“Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:32-33.
“Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You…’” John 17:1.
I have added the last two verses in John chapter 16 above for context. The intent here is to ensure that we do not become disconnected from the rest of the Passover Supper which began in chapter 13 and ends with chapter 18 where it says in another place.
“And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” Matthew 26:30.
Throughout the supper Jesus had given His disciples various important instructions which apply to the Christian as well.
Chapter 16 is no less important because it concerns the giving of the Holy Spirit and a great deal of valuable information about the Spirit Himself.
In this chapter Jesus also attempts to soften the sudden demoralizing impact of His soon arrest, crucifixion, and death of the Messiah who was to live forever.
“And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.” John 14:29.
Chapter 17 consists entirely of what is called the Lord’s high-priestly prayer. It can be divided into three parts, verses 1-5 are for God’s glory, verses 6-19 the sanctification of the disciples and verses 20-26 are for unity in the church, the body of Christ.
Some have divided this prayer up a little more, but three parts should be enough for our purposes.
Jesus, within hours of a cruel death, and the horrific task of becoming the sacrifice for the sin of the world, petitioned the Father to glorify Him through resurrection which in turn would glorify the Father in heaven who sent Him.
For Jesus this is what H. A. Ironside called acquired glory, a glory that He acquired when He was resurrected from the dead.
This was something He had not had before, even though the sacrifice of Christ was considered a done deal from eternity past by the Godhead. This is referred to in Revelation 13, where it speaks of the Lamb’s Book of life.
“And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Revelation 13:8.
The, “…Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” was, in fact a mystery known only within the Godhead, so Jesus would not have acquired this glory, until His resurrection.
His acquired glory is that which He received from His disciples and other believers at His resurrection, by the church, and by angels, and the defeat of Satan at the cross.
The resurrection is God’s stamp of approval on the sinless perfection of Christ’s life and the full payment of for sin in His shed blood. This perfection glorifies God the Father who sent Him to be the payment for our sins, the full satisfaction.
Mr. Ironside also spoke of the Lord’s essential glory as that which He has always had even before the world was. He speaks of this in John 17:5, “…glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”
Properly speaking, God’s glory is who He is. Jesus’ essential glory is something He has always had from eternity past.
And His acquired glory is something of His character which has been demonstrated, the sinless life, death, resurrection and ascension of the Son of Man is a visible demonstration of God’s humility, courage, love, fidelity, strength, and compassion, to name a few. All of which would be unknown if it were not for Christ’s physical demonstration of those traits.
His essential glory is something that would take hours to explore; but in its simplicity, go out at night and look at billions of tiny points of light which seem to go on forever, all making their appointed rounds with clockwork precision.
Stand on the edge of the ocean and realize that God is responsible for the timing of the tides, and the interactions of all the small creatures living in the tide pools all the way out to the monsters that dwell in the depths.
Look at the back of your hand which you can poke with a hair and feel its exact location, touch your cheek with that same hair and you know where it is.
Listen carefully to your surroundings, the sound is eventually interpreted from the waving of cilia (like small hairs) in fluid in your inner ear.
There are those who will not believe in anything that they cannot prove with their five senses, sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell. Yet, the God who created all of these things is invisible to all the senses and still His existence is proven by the things that are evident around us.
“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse…” Romans 1:20.
“For You have formed my inward parts; You have covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.” Psalm 139:13-14.
“Or who shut in the sea with doors, when it burst forth and issued from the womb; when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band; when I fixed My limit for it, and set bars and doors; when I said, this far you may come, but no farther, and here your proud waves must stop!” Job 38:8-11.
“He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing.” Job 26:7.
“Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loose the belt of Orion? Can you bring out Mazzaroth in its season? Or can you guide the Great Bear with its cubs? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth?” Job 38:31-33.
The glory of Christ’s resurrection glorifies the Father who sent Him. It is both the teachings of Satan and his “useful idiots” (attributed to Lenin or Karl Marx, Lenin most likely) that attempt to take away mankind’s dignity and deny God the glory of having created such perfection as we have around us.
The constant droning that the cosmos are a result of time, plus chance, plus the impersonal has so numbed the public consciousness that folks accept this foolishness as fact, when there is no proof whatsoever.
And science has not found any proof in the one hundred and fifty-nine years since “Origin of the Species” was published.
Children shoot up schools and murder other children, and the educators wring their hands and cry, “Oh, why, oh, why?” never once seeing that it is their own vile teaching that takes away children’s hope, by telling them that their lives are meaningless in a godless world.
“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.” Mark 9:42.
The nation that destroys its children will perish.
Evolution does nothing but rob God of His glory and lower mankind to the level of intelligent pond scum. Some have even postulated that evolution began here after a UFO stopped off at earth and dumped its garbage; no dignity at all.
The shed blood of Christ Jesus gives all of mankind infinite value because it was shed for all. However, only those who accept that payment for their sins will one day realize its true value.
“[I Paul] do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places…” Ephesians 1:16-20.
God’s Glory, John 17:1 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 5-12-13, updated on 3-14-18.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.