New Thoughts (05/30/12-06/05/12)
Eternal Christ (05/30/12-05/31/12)
From a doctrinal standpoint, the chief point that I draw from this passage is that of the eternal being of the Christ. It is necessary to our understanding that this be settled within us. He did not suddenly come into existence on that morning in Bethlehem when Mary gave birth. He took upon Himself the nature of humanity in that moment, yet He has always been and always shall be. He has made this point repeatedly as we have the record from John’s hand. “Before Abraham was, I AM” (Jn 8:58). He’s been making this point for some time now. It’s not as though He has just developed an awareness of His full being in this final week. Indeed, we ought to recognize that Jesus has been aware of His fullness throughout the course of these thirty some years of earthly existence.
I suppose we could quibble about whether He was aware at birth that He was not solely human, but simultaneously God. I am inclined to believe He was. But, I find it no threat to my faith to suppose that He arrived at self-awareness in the same fashion as another man would. This would fit with that which Paul writes of His incarnate time, that He emptied Himself of all His rightful prerogatives as being God to be found in appearance as a man (Php 2:7-8). Indeed, we should probably go further and note that it was not merely appearance, but very Truth. He was a man. He is a man. But in becoming man, He never ceased to be God, only set aside the prerogatives of that Truth. So, to be fully aware at birth is not beyond the realm of possibility for Him.
Here we have that claim to eternality contained in verse 5, which might seem an odd place to begin commenting on the passage beginning at verse 1. However, it strikes me as necessary to establish this matter of His eternality before moving on to my next topic. As He makes request of the Father to be glorified, He notes that this glory for which He asks is something He already had, something He and Father had shared ‘before the world was’. That is a clear reference to what may as well be expressed as a time before time. There was never a point when He and the Father did not share that glory, at least as applies up to the moment of Incarnation. What their situation was during that brief period I am not as clear on. However, the fact that He requests a restoration of glory suggests that it was indeed an interruption in the established order between Father and Son. Certainly, we must understand that those hours upon the cross constituted a distinct breach in the order, a period for which the Son was found wholly inglorious, although the act and its purpose were wholly glorious in their result.
I am going to pause here to take notice that this business of glory and glorifying and what is glorious; these are terms that we see all the time in Scripture, terms we use constantly in the church, and even in more mundane moments of life. But, what does it mean? What is glory? What, particularly, is glory as pertains to Father and Son? The very nature of this passage defies me to arrive at a singular answer. I am noting this now, but it is a topic that I am saving for the end of this particular study, as it threatens to become one of those lengthy sidebars that arise from time to time.
For the moment, I wish to remain focused on eternity, and in particular, that eternity of being which is Christ Jesus my Lord. This is no new realization on the part of Jesus. God has been known as eternal so long as He has been known. It is rather in the nature of being God, isn’t it? To be all-powerful, all-knowing, creator of all that is; to be worthy of the worship demanded of creation: how could any being lay claim to such honor except He were eternal? And, indeed, how could we find cause for security in such a being unless that were the case? If He is not eternal, what guarantee do we have for His word, that He will really come through on His promises? No. It’s a necessary aspect of being God that He be eternal. The more amazing part (about which I will again hold off further comment for a brief period) is that this God Who always Is and always shall be deigns to share that eternal nature with the likes of us!
But, notice, that the combined picture of the Father that Jesus provides us with here, and of which He declares Himself a full partner, is quite reflective of what Israel has understood of God. I look back, for instance, to Jeremiah 10:10. “The Lord is the true God, the living God, the everlasting King!” We see echoes of that title in verse 3 here, where knowing this true God is part and parcel of eternal life. And, again, we see an oblique reference to that everlasting nature of our King in verse 5, as He calls to be restored to that glory that was ever His. And we know, from the rest of the story, that it ever shall be, for He truly is the everlasting King, that promised seed of David Who shall remain upon the throne of creation forever.
I am then turned to consider the words of Proverbs 8, as we read a marvelous paean to Wisdom. Oh, and let us be certain that Wisdom, as is lauded here, deserves to be capitalized, and is to be recognized as being this very same Word of God Who was born a man, Who died a man, Who is raised again to glorious and eternal reign! Notice the description of Wisdom. “From all eternity I was established” (Pr 8:23). Indeed! And in that same beginning of all eternity, there was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was Himself God (Jn 1:1). Through all those early acts of creation, as the heavens were formed, the land distinguished from the seas, and the foundations of the earth laid out, there was wisdom, “beside Him, as a master workman, His daily delight” (Pr 8:30). Oh! Blessed are they who keep Wisdom’s ways (Pr 8:32)!
And Lo! There is Jesus proclaiming, “I AM the Way! I AM the Truth! I AM the Life” (Jn 14:6)! Not but a breath later, He speaks another great truth, “I AM in the Father and He IS in Me” (Jn 14:10). Wisdom and Word, are they not but terms for this same, wonderful, second Person of the Trinity? You know, throughout the last week, the chorus of one of the songs chosen for last Sunday’s service has rung through my thoughts, a song built upon the words of Psalm 24. I will note only that most familiar of phrases, “Who is this King of glory?”
Indeed, Who is this glorious King Who in this great prayer is contemplating the death that awaits Him, but more: The glory that lies beyond so temporary an affliction? Who is He? I find that in verse 3, another aspect of His majesty is revealed. I should note that while the translations all seem to leave this verse as part of the prayer of Jesus, it really does strike me as being one of John’s explanatory asides, particularly as I can think of no other occasion where Jesus refers to Himself in such a manner. It seems more reasonable to me to perceive this as a bit of a doxology from John’s pen, much like those interjections of rejoicing that we find in Paul’s letters.
Here, as was noted already, we have reference to that only True God, the only real God. But, then we also have this description of Jesus: The Christ whom You have sent. That term of being sent is the same term by which His chief disciples would be known: Apostle. I think we ought to find significance in this point. Jesus, the Messiah of God’s own appointing, is the chief, the ultimate Apostle. He was sent by the Father Himself, appointed while there in heaven in that eternal fellowship. He was called upon from those moments at the outset, before the foundation of the earth, to take up this mission. And, He was faithful to do so. He was faithful to carry it out in full, in perfection in every last detail. Notice that in verse 4: “I have accomplished the work you gave Me to do.” Oh! Truly, it is finished! Truly, He has overcome. There remains this business of the cross ahead, and it is absolutely to be understood that this was necessary to the mission. But, that is as good as a certainty already. The cogs have been set in motion, and there is not the least possibility of events failing to fall out as He has ordained. Nor was there ever any such possibility.
“From all eternity I was established, from the beginning; from the earliest times of the earth” (Pr 8:23). Indeed, even then, this moment of fulfillment that stand now hours ahead as we measure our days on earth, was set in motion, and its timing determined down to the second. Even then, Jesus knew this moment would come, must come. Even then, He knew the fullness of joy that lay beyond the hours of deepest agony. Even then, He was the Apostle, sent on a mission by our Father Who is ever in heaven. He was and is the appointed Messiah. He was and is the first and chief Apostle.
Is there further significance I ought to perceive in this point? I’d not want to overstrain the point. But, it is interesting to think that He Who appointed the Apostles was Himself appointed an Apostle. There is at least this further evidence that Jesus did only as He saw the Father do in heaven. If one were inclined to uphold the line of Apostolic succession, then certainly this would be the start of the line. What nibbles at the corners of my mind about this, though, is whether one might find here another argument for the discontinuation of prophecy. But, I think that would be a bit of a stretch. It is one thing to speak of Jesus as the final word and find that cause for such a cessation. But, as the first Apostle? No. That is not a significance I can place upon the point, whatever else I might find there. Let me be satisfied to consider this Jesus, the Christ of God’s choosing, as the first Apostle. Let me say that I measure Him as first in multiple senses of the word. He is assuredly first in order, for all the others were Apostles by His assignment. He is also first in that His is the authority to establish all others of the Apostolic order. Finally, He is first in accomplishment, for all that He tells His Apostles that they shall do more. They may do more, but they could never do better! Jesus perfectly and completely fulfilled the mission for which He was sent. And, were it not for that fulfillment, there could be no works of those Apostles He commissioned. Were it not for His perfect work, there would be no Church to celebrate that which He and His Apostles established, what has spread and survived these many years since, and shall assuredly persist and thrive down through the ages.
Eternal Life (05/31/12-06/01/12)
I have started with the point of the eternality of Christ because this serves as a necessary precursor for establishing the eternality of life that is given to us by that Christ. He, the Eternal Son, has authority from the Eternal Father to bestow this gift of Life upon all whom Father has given the Son. Now, here is a thing we ought to be clear on: It is the Father’s determination. We who are accounted the elect were His – are His. This could certainly be said of all who were ever born into this life, for all creation is His handiwork, and has come about by His determination. Yet, there is that peculiarity of possession which He first spoke over Israel, that He had chosen them out from amongst all the nations of the earth to be His particular possession. That same particularizing status has come to us amongst the Gentiles, and for the same reason: Because He so chooses.
We are His. It is not a choice we make. It is a choice He made in making us. We were, like Jeremiah, chosen before birth. That might sound too fatalistic, but it is the Biblical record. Now comes this new step introduced with the Messiah, that we who are His are given to His Son. Notice carefully what Jesus speaks of Himself in verse 2. He has been given authority over all mankind. By Whom? By the Creator of all mankind. His authority is boundless as concerns humanity and, for that matter, all else in the created order. Here, however, we find a limiting clause: In the matter of giving eternal life, it is not all of mankind that is in view, but all whom Father hast given Son. It’s a subset, and a subset only. It’s a remnant, as it ever has been. Now, as concerns that remnant we call the elect, His capacity for imparting Life is again found to be unlimited. His power to save, to redeem, to bring out of darkness and into the light of Life eternal is bound by one and only one thing: the determination of the Father.
If I follow this thought along, Jesus cannot arbitrarily, or of His own volition, add to the number of the elect. Even if the depth of compassion which is found in Him so moved Him, He cannot. For He is One with the Father, and it is the Father’s decision as to who is counted as His own and who is not. “I will show mercy to whom I will to show mercy.” It is His name. It is within His authority. None can gainsay His decision. There can be no appeal. Neither can there, in the end, be apostasy for those of whom He is determined to make a people for Himself. If there are those who depart, it is, as John says in his letters, because they were never truly with us (1Jn 2:19).
So, we have the Eternal Son authorized to impart eternal life to this remnant of humanity, to the elect, the chosen possession of the Eternal Father. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus, let there be no doubt (Mt 28:18). Yet, that authority is held as it was given: as finding its source in the Father. Ought we still to see that authority which is with Jesus as a delegated authority? In that one sense, yes, I would say we should. He holds all authority, yet the extent and the shape of that authority are fully established in the Father. It is, in that regard, still the Father’s authority, though under the management of the Son. This is not to suggest that Jesus is less than fully God in any sense. But, within the Triune godhead, there is clearly order. Throughout His earthly life, we have heard Jesus stress the point that He remains willingly submitted to the Father’s will. I don’t think that changed when He ascended to His throne. I think that remains an eternal facet of heavenly order.
It is, then, this Eternal Son, with the full authorization of the Eternal Father, who gives eternal life. And, I would note that this is not something for which we are left waiting. It is a completed action. Even for these eleven men, it was already established. Jesus had spoken of it long before. “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish” (Jn 10:28). Looking at that verse, I see that His giving is done in the Present Indicative, pointing to a continuous action on His part. “I am ever giving them eternal life.” And, His ever is eternal as He is eternal! That is the warrantee we have on this eternal life He has given us! Note the strong assurances provided on that occasion as well: “No one will never snatch them from Me because they were given Me by My Father, Who is greater than all. It’s not even possible, not even conceivable, that anyone or anything could snatch them out of His hand! And He and I are One” (Jn 10:29-30).
That’s some kind of warrantee! That’s assurance! That’s the strength of the promise I have in Jesus Christ My Lord and Savior. Whom He saves is well and truly saved. Into whom He has breathed life, life persists in that one. Is it any wonder that Paul was so convinced? “Neither death nor life, angels nor principalities, things now or things to come can change this! No power, no height or depth, not any created thing whatsoever could possibly separate us from the love of God which is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ro 8:38-39). Well, if we’ve ruled out all created things, that leaves God Himself. But, He is unchanging. His Word is assured as nothing else. He is not a man that He should repent of His decisions. After all, they were determined upon perfect knowledge and wisdom by the One Who knows the end from the beginning, having established it. What greater assurance could we possibly have that He Who has begun the work in us will most assuredly complete it (Php 1:6)!
It remains to consider that most important verse here, which describes for us just what eternal life is about, what it consists in. On the surface of things, it would seem like this was a concept that had no real need for explanation. What is life? The absence of death, the state of being an animated body, possessed of breath and appetites and so on. This does not get at the philosophical aspect of the thing, but it’s more than enough for most of us to accept that life is the absence of death. As for eternity, it may be beyond our scope of reasoning to truly comprehend, but we grasp the concept. It is time unceasing. So, then: Eternal life equates to a permanent absence of death.
Some have contemplated that possibility and been driven to despair by it. How dull! Surely, we will tire of life eventually, finding nothing new under the sun. Of course, such as arrive at this sense of the matter arrive without the benefit of knowing God. And, isn’t that rather the point here? Life unending, if it must be lived apart from God, is indeed cause for despair, for it is, in the end, no life at all. As we come to realize that we were born into a state of living death and did not really begin to live until that moment when the Spirit of the Living God chose to bring us into rebirth, we recognize that what we considered life was a poor imitation of the real thing.
So, we arrive at this explanatory comment. Again I will note that seemingly every one of the translations we have offers these up as words rolling off the tongue of Jesus, but they really do read more like an explanation inserted by John, and I am more comfortable understanding them that way. After all, what need has Jesus for explaining to the Father what Life is? If anybody knows it is surely He/They! But, we need clarification. Life is not this mundane business of eating and breathing. Life consists in knowing God and His Christ.
Now, we must also understand that simply knowing about God will not suffice. Even if our knowledge about Him is particularly accurate and complete, it is not sufficient to establish us as having this condition known as life. Even the lowest demons know about God. Indeed, their knowledge surpasses that of many a man today, who walk about convinced that God is not only a not a being, but not even a valid concept. They know nothing who spout such ‘wisdom’. Their eventual tormentors must laugh to hear them proudly proclaim their own ignorance and doom. And such were we until that moment when true knowledge was imparted, and God was revealed as True.
But, we must know more than facts and figures about God. Having an ability to illustrate and explain the concept of Trinity doesn’t suffice. Painting pictures of the ineffable will not serve. Having the finest of intellectual understandings of the deep things of theology and philosophy will bring one no closer to life in themselves. No, we must know God experientially. We are hearing about that ginosko sort of knowledge. We have not only heard about Him, read about Him. We have seen Him! We have touched Him! We have walked beside Him in the cool of the day, listened to Him expressing His thoughts and His desires. We live with Him!
Clearly, for the disciples, those first few points were more physically real than for us. John, for example, could write later that he was one who had truly heard Jesus, touched Jesus, walked with Him for several years, shared meals with Him, and so on. If anyone was qualified to relay to us what He had taught, here was one we could trust to know what happened. But, we are not on so unequal a footing. We may not be able to touch Jesus in the flesh, but we can touch Him through this Word He has caused to be recorded for us. We can hear His teaching through the recollections of John and those others who had first hand experience of Him. And, thanks to the Trinity’s determination to send forth the Holy Spirit as our counsel and teacher, we have a real, first-person, experience of this God we serve, even if it most often bypasses the limited senses of the body.
Modern man, with his trust in the physical sciences, and with a not unreasonable distrust of what seems to him nothing more than vain imaginations, will reject this whole concept. After all, it would seem to cast the experience of God as little different than what is on offer from the fortune-teller down the street. How different is it, really, than the animist spirituality of the shamans, or the wispy thoughts of the new agers? Indeed, I would not have accounted it any much different myself. Except that God revealed Himself to me. God made Himself known to me in a most personal way, leaving me with no room for doubt. I would say no excuse for doubt, but there never was an excuse. No, there was no room for doubt. His being, and His involvement in things going on around me were no longer deniable. I was called. I was drawn to Him, to His Son, and salvation had been given me. Was I looking for it? No. Did I even suppose I had need of it? Not really, no. But, life had come in, and over time, the reality of walking death was more recognizable in my recollection of former times. The grace of God prior to that moment of recognition was more obvious. As I came to assess myself more honestly, His marvelous care for me in spite of my stupidity was clear.
So, yes: There was this experiential knowledge formed. I have experienced God. I have known Him involved in my life. But, even this fails to completely exhaust the importance of this ginosko knowledge when it comes to the matter of Life. There is a Hebraistic sense to the term which one learns in one’s youth. It becomes something of an amusement for the young man. Heh, heh. He knew her. Oooh! Yes, we know what the text is getting at. It’s been explained to us. We may not yet have the experiential knowledge of the implied act, but we know enough to find it titillating in our juvenile way.
Often, in this more intimate aspect of meaning, the term is used for illicit union, intimacy outside the proper bounds. But, on this occasion, there is surely no such sense of the illicit. No! But, eternal life consists in this! In having that very intimacy with God. Honestly! He abides in us. We cohabit. How much closer would we care to be? When we read that God is with us, we are not talking about His being in the general vicinity. We are not suggesting that He has some vague interests in our well-being. He is with us. He abides in us. Just as Jesus brings out further into this great prayer, we are in He/They just as Father and Son are in one another, as Spirit is in both and both are in Spirit. It defies language to properly describe, but it does not defy experience! Truly, in this intimate knowledge of the Godhead indwelling, we arrive at a knowledge that has completely exceeded the limits of language. You want transcendence? This is it!
And thus we arrive at this explanation of Life eternal: Knowing, intimately and experientially knowing, both Father and His Christ. We not only know Who they are and how they relate to each other. We know Father is our Father even as His Son taught us to pray. We understand the significance of His being that personally involved with us. We know our adoption as true children of this God who created the heavens and the earth. We know His Son not merely as His adjunct, not only as our Lord and King. He is our betrothed husband! We are intimates, and are assured that this estate shall continue so long as He persists in being. And that, my friends, is a never-ending persistence!
Everybody, it seems, dreams of that love that will never end. As teens, we suppose ourselves to have found it over and over again, only to have our joyful discovery dashed against the rocks of change. In later years, we suppose ourselves wise in having disposed of such dreams. We are realists now, and understand that love is always temporary. But, then, that changes again as we mature and enter into long-term relationships in marriage. There is commitment. There is love that persists even in the midst of great challenge. And once again, we allow ourselves the dream of an endless love. But, so long as that love remains rooted in this life, in the flesh and blood of this world, the dream remains a dream, and it will at some point be proven false. That love will come to an end, for that life will come to an end.
But, here is a life that doesn’t end! Here is a love that doesn’t end. Here is the dream of every heart fulfilled, and then some! Truly, He is able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we ever dared to hope or dream. Truly, He has already done it. This, too, is accounted for in those words, “it is finished!”
For my part, though I know Him, though I know the wonder of knowing Him, I cannot in my own strength or in my own words impart that knowledge to any other. I cannot push you into this knowledge. I cannot stand at the lectern and speak with such eloquence and detail as leaves you fully and irrevocably convinced of this God Who Is. But, He can lay hold of you as He has laid hold of me. He can draw you into this marvelous knowledge and experience. He can breathe this same Life into you that He Is in Himself. Come! Come to the Apostolic Messiah, the Chosen Redeemer Who was sent on a mission not to condemn the world but to save it! Come to the Man Who is Life, Who bears in Himself the authority to impart His Life to all whom our Father in heaven has given Him. If He is speaking through these words, or in spite of these words even, then listen! Listen and know. Here is eternal life, and in the form of a life truly worth the living. Will you not accept?
Necessary Relationship (06/03/12)
Now that we have eternal life defined as knowing Father and Son, and knowing Him/Them intimately, it should be clear that this relationship is a necessity for us. Here’s some really good news on that front. God already knows us in this degree, always has. Paul would write to the Corinthians at one point of that time when he would know God just as He is known by God (1Co 13:12). He writes of that moment for which we long, when the trials and disappointments of this life are behind us, and we finally see our Lord and Savior face to face. Him Whom we know in part shall then be known in full. Him with Whom we have a degree of intimate fellowship now, and a degree hopefully growing through the years, is Him with Whom we shall thereafter share the fullness of intimate fellowship.
Understand, then, that this fellowship, this dear relationship with Father and Son is a necessary part of our experience now. Under the circumstances, when so many believers push this idea of a theology that is all of relationship and nothing of doctrine, we may be inclined to push back harder in the opposite direction. We are in danger of being so put off by the all-relationship philosophy that we become the no-relationship proponents. No! It’s not about relationship, it’s about a clear and accurate knowledge of Who God Is. The truth is, though, that both components are necessary. We can run about with the sense that we have this intimate relationship with God and yet be either inaccurate or wholly incurious as to just Who He Is.
Sadly, we are capable of such a shallow assessment of relationship even with our fellow humans, even with our spouses and our children. We know there ought to be some sense of relationship there, so we perceive one, whether it’s truly there or not. We convince ourselves that whatever the state of our familial relationships, they are obviously what is intended. They’re what we have and what we know, after all! And, when perchance that whole fabric of family unravels around us, we are taken by complete surprise. Never saw it coming! The devastation felt in that reveal cannot be exaggerated.
How much more when we discover that the God with Whom we thought ourselves so close is discovered to be almost wholly Other than what we had thought? When we are forced to confront the fact that God Who Is Love is also Wrath, that God Who Is Merciful is also Just, are we going to be able to bear it? I happened to be reading through an attempted rewrite of Dante’s Inferno last week. Much is made by the tale’s protagonist, of just how much the God Who would allow such a place as hell is to be found wanting. Surely, He is a perverse and unjust being to perpetrate such horrors upon those whose crimes are seemingly so small! Who could worship such a One?
Now, whether the author was actually intending to promote such a perspective, or merely presenting it for later correction is a bit obscured by the flow of the story, leaving to the reader’s discretion just what conclusion ought to be drawn. But, the perspective itself has some very clear deficiencies, not least of them being the supposition that man in his limited understanding is more capable than Infinite Wisdom when it comes to discerning what is good and what is evil. It ought to strike one as being perfectly absurd that the creature would think to take upon himself that task of judging the Creator, but such is the wisdom of modern man, that he will cheerfully enter into such folly. And, we are not slack in following suit ourselves!
More egregious still, there is this supposition that man is the measure of good and evil. Their crimes, as this protagonist perceives them, are not against an infinite and holy God, but against other mortals such as themselves. It is only because of this constricted perspective that the punishment seems not to befit the crime. There is a strong corrective in the words of the Psalmist. “Against Thee, and Thee only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Thy sight” (Ps 51:4). Note how he proceeds from that thought. “Therefore You are justified in what You speak, blameless when You judge.” Yes, and that shall ever and always be true! God IS Justice! He IS Holy and therefore blameless. It is we who have such great need for corrective lenses on our moral vision.
All of this is but to stress the point that relationship, this intimacy of knowing, must include actual knowledge. To be in love with one’s idealized impression of your spouse is a recipe for disaster. To be in love with an idealized impression of God is to invite damnation. It is idolatry pure and simple! On the other hand, to have perfect understanding of all God’s attributes, and all His intentions and purposes in humanity at large and one’s life in particular will avail you not the least little bit if you are not truly known to Him, and not truly knowing Him.
I need point no farther away than the Sermon on the Mount. “Many will point out to Me how they prophesied in My name, cast out demons by My authority, even performed miracles claiming My backing. But, I, in My judgment, will say to them, ‘I never knew you’, and require these practitioners of lawlessness to depart from My presence” (Mt 7:22-23). It’s not the works that determine the measure, and in this regard, the knowledge of sound doctrine would count as a work. It is the knowing and being known. We must know in Spirit and in truth even as we are called to worship in Spirit and in truth. But, both halves of the picture must be held in view.
We need to be accurate in our understanding of the Father, but we need to truly arrive at that relationship which knows He is our Father. We must surely have knowledge of the Son, recognizing that He was sent by our Father and on our behalf. But, we must go farther. We must have experiential knowledge of Jesus our husband and friend. We must arrive at that fellowship in which we find Him closer than a brother (Pr 18:24). This is exactly what is on offer when Jesus comes to impart eternal life, that we might know and enter into the nearest of relationships with the God Who not only knows who we are, but comes to make His abode within us. Isn’t that something? He is not satisfied to encamp near us, to set up a temple in close proximity. He seeks to abide within!
I am reminded, with that, of a Moslem fellow who sought employment at one of my prior workplaces. But, even though he received an offer, he rejected it on the grounds that there was no mosque within near enough distance. While I can in some ways commiserate with that concern – I think, for instance, of how very few churches of the particular caliber I sought were to be located in reasonable driving distance from home – there is a reality missing from that determination, in that system of belief, which is not lacking in Christ. How wonderful is it to know that, even should we be deprived of the common grace of Christian fellowship as we enjoy it in the local church, we are never deprived of the more magnificent grace of fellowship with God!
Whatever man may do, they cannot in any wise sever that relationship! Though they destroy every edifice of Christian worship from off the face of the earth, yet the Temple of the Living God stands! Though the governments of the earth put ever so many sanctions upon the public display of worship, yet they cannot in the least limit the true worshiper from worshiping God in Truth and in Spirit. Though they were to destroy every last copy of Scripture (were it even possible that God would permit such a thing, Who has preserved His Witness against manifold such attempts before!) yet, there would be a people of faith, with sound knowledge of His Truth, and able to impart that Truth to subsequent generations. For, He has seen fit to indwell us, and to impart to us of His Holy Spirit to bring to mind all that He taught, all that He has said. Yes, and He is most assuredly able to preserve!
But, to the point: Such is the nature of the relationship that our God has established with us that we need never fear separation from Him. We need never doubt that we can speak with Him whenever and wherever. We sing a song at our church whose chorus begins with the question, “how can I stop from singing Your praise?” Indeed! And, for all that, who can stop us? If God is for us, as Paul wrote in his moment of doxology, who can be against us (Ro 8:31)? Obviously, any number of mortals and spiritual powers are arrayed against us. But, none is effectual, for our God is a victorious King Who has already long since overcome the world, and all those enemies who dwell therein.
What is Glory? (06/04/12-06/05/12)
As a final subject for this study, I want to consider this matter of glory and glorifying. Repeatedly, Jesus uses this term in the first few sentences of His prayer. Give glory to your Son. Your Son may give glory to You. I have given you glory Let me have glory. Restore the glory I had with you. It is a term quite familiar to us. We can’t go through life in the church without encountering it. The earliest traditions of my youth included learning the Doxology, to be sung every Sunday henceforth: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost… Yes, but what is it? I understand that the chief end and purpose of man is to glorify God, but were I pressed to explain what that entailed, I’m not certain I could answer.
Reading the explanations of this word from the Lexicons provides some hints, to be sure, but still leaves me short of actually understanding what is intended here. So, we see that to glorify is to esteem, to hold an honorable opinion of that which is glorified. OK. On the other hand, it can take on the sense of actually bringing honor to that one which is glorified. Zhodiates even takes it so far as to suggest that this word means to reveal and manifest all that God is. This would seem to be specific application of that sense of the word Thayer offers as making renowned, causing the glorified one’s dignity and worth to become both manifest and acknowledged.
Is that sufficient, though, to really grasp what this matter of glory and glorifying ought to mean to us? Turning to Kittel’s for further investigation, it seems that many of the meanings noted above apply equally to non-Biblical usage. Even to the point of giving praise and honor, or making famous, these ideas are not exclusive to the godhead or references to Him. As we come to Biblical usage, the lesser sense of the word, pertaining to forming opinions fall away completely. It may occasionally find use in being applied to the honor bestowed upon men, particularly in translating the Old Testament. But, it is more typically reserved for times when God is magnified, honored and exalted. Entering into New Testament usage, the term takes on a meaning that is wholly reserved to God, the sense of being transfigured or transfiguring. Here, there is some degree of an echo in the way the Septuagint applies this term to that radiance that was upon Moses on occasion, but even that is ascribed to the glory of God being transferred.
Referring back to this text’s article on doxa, it is noted that New Testament usage, as already noted, drops the lesser senses of these two terms entirely. Never is there to be seen a reference to mere opinion. In addition, an entirely new meaning is set upon the term, as indicating the ‘divine and heavenly radiance’, the ‘loftiness and majesty’ that belongs to God alone. This points us back to the Old Testament term [which is given only in Hebrew and beyond my ability to translate. At a guess, I should think Shekinah.] Whatever the term, it has a sense of weightiness to it, although it bespeaks honor. Ah! Reference is given to Genesis 31:1, with its description of Jacob departing with all his glory of possessions. The term in question is not shekinah, then, but kaabowd, with its sense of weightiness of splendor. So, then, in man, it is a matter of that which renders a man impressive and worthy of recognition.
That being the case, the same sense applies with amplification when we speak of the glory which belongs to God. If the impressive man impresses others by the weight of his possessions or the weight of his character, how much more the God who impresses this impressive man? While the clear teaching of Scripture is that God is in Himself invisible, yet He reveals Himself, declares Himself, and when He does, it makes an impression. In this category, we find included matters such as thunder and lightning, devouring fires, earthquakes and other such acts of God. These held great importance as giving evidence of the invisible God by Whose hand they were orchestrated. The term being used to describe that which is ‘intrinsically impressive in the being of God’, it loses some of its sense of weight and takes on instead certain aspects of light, this brilliance being a matter impressive to the mind. In this, we must not allow ourselves to suppose that Israel saw her God as a nature-God, given charge over one or more specific aspects of creation. He remains the God of all creation, the author and finisher.
Clearly, the glory that is God’s alone exceeds this manifestation of natural wonders. It is a brilliance and a purity so great that even in those places where God determined to maintain connection with man, His glory, when it appears, appears obscured. In the temple, when His glory was present, it was ever in the midst of thick, enveloping cloud, being to overwhelming a thing for mortals to witness directly. There is much more said of the development of this term kaabowd, as well as its transference into the use of doxa, which I am going to skip over. Eventually, though, it arrives at being a description of ‘the divine mode of being’, an particularity of meaning common throughout the New Testament. There are distinctions of meaning that apply variously, such as divine honor, divine splendor, divine power, or the visible radiance of the divine, as we see it on the Mount of Transfiguration. These must be understood from context. This glorification needn’t imply adding something not previously present, but rather indicates a sense of active acknowledgment, an extolling of what already is – thus our whole sense of doxology.
It is commented upon that John in particular tends to shift between these specifically divine aspects of the term, and the mundane sense as applies to men with such rapidity as leaves us somewhat bewildered as to his meaning. “In all attempts at translation there is an almost intolerable rift of meanings which the author obviously did not himself feel.” And isn’t that why I’m looking at the matter even now? It should be taken as particularly significant that the authors of the New Testament take great pains to give us notice that Jesus is of a piece with this glory that is specific to God. Stephen, for example, sees the glory of God and Jesus the risen Christ seated within. This is a claim to the divinity of Christ in and of itself. It is worth noting that the term is otherwise not applied directly to Jesus in the gospels except in descriptions of His birth and His transfiguration. Here, again, it is intended to stress His divinity.
John, on the other hand, is more inclined to speak of the glory of Jesus in His earthly incarnation. Then, John observes the life of Christ in view of His exaltation, reading back into that life all that he came to understand later. On this point, it is critical to note that the glory of the earthly Christ is seen only through eyes of faith. It is not that manifest, physically visible aspect of glory that we associate with the OT temple visitation. It is at the cross that we find the crucial moment, when that glory which was in Christ all along becomes a true manifestation of the glory of God. Again, we do not have that visible burst of light that one might associate with such manifestation. But, is there not a weightiness to what has transpired in that moment? It is the life borne out of death. The fruitfulness promised in the burial of a seed. That is the glory of which Jesus is speaking in this prayer. It is a moment when the true purposes of God, and the true extent of those purposes are revealed in such fashion as no power in hell can ever again conceal. It is a moment when the reality of Who Jesus Is becomes evident in such fashion as can not be denied. For all that Pilate and the priesthood would seek to cover up what God had wrought, there were simply too many witnesses. However unbelievable the outworking of God’s plan, the sheer weight of eyewitnesses to the result would defy every attempt at denial.
Again, there is much more to the article than I care to explore at this juncture. What I should like to do, however, is to consider how this colors my perception of what it is Jesus is speaking here. When Jesus asks the Father to glorify Him, how shall we take that? Is He merely asking God to give Him a reputation, to establish His renown? Perhaps. Is He requesting another experience like the transfiguration? Certainly not in the immediate future. That is, one could argue, the ultimate end of the matter, that He is transfigured once for all as He ascends to His throne. But, that does not seem to be the point on His mind at present, given how He immediately appends the point of glorifying the Father. It seems reasonable to suppose that Jesus intends the same sense of the term in both directions. What He seeks that the Father do is what He seeks to do Himself. You glorify Me, I glorify You. It would be passing strange if He meant two different things.
Given that constraint, the idea of that specifically heavenly glory, that ‘divine mode of being’ is clearly not in view. God in heaven already enjoys this mode of being, and can hardly be supposed to have it imparted to Him by the Son at this late date. The glory of God in heaven, in this regard, is a given. It is not a thing done for Him. It is an essential part of His being. I come back to this point gleaned from Kittel’s articles: “This glorification needn’t imply adding something not previously present, but rather indicates a sense of active acknowledgment, an extolling of what already is – thus our whole sense of doxology.” This seems to bring us to the point. Father, give an active, extolling acknowledgement of Who I AM, and let Me thereby give an equally active and extolling acknowledge of Who You ARE. It is a matter of making what is already true manifest. Let the Truth of My Being become so obvious, so clearly seen, as defies dismissing it. Let My Truth, My Being likewise make the reality of Your Being, and the incredible goodness and worthiness of Your Being so obvious as to defy all attempts to claim otherwise.
Now, it would be a brave Christian indeed who would see fit to echo the first half of that request, but as concerns the second, that should surely be the heart’s cry in every one of us! May my life give evidence of Who You are. May I live in such a fashion as causes the world to stand up and take notice of a marvelous and marvelously good God Who Is in heaven. May I be such a son as shows pride in his Father, and gives his Father cause to be pleased in His son’s example. Yet, I again set this boundary for myself: I in no wise see myself in such a place as to suppose the Father ought to glorify Me, ought to make manifest that I am some marvelous paragon of virtue. Yet, at the same time, I am forced to recall that all creation longs for the day when that very thing is made manifest (Ro 8:22-23)! Waiting for our adoption, waiting for the redemption not of its own fallen estate, but of our body. It’s the entry into true maturity, that moment when we finally know as we have been known, when we see Jesus as He truly is, having been made like Him; that’s the moment of completion for our adoption process. Oh! We are family even now, we are His children for He has made us so. Yet, there is something lies ahead that makes even this marvel pale in comparison. We know not as yet what we shall be, but we know this much: It will be far and away beyond the greatest blessings of this life, even as we experience it under God.
This same signification would seem to apply as we move into verse 4. I glorified Thee on the earth. Yes, and how so? By doing the work He assigned. I made You known. I, by those things done in Your strength and in accord with Your will, have made Your character evident to all. Your excellence none can doubt who have seen Me acting in Your name. Your goodness is plain to all who have witnessed My completion of Your work. Think about that response Jesus sends to John the Baptist in prison. “Tell John what you have witnessed in Me: The blind see, the lame are walking, lepers are cleansed. The deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the poor are hearing the Good news preached” (Lk 7:22). Who could doubt the goodness of God when these things are happening all the time? Who can doubt the power of God who has seen the men delivered from legions of demons, who has been part of that multitude fed by so small a banquet? Who can doubt His provision or His care for His people? What possible doubts can remain that He truly is Immanuel, God with us?
It is only as we move into verse 5 that the sense of the thing seems to shift. Now, glorify Me together with Yourself, restoring Me to that glory We shared before the world was. Here, it would seem more fitting to perceive that specifically divine aspect of glory, that divine life that is in heaven alone. Is this something even angels partake in? There is, to be sure, a glory associated with these holy messengers, as we see in the accounts of Jesus’ birth. Yet, even this is a glory that must pale in comparison to that which belongs to God Himself. For the angels, too, are counted amongst the created order. What Jesus speaks of here precedes the created order. It is that which God alone has possessed, that He has shared with none but Himself, and that He has thus shared since before the world was. Now, we are peering into the highest reaches of heaven. Now, we are looking at that which Stephen saw at the end: The Son of Man standing at God’s right hand in the very midst of that shared glory (Ac 7:56).
So, then, we can compare and contrast that which Jesus seeks to do for the Father, and seeks to receive from the Father with that by which men satisfy themselves. He has commented on this, when those who would not believe were offended by Him. Here, He had just done the very sort of deed by which God’s goodness and His validity were made so manifestly evident. He had healed a man thought incurable. But, rather than rejoicing at the goodness of God, they caviled at His taking such action on the Sabbath. Worse yet, He admitted to Who He was! He made Himself out to be equal with God. Never was the truth rejected so violently! But, Jesus simply spoke truth to them. “I can do nothing on My own initiative, I do the will of Him Who sent Me” (Jn 5:30). Always have, always will. And these men had the witness not only of this current event, but also of John’s preaching, and much else would yet be set before their eyes. Sadly, it would do them no good. Here was what may as well have been the verdict read out against them in the very court of heaven: “How can you believe when you are so satisfied with the glory you receive from each other? You don’t even seek the glory that comes from the only real God” (Jn 5:44)!
You’re so busy patting each other on the back for your banal form of righteousness that it never even occurs to you to consider how God feels about you. You could care less what His opinion is, because you’ve got the approbation of your peers. You’re a good man. Just ask any of your friends, they’ll tell you. And they know they can count on you to tell them the same thing. You’re certainly more upstanding than many of your countrymen, aren’t you. A fine, upstanding citizen. You carry your Bible, attend your services, make certain to pray at meals and whenever else your fellow church-goers seem to expect it. Yet, in reality you don’t believe of word of it! “We are all of us unclean. Our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isa 64:6). We’ll just skip over that bit, shall we? It doesn’t make us feel good about ourselves.
It’s a question worth asking: Who are we trying to please? Are we out to please ourselves? Are we looking to impress those like us? Or are we seeking the glory that comes from God? Are we seeking for that renown which comes from His lips? Look! He’s not going to praise us for our self-righteous pomposities. He’s not going to pronounce His blessings upon us when we act in most unchristian ways all the while claiming Christ as our guide. If we are not seeking Him out, querying Him as to the proper course of our days, obeying Him in all things, even when it’s uncomfortable, or even hurtful to our perceived well-being, then it can only be that we are busily seeking that glory that comes from our peers, not from above.
Father, the message rings true. As great as I feel my love for You to be, yet I so often satisfy myself with what seems good in my own eyes. I am too easily satisfied by the praises of men, even of those who don’t know You. Pride is such an evil in me still. God! Here I’ve been teaching about this whole religion of self, and yet I find I am in attendance at that very altar. Help me, Lord, to forsake that idolatry of self, and become the more committed to seeking and serving You alone. Help me to let go of every weight that drags at me, relinquish every grip I keep on these things that draw me away from You. Teach me, Oh Holy Spirit, how to pursue that which brings me praise from God, and strengthen me to pursue that alone.
