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I. Christ as the second of the Triune God possessed the divine glory from eternity past.
II. His humanity through His incarnation became a shell to conceal the glory of His divinity.
III. Although He did express the attributes of God in His human living as His virtues in His humanity, the glory of His divinity was mostly concealed by the shell of His humanity.
IV. It was only in His transfiguration on the mountain, while He was living in His humanity, that the glory of His divinity was manifested for a glimpse to His disciples — Matt. 17:2; John 1:14b; 2 Pet. 1:17-18.
V. While the glory of His divinity was concealed by the shell of His humanity, He was pressed and constrained, longing to be baptized with the baptism of His death for the release of the glory of His divinity — Luke 12:50; John 12:24.
VI. The release of the glory of His divinity was to cast fire on the earth — Luke 12:49.
The general subject of these messages is “The Issue of Christ Being Glorified by the Father with the Divine Glory,” and my burden is to help you to see the issue, the outcome, of the glorification of Christ. The burden of these messages can be expressed in the following four statements:
(1) The glory of Christ’s divinity was concealed in Him as in a grain of wheat.
(2) In His glorification He, as the last Adam, became the life-giving Spirit for His divine dispensing.
(3) In His resurrection He was born with His humanity to be the firstborn Son of God for His divine transformation.
(4) Through His resurrection all His believers were regenerated to be the many sons of God for His divine multiplication.
The matter of Christ being glorified by the Father is referred to in the following verses of John: 7:39; 8:54; 12:16, 23; 13:31-32; 17:1, 5. This chapter, which is quite particular, is on the concealed glory of Christ’s divinity.
Christ as the second of the Triune God possessed the divine glory from eternity past. John 1:1 reveals that Christ, the Word, is God: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” As God, Christ has the divine glory. Since Christ was God from eternity past, He possessed the divine glory also from eternity past. What is the divine glory? The divine glory is God Himself. God Himself is glory.
Christ’s humanity through His incarnation became a shell to conceal the glory of His divinity. Instead of the words His humanity, it is perhaps better to use the expression His flesh, for John 1:14 tells us that the very God became flesh. This flesh, this humanity, became a shell to conceal the glory of Christ’s divinity. Christ’s divinity is itself the divine glory. Just as God is light, divinity is glory. When Christ was in the flesh, in His humanity, His flesh was a shell that concealed His divinity and thereby concealed His glory.
Although Christ expressed the attributes of God in His human living as His virtues in His humanity, the glory of His divinity was mostly concealed by the shell of His humanity, His flesh. When He was living on earth in the flesh, on the one hand, He was God, who is glory, and on the other hand, He was flesh. This flesh was a shell that concealed the very God who is glory. Because the divine glory was concealed within the shell of His flesh, it was necessary for Him to be glorified. In John 12:23 He said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” In 17:1 He prayed, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You.” In verse 5 He went on to say, “Now, glorify Me along with Yourself, Father, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”
According to my limited knowledge, few readers of the Bible and Christian teachers pay adequate attention to the glorification of Christ mentioned in these and several other verses from John 7:39 to John 17:5. It is common for theologians to study redemption, justification, and sanctification, but rarely do they study the matter of Christ’s glorification.
As God, Christ Himself was glory, but this glory was concealed in the shell of His humanity, and thus His divine glory could not be seen. Others could see His shell, but they could not see His glory concealed within the shell. However, in his Gospel the apostle John says, “We beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father” (1:14). He, along with Peter and James, beheld the Lord’s glory when He was transfigured on the mountain. His transfiguration was a glorification. While He was living in the shell of His flesh, He temporarily came out of His flesh and was glorified.
It was only in Christ’s transfiguration on the mountain, while He was living in His humanity, that the glory of His divinity was manifested for a glimpse to His disciples. Matthew 17:2 says, “He was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as the light.” Peter refers to this in 2 Peter 1:17-18: “He received from God the Father honor and glory, a voice such as this being borne to Him by the magnificent glory: This is My Son, My Beloved, in whom I delight. And this voice we heard being borne out of heaven while we were with Him in the holy mountain.” In Matthew 17 Peter, John, and James were the only ones who saw the glorified Jesus, and they testified that they could not deny what they had seen of the concealed glory of Christ. They were most blessed in seeing the Lord in His transfiguration. Whereas only three beheld the glorified Jesus on the mountain before His resurrection, after His resurrection millions can see Him. Today we see not a Christ who is still in the shell but a Christ who has come out of the shell and has been glorified.
While the glory of His divinity was concealed by the shell of His flesh or humanity, the Lord Jesus was pressed and constrained, longing to be baptized with the baptism of His death for the release of the glory of His divinity. In Luke 12:50 the Lord said, “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am pressed until it is accomplished!” The Greek word translated “pressed” can also be rendered “constrained.” The Lord was constrained in His flesh, which He had put upon Himself in His incarnation. He needed to undergo physical death, to be baptized, that His unlimited and infinite divine being with His divine life might be released from His flesh. The Lord Jesus therefore desired to be released from the constraint of the shell of His flesh. He referred to this release in John 12:24: “Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” If the Lord Jesus as a grain of wheat had not died, He would have remained the same. But He fell into the ground and died, and that death released Him from His human shell. His incarnation caused His divine glory to be concealed in His flesh, but through His death His glory was released for the producing in His resurrection of the many grains, which become His increase as the expression of His glory.
The release of the glory of Christ’s divinity was to cast fire on the earth. In Luke 12:49 He said, “I have come to cast fire on the earth, and how I wish that it were already kindled!” This fire is the impulse of the spiritual life, an impulse that comes from the Lord’s released divine life. To cast fire on the earth is to burn the people of the earth. When Christ was baptized with the baptism of His death on the cross, the glory of His divinity was released. From the time of His resurrection a fire has been burning on earth. This fire started from Jerusalem, and then it spread through Judea and Samaria to the uttermost part of the earth. Today this fire is burning all over the earth — in America, in Russia, in Romania, in Poland, in Brazil, in Africa, in Australia, and in New Zealand.
In the book of Revelation we see that Christ is the Lion-Lamb; He is the Lion to defeat Satan, and He is the Lamb to redeem us (5:5-6). Revelation 5:6 says, “I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders a Lamb standing as having just been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.” These seven eyes, the seven Spirits, are “like a flame of fire” (1:14; 2:18). Elsewhere we are told that the seven Spirits of God are “seven lamps of fire burning before the throne” (4:5). Christ today is a burning fire. We all have been burned by this fire; we have been brought together by this fire; and now we are burdened that this fire would burn many others. When the concealed glory of Christ’s divinity was released, a divine fire was cast on earth to burn the whole earth. Let the fire burn on! No one can stop it.
At the beginning of this chapter we pointed out that in His resurrection Christ was born with His humanity to be the firstborn Son of God for His divine transformation. The words His divine transformation actually refer to our experience of transformation. Christ becoming the Lord Spirit is for our transformation (2 Cor. 3:18). He first became the life-giving Spirit to dispense the divine life and nature into our spirit. Then He became the Lord Spirit to transform our soul (including our mind, emotion, and will). This is proved by Romans 12:2a, which says, “Be transformed by the renewing of the mind.” The Lord has dispensed Himself into our spirit, and now He is transforming our soul. Today we are in the process of being transformed in our soul. Eventually, at the time of His coming back, He will transform our body to be conformed to His body of glory (Phil. 3:21).
