Glorification of the Son by David K. Bernard

The Glorification of the Son 

http://www.altupc.com/altupc/articles/glorson.htm

by

David K. Bernard

"And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was" (John 17:5)

In John 17 Jesus Christ prayed to the Father shortly before His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane and subsequent crucifixion. He began His prayer by asking, "Father, the hour is come; glorify, thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee" (John 17: 1). In verse 5 He repeated His request for glorification and specified that He desired the glory that He had with the Father before the creation of the world.

This prayer raises a number of interesting questions.

• Is Jesus an inferior divinity who needs to receive glory from some other deity?
• Did Jesus exist as a glorified man before Creation?
• Are Jesus and the Father two distinct persons?
• 
  

To understand this passage, we must recognize that Jesus prayed as a man. The prayers of Christ stem from His humanity, and any time we seek to interpret those prayers we must keep His humanity foremost in our minds.

Trinitarians say that Jesus was speaking as a second divine person here, but if that were so, Jesus would not be coequal with the Father, as they maintain, but inferior. Jesus would be a divine person who was lacking in glory, who needed the Father to give Him glory, and who asked the Father for help. Jesus would not be omnipotent (all powerful), but lesser in glory and power than the Father. In short, Jesus would not possess some of the essential characteristics of deity. Contrary to the rest of Scripture, He would not truly be God.

If we acknowledge that Jesus is God manifested in the flesh as the Bible teaches (Colossians 2:9; I Timothy 3: 16), then we must affirm that as God He always had divine glory, never lost it, and never needed anyone else to give it to Him. What did He mean, then, when He said, "Glorify thou me . . . with the glory which I had with thee before the world was"?

Glory through the Crucifixion and Resurrection

The setting and context provide the answer. Jesus was praying in view of His upcoming crucifixion. He had come into the world to offer His life as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity (Matthew 26:28). He knew that the time had come for Him to fulfill this plan. His flesh naturally shrank from the upcoming agony, but He knew that this was the supreme, perfect will of God for Him. As He had said earlier in John 12:27, contemplating His death, "Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save Me from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour" (NKJV).

The glory to which Jesus referred in John 17:1,5 was the glory that He as a man would receive by submitting to the plan of God through the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Immediately after the statement of John 12:27 Jesus prayed, "Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again" (John 12:28). Jesus then explained, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die" (John 12:3233). God glorified Christ by lifting Him up before all the world on the cross.

God further glorified Christ by raising Him from the dead. "Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father" (Romans 6:4). Christ's atoning death became effective for us by His resurrection (Romans 4:25j, which transformed His death into victory over sin, the devil, and death itself. At His resurrection He received a glorified human body (Philippians 3:21).

God glorified the man Jesus throughout His earthly ministry by investing Him with divine power and working through Him miraculously, but the supreme glorification occurred through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That was the ultimate plan for which Jesus was born and lived.

The eternal glory of God is not the subject of discussion in John 17. Jesus said of His disciples in John 17:22, "And the Glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one." Yet God emphatically declares that He will never share His divine glory with anyone else. "My glory will I not give to another" (Isaiah 42:8). "I will not give my glory unto another" (Isaiah 48:11). Jesus could not have meant that He gave the disciples the divine glory.

Instead, He referred to the glory that He as a man received in God's plan of salvation for the human race, the benefits of which He has imparted to those who believe in Him. The disciples had already shared in Christ's glorious, miraculous ministry. Soon they would also share in the glory of His crucifixion and resurrection by receiving the Holy Spirit (I Peter 1: 1 1- 12). They would have "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27), which would be "Joy unspeakable and full of glory" (I Peter 1:8). Through the gospel, we can obtain "the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" (II Thessalonians 2: 14). By "the salvation which is in Christ Jesus" we have "eternal glory" (II Timothy 2:10).

Moreover, one day believers will "be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ" (I Peter 1:7). Just as God glorified the man Christ by raising Him from the dead with an immortal body, so we will be "raised in? glory" (I Corinthians 15:42-43). We will receive a glorified body "like unto his glorious body" (Philippians 3:21). We will be "glorified together" with Him (Romans 8:17), and we shall "appear with him in glory" (Colossians 3:4) 

.

The end result of God's plan of salvation is that believers will live with the glorified Christ throughout eternity. They will behold His glory, and will worship Him as the glorified One. They will say, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing" (Revelation 5: 12). With this ultimate objective in mind, Christ prayed, "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:24).

more to come...
full article here: http://www.altupc.com/altupc/articles/glorson.htm