THIS PETITION is much deeper and more significant than appears on the surface. It has to do with Christ's ascension and glorification when he sat on the throne of heaven at the right hand of the Father; but the deeper significance is bound up with all the meaning for Christ that is in his humiliation and being made man. The unique thing that was new here in his prayer to be readmitted to heaven to the position of the Word in glory with the Father before the incarnation, is that now Jesus is the God Man. His humanity, the archetypal humanity, is forever joined to the deity, and it is the God Man that is seeking glorification. THE NATURE OF CHRIST'S HUMILIATION There was more involved in Jesus becoming flesh than simply humanity being joined with the deity. It is important to remember this was the joining of the two natures, of God and man, in one person never again to be divided. In one sense this was a tremendously brave and risky action to take. Jesus was joining himself with the nature which, due to sin and rebellion, had been excluded from heaven. Taking this human nature upon him forever meant that unless that which excluded humanity from heaven was removed, the Christ would never ever again return to the eternal glory he had known with the Father. Do you see what this means? It means that Jesus committed himself completely without any reserve to the work of redeeming mankind. Jesus, as it were, burnt his boats behind himself. There was no return or going back. He must go forward. The work he was so completely committing himself too involved the severest conflict for all time, and meant for him such infinitely great physical, mental, spiritual and emotional pain, that no words can describe it, nor human understanding grasp it. Yet our Lord did not hesitate, but went forward. Now, unless he won through he would be lost and trapped forever, because an unredeemed humanity he had joined himself to, could never be welcomed into heaven unless it had been fully redeemed. This gives a far greater meaning and significance to the incarnation and the grace and love of God in sending his only begotten Son into the world to be the Saviour of the world. It was on the part of all the Godhead an action of deepest love and grace and sacrifice. It shows a love that commits everything for the one beloved. When we remember how unlovely we human being are, and how much we have hurt and offended God, it is amazing that God should love us at all, let alone love us to this infinite extent. Jesus praying here is praying in the light of this reality. He is praying that the God Man should be admitted into the heavenly glory and be set on the throne of heaven. AND NOW! These two words with which Jesus commences his petition are so full of triumph and meaning. They are two small words which indicate triumph and completion. Humanity in the Lord Jesus had met all the conditions for Jesus to be able as the God Man to return to the glory he had with the Father before the world was. Jesus had removed the impediment from humanity that separated the species from their creator and destroyed all possibility of fellowship with the creator. 'And Now' indicates the triumph and victorious work that the curse on mankind had been removed, that all the conditions for the curse to be lifted had been fulfilled by the Saviour as the God Man. Only a human being could engage to meet the demands of the removal of the curse from humanity, and this is why the eternal Word so readily, at the will of the Father, became flesh. Only God could have sufficient value for fully paying of the debt due to God, so the Son of God was ready to become man, and he alone could make satisfactory atonement for sin. 'And Now' looks back to the declaration of Jesus in the previous verse where he had offered the plea to God that he had completed the work he had been given to do, in other words that he had made a complete atonement for sin and satisfied fully all the holy requirements of God expressed in his law, and he had done this as the God Man, the second Adam. This was a plea God, the Father, had to grant, because Jesus had fulfilled all the conditions of God for it. THE PETITION It is on this basis that Jesus makes his petition that he may be glorified in the presence of the Father with the glory he had left behind when he had become incarnate. He could ask this for himself as the incarnate Son of God, because he had made complete atonement for sin, and fulfilled God's holy law fully as the second Adam. Humanity could now enter heaven and come into the presence of God, so Jesus as the God Man could ascend and reign in glory. The petition was one the Father could not deny, because Jesus had fulfilled all the terms and conditions for his return to glory as the God Man. This ascension to glory would mean that on the throne of heaven would sit the Christ, the only begotten Son of God, who was now made flesh. THE BLESSING FOR HUMANITY This glorification of Jesus marked the salvation and restoration of mankind to fellowship with God. Heaven was now open to humanity. The fact that Christ, as the God Man, had been glorified marked the re-introduction of this deliverance and blessing of fellowship with God. Captivity to Satan which was humanities lot before Christ made atonement, had been brought to an end, and humanity was now captive to Christ. This does not mean that every human being will be saved. It means that the species, created in the image of God, and which fell in Adam, has been redeemed, and the purpose of God originally in creation has been restored. When Adam sinned he and his wife were the only two human beings, and so all who are born later, every human being, must suffer the curse brought on them by their progenitor, Adam. Christ as the second Adam is beginning a new race out of the species of Adamic humanity, and so although he has brought in eternal salvation for that humanity, each individual must be found in him - that is cease to be in Adam, and by faith be grafted into the new family of Christ. THE BLESSING OF CHRIST'S GLORIFICATION This prayer for glorification was the forerunner of all the petitions. It was essential for this prayer for glorification to be made and answered before all the praying of Jesus, his heavenly intercession, could begin. It is from Christ's heavenly intercession that all the blessings of his redemption are made available on earth. Jesus prayed this prayer before us in our text because it was important that God, the Father, should lay the seal of his approval on the work of Jesus on earth, and his acceptance of it as fully meeting all his holy demands for mankind, and to give his approval by exalting the Christ, the Word made flesh, to sit at his right hand in glory. This prayer was also essential, and the answer essential, so that God may place Jesus on the throne and give him the authority to continue his work of redemption. His work now is not to win redemption, for that is already completely done, but to make redemption available and apply it to the hearts of all God's elect. His prayer to be glorified must be answered so that Jesus is given the position and authority to reign and bring all enemies under his feet, and bring to glory all his saved family. Jesus is going on to pray first for his disciples and then for all who would believe on him through their preaching. He could only continue in such prayer because God had answered the petition and the praying in these first five verses of John 17. Now his praying in the rest of the chapter will also come before the Father and succeed and will be actually fulfilled in time for the people he has prayed for. Such is the wonder and blessing of Christ's glorification, and the fact that it marks the finished work that he has delivered humanity from the curse of sin and death. OUR RESPONSE All Scripture revelation, and the revelation before us, is meant to produce a response in the hearts and minds of Christ's believing people. What should this response be? Firstly, there should be the response of deep meditation in faith that the fullest meaning possible of the glorification of Christ may be given us. We should pray for light and understanding to be given by the Holy Spirit. This understanding will grow and increase throughout our lives until it comes to its fulness when we too reach heaven. It is only as we understand, that we are able to believe. It is further only as we believe that the blessings of Christ can be applied to us. Secondly, we need to take hold with assurance that just as Christ was victorious on earth and so won his return to glory as the God Man and the salvation of mankind, so we need to understand that this victory will continue, and also the work begun in us by the Holy Spirit when we believed will be perfected unto the day of Jesus Christ. Thirdly, we ought to worship and adore before the wonder and the majesty of Christ's glorification and all that it means in the victory which Christ won in his time on earth. As we saw in the meditation on the last verse, there is in work of Jesus on earth such glory of God revealed which can do none other than ravish the heart, and cause us to join the host of heaven in their ascriptions of praise to God. It is a glory only revealed in this revelation of Christ in his prayer. Fourthly, let us acknowledge the King reigning in heaven, who has now become our king. We can not enthrone him. God the Father enthroned him in glory in answer to his prayer for glorification. What we must do is worship and obey him as king. This worship and obedience is not made out of a sense of duty and fear. This was how we reacted to God before we were redeemed. We obeyed to gain his favour and to assuage his wrath. It was not willing obedience. Our obedience now is from a heart filled with love and thanksgiving and thus a willing obedience. CONCLUSION How glorious is this verse and such a wonderful culmination of this opening section of Christ's great high priestly prayer. It opens to us the glory and the complete certainty of the victory of Christ and the deliverance of humanity from the curse due on account of sin. It opens up to us such an excellence of a vision of Christ, who was and is glorified by the Father. Our Lord Jesus is high over all, resplendent in power and authority. It opens up to us such wonderful knowledge of God as the gracious, merciful and loving one who has brought in such deliverance for rebellious humanity. |