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FAQ # 221
QUESTION 221 : If Jesus wasn't praying to
himself what did He mean, then, when He said, "Glorify thou me .
. . with the glory which I had with thee before the world was"?
The setting and context provide the answer. Jesus was
praying in view of His upcoming crucifixion. He had come into the world
to offer His life as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity (Matthew 26:28).
He knew that the time had come for Him to fulfill this plan. His flesh
naturally shrank from the upcoming agony, but He knew that this was the
supreme, perfect will of God for Him. As He had said earlier in John 12:27,
contemplating His death, "Now My soul is troubled, and what shall
I say? 'Father, save Me from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to
this hour."
The glory to which Jesus referred in John 17:1,5 was
the glory that He as a man would receive by submitting to the plan of
God through the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Immediately
after the statement of John 12:27 Jesus prayed, "Father, glorify
thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying I have both glorified
it, and will glorify it again" (John 12:28). Jesus then explained,
"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto
me. This he said, signifying what death he should die" (John 12:32,33).
God glorified Christ by lifting Him up before all the world on the cross.
God further glorified Christ by raising Him from the
dead. "Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father"
(Romans 6:4). Christ's atoning death became effective for us by His resurrection
(Romans 4:25), which transformed His death into victory over sin, the
devil, and death itself. At His resurrection He received a glorified human
body (Philippians 3:21).
God glorified the man Jesus throughout His earthly
ministry by investing Him with divine power and working through Him miraculously,
but the supreme glorification occurred through the death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ. That was the ultimate plan for which Jesus was born and
lived.
The eternal glory of God is not the subject of discussion
in John 17. Jesus said of His disciples in John 17:22, "And the Glory
which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as
we are one." Yet God emphatically declares that He will never share
His divine glory with anyone else. "My glory will I not give to another"
(Isaiah 42:8). "I will not give my glory unto another" (Isaiah
48:11). Jesus could not have meant that He gave the disciples the divine
glory.
Instead, He referred to the glory that He as a man
received in God's plan of salvation for the human race, the benefits of
which He has imparted to those who believe in Him. The disciples had already
shared in Christ's glorious, miraculous ministry. Soon they would also
share in the glory of His crucifixion and resurrection by receiving the
Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1: 11-12). They would have "Christ in you, the
hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27), which would be "Joy unspeakable
and full of glory" (1 Peter 1:8). Through the gospel, we can obtain
"the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thessalonians 2: 14).
By "the salvation which is in Christ Jesus" we have "eternal
glory" (2 Timothy 2:10).
Moreover, one day believers will "be found unto
praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ" (1
Peter 1:7). Just as God glorified the man Christ by raising Him from the
dead with an immortal body, so we will be "raised in glory"
(1 Corinthians 15:42-43). We will receive a glorified body "like
unto his glorious body" (Philippians 3:21). We will be "glorified
together" with Him (Romans 8:17), and we shall "appear with
him in glory" (Colossians 3:4) .
The end result of God's plan of salvation is that believers
will live with the glorified Christ throughout eternity. They will behold
His glory, and will worship Him as the glorified One. They will say, "Worthy
is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and
strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing" (Revelation 5: 12).
With this ultimate objective in mind, Christ prayed, "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 lovedst me before
the foundation of the world" (John 17:24).
[But is said the glory that was before men...]
God planned this glory for the Son [representing
humanity] and loved the Son [humans] before the foundation
of the world. Knowing that the human race would fall to sin, He foreordained
a plan of salvation based on the birth, death, and resurrection of the
Son of God. "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with
corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ,
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained
before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times
for you" (1 Peter 1:18-20). Jesus is "the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8).
When Jesus asked for the Father to give Him the glory
He had with Him before the world began had with Him before the world began,
He was not speaking of a time when He lived alongside the Father as a
second divine person. Glory from such a time would be divine glory, which
He could never have lost and which He could never share with His disciples.
Before the Incarnation, the Spirit of Jesus was the
one eternal God, not a second person. The glory of which Jesus spoke was
the glory He as a man would have in the fulfillment of God's foreordained
plan of redemption for the human race. That was what Jesus looked forward
to as He prayed, and that was what He asked the Father to give Him so
that He could share it with all believers.
{Source: David K. Bernard, Found on a website}
Part 2
"The prayers of Christ represent the struggle
of the human will as it submitted to the divine will. They represent Jesus
praying from His human self-consciousness not from His divine, for by
definition God does not need to pray. This line of reasoning also explains
other examples of the inferiority of the Son in power and knowledge. If
these examples demonstrate a plurality of persons, they establish the
subordination of one person to the other, contrary to the trinitarian
doctrine of co-equality. Other examples of communication, conversation,
or expression of love between Father and Son are explained as communication
between the divine and human natures of Christ. If used to demonstrate
a distinction of persons, they would establish separate centers of consciousness
in the Godhead, which is in effect polytheism" (Bernard, Essentials
in Oneness Theology, p. 22).
"Do the prayers of Christ indicate a distinction
of persons between Jesus and the Father? No. On the contrary, His praying
indicates a distinction between the Son of God and God. Jesus prayed in
His humanity, not in His deity...How can God pray and still be God? By
definition, God in His omnipotence has no need to pray, and in His oneness
has no other to whom He can pray...Some may object to this explanation,
contending that it means Jesus prayed to Himself. However, we must realize
that, unlike any other human being, Jesus had two perfect and complete
natures - humanity and divinity" (Bernard, The Oneness of God, pp.
176-177).
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