The Glory
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
John 17:1-5 (ESV)
After the Last Supper, before walking across the Kidron Valley to the garden where Jesus will surrender to guards, Jesus pauses to pray the amazing chapter-long prayer recorded as John 17, and His prayer is all about the glory and its purposes. Jesus asks God the Father to glorify Jesus so that Jesus would glorify the Father, and He connects glory to authority over all living creatures, specifically Jesus’ authority to grant eternal life. That is very interesting. God’s glory is connected to His authority. What is glory? How is God glorified? What does this have to do with authority? What is eternal life? So many questions raised by a single sentence.
Fortunately, Jesus answers one of them. In the next sentence He says, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Eternal life is knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ. The Greek word translated as “know” is transliterated as ginosko (ghin-oce’-ko). It means to come to know, to recognize, to perceive, each with an element of personal experience.[1] It is used in Scripture as a euphemism for sexual intimacy. For example, Matthew used the word when writing,
When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus. Matthew 1:24-25 (ESV)
A derivative of ginosko is translated as “knew.” Matthew also used the word when writing Jesus’ horrific proclamation of judgment in the Sermon on the Mount, as follows:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ Matthew 7:21-23
Eternal life is knowing God the Father and Christ Jesus in a personally intimate way. It is far more than intellectual knowledge. It is knowing in an intimate and personal way. It is relationship. Eternal life, life abundant, the kingdom of God are different ways of describing life lived in communion with God the Father through Christ Jesus. It is a quality of life available now and forever.
God the Father granted Christ Jesus authority to give this quality of life, eternal life, to all who the Father gives to the Son. The Father gives people to the Son, and the Son gives them eternal life.
So what does it mean to glorify? The Greek word transliterated as doxadzo (dox-ad’-zo) is translated in the passage as glorify. Thayer’s Greek Lexicon says that to glorify someone or something is to attribute value, honor, praise, and to celebrate him, her or it. HELPS Word Studies explains that glorifying God means “valuing him for who he really is.”[2]
So when Jesus prays, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you…” The request appears to have two parts. He begins asking God the Father to lift Jesus up, to honor and celebrate Him, to attribute value to Him for who He really is. But Jesus knows the Father values Him, so He is not asking the Father to change, rather, He is asking the Father to demonstrate it in a way the world will see. Jesus continues saying “that the Son may glorify you….” This is not a separate request. Jesus is asking the Father to provide a specific avenue through which Jesus will demonstrate to the world how much He values the Father, and the avenue involves Jesus’ glorification.
Jesus glorified God on earth by doing God’s work on earth. What did that look like? It looked like healing people from every imaginable illness, casting demons out of people, teaching with authority unsurpassed by any human, making disciples who would carry on God’s great mission on earth, and ultimately, surrendering to death on a cross so that He might conquer death forever.
Jesus concludes the thought saying, “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:5). Compared to God the Father, who can possibly be glorified, lifted up, extolled, placed in a position of honor? God is the pinnacle. No one is higher. In places, Scripture presents God’s glory as the physical manifestation of His holy presence. Here are three examples from Exodus:
And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. Exodus 16:10
Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. Exodus 24:15-18
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Exodus 40:34
God is the pinnacle of existence. His glory shines so brightly humans cannot bear it. When Moses descended the mountain after communing with God, Moses’ face glowed so brightly everyone was afraid of him. In comparison to God, is it even possible for another being to be glorified? And if it is, who might God the Father glorify? The Father glorifies those who share His essence – Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit. God the Father glorifies Jesus because Jesus is God.
To underscore Jesus’ assertion that He is God, Jesus explains that He had glory with God the Father “before the world existed” (John 17:5). He previously possessed God’s glory and He possessed it before time. Jesus is eternal. He has always been and He will always be, and further than that, He has always been and will always glorified in God the Father’s presence (except for the brief episode in history when He surrendered His heavenly glory to come to earth as a human).
Expanding on this thought, Paul writes,
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:4-11
Let’s move to the end of Jesus’ prayer where He prays for us. He prays “for those who will believe in me through their word” (John 17:20), which includes us. A few verses later, while continuing to pray, He says,
The glory that 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 become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. John 17:22-23
Jesus gives His glory to us, the people who believe in Him. He does this for specific purposes. He does this so the Body of Christ might be one, and He wants the Body of Christ to be one so it will be an effective witness to the world. He gives His glory for the unification of the Body, and He does this, not exclusively for the Body’s happiness, though joy will be a positive effect, but so the world will see and know that God the Father sent Jesus and further, so the world will know that God the Father loves the Body just as He loves the Son. Christ Jesus gives His glory to the Body, so that the Body will be one and the world will know that Christ Jesus is who He claims to be.
If the Father glorifies those who share His essence, and if Christ Jesus shares His glory with people who believe in Him, what does that say about us? It implies that we share His essence, which might be the case to the extent the Holy Spirit dwells within us, transforming us into the image of Christ Jesus. But sharing God’s glory? The thought is too awesome to comprehend, and with awesome gifts come staggering responsibility.
After the Last Supper, before walking across the Kidron Valley to the garden where Jesus will surrender to guards, Jesus pauses to pray the amazing chapter-long prayer recorded as John 17, and His prayer is all about the glory and its purposes. Jesus asks God the Father to glorify Him for the world to see and know and believe. Jesus gives His glory to believers for their unification, and He wants them to be one so the world will see and know and believe. It is all about God’s great mission here on earth.
May you receive His glory and implement it according to God’s will. Amen.
[1] See https://biblehub.com/greek/1097.htm, with entries from Strong’s Concordance, HELPS Word Studies, NAS Exhaustive Concordance and Thayer’s Greek Lexicon.
[2]Doksazo 1392, HELPS Word Studies, https://biblehub.com/greek/1392.htm