Scripture Reading: John 17:1-10, 22-24; 7:39; 12:23, 28; 13:31-32; 14:13; 15:8
In this chapter we will consider the mysterious sign of the divine glorification. In order to know the significance of this sign, we need to understand what glory is. According to the natural human concept, glory is related to having a high position with honor. For example, a man wins an election for the office of president, and now he has the glory of occupying this high, honorable position. However, we should set aside this natural concept of glory when we read about glory in the Bible.
According to the Scriptures, glory is the expression of the divine life with its nature. Let us once again use a carnation seed as an illustration. A carnation seed does not have any glory. After such a seed is sown into the soil, it will grow into a plant, and eventually this plant will blossom. The blossoming of a carnation flower is the expression of the glory concealed in the life and nature of a carnation seed. A carnation seed has its particular life and nature. When this life and nature are released through the blossoming of the flower, we see the glory of a carnation plant. The carnation blossom is the glory, and this glory is the expression of the life and nature of a carnation plant. Although the blossom is the glory, the blossoming is the glorification of the carnation plant. In other words, when a carnation blossoms, it is glorified. Here we have both the glory and the glorification of the carnation plant.
According to 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. He was God incarnate, and His flesh was a tabernacle for God’s dwelling on earth (1:14). His divine element was confined in His humanity, just as God’s shekinah glory was concealed within the tabernacle. Once, on the Mount of Transfiguration, His divine element was released from within His flesh and expressed in glory (Matt. 17:1-4). But it was concealed again in His flesh. Before the prayer recorded in John 17, the Lord had indicated that He would be glorified and that the Father would be glorified in Him (12:23; 13:31-32). The Lord knew that He would pass through death so that the concealing shell of His humanity might be broken and His divine element, His divine life, might be released. He would also resurrect so that He might uplift His humanity into the divine element and that His divine element might be expressed. Then His entire being, both divinity and 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, “Now, glorify Me along with Yourself, Father, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” Before His incarnation the Lord as the only begotten Son of God was with the Father in glory and enjoyed this glory with the Father. But when He 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 the divine nature, was therefore confined and concealed within the Lord’s humanity. Outwardly, He appeared to be a Jew, even a despised Galilean and a Nazarene. This was the appearance of the shell of the Lord’s humanity. But within this shell the divine life, the divine nature, and the divine glory were confined and concealed. As the Lord lived, walked, and worked among the people, His disciples saw in Him something that had never been seen by men before. Yes, the Lord who lived among them was a man, but He lived in such a way that He expressed God. He expressed God’s life and nature. What the disciples saw in the Lord Jesus was the expression of the divine life and nature that were within Him. In his Gospel the apostle John regards this expression as glorification.
According to John 17:6 the Lord said to the Father, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world. They were Yours, and You gave them to Me.” The Son came and worked in the Father’s name (5:43; 10:25) to manifest the Father to those whom the Father had given Him and to make the Father’s name known to them (17:26). Actually, for the Lord to make known to them the Father’s name was for Him to express the Father in His divine life and nature. The Lord lived among the disciples in such a way that He expressed the Father, and this expression was a matter of glorification.
As we have indicated, the Lord was temporarily glorified in the presence of three of His disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1-4). Matthew 17:2 says concerning this: “He was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as the light.” The glory that was concealed within the Lord’s humanity was manifested. This was the Lord’s glorification in the presence of His disciples. When the Lord was glorified on the Mount of Transfiguration, His divine life and nature were expressed in a full way. Nevertheless, this glorification lasted only a short while, and then His glory was concealed again.
After living and walking with His disciples for more than three years, He gave them the message recorded in chapters 14, 15, and 16 of the Gospel of John. Then in His prayer to the Father the Lord prayed that the Father would glorify the Son. In this prayer the Lord seemed to be saying to the Father, “Father, My humanity is opaque. Your life, nature, and glory have all been covered by the opaqueness of My flesh. Father, glorify Your Son. Father, cause My opaque humanity to become completely transparent so that Your life and nature can be expressed from within Me. My humanity, Father, is opaque because it is natural. The marvelous divine life, nature, and glory are covered by this humanity. Father, I have glorified You on earth. Now the time has come for You to glorify Your Son.”
We have seen that for the Father to glorify the Son was to cause the Son’s opaque humanity to become transparent. By what way could the Son be glorified? He could be glorified only through death and resurrection. Through death and resurrection the Lord’s natural humanity was transfigured. This means that through death and resurrection the Lord’s opaque humanity was made transparent. Therefore, when He was in resurrection, He was in glorification (Luke 24:26).
We may use electric lights as an illustration of Christ’s glorification. We may say that light is the glorification of electricity. In a sense, light is hidden in electricity. But when the switch is turned on and the light shines in a room, this light is the glorification of electricity.
The divine electricity — the divine life with the divine nature — was concealed within the Lord’s humanity, and that humanity was natural, something of the old creation. Hence, it was necessary that the Lord’s natural humanity should be transfigured through death and resurrection. The old creation was terminated by death. Then in resurrection the Lord was glorified. The divine electricity within Him was made manifest.
Through death the Lord terminated the old creation. When He entered into resurrection, He did not enter alone. Rather, the Lord entered into resurrection with the chosen people of God. Truly the Lord’s glorification is a wonderful, mysterious divine sign.
The sign of the Lord’s glorification signifies many things. It signifies that the old creation has been terminated and also that the new creation has been germinated. Adam has been terminated, and the new man has come into being. It was through this glorification that the old man was done away with and that the new man has been brought forth. Therefore, in resurrection the new man was born with glory. Even in the church life today there is at least some amount of glorification.
We all need to be clear that glory is the expression of the divine life and the divine nature. If we live by the divine life and nature, we will express the divine glory. We can testify of this from our experience in the church life. The more the saints live by the divine life and the divine nature, the more glorious the church life is, the more divine glory there will be in the church. The expression of this glory is the glorification of the Lord Jesus.
The Father is glorified in the Son. This means that when the Son is glorified, the Father is glorified as well. In John 12:28 the Lord prayed, “Father, glorify Your name.” To glorify the name of the Father is to cause the Father’s element to be expressed. The Father’s element, the divine element, 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.
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. Day by day this glorification is taking place.
The more glorification there is in the church life, the more the old creation is done away with and the more the new man is brought in. Therefore, glorification is actually the bringing in of the new man. The new man is absolutely in the divine glory. For this reason, the more glorification we have in the church life, the more the new man is brought forth. However, if we have little or no glorification in the church, then more of the old man will be seen in the church life.
We all have the Lord Jesus within us, and we can boldly testify of this fact. But can we say with confidence that the Lord is expressed from within us? We probably do not have the boldness to say this. Instead, if asked how much we express the Lord, we may say, “I am so strong in myself that often the Lord Jesus does not have a way to be expressed through me. Sometimes I feel that I am like a marble statue: hard and completely opaque. My ‘marble’ self completely covers the Lord Jesus. How, then, can I express Him?” 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 will express Him more and more. Then the churches will be filled with the divine glorification.
Let us consider once again what glorification signifies. We need to emphasize the fact that glorification signifies that the old man has been terminated and that the new man has come in. This new man spoken of in John 16 is the vine, and the vine is the Father’s house, the place where He is happy to dwell. We also are very pleased to dwell in the Father’s house. This means that the church is a mutual habitation for God and us. Praise the Lord that glorification is the new man, the new man is the vine, and the vine is the Father’s house!
We have seen that 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.
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 will 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. 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 glorification are all one thing.
