At the beginning, and towards the end, of John 17 the Holy Spirit brings out the glories of the Son of God, and from the lips of the Son Himself as He speaks to the Father. During the Son’s sojourn on earth the divine glory had shone through the veil of His flesh for those who had eyes to see, even as the Apostle John wrote, “And we behold His glory, the glory as of an only begotten with a Father” (John 1:14). The moral glory of the Son of man shone also in this world, though few were able to perceive it, and that glory shone most brightly in the obedience of Jesus in dying on the cross, and in procuring for the Father the glory of redemption.
In John 17:1 the Son says to the Father, “The hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.” The Father’s glory was ever before the Son, whether in regard to His coming from heaven as the Sent One, in His path of perfect and unswerving obedience in which He lived for the Father, and in the death of the cross to lay the basis for accomplishment of the Father’s eternal purpose. As He is about to take His place on high, returning to the presence of the Father in the scene from whence He had come, the one thing that filled the heart and mind of the Son was the glory of the Father.
The Son had come of His own volition, but yet was sent by the Father, and on returning to the Father the Son asks to be glorified for in the perfection of His Manhood He had taken a subject place. How very beautiful this is as showing the activities of the Persons of the Godhead, and the unity in which they acted for the carrying out of all that lay in the divine mind and counsel. The Son had the right because of who He is of entering the place from which He had come, and taking up the glory that belonged to Him, and the glory He had secured by the cross, but in this passage the Son desires all from the Father as Son and as Man. Elsewhere, as in Hebrews 1:3, the Son sets Himself down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, for He was great enough to do so, but in John 17 He asks all, and receives all, from the hand of the Father.
From His place as glorified by the Father, the Son having authority over all flesh, would glorify the Father by giving eternal life to as many as the Father had given to Him. It is wonderful indeed that the saints of God should receive eternal life as blessing from the Son of God, but here the Son is concerned with the glory of the Father in communicating the eternal life to His own. If the glory of the Father was secured on earth in all that the Son was for Him, it was also to be secured in a company on earth who received from the Son the same blessed eternal life that had been manifested in the Son while here below.
This favoured company to whom the Son has given eternal life are those of whom the Son could say, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (verse 16). The eternal life communicated, as the Son declares, consists of the knowledge of the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ His Sent One. It is in this company that the Father’s glory is secured for His pleasure, and it is the fruit of this life, producing in the life of the believer as abiding in the Son, and the Son abiding in him, that the much fruit is produced for the Father’s glory (John 15:5, 8).
Speaking beyond the cross, the Son said to the Father, “I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do” (verse 4). It had been His meat to do the Father’s will, “and to finish His work” (4:34), and this was ever before Him in His pathway here (5:17; 9:4). The cross completed the great work given by the Father to the Son. Nothing given by the Father to the Son to accomplish would be left undone, and the Father had perfect confidence in the Son as to this, for “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand” (3:35).
Having completed all given to Him by the Father to do, the Son can say, “And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was” (verse 5). There was the glory that John and his fellow disciples contemplated in the Son in Manhood, but here the Son speaks of a glory that He had left behind in heaven, and He desires that He might have the glory that was His, but in a new way. It belonged to the Son by right in the unity of the Godhead, but now He desires this glory as Man, and asks for it because He is Man as well as Son. We might well marvel at being allowed to hear such things spoken by the Son as He speaks to His Father.
Who but a divine Person could speak in this way? Only One co-equal with the Father could be glorified along with the Father, so that, if any required it, here is the simple statement of the Godhead of Jesus, the Son of God. Moreover, who but a divine Person could speak of having glory with the Father before the world was? And do we not have the clear teaching of the eternal Sonship of Jesus in this verse? It is the Father that He speaks to, and it is with the Father He asks to be glorified, and it was with the Father that He had the glory before the world was.
In the opening verses of this chapter the Son asks for glory to be given Him, but in verse 22 He can speak of “‘the glory which Thou gavest me.” The Son speaks of the glory as given, for what He has asked from the Father He can view as already received. This is a fresh aspect of the glory given to the Son. It is not the present glory of the Son, given that He might glorify the Father in communicating eternal life to His own, nor is it the glory that He had with the Father before the world was, but taken up in Manhood; it is a glory from the Father that He can share with His own.
What great delight the Son has in sharing all He has with His own. In chapter 14:27 He shares His peace with them; in chapter 15:11 He shares His joy with them; and here in chapter 17:22 He shares His glory with them. In this glory His own are one, a perfect unity that can never be broken, for they are one, and will be displayed as one, as the Father and the Son are one. This unity will be seen as the saints walk together in the one street of transparent gold that is in the heavenly Jerusalem. The saints may have broken down in their testimony here, though there is a unity in the divine nature in which there is no failure, but in the glory of the coming day there will be, and can be, no breakdown, for all is in the divine nature, and in the new creation.
For the day of display, even as now, though in another way, Christ will be found in His own, and displayed in them, for there will be nothing but Christ shining out in the saints in the day of His glory. Not only will the Son be displayed in that glory, but the Father will also be displayed, even as the Son said, “and Thou in me.” It is in this way that the saints are “made perfect in one.” What a wonderful unity this is for the saints of God, one as having the Son in them in the day of His glory, and in this unity there is also seen that the Father is in the Son.
When the Son was here the world did not receive the testimony of the Son, they would not accept that the Father was in Him, nor does the world accept today the testimony to the Son in the saints; but the day is surely coming when the world will know who the Son is and what He has done when they see the saints with Him in the day of His glory. The world will see a great company in glory, every one of them like Christ, and they will know that they are there as the fruit of the work of Jesus. There can be no longer denying that the Son is the Sent One of the Father, for this great company have been brought there to share the glory of the Son through His coming into this world to do the Father’s will.
If the glory given to the Son by the Father is the expression of His delight in Him, and His affection for Him, then those who share the glory of the Son must surely have the same place in the Father’s affections as the Son Himself. This is indeed wondrous grace for the saints who have been called of God, but it is the display of what the Father is in His love, and the display of the triumph of the Son who was rejected and cast out of this world while here in testimony for the Father.
There is however more to be revealed of the glory of the Son, for the Son said, “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which Thou hast given me: for Thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.” The desire of the Son is that His own should be with Him in the Father’s House. They had been with Him in His pathway through this world in the days of His public testimony for the Father, and He had spoken to the Father of their sharing His glory in the coming day of its display to the world, but He desires more for them, the place that He was about to have in the presence of the Father. This was a desire after the Father’s own heart, for those for whom the Son desires this blessing are those that the Father had Himself given to the Son.
Within the Father’s House there was a glory belonging to the Son that could not be shared with any, nor was it for display before the world. This would seem to be the glory for which the Son had asked in verse 5, the glory that He had with the Father “before the world was.” If, however, His own could not share this glory, the desire of the Son was that they might behold it. This glory is asked for by the Son in verse 5, it is spoken of Him as already “given” in verse 24, for the Son knew that what He desired of the Father He could speak of as already received. How blessed for us to listen, as the disciples then did, of this wonderful converse of the Son as He speaks in holy intimacy with the Father.
What marks this divine glory of the Son is, “Father…Thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.” Can anything surpass this amazing privilege that awaits the love gift of the Father to the Son? In the nearness of the Father’s House we shall gaze upon the glory of the Son that displays Him as the eternal object of the Father’s love. It is sovereign grace that gives us a place in the Father’s House, but it is the wonderful affection of the Son for those that the Father has given Him to ask the Father for this peculiar privilege that will bring for us a peculiar joy, what will it be for the Father and for the Son to have a company of the redeemed there to whom they can display this glory of divine and eternal affection? How this magnifies the glory of the grace of God!
In this precious Scripture the Son is speaking to the Father, and He says, “Father…Thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.” Who would dare, in the light of such a divine assertion, to say that the Father did not love the Son before the foundation of the world. Is there the remotest suggestion that the divine relationship of Father and Son did not exist when the Father loved the Son before the foundation of the world? Will there be the revelation of some other relationship between the Father and the Son when we behold this eternal glory in the Father’s House? This Scripture forbids such thoughts, for the Son plainly declares here the truth of His eternal Sonship in speaking of the eternal affection of the Father for Him as Son before the world was.
R. 22.11.69