do, including manifesting the Father's name, He asks the Father to glorify Him with the Father's own self with the glory He had before the world was, to restore Him to that glory in the Father's presence. That prayer belongs to teachings setting out eternal principles for spiritual life and the highest education, and was given for disciples in every age, with its surrounding words connecting knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ with eternal life. He makes it just before trial and crucifixion, pointing to His existence with the Father before earthly life and to glory laid aside when He took humanity and faced humiliation and suffering in bearing the world's sins.
His completed work fulfilled the conditions of the heavenly agreement concerning fallen humanity, forming a righteous character as an example for people to follow. That work represented the Father's character to the world without casting any shadow on its glory and without perpetuating sin in word or action, and revealed unmatched love. His work and glory are connected with His followers, in whom He is glorified.
He makes the request while the great conflict still lies before Him, as He is about to leave the disciples to whom He manifested the Father's name and to entrust their keeping to the Father while He passes through His trial as Redeemer. Before Him lie betrayal, excruciating agony in Gethsemane where the bitter cup of giving Himself as a criminal for the sins of the whole creation trembles in His hand, and crucifixion where He would bear the weight and aggravating character of the sins of the world. There He would suffer separation from the Father in consequence of sin, facing whether man could be saved without His drinking that cup, and the prayer preceded His agony as the weight of the world's sins rested on Him shortly before He went to Gethsemane where He was betrayed and taken.
The meaning and joy of the glorification He asks is that His humiliation and suffering would glorify the Father's name. That glorifying of the Father was the great object of His mission, what He kept ever before Him. He spoke it looking upon the eleven with divine love and tenderest sympathy after Judas had left, when alone with them, before telling them of His approaching separation, directing their thoughts first to that object.
His words are the example of what those whose life-work is ended should be able to say, who have become acquainted with God as Governor of heaven and Lawgiver and with Jesus Christ as His representative sent into the world. It means having glorified God on the earth, having finished the work God gave to do, and having manifested God's name. It shows Jesus living in vital connection with the Father as the source of His strength rather than in self-sufficiency and self-deception, in opposition to self-indulgence, self-love, and temptation to sin, whose unresisted natural tendencies hold the seeds of moral death.
Leaving Glory and Regaining It
Out of pity He left the glory, throne and heavenly home He had with the Father before the world was, a home of security and peace upon the throne of the universe. He laid that glory aside and veiled His divine glory in human form because men could not endure its full manifestation, clothing His divinity with humanity to come as a suffering, tempted man. Before creation He had pledged Himself to redeem humanity if Adam should sin, and after the fall He gave up His royal status and came as a human child to give His life to impart life to all.
Leaving glory meant bearing human contempt, indignity, sorrow, grief and mockery without retaliation, though He could have asked for legions of angels. He lived as a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, becoming poor for man's sake, alone among the people He had created. As the heavenly Sower He went forth in solitude to sow in tears and to water with His blood the seed of life for a world lost, leaving the sinless worlds on high that loved Him to save this one lost, apostatized world ruined by sin. This little fallen world is the one lost sheep, an atom in God's vast dominions yet more precious than the ninety and nine that went not astray, and He came to be wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities, agonizing in the garden and dying on the cross at Calvary so the lost might live.
His work ended at the cross, and after carrying out the plan of salvation He ascended to heaven, His home, and took His exalted stature again at God's right hand. There He was clothed with the majesty and glory He had before leaving heaven and honored with supreme honor as God exercising divine rule, with the crown of Deity and loving authority that was not new. That restoration is no marvel to the angelic host, while the marvel to all heaven is that the Father suffered the Son of His bosom to lay that glory aside and submit to humiliation and the agonizing death of the cross to save fallen man.
After His ascension and enthronement He was glorified with that eternal glory He had shared from all eternity, and the Spirit's descent at Pentecost signaled that glorification and His inauguration as Redeemer. By sending the Spirit He showed He had received authority in heaven and on earth as priest and king and Anointed One over His people. The Spirit came as His promised representation to guide and protect His followers in a special sense, and His ascension was a matter of rejoicing to the early church because it enabled this ministry.
His request is the claiming of His own recompense for His conquests, and that recompense is His being glorified in His ransomed people. Those believers given Him are the reward He values, and the perfected, redeemed church will be His glory through eternity and the chief source of His glory. Through them the manifold wisdom of God is made known to principalities and powers in heavenly places. Those men were humble fishermen called away from their occupation to follow Him, whom He educated and trained during His ministry for His service. This means humble position in this world is no barrier, for all may learn of Christ and have God manifest Himself to them as He does not to the world, and all who learn must work as for life, cooperating intelligently with heavenly intelligences to save a world and representing in character the One who gave His life to the world.
Father and Son Revealed
The prayer presents the Father and His Son Jesus Christ as two distinct persons in relationship, distinct yet one, united without losing personal identity. His words express His oneness with God in mind, heart and purpose in the work of saving the fallen world. That oneness does not erase either person's individuality, and the same kind of unity is to exist between Christ and His followers. Their unity with Christ, expressed by giving up their own way for God's way, makes plain to the world that God sent His Son to save sinners.
His pre-existence and glory were His by right. The honor the Father gave Him did not diminish the honor He had always possessed. As Son of God before angels were created He always stood at the Father's right hand, and His loving authority was not new and His commands had been a joy to the angels. The Son was one with the Father before the angels were created and held pre-eminence over the angelic host.
The verse makes known His divinity through His prior existence with the Father and shows His divine character and relationship with the Father. That previous existence is evidence of His divinity, made known through the Bible, which reveals this knowledge of Him who visited the world. It supports the claim that Jesus is divine and pre-existent.
It is plain, direct testimony of the Saviour concerning Himself proving His pre-existence and divinity. To declare that the Son of God had no existence prior to His first advent to this world directly contradicts this statement. Denying its testimony lowers conceptions of the work of redemption and undermines faith in the Bible as a revelation from God. Those who claim to believe the Scriptures yet receive that denial show ignorance of God and of His Son. Those who reject it cannot be convinced by argument because the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, and none who hold this error can gain a true conception of Christ's character or mission or of God's great plan for redemption.
Oneness and Life of Believers
The prayer to which the request for pre-world glory belongs is to be diligently studied, oft repeated, carried in the practical life and made the rule of life. Its lessons teach eternal principles for spiritual life and the highest education, sustain courage, strengthen faith, keep the soul in God's love, and call for faith that claims God's promises. Its meaning is better known when the mind is reshaped by the Spirit and when believers are meek and lowly, and living in harmony with it requires habits shaped by its teaching and guards against one-sided development. It is a lesson to guide conduct, contains truth that will stand the test of ages, and illustrates the intercession carried on within the veil for all who receive Him to the ends of the earth, now and to the end of the world.
It teaches that disciples are to be one with one another and with Christ, and through Christ one with God, a union as close as that between the Father and the Son. That unity does not erase personal identity, just as Christ and the Father are distinct persons united without losing personality. In it believers become partakers of the divine nature, escape the corruption in the world through lust, are changed from sin to holiness, and are loved by the Father as He loves His Son. Division and disunity dishonor God, while this enduring union opens the source of rich and eternal happiness outliving all earthly sinful enjoyment.
That oneness, expressed by giving up one's own way for God's way, convinces the world that God sent His Son to save sinners. It reveals the light of God's glory and the power of grace in characters that honor God, with perfect Christian fellowship, obedience to truth and its fruit. It shows God's love for believers as He loved Christ, and when conviction of sin comes it is the result of grace upon human hearts and living union with God that hates the sin separating the soul from God.
Living the prayer requires confessing and forsaking sin, ceasing criticism, evil speaking, judgment and selfishness, and encouraging especially the heavy-laden. It requires loving one another, obeying truth, being sanctified through truth, correcting thoughts, words and acts, reading and practicing God's Word, being with Jesus and learning of Him, and taking self sternly in hand. It requires feeding daily on the Word as flesh and blood so Christ is formed within as the hope of glory, renouncing self-trust, continually reaching after God with confession and humility, emptying hearts of self-centeredness to be filled with Christ's love and transforming grace, esteeming others better than self, and following Christ's overcoming as the pattern to win the crown through centered minds, earnest effort, self-denial and holiness.
Those who believe and practice God's Word answer the prayer and become the light of the world, representing Him in character with kind, tender, Christlike lives. They reveal Christ in spirit, words and acts, help and cheer one another with words of hope, use talents for unity, work intelligently with heaven to save the world, and reach every possible soul with ministry centered on Christ, staying awake to speak a word for the Master and build up the most holy faith. Humble position is no barrier, for all may learn of Christ and have God manifest Himself to them as He does not to the world. Satan understands these advantages and seeks to keep believers in discord over little differences so they present the opposite of what God desires.
The only hope of reaching heaven is to be one with Christ and through Him one with another, with no one called to walk alone or assigned a different path, for in Christ life and immortality are brought to light and the way to the kingdom opened to all who believe. Answering the prayer by entire consecration gives fitness for heaven, makes work for eternity certain, and lifts souls to a higher platform purified, refined and sanctified. If unity is preserved God will love believers as He loved His Son, the sinner will be saved and God eternally glorified, while refusing its conditions leaves one unworthy to stand among His people when He comes in glory and unable to look upon His face.
His self-giving love in leaving glory is the measure of how believers are to love one another, even to giving life for a brother. Following His example of forbearance, patience, humility, generosity, self-denial, mercy and compassion, they are not to wound and bruise brethren's hearts nor measure by others or serve self and the world, but to suffer with Him now to share His glory, with Christlikeness cleansing the heart from selfishness distinguishing Christians from worldlings. His self-emptying from high and lofty glory to poverty, contempt, sorrow and the cross to save the lost makes Him the pattern all must closely copy, hungering for righteousness and partaking of divine character.
The prayer presents the glory of God rather than human exaltation as the aim of sanctified zeal and service. It embraces believers as children, asking they be sanctified, kept unspotted from the world, forgiven, drawn to God and bound together by the golden chain of love, that they may step into the everlasting kingdom. It is a help in every emergency for the truly penitent seeking fresh grace, new strength and the Spirit's power to gain victory over sin and become God's children in the perils of the last days. Those seeking salvation in the last days are to study it carefully and cling to Christ who gave His life for them.
His followers glorify God by following Him in self-denial and sacrifice, sharing His suffering before entering God's city. Because He bore the sins of the whole world through betrayal, Gethsemane and separation from the Father, every believer should hate sin with perfect hatred, look not to weak men and women but cast the helpless soul on Christ as the only hope, receive strength from Him lest life be a failure, and so understand eternal life by individual experience. The chapter expresses God's will, shows what Christians may become as they strive to live by it, obliges acknowledgment of God and growing knowledge of Him, and describes advantages purchased by His sacrifice that give power in His name when tempted and tried. The instruction containing the request teaches that ministry depends on a divine Christ and on divine power working together with human effort.
Having finished the work given Him to do in glorifying the Father on earth and manifesting His name, Christ asks to be restored to the Father's own presence with the glory He shared with Him before the world existed. That glory was His by eternal right as one with the Father from all eternity, living with Him upon the throne of the universe in light and peace as the beloved Son and Commander of heaven. Out of pity He had laid it aside and veiled His divinity in humanity to come as a suffering, tempted man, pledged before creation to redeem humanity and bearing contempt, sorrow and the cross without retaliation. After carrying out the plan of salvation He ascended and took again His exalted place at God's right hand, and the descent of the Spirit at Pentecost signaled that glorification and His inauguration as priest and king. His prayer is the pattern and intercession for His people, that they be one with one another as He is one with the Father, partaking of the divine nature and revealing God's love to convince the world.
Words and Setting of Prayer
The words are spoken with eyes lifted to heaven, after the farewell instruction of John 13-16, in the upper chamber after Judas withdrew, alone with the eleven as final counsel before leaving the disciples and returning to the Father. They belong to the last recorded prayer with the disciples just before betrayal, Gethsemane, trial, crucifixion, burial and resurrection, containing important truth profitable to consider. He had ended His instruction with strong, hopeful words and then poured out the burden of His soul in prayer for His disciples, having finished the work given Him, glorified God on earth, manifested the Father's name, and gathered out those who were to continue His work among men. As His work on earth neared completion He asked to be glorified again in the Father's presence, pointing to His existence with the Father before earthly life and the glory laid aside when He took humanity to face humiliation and suffering in bearing the world's sins.
Its surrounding words declare that the hour is come for the Son to be glorified to glorify the Father, that He has power over all flesh to give eternal life, and that eternal life is knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ sent by Him. They declare that He has glorified the Father on earth and finished the work given Him to do, and that He has manifested the Father's name to the men given Him out of the world who kept His word and received the words given Him. Having glorified the Father on earth and finished that work, He asks the Father to glorify Him with the Father's own self with the glory He had with the Father before the world was. To have it said they have kept His word is a glorious commendation and great honor, though self too often comes in striving for mastery. These words are to have due weight on hearts at all times and in all places as the privilege of understanding the mystery of godliness that brings up onto a higher plane of action.
He speaks in the language of One who has divine authority, giving His elect church into the Father's arms. As consecrated high priest He intercedes for His people, and as faithful shepherd He gathers His flock under the shadow of the Almighty in a strong and sure refuge, just before going forth to meet the last battle with Satan. He identifies His interests with fallen humanity, joining humanity to God and identifying Himself with His believing people in the work of saving a lost world. As the Good Shepherd and humanity's Elder Brother He prayed as a suppliant to the Father, sharing human weakness and facing temptation without sin, seeking fresh supplies of grace so He could strengthen and encourage His followers with assurance and hope. In that prayer for ministers over congregations and the churches, He presents His bruised hands bearing the wounds of cruel spikes and pleads that He has graven His church — the names of those who believe on Him — upon the palms of His hands.
Even the disciples could not fully understand the words until after the resurrection took place. The prayer was spoken in the upper chamber only to His faithful followers because the multitude could not understand the sacred truths He was unfolding, belonging with the words of comfort, counsel and prayer recorded in John 15, 16 and 17. Afterward they repeated these words again and again to stay their hearts in disappointment and trial. Through their testimony these truths have spread over all lands to comfort the desponding and give peace and hope to believers through all ages.
The prayer teaches about His intercession for people in the heavenly sanctuary after His sacrifice is completed, and about the spiritual blessings He seeks for those who come to Him humbly and trust His power to save. It is full of instruction of the highest type, showing His desire that all should be saved through faith in Him. It is a sample of the intercession He carries on in heaven within the veil for all who receive Him and believe on His name even unto the ends of the earth. It is a lesson to guide conduct, contains truth that will stand the test of ages, and illustrates the intercession He is now making and will continue to make to the end of the world for those who believe in Him.
Glory Before the World
Before the world existed Christ shared glory with the Father and was one with Him, existing with Him from all eternity. As His earthly work was finished He prayed to be glorified again in the Father's presence and restored to that glory with the Father's own self. The prayer belongs to His intercession in which He says He has glorified the Father on earth by completing the work given Him, by revealing the Father and giving His words to His disciples, and He says He is glorified in them. It was given for His disciples in every age, and its surrounding words connect knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ with eternal life. Its teachings set out eternal principles for spiritual life and the highest education.
That pre-world glory was life in the royal courts upon the throne of the universe, a home of security and peace in eternal light. There He was the beloved Son of the Most High, the loved Commander of the heavenly hosts, the Highest sharing the Father's honor, divine glory and crown of Deity. He possessed divine glory with the Father before the world existed, and after His earthly mission He receives supreme honor as God, seated at the Father's right hand and exercising divine rule. His pre-existence and personal dignity are thereby affirmed, for as Son of God before angels were created He always stood at the Father's right hand with loving authority that was not new and commands that were a joy to angels. He left that glory, home and position on the throne to come as the heavenly Sower, going forth as a suffering, tempted man in solitude to sow in tears and to water with His blood the seed of life for a lost world.
Heavenly angels had seen that glory and looked forward with intense interest to His appearing on earth as an event of greatest joy to all people. Though He stooped to take man's nature and to bear an infinite weight of woe in making His soul an offering for sin, angels desired that even in His humiliation the Son of the Highest might appear before men with a dignity and glory befitting His character. On the mountain He prayed for His disciples to witness a manifestation of that glory and His divinity. They were to know with certainty that He is the Son of God and be strengthened to face His shameful death as part of the plan of redemption.
The glory He had with the Father before the world was is the glory of His character, which He gives to His true disciples in answer to His prayer. Through the impartation of His Spirit He appears in their lives, abiding in their hearts as the Comforter, making joy full and His words bread of life. That same glory is the glory of the Father's presence and the Father's house, the unapproachable splendor of the Father and Son's converse together when the plan of salvation was laid, to which even the angels were not admitted. This same glory is to be revealed to all who are saved as the gain and enjoyment of the eternal life prepared for them, and the great joy of the overcomer will be to behold it in the presence of Christ. Human beings who seek to intrude into these secrets of the Most High show ignorance of spiritual and eternal things and should instead humble themselves in the dust and plead with God to teach them His ways.
Finished Work and Request
Having glorified the Father on earth and finished the work given Him to do, including manifesting the Father's name, He asks the Father to glorify Him with the Father's own self with the glory He had before the world was, to restore Him to that glory in the Father's presence. That prayer belongs to teachings setting out eternal principles for spiritual life and the highest education, and was given for disciples in every age, with its surrounding words connecting knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ with eternal life. He makes it just before trial and crucifixion, pointing to His existence with the Father before earthly life and to glory laid aside when He took humanity and faced humiliation and suffering in bearing the world's sins.
His completed work fulfilled the conditions of the heavenly agreement concerning fallen humanity, forming a righteous character as an example for people to follow. That work represented the Father's character to the world without casting any shadow on its glory and without perpetuating sin in word or action, and revealed unmatched love. His work and glory are connected with His followers, in whom He is glorified.
He makes the request while the great conflict still lies before Him, as He is about to leave the disciples to whom He manifested the Father's name and to entrust their keeping to the Father while He passes through His trial as Redeemer. Before Him lie betrayal, excruciating agony in Gethsemane where the bitter cup of giving Himself as a criminal for the sins of the whole creation trembles in His hand, and crucifixion where He would bear the weight and aggravating character of the sins of the world. There He would suffer separation from the Father in consequence of sin, facing whether man could be saved without His drinking that cup, and the prayer preceded His agony as the weight of the world's sins rested on Him shortly before He went to Gethsemane where He was betrayed and taken.
The meaning and joy of the glorification He asks is that His humiliation and suffering would glorify the Father's name. That glorifying of the Father was the great object of His mission, what He kept ever before Him. He spoke it looking upon the eleven with divine love and tenderest sympathy after Judas had left, when alone with them, before telling them of His approaching separation, directing their thoughts first to that object.
His words are the example of what those whose life-work is ended should be able to say, who have become acquainted with God as Governor of heaven and Lawgiver and with Jesus Christ as His representative sent into the world. It means having glorified God on the earth, having finished the work God gave to do, and having manifested God's name. It shows Jesus living in vital connection with the Father as the source of His strength rather than in self-sufficiency and self-deception, in opposition to self-indulgence, self-love, and temptation to sin, whose unresisted natural tendencies hold the seeds of moral death.
Leaving Glory and Regaining It
Out of pity He left the glory, throne and heavenly home He had with the Father before the world was, a home of security and peace upon the throne of the universe. He laid that glory aside and veiled His divine glory in human form because men could not endure its full manifestation, clothing His divinity with humanity to come as a suffering, tempted man. Before creation He had pledged Himself to redeem humanity if Adam should sin, and after the fall He gave up His royal status and came as a human child to give His life to impart life to all.
Leaving glory meant bearing human contempt, indignity, sorrow, grief and mockery without retaliation, though He could have asked for legions of angels. He lived as a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, becoming poor for man's sake, alone among the people He had created. As the heavenly Sower He went forth in solitude to sow in tears and to water with His blood the seed of life for a world lost, leaving the sinless worlds on high that loved Him to save this one lost, apostatized world ruined by sin. This little fallen world is the one lost sheep, an atom in God's vast dominions yet more precious than the ninety and nine that went not astray, and He came to be wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities, agonizing in the garden and dying on the cross at Calvary so the lost might live.
His work ended at the cross, and after carrying out the plan of salvation He ascended to heaven, His home, and took His exalted stature again at God's right hand. There He was clothed with the majesty and glory He had before leaving heaven and honored with supreme honor as God exercising divine rule, with the crown of Deity and loving authority that was not new. That restoration is no marvel to the angelic host, while the marvel to all heaven is that the Father suffered the Son of His bosom to lay that glory aside and submit to humiliation and the agonizing death of the cross to save fallen man.
After His ascension and enthronement He was glorified with that eternal glory He had shared from all eternity, and the Spirit's descent at Pentecost signaled that glorification and His inauguration as Redeemer. By sending the Spirit He showed He had received authority in heaven and on earth as priest and king and Anointed One over His people. The Spirit came as His promised representation to guide and protect His followers in a special sense, and His ascension was a matter of rejoicing to the early church because it enabled this ministry.
His request is the claiming of His own recompense for His conquests, and that recompense is His being glorified in His ransomed people. Those believers given Him are the reward He values, and the perfected, redeemed church will be His glory through eternity and the chief source of His glory. Through them the manifold wisdom of God is made known to principalities and powers in heavenly places. Those men were humble fishermen called away from their occupation to follow Him, whom He educated and trained during His ministry for His service. This means humble position in this world is no barrier, for all may learn of Christ and have God manifest Himself to them as He does not to the world, and all who learn must work as for life, cooperating intelligently with heavenly intelligences to save a world and representing in character the One who gave His life to the world.
Father and Son Revealed
The prayer presents the Father and His Son Jesus Christ as two distinct persons in relationship, distinct yet one, united without losing personal identity. His words express His oneness with God in mind, heart and purpose in the work of saving the fallen world. That oneness does not erase either person's individuality, and the same kind of unity is to exist between Christ and His followers. Their unity with Christ, expressed by giving up their own way for God's way, makes plain to the world that God sent His Son to save sinners.
His pre-existence and glory were His by right. The honor the Father gave Him did not diminish the honor He had always possessed. As Son of God before angels were created He always stood at the Father's right hand, and His loving authority was not new and His commands had been a joy to the angels. The Son was one with the Father before the angels were created and held pre-eminence over the angelic host.
The verse makes known His divinity through His prior existence with the Father and shows His divine character and relationship with the Father. That previous existence is evidence of His divinity, made known through the Bible, which reveals this knowledge of Him who visited the world. It supports the claim that Jesus is divine and pre-existent.
It is plain, direct testimony of the Saviour concerning Himself proving His pre-existence and divinity. To declare that the Son of God had no existence prior to His first advent to this world directly contradicts this statement. Denying its testimony lowers conceptions of the work of redemption and undermines faith in the Bible as a revelation from God. Those who claim to believe the Scriptures yet receive that denial show ignorance of God and of His Son. Those who reject it cannot be convinced by argument because the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, and none who hold this error can gain a true conception of Christ's character or mission or of God's great plan for redemption.
Oneness and Life of Believers
The prayer to which the request for pre-world glory belongs is to be diligently studied, oft repeated, carried in the practical life and made the rule of life. Its lessons teach eternal principles for spiritual life and the highest education, sustain courage, strengthen faith, keep the soul in God's love, and call for faith that claims God's promises. Its meaning is better known when the mind is reshaped by the Spirit and when believers are meek and lowly, and living in harmony with it requires habits shaped by its teaching and guards against one-sided development. It is a lesson to guide conduct, contains truth that will stand the test of ages, and illustrates the intercession carried on within the veil for all who receive Him to the ends of the earth, now and to the end of the world.
It teaches that disciples are to be one with one another and with Christ, and through Christ one with God, a union as close as that between the Father and the Son. That unity does not erase personal identity, just as Christ and the Father are distinct persons united without losing personality. In it believers become partakers of the divine nature, escape the corruption in the world through lust, are changed from sin to holiness, and are loved by the Father as He loves His Son. Division and disunity dishonor God, while this enduring union opens the source of rich and eternal happiness outliving all earthly sinful enjoyment.
That oneness, expressed by giving up one's own way for God's way, convinces the world that God sent His Son to save sinners. It reveals the light of God's glory and the power of grace in characters that honor God, with perfect Christian fellowship, obedience to truth and its fruit. It shows God's love for believers as He loved Christ, and when conviction of sin comes it is the result of grace upon human hearts and living union with God that hates the sin separating the soul from God.
Living the prayer requires confessing and forsaking sin, ceasing criticism, evil speaking, judgment and selfishness, and encouraging especially the heavy-laden. It requires loving one another, obeying truth, being sanctified through truth, correcting thoughts, words and acts, reading and practicing God's Word, being with Jesus and learning of Him, and taking self sternly in hand. It requires feeding daily on the Word as flesh and blood so Christ is formed within as the hope of glory, renouncing self-trust, continually reaching after God with confession and humility, emptying hearts of self-centeredness to be filled with Christ's love and transforming grace, esteeming others better than self, and following Christ's overcoming as the pattern to win the crown through centered minds, earnest effort, self-denial and holiness.
Those who believe and practice God's Word answer the prayer and become the light of the world, representing Him in character with kind, tender, Christlike lives. They reveal Christ in spirit, words and acts, help and cheer one another with words of hope, use talents for unity, work intelligently with heaven to save the world, and reach every possible soul with ministry centered on Christ, staying awake to speak a word for the Master and build up the most holy faith. Humble position is no barrier, for all may learn of Christ and have God manifest Himself to them as He does not to the world. Satan understands these advantages and seeks to keep believers in discord over little differences so they present the opposite of what God desires.
The only hope of reaching heaven is to be one with Christ and through Him one with another, with no one called to walk alone or assigned a different path, for in Christ life and immortality are brought to light and the way to the kingdom opened to all who believe. Answering the prayer by entire consecration gives fitness for heaven, makes work for eternity certain, and lifts souls to a higher platform purified, refined and sanctified. If unity is preserved God will love believers as He loved His Son, the sinner will be saved and God eternally glorified, while refusing its conditions leaves one unworthy to stand among His people when He comes in glory and unable to look upon His face.
His self-giving love in leaving glory is the measure of how believers are to love one another, even to giving life for a brother. Following His example of forbearance, patience, humility, generosity, self-denial, mercy and compassion, they are not to wound and bruise brethren's hearts nor measure by others or serve self and the world, but to suffer with Him now to share His glory, with Christlikeness cleansing the heart from selfishness distinguishing Christians from worldlings. His self-emptying from high and lofty glory to poverty, contempt, sorrow and the cross to save the lost makes Him the pattern all must closely copy, hungering for righteousness and partaking of divine character.
The prayer presents the glory of God rather than human exaltation as the aim of sanctified zeal and service. It embraces believers as children, asking they be sanctified, kept unspotted from the world, forgiven, drawn to God and bound together by the golden chain of love, that they may step into the everlasting kingdom. It is a help in every emergency for the truly penitent seeking fresh grace, new strength and the Spirit's power to gain victory over sin and become God's children in the perils of the last days. Those seeking salvation in the last days are to study it carefully and cling to Christ who gave His life for them.
His followers glorify God by following Him in self-denial and sacrifice, sharing His suffering before entering God's city. Because He bore the sins of the whole world through betrayal, Gethsemane and separation from the Father, every believer should hate sin with perfect hatred, look not to weak men and women but cast the helpless soul on Christ as the only hope, receive strength from Him lest life be a failure, and so understand eternal life by individual experience. The chapter expresses God's will, shows what Christians may become as they strive to live by it, obliges acknowledgment of God and growing knowledge of Him, and describes advantages purchased by His sacrifice that give power in His name when tempted and tried. The instruction containing the request teaches that ministry depends on a divine Christ and on divine power working together with human effort.