What do you think God the Son
would say to God the Father during the night before
He would lay down His life as atonement for the sin
of the world?
Imagine for a moment with me
what the divine communication between God the Father
and God the Son must be like. I wonder what deep
conversations must take place between the members of
the Trinity. The communiqué between the Godhead must
be too profound and unfathomable for us to
comprehend. The LORD said to Isaiah, “For My
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your
ways My ways . . . For as the heavens are higher
than the earth so are My ways higher than your ways,
and My thoughts than your thoughts” (55:8-9).
Yet, in the recorded prayer of
Jesus in John chapter seventeen we are let in on
this deep penetrating talk going on in the Godhead.
It is exalted, holy and sublime. It is God speaking
to God. This prayer is filled with simple sentences
that communicate profound thought for Himself (vv.
1-5), His disciples who are with Him (vv. 6-19) and
for you and me (vv. 20-26).
Jesus then is the burning bush
of the New Testament on the most holy ground in New
Testament soil.
This is a “warm and hearty
prayer” from the depths of Jesus’ heart. It is “so
honest, so simple; it is so deep, so rich, so wide,
no one can fathom it,” wrote Luther.
The petition in verse one is so
simple, yet so profound in its simplicity. “Father .
. . glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee.
. . . And now, glorify Thou Me together with
Thyself, Father, with the glory which I ever had
with Thee before the world was” (John 17:1, 5).
Jesus speaks of His
pre-incarnate glory in eternity past before He
became flesh. Jesus possessed and manifested the
same glory with God before He became flesh. The very
essence of deity that Jesus possessed cannot be
changed. “He existed in the form of God.” He was
equal with God (Phil. 2:6). Jesus was and is
essentially and unalterably God. That fact did not
change when He took on in addition the “form of a
bondservant, being made in the likeness of men” (v.
7).
The apostle Paul in Philippians
2:7 writes of the self-emptying of the outward
visible manifestations of Jesus’ visible glory while
in His flesh. Paul is careful to stress that Jesus
did not empty Himself of His divine nature, or His
essential attributes of deity. It was a
self-limiting of His outward visible glory and not
His deity. He limited only the manifestation of His
glory that He demonstrated in heaven. He is God of
very God. The self-emptying was the taking on of the
form, or essential characteristics of a servant, and
humbling “Himself by becoming obedient to the point
of death, even the death on a cross” (v. 8). He
looked like any other household servant of that day.
He was fully human—fully God.
Jesus Christ retained all the
essential attributes, unchangeable and unchanging
essential nature of God. The essential nature of
Jesus is the same as the essential nature of God.
The essential form never alters and never changes.
He is God.
Since that is true about Jesus
then what does He mean when He says to the Father,
“And now, glorify Thou Me with Thyself, Father, with
the glory which I had with Thee, before the world
was” (Jn. 17:5)? Is Jesus praying for the
restoration of His essential attributes of deity?
No, of course, not, that is impossible because His
deity never changed. This glory was God’s glory.
However, Jesus did not manifest this gory during the
days of His incarnation. He hid it behind the veil
of His flesh. Jesus is going to glorify the Father
in His outward visible glory as He did in eternity
past. His present glory in heaven is even greater
than in the past because He was obedient to the
Father unto death. “Therefore also God highly
exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is
above every name” (Phil. 2:9). Every knee will bow
to the name of Jesus, and every person will “confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father” (vv. 10-11). It is obvious that this glory
is the ultimate in praise, honor and glory renown
that can ever be given. It is of His intrinsic worth
or character. All that can be properly known of
Yahweh, Jehovah or LORD is the expression of His
glory.
Who is the King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty,
The LORD mighty in battle . . .
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD of hosts,
He is the King of glory (Psalm
24:8, 10).
When we have seen Jesus, we
have seen the Father.
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
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Unless otherwise noted "Scripture quotations taken from the NASB." "Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE" © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://www.bible.org/. All rights reserved.
Wil is a graduate of William Carey University, B. A.; New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Th. M.; and Azusa Pacific University, M. A. He has pastored in Panama, Ecuador and the U. S, and served for over 20 years as missionary in Ecuador and Honduras. He had a daily expository Bible teaching ministry head in over 100 countries from 1972-2005. He continues to seek opportunities to be personally involved in world missions. Wil and his wife Ann have three grown daughters. He currently serves as a Baptist pastor and teaches seminary extension courses in Ecuador.
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