7 "The glory I had with you before the world was" (Jn. 17:5)
What does the Bible mean when it speaks about “glory”? The glory of
God was revealed to Moses at Sinai- and what he heard was the
declaration of God’s Name or character, that Yahweh is a God full of
grace, mercy, truth, justice, judgment etc. (Ex. 33:19; 34:6,7). Jesus
alludes to what happened at Sinai by saying that He has “glorified you…
manifested your name” (Jn. 17:4,6). Whenever those characteristics of
God are recognized, manifested or openly shown, God is glorified. In
this sense, God is the “God of glory” (Ps. 29:3 etc.). He is totally
associated with His Name and characteristics- it’s not that He just
shows those particular attributes to men, but He Himself personally is
someone quite different. He is His glory. And this is why Jn. 17:5 parallels His glory with God’s very own “self”.
That
glory of God was of course always with God, right at the beginning of
the world. He hasn’t changed His essential characteristics over time.
The God of the Old Testament is the same God as in the New Testament.
As John begins his Gospel by saying, the essential “Word”, logos
of God, His essential plans, intentions, personality, was in the
beginning with Him. It was “made flesh” in the person of Jesus (Jn.
1:14), in that the Lord Jesus in His life and especially in His death
on the cross revealed all those attributes and plans of God in a
concrete, visible form- to perfection.
The request of
Jesus to be glorified is therefore asking for the Name / attributes /
characteristics / glory / word of God to be openly revealed in Him.
Surely He had in mind His resurrection, and the glorifying of God which
would take place as a result of this being preached and believed in
world-wide.
But in what sense was this the glory which
Jesus had with God before the world was? As we have said, the “glory”
of God was revealed to Moses at Sinai in Ex. 34 as the declaration of
His character. In this sense, the Lord Jesus could speak of having in
His mortal life “that glory which was with [the Father]” when the
[Jewish] world came into existence at Sinai (Jn. 17:5 Ethiopic and
Western Text). It was that same glory which, like Moses, He reflected
to men. But according to 2 Cor. 3:18, the very experience of gazing
upon the glory of His character will change us into a reflection of it.
There is something transforming about the very personality of Jesus.
And perhaps this is why we have such a psychological barrier to
thinking about Him deeply. We know that it has the power to transform
and intrude into our innermost darkness.
There is
essentially only one glory- the glory of the Son is a reflection or
manifestation of the glory of the Father. They may be seen as different
glories only in the sense that the same glory is reflected from the
Lord Jesus in His unique way; as a son reflects or articulates his
father’s personality, it’s not a mirror personality, but it’s the same
essence. One star differs from another in glory, but they all reflect
the same essential light of glory. The Lord Jesus sought only the glory
of the Father (Jn. 7:18). He spoke of God’s glory as being the Son’s
glory (Jn. 11:4). Thus Isaiah’s vision of God’s glory is interpreted by
John as a prophecy of the Son’s glory (Jn. 12:41). The glory of God is
His “own self”, His own personality and essence. This was with God of
course from the ultimate beginning of all, and it was this glory which
was manifested in both the death and glorification of the Lord Jesus
(Jn. 17:5). The Old Testament title “God of glory” is applied to the
Lord Jesus, “the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8; James 2:1). It is God’s
glory which radiates from the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). Jesus
is the brightness of God’s glory, because He is the express image of
God’s personality (Heb. 1:3). He received glory from God’s glory (2
Pet. 1:17). God is the “Father of glory”, the prime source of the one
true glory, that is reflected both in the Lord Jesus and in ourselves
(Eph. 1:17). The intimate relation of the Father's glory with that of
the Son is brought out in Jn. 13:31,32: " Now is the Son of man
glorified, and God is glorified in him; and God shall glorify him in
himself, and straightway shall he glorify him" .
What all this exposition means in practice is this. There is only “one
glory” of God. That glory refers to the essential “self”, the personality,
characteristics, being etc. The Lord Jesus manifested that glory in His
mortal life (Jn. 2:11). But He manifests it now that He has been “glorified”,
and will manifest it in the future day of His glory. And the Lord was
as in all things a pattern to us. We are bidden follow in His path to
glory. We now in our personalities reflect and manifest the one glory
of the Father, and our blessed Hope is glory in the future, to be glorified,
to be persons who reflect and ‘are’ that glory in a more intimate and
complete sense than we are now, marred as we are by our human dysfunction,
sin, and weakness of will against temptation. We now reflect that glory
as in a dirty bronze mirror (2 Cor. 3:18). The outline of God’s glory
in the face of Jesus is only dimly reflected in us. But we are being changed,
from glory to glory, the focus getting clearer all the time, until that
great day when we meet Him and see Him face to face, with all that shall
imply and result in. But my point in this context is that there is only
one glory. That glory was with God from the beginning. Jesus was in the
mind and plan of God from the beginning. It was God’s original plan to
resurrect and glorify and justify His Son. And in Jn. 17:5, Jesus is asking
that this will happen. The glory which Jesus had “before the world was”
is connected with the way that He was “foreordained before the foundation
of the world” (1 Pet. 1:20), the way God promised us eternal life (through
His Son) before the world was (Tit. 1:2). 2 Tim. 1:9 speaks of us as being
called to salvation in Christ “before the world began”, He “chose us in
Him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4). In the same way as
we didn’t personally exist before the world began, neither did Christ.
Indeed 1 Cor. 2:7 speaks of us having some form of glory with
God “before the world began”. It’s the idea of this “one glory” again-
God’s glory existed, and it was His plan to share it with His Son and
with us; and He speaks of those things which are not as though they are,
so certain are they of fulfilment (Rom. 4:17). In Jn. 17:5, the Lord Jesus
is ‘pleading the promise’ of these things.
Jewish Perspective
We need to remember that the Lord was speaking, and John was writing,
against a Jewish background. The language of 'pre-existence' was common
in Jewish thinking and writing. To be 'with God' didn't mean, in Jewish
terms, to be up there in heaven with God literally. Mary had favour para
God (Lk. 1:30) in the same way as Jesus had glory para God, but
this doesn't mean she pre-existed or was in Heaven with God with her "favour".
The Torah supposedly pre-existed, everything on earth was a pattern of
the pre-existing ideas of those things which were held in the plan and
mind of God in Heaven. John 17:5 has reference to these things: "And
now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had
with you before the world existed". The Talmud and Genesis Rabbah
speak of the "Throne of Glory" pre-existing before the world
existed. And the Lord Jesus seems to be alluding to that. The Jewish mind
wouldn't have understood the Lord Jesus to be making any claim here to
have bodily, physically existed before birth. Peter reflected Jewish thinking
when he wrote (albeit under inspiration) that Jesus was "foreknown"
before the foundation of the world (1 Pet. 1:20 ESV). Think through the
implications of being "foreknown"- the Greek word used is the
root of the English word 'prognosis'. If God 'foreknew' His Son, the Son
was not literally existent next to Him at the time of being 'foreknown'.
Otherwise the language of 'foreknowing' becomes meaningless.
