How blessed it is to know that in present occupation with Christ the Spirit of God can form in us the features that were once manifested in Him down here. and that we can, in some little way, set forth these same features in testimony to Him. As the Son, the Lord Jesus brought to light the revelation of all that the Father is, but as the Son of Man He has been given the place of authority over all to secure the rights and the glory of God throughout the whole universe. Christ as Son of Man is already glorified in heaven, and has taken up everything for God, in view of the coming kingdom.
By faith we can see Jesus as the exalted Man at God's right hand, and are assured from the Holy Scriptures that He will soon sweep from the universe all the lawlessness that exists today, and having accomplished all that God gave Him to do He will hand back the kingdom to Him that is God and Father so that God may be all in all. There will then be introduced a new heaven and a new earth, where God Himself will tabernacle with men. It has been God's desire from the outset to dwell with men, and His heart will be satisfied in its accomplishment in the eternal day.
In that wonderful chapter, Proverbs 8, we are privileged to see this blessed One as the nursling of the Father's love, who was ever the delight of the Father's heart. Now we are in the day of the full revelation of the Father by the One who was ever before Him, and knew all the thoughts of His heart and mind.
The Son became flesh that He might tabernacle with men, and dwelling among them there was manifested in Him that which had never been seen in this world before. John could say, "We have contemplated His glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father." How delightful was the Son to the Father, and how wonderful that men could discern the glory of the relationship in which He was with Him, a glory that belonged to the relationship in which He was as Man with God. But there was the eternal relationship that was His, "The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father," and as such He made the Father known.
John the Baptist speaks of Jesus as "The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world," and in his testimony to the Son of God sends two of his disciples to follow Jesus. When Jesus asked them, "What seek ye?" they answered Him, "Teacher, where abidest Thou?" Where did He dwell? He dwelt in the Father's love, and He came to make that love known to men that men might dwell with Him in the joy of the Father's love.
Philip, whom Jesus called to follow Him, found Nathaniel and spoke to him of Jesus as the One of whom Moses and the prophets had written, but Nathaniel answered, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" How blessed was Philip's reply, "Come and see." What a revelation it was to Nathaniel to find that Jesus knew all about him; the light that showed Nathaniel that he was fully known to Jesus revealed Jesus to Nathaniel in His glory as "The Son of God … the King of Israel." Nathaniel realised that He was not only the One spoken of by Moses and the prophets, but also the promised Messiah of the second Psalm.
Nathaniel's confession of Jesus brings forth another revelation from the lips of the Son of God: He was also the Son of Man, the One spoken of in Psalm viii, and upon whom the angels of God would ascend and descend. He was the divine link between earth and heaven; because of Him the heavens would be opened, and men would be blessed through Him whom the angels served. As Son of Man all the authority of God is in His hand: He will secure all God's rights in this world when he reigns in righteousness, and He will have the church as His companion, His body and His bride.
At the beginning of John 17 the Lord Jesus desires that He might be glorified. He had glorified the Father on earth in His life of perfect obedience, and can speak as beyond the cross where He glorified God in regard to every question that could possibly be raised. Now He desires to be glorified that He might glorify the Father in the new place He would have as Man with authority over all flesh. He asks for the glory that He had with the Father before the world was, but although this was His by right, having come into Manhood, and therefore into the place of obedience and subjection, as Man He asks for this from the hand of the Father. In this place of eternal glory He was ever the object of the Father's love, and it was because of His perfect knowledge of the Father and of His love that He could make the Father known.
In John 17:26, He says, "I have declared unto them Thy Name, and will declare it." How much He had told the disciples of the Father, revealing the grace and love connected with the Name of the Holy Father, and all that belonged to the Name of the Righteous Father. His purpose in declaring to His own the Father's Name was "That the love with which Thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them." How wonderful to have the present enjoyment of the Father's love in our hearts, and that the Son should have a dwelling place in our affections, "I in them." May the knowledge of these things make our hearts overflow with joy and delight, and lead our spirits to worship and adore the Father and the Son.
R. Duncanson.