EXPERIENCING, ENJOYING, AND EXPRESSING CHRIST (1)

Message Ten
Glory and Glorification as Revealed in the Gospel of John

Scripture Reading: John 1:14; 2:11; 5:44; 8:54; 12:23; 13:31-32; 17:1, 5, 22

I.　Glory is an attribute of God; glory is the expression of God, God expressed in splendor—Exo. 40:34; Acts 7:55; 2 Pet. 1:3; Rev. 21:11.

II.　The glory of God is intrinsically related to the economy of God—Eph. 1:6, 10, 12, 14; 3:21; 5:27:

A.　The Triune God is a God of glory—Acts 7:2; Eph. 1:17; 3:14, 16; 1 Cor. 2:8; 2 Cor. 4:6; 1 Pet. 4:14.

B.　God's eternal goal is to bring His many sons into glory—Heb. 2:10; 1 Cor. 2:7; Eph. 1:5-6, 12, 14.

C.　Man was created by God in His image in order that man may express Him in His glory—Gen. 1:26; Col. 1:15; 2 Cor. 4:4, 6.

D.　To sin is to fall short of God's glory and thus to express sin and the sinful self and to love the glory of men more than the glory of God—Rom. 3:23; John 5:44; 7:18a; 12:43.

E.　Christ's redemption has fulfilled the requirements of God's glory—Rom. 3:24-25; Heb. 9:5; cf. Gen. 3:24.

F.　Through the gospel of the glory of Christ, God has called us by and into His eternal glory—2 Cor. 4:4; 1 Tim. 1:11; 1 Thes. 2:12; 1 Pet. 5:10.

G.　The all-inclusive Christ dwells in us as the hope of glory—Col. 1:27; 3:4, 11.

H.　As we behold and reflect the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the Lord's image from glory to glory—2 Cor. 3:18.

I.　The goal of God's organic salvation, and the last stage of this salvation, is glory—our glorification—Heb. 2:10; Rom. 8:17, 21, 30.

J.　The building of God is the Triune God wrought into us so that we may become His glorious corporate expression—Eph. 2:21-22; 3:17a, 19b, 21; 4:16; 5:27; cf. Exo. 40:34; 1 Kings 8:10-11; Ezek. 43:4-5; Hag. 2:7, 9.

K.　Since the kingdom of God and the glory of God are inseparable, the glory of God will be manifested in the coming kingdom—Matt. 6:13; 16:27; 26:29; 1 Thes. 2:12; Rev. 5:13.

L.　An outstanding feature of the New Jerusalem is that it has the glory of God, His expression; the entire city, a corporate person, of the New Jerusalem will bear the glory of God, which is God Himself shining out through the city, His wife—19:7-9; 21:2, 10-11.

M.　The glory of God in the economy of God involves the high peak of the divine revelation—God becoming man so that man may become God in life, nature, and expression but not in the Godhead—John 1:14; Col. 3:4; Heb. 2:10; Rev. 21:10-11.

N.　The goal of God's economy is that we all shine forth His glory— vv. 2, 23-24.

III.　The glory of God is involved with Christ's incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and coming again and His being the lamp in the New Jerusalem:

A.　In His life and work the Lord Jesus did not seek His own glory but the glory of the One who sent Him—John 7:18; 8:50, 54.

B.　Christ was glorified in His resurrection—Luke 24:26; John 7:39; 17:5; Acts 3:13; 1 Pet. 1:21.

C.　Christ was glorified in His ascension; the Lord Jesus was a model of a person who "crossed the river" and entered into God's glory, where He was crowned with glory and honor—Heb. 2:9-10; 6:19-20; 9:24.

D.　The Lord as the Son of Man will come in the glory of the Father— Matt. 16:27; Luke 21:27.

E.　In the New Jerusalem for eternity, Christ, the Lamb as the lamp, will shine with God as the light to illuminate the New Jerusalem with the glory of God, which glory is the expression of the divine light—Rev. 21:11, 23; 22:5.

IV.　In the Gospel of John we can see the glory and glorification of the Lord Jesus:

A.　"We beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father" (1:14); this refers to Christ's transfiguration on the mount (Matt. 17:1-2, 5).

B.　"Jesus…manifested His glory"; the Lord's divinity was manifested—John 2:11.

C.　The Lord Jesus did "not receive glory from men," and asked, "How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that is from the only God?"—5:41, 44.

D.　"He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of Him who sent Him, this One is true"—7:18:

1.　"I do not seek My glory; there is One who seeks glory for Me and judges"—8:50.

2.　"If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me"—v. 54.

3.　"They loved the glory of men more than the glory of God"— 12:43.

E.　Jesus said, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified" (v. 23); for Jesus as the Son of Man to be glorified was for Him to be resurrected.

F.　In chapter 17 Jesus said, "Father,…glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You" (v. 1); "Now, glorify Me along with Yourself, Father, with the glory which I had with You before the world was" (v. 5):

1.　This is the subject of the Lord's prayer in John 17.

2.　Before this prayer the Lord Jesus predicted that He would be glorified and that the Father would be glorified in Him— 12:23; 13:31-32.

3.　Christ would resurrect that He might uplift His humanity into the divine element and that His divine element might be expressed, with the result that His entire being, His divinity and His humanity, would be glorified; thus the Father would be glorified in the Son.

G.　The Lord Jesus prayed that we would enter into the highest stage of oneness—the oneness in the divine glory for the corporate expression of the Triune God: "The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one"—17:22:

1.　This is the believers' deepest oneness, the oneness in the divine glory for the corporate expression of God.

2.　In this aspect of oneness the believers, their self having been fully denied, enjoy the glory of the Father as the factor of their perfected oneness and thus express God in a corporate, built-up way.

V.　As the embodiment of the Triune God, Christ the Son is the Father's glorification—vv. 1, 5, 22-23:

A.　Glorification means manifestation; to be glorified is to be manifested.

B.　The main point of the Lord's message in John 14 through 16 is that the Son may be glorified so that the Father may be glorified in the Son:

1.　In His message the Lord spoke of glorification, and in His prayer He prayed for glorification—13:31-32; 14:13; 15:8; 17:1, 5.

2.　Christ was glorified by the Father with the divine glory in His resurrection—7:39:

a.　Glorified stands for resurrected, for the Lord was glorified when He was resurrected; His resurrection brought Him into glory—Luke 24:26; 1 Cor. 15:43; Acts 3:13, 15.

b.　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.

C.　Today it is by the church that the Son will be glorified so that the Father might be glorified in and through the Son—John 17:22; Eph. 3:21:

1.　Glory is the expression of the divine life and the divine nature; the more we live by the divine life and the divine nature, the more divine glory there will be in the church—John 17:22; Eph. 3:21.

2.　The Father is glorified through the organic union of Christ's believers with the Father in the Son in a wonderful coinhering oneness—John 17:23:

a.　When we are one, Christ is glorified, and the Father also is glorified.

b.　The oneness in John 17 is for the Father's glorification in the Son; this oneness is actually the divine glorification.

3.　In the divine glorification the Triune God is glorified in humanity, and humanity is glorified in divinity—Rev. 21:10-11.