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In the foregoing messages, we saw three aspects of Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God: the Father’s house (John 14), the true vine (John 15), and the newborn child (John 16). Christ is the house for God to have a mutual abiding place for His rest, satisfaction, and manifestation. Christ as the vine tree is God’s enlargement for His multiplication, spreading, and glorification. Also, Christ is the new man to carry out God’s eternal economy. In John 17 we come to the fourth aspect of Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God — the Father’s glorification.
The main point of the Lord’s message in John 14 through 16 is that the Son may be glorified so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. The Father is glorified in the Son through the organism of the vine tree. As we have seen, the organism of the vine tree is for the propagating and spreading of life, that is, for the multiplication and reproduction of life, and also for the expression of the Triune God. When the Triune God is propagated, multiplied, and expressed through this organism, the Son is glorified, and in the Son’s glorification the Father is glorified also. Thus, the Lord prayed in John 17 that He, the Son, would be glorified so that the Father also might be glorified.
The Lord’s prayer was fulfilled in three stages. First, it was fulfilled in His resurrection, in that His divine element, His divine life, was released from within His humanity into His many believers (12:23-24), and His whole being, including His humanity, was brought into glory (Luke 24:26), and in that the Father’s divine element was expressed in His resurrection and glorification. In His resurrection God answered and fulfilled His prayer (Acts 3:13-15). Second, it has been fulfilled in the church, in that as His resurrection life has been expressed through His many members, He has been glorified in them, and the Father has been glorified in Him through the church (Eph. 3:21; 1 Tim. 3:15-16). Third, it will ultimately be fulfilled in the New Jerusalem, in that He will be fully expressed in glory, and God will be glorified in Him through the holy city for eternity (Rev. 21:11, 23-24).
God’s eternal purpose, His ultimate intention, is to manifest, express, Himself. Glorification simply means manifestation. To be glorified is to be manifested and expressed. Just as the electricity hidden in a lamp is glorified when the electricity is manifested in a lamp that is turned on, so God is glorified when He is manifested.
In John 12:28 the Lord prayed, “Father glorify Your name.” To glorify the name of the Father is to cause the Father’s divine element to be released and expressed. The Father’s element, the divine life, which is eternal life, was in the incarnated Son. It was necessary for the shell of the Son’s humanity to be broken through death so that the Father’s element might be released and expressed in resurrection. This is the glorification of God the Father in the Son. The Father is glorified in the Son’s glorification because in this glorification the Father is expressed.
In 13:31-32 the Lord also said, “Now has the Son of Man been glorified, and God has been glorified in Him. If God has been glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and He will glorify Him immediately.” The Father is glorified in the Son. This means that when the Son is glorified, the Father is glorified as well. For the Son of Man to be glorified is for Him to have His divine element released, expressed, and multiplied through death and resurrection. In this way God the Father is glorified in the Son’s glorification.
After speaking the words recorded in John 13:31 and 32, the Lord Jesus went on to give the lengthy message recorded in John 14 through 16. Actually, this message began in 13:31, which speaks of the glorification of the Son. Both the Lord’s message in chapters fourteen through sixteen and His prayer in chapter seventeen are on the subject of glorification. In His message He spoke concerning glorification, and in His prayer He prayed concerning glorification.
In John 17:1 the Lord Jesus prayed, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You.” Here we see glorification as the subject of the Lord’s prayer in chapter seventeen. The Father is to glorify the Son so that the Son may glorify the Father. This is a mutual glorification between the Son and the Father. If the Father will glorify the Son, then the Son will glorify the Father. Hence, the Son was to be glorified by the Father that the Father may be glorified in Him. Furthermore, for the Lord to be glorified is for Him to be multiplied. This means that the divine life within Him, the Father’s life, would be multiplied and thereby be glorified.
Christ was God incarnate, and His flesh was a tabernacle in which God could dwell on earth (1:14). His divine element was confined in His humanity, just as God’s shekinah glory had been concealed within the tabernacle. Once, on the mountain of transfiguration, His divine element was released from within His flesh and expressed in glory (Matt. 17:1-4). But then it was concealed again in His flesh. Before the prayer recorded in John 17, the Lord indicated that He would be glorified and that the Father would be glorified in Him. The Lord Jesus knew that He would pass through death so that the concealing shell of His humanity might be broken to release His divine element, His divine life. He would also resurrect that He might uplift His humanity into the divine element and that His divine element might be expressed. Then His entire being, both His divinity and His humanity, would be glorified. In this way the Father would be glorified in Him.
In John 17:5 the Lord Jesus went on to say in His prayer, “And now, glorify Me along with Yourself, Father, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” This verse reveals that the Son is to be glorified along with the Father. This means that the Son is exactly the same as the Father in glorification. The Son is glorified along with the Father and with the same glory that the Father has. He had the divine glory along with the Father before the world was, in eternity past; hence, He should be glorified now with that glory along with the Father. The Lord participates in the divine glory, not separately by Himself, but along with the Father, for He and the Father are one (10:30).
Before His incarnation Christ as the only begotten Son of God was with the Father in glory and enjoyed this glory with the Father. But when He with this glory put on flesh through incarnation, this glory was concealed in His flesh. His humanity was a shell that covered and confined the divine life and nature, along with the divine glory, that were within Him. The divine glory, the expression of the divine life and nature, was therefore confined and concealed within the Lord’s humanity. Outwardly, He appeared to be a Jew, even a despised Nazarene. That was the appearance of the shell of Christ’s humanity. But within this shell the divine life, nature, and glory were concealed. Through His death and by His work in His resurrection, Christ released the divine life from within Him to produce many grains for His glorification.
Christ was glorified by the Father with the divine glory in His resurrection. John 7:39b says, “The Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” Many readers of the Bible might find this verse easier to understand if resurrected were used instead of glorified, for then the verse would say, “The Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been resurrected.” But the verse does not say “had not yet been resurrected”; it says “had not yet been glorified.” However, glorified actually stands for resurrected, for the Lord was glorified when He was resurrected. In Luke 24:26 the Lord said of Himself, “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into His glory?” This refers to His resurrection (v. 46), which brought Him into glory (1 Cor. 15:43a; Acts 3:13a, 15a). For Christ to enter into His glory, into His glorification, was for Him to enter into His resurrection. This means that He was glorified in His resurrection. His resurrection was His glorification.
According to the New Testament thought, resurrection is a release in life, and this release in life is a matter of glorification. Just before He was about to be crucified, the Lord Jesus prayed not that the Father would resurrect Him but that the Father would glorify Him. The Father answered this prayer for glorification by resurrecting the Lord Jesus (Acts 3:13; Matt. 22:31-32). Glorification is therefore a synonym of resurrection. However, glorification is not for resurrection; rather, resurrection is for glorification. Resurrection is the cause, and glorification is the effect, the result.
We have seen how Christ the Son was glorified in His resurrection. Now by what way will the Son be glorified today so that the Father might be glorified in and through the Son? It is by the church. When the church has been regenerated, sanctified, crucified, and united with Christ in glory, then the Son of God will be expressed and manifested. The Son of God will be glorified in the oneness of the church, and the Father at that time will also be glorified in and through the Son. Therefore, the prayer, “Glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You,” includes and depends upon the matter of the church being regenerated, sanctified, crucified, and united in oneness with the Son of God. God is glorified in Christ and in the church in the church age (Eph. 3:21). If we are not a part of the church, we will miss this glorification.
John was very strong to unveil the glorification of the incarnated Jesus, that is, the glorification of Christ by God with His glory. Christ was not self-glorified by His own exaltation, but He was glorified by God. In His being glorified, He as a grain of wheat passed through death unto resurrection, and that is glorification. His glorification was to produce us as many grains. He is the one grain; we are the many grains. We as the many grains are the totality, the aggregate, of Christ as the unique grain sown into the earth. When Christ was resurrected, He was glorified to produce us as His many grains to form and constitute His Body.
Glory is the expression of the divine life and the divine nature. If we live by the divine life and nature, we shall express the divine glory. The more the saints live by the divine life and the divine nature, the more glorious the church life is, and the more divine glory there will be in the church. When we live by the divine life with the divine nature, we express the Lord Jesus. This is the Lord’s glorification in us, and in this glorification the Father is glorified.
We can boldly testify of the fact that we all have the Lord Jesus within us. But we probably do not have the boldness to say that the Lord is expressed from within us. This may be because we are so strong in ourselves that the Lord Jesus often does not have a way to be expressed through us. Our self, comparable to marble, is hard and completely opaque, thus completely covering the Lord Jesus. This is the reason we need the Lord’s breaking. Although we may be like marble, the Lord has a way to break us. By the cross He breaks our marble self.
We should have the faith to believe that more and more the Lord will be expressed in us. If we give Him the way to grow in us and to come forth from within us, we shall express Him more and more. Then the churches will be filled with the divine glorification.
Furthermore, when the believers as the branches bear much fruit, the Father is glorified, for in fruit-bearing the Father’s life, the divine life, is expressed. In John 15:8 we see that glorification is in fruit-bearing: “In this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit.” According to 12:24 the one grain fell into the ground and died, rose up, and brought forth many grains. This is multiplication, and this multiplication is glorification. Hence, the many grains of wheat in 12:24 are the many branches of the vine in chapter fifteen. The branches of the vine bear fruit, and this fruit-bearing is the Father’s glorification. The more fruit we bear, the more God is glorified in our Christian work.
The Father is glorified through the organic union of Christ’s believers with the Father in the Son in oneness (17:23). In John 15 the fact of our being in Christ and Christ being in us is clearly revealed (vv. 4-5). But in John 17 the Lord prayed for our realization of this fact (vv. 20-21). He prayed so that we would realize that we are in Him just as He is in the Father, and He is in us just as the Father is in Him. With the Divine Trinity there is such a wonderful coinhering oneness. This coinhering oneness has been duplicated by Christ with His believers. Today Christ is in His believers, causing His believers to be in Him. This is like the Father being in the Son, causing the Son to be in the Father. The prayer of Christ in John 17 is a revelation of such a coinhering oneness.
Christ’s prayer was for the glorification of the Son that the Father might be glorified as the Son glorified the Father in His earthly living and ministry (vv. 1b, 4-5). This traffic of glorification, where the Son prayed asking the Father to glorify the Son that the Son may glorify the Father, is based on the believers’ oneness (vv. 2-3, 6-23a). If we are not one, the Son cannot be glorified, and the Father cannot be glorified by the Son. When we are one, Christ is glorified. When Christ is glorified, God the Father is glorified in Christ the Son’s glorification.
The oneness of the believers is by the Father’s eternal life conveyed in the Father’s name and in the Father’s word (vv. 2-3, 6-12). Our oneness is also by the Father’s sanctifying word as the truth — the divine reality — through the coinhering of the Triune God and the believers (vv. 13-21). The sanctifying God is in us, and we are in the sanctifying God; therefore, we are spontaneously sanctified.
The oneness of the believers is also by the glory given to the believers by Christ the Son through the coinhering of the Triune God incorporated with the believers. In John 17:22-23 the Son prayed to the Father: “And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one; I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one.” The believers can be one as the three of the Trinity are one. The Father, the Son, the Spirit, and the disciples all coinhere. This is the glory. In this coinhering, Christ is glorified, and the Father is glorified.
The oneness revealed in chapter seventeen is for the Father’s glorification in the Son. This oneness is actually the divine glorification. The Son is glorified in the church, and the Father is glorified in the Son. In chapters fourteen through seventeen we see five main things: the Father’s house, the vine, the new man, the divine glorification, and the oneness. Actually, all of these five things are one. This is the unique subject of the Lord’s message in chapters fourteen through sixteen, and it is the main point of His prayer in chapter seventeen. The oneness is the glorification, the glorification is the new man, the new man is the vine, and the vine is the Father’s house. The glorification for which the Lord prayed is actually the divine mingling with humanity, and this mingling is the marvelous oneness revealed in chapter seventeen. This oneness is safeguarded in the name of the Father, in the Triune God, and in the glorious expression of the Triune God. This is the central point of the revelation of the New Testament.
In John 17 the Lord prayed that the Father would glorify the Son so that the Son might glorify Him. To glorify the Son is actually to build the Father’s house. Hence, glorification is the building. Furthermore, the building is the cultivation of the vine. The vine tree comes into being through the birth of the new man. When the new man was born, the vine with all its branches came into being. Now the vine is growing and spreading, and this spreading is the divine glorification. Therefore, the glorification of the Son is for the glorification of the Father, and the glorification is the building of the Father’s house, the spreading of the vine, and the growth is the new man.
In the divine glorification the Triune God is glorified in humanity, and humanity is glorified in divinity. One day the Lord Jesus will come in a physical manifestation of glory, and we shall be brought into that glory. Then there will be glorification upon glorification and glorification within glorification. Eventually, there will be the ultimate consummation — the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:10-11). The New Jerusalem will be the completion of the new man, the consummation of the vine, and the full building of the Father’s house. May we all see that the Father’s house, the vine, the new man, and the glorification are all one thing — Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God for our experience and enjoyment.
