Wednesday

Experiencing, Enjoying,
and Expressing Christ (1)
– Week 10

Glory and Glorification
as Revealed in the Gospel of John

Related Verses
John 7:18
18 He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of Him who sent Him, this One is true, and unrighteousness is not in Him.

Matt. 25:31
31 But when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, at that time He will sit on the throne of His glory.

John 7:39
39 But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

John 17:5, 24
5 And now, glorify Me along with Yourself, Father, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
24 Father, concerning that which You have given Me, I desire that they also may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory, which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

Luke 24:26
26 Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into His glory?

2 Pet. 1:17
17 For 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.

Rev. 22:5
5 And night will be no more; and they have no need of the light of a lamp and of the light of the sun, for the Lord God will shine upon them; and they will reign forever and ever.

Related Reading
The Lord’s glory comprises the glory of His divinity (John 17:22, 24), the glory of His humanity (Psa. 45:3), the glory of His resurrection (John 7:39; Acts 3:13-15), and the glory of His ascension (Heb. 2:9). (Matt. 25:31, footnote 4)

As One who lived a restricted life, a life restricted from doing things for self, the Lord sought the glory of God for God’s satisfaction…[In John 7:16-18] we see that the Lord did not seek His own glory, in that He did not speak from Himself. Rather, He sought the glory of the One who sent Him.

The Lord’s being a person who sought God’s glory for God’s satisfaction did not depend on what He did or on His works; it depended instead on the fact that He was of God, that He was sent by God, that He came from God, and that He spoke God…John 7 reveals that He was a person restricted by God, that He was of God, that He was sent by God and came from God, and that He did not speak His own word but spoke God. When the Lord spoke God’s word, God was expressed through His speaking. (CWWL, 1982, vol. 2, “The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John,” p. 230)

Christ was glorified by the Father with the divine glory in His resurrection. John 7:39b says, “The Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” Many readers of the Bible might find this verse easier to understand if resurrected were used instead of glorified…But the verse does not say, “Had not yet been resurrected”; it says, “Had not yet been glorified.” However, glorified actually stands for resurrected, for the Lord was glorified when He was resurrected. In Luke 24:26 the Lord said of Himself, “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into His glory?” This refers to His resurrection (v. 46), which brought Him into glory (1 Cor. 15:43a; Acts 3:13a, 15a). For Christ to enter into His glory, into His glorification, was for Him to enter into His resurrection. This means that He was glorified in His resurrection. His resurrection was His glorification.

According to the New Testament thought, resurrection is a release in life, and this release in life is a matter of glorification…Glorification is therefore a synonym of resurrection. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 2954-2955)

After He accomplished redemption by suffering death, Jesus was glorified in His resurrection (Luke 24:26) and in His ascension to the heavens was crowned with glory and honor (Heb. 2:9). Although the Lord Jesus is both the Son of God and Son of Man, when we come to the matter of His being crowned with glory and honor, we must pay special attention to His humanity, to His being the Son of Man. In Hebrews 1 He is God; in Hebrews 2 He is man. When we are reading Hebrews 1, we must pay our full attention to the Lord’s divinity. However, when we come to Hebrews 2, we must pay our full attention to His humanity. It is in His humanity that He is crowned with glory and honor. As a man in His ascension to the heavens, He was crowned in this way.

The little Jesus who was born in the manger, who was raised in a poor home in Nazareth, and who had no beauty or comeliness, in His ascension to the heavens has been crowned with glory and honor…Glory is the splendor related to Jesus’ person; honor is the preciousness related to Jesus’ worth, value, and dignity, which is related to His position (2 Pet. 1:17; Rom. 13:7). In 1 Peter 2:7 the Greek word for preciousness is the same as that for honor here. (Life-study of Hebrews, 2nd ed., p. 84)

Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 288

© Living Stream Ministry, 2021, used by permission