|
HOUSMAIL
HM126
16 March 2006 GLORIFY ME
(John 17:5) "Father,
glorify thou me in thy own presence with the This
verse is commonly used by both Trinitarians and Arians to support their claim
that Jesus existed as a personal being, in heaven, before he was born.
Trinitarians of course say that He must have existed eternally because they
think he is God. Arians say that he was not God, and not eternal, but a
"spirit being" who came into existence when He was created by God
at some point before the world was made. Of
course these claims CANNOT be true. The
Bible says clearly that Jesus is NOT God; (John
17:3) that God is NOT a man It
is obvious that no other man has ever existed as an immortal being before he
was born, and then "lost" his immortality when he was born! And in
any case, that would be a complete denial of the meaning of "immortality"!
No other man has ever had a pre-existent mind, or pre-existent personality! A
man is more than just the body he wears. It is the other "conscious
bits" inside the body which define him as a real man. Simple logic
tells us that if Jesus did pre-exist and brought those pre-existing things with
him into a "human look-alike" body, He would not be a REAL
man, but a counterfeit! All
of this means that we must read John 17:5 from a perspective which does NOT presuppose pre-existence. HAS
GOD EVER SPOKEN IN SIMILAR TERMS ABOUT OTHER MEN? Yes!
See Jeremiah 1:5. "Before I
formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born When
God says He "knew" Jeremiah before he was born, that doesn't mean
Jeremiah pre-existed his birth! All it means is that God knew in advance what
He planned for Jeremiah to do. The
words spoken by Jesus in John 17:5, do not imply pre-existence for Him, any more than they do for
Jeremiah. It is simply a statement that even before the foundation of the
world, it was God's plan to glorify Jesus. It does not mean that Jesus was
present when the plan was made. WHAT
DOES IT MEAN TO HAVE GLORY "BEFORE THE WORLD WAS MADE"? Jesus
is using a Hebrew figure of speech called
"PROLEPSIS". You
never heard of "prolepsis"? Don't worry! You are not alone! There
are lots of others like you. That is a BIG word theologians love to use, when
the rest of us would say something like: "God speaks in advance of
future things as though they had already happened". (Read God's
plan to have a SON and glorify him, was made, and as good as done, BEFORE
the world was created. WHAT
DOES IT MEAN WHEN JESUS SAID HE HAD GLORY "WITH GOD"? Since
Jesus is a REAL MAN, it cannot mean that JESUS was actually present with God
before the world was made. What it does mean is that the GLORY itself was
"with God" before the world was made. We use similar language when
we say things like "you have a good reputation WITH ME". We do not
mean that the person who has the reputation has to be literally in our
presence, when we think that way about them. All it means is that we KNOW
something ABOUT the person. In
the same way, God knew "before the world was made", what would be
accomplished through Jesus that would give him a GLORIOUS REPUTATION. WHAT
DID JESUS MEAN BY "GLORY"? This
is the real crux of the matter. Is
it the sort of "radiant glory" that the disciples saw at the
Transfiguration? (Matthew17:2, We
are not left in any doubt. John speaks about this same "glory"
elsewhere in his Gospel. "These things understood not his disciples
at the first: but when (after NIV, NEB) Jesus was glorified,
then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had
done these things unto him”. (John 12:16) "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I
say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this
hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying,
I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." (John 12:27-28) Clearly
the " glory " Jesus has in mind in John 12, is to do with his
imminent crucifixion. But his disciples did not understand that until it was
revealed to them after it had happened. (And in passing, it seems that many
in our own time, still do not understand!) WHEN
DID THE DISCIPLES UNDERSTAND? Luke
has the answer. Speaking
to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus said: "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all
that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these
things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and
all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things
concerning himself. And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went:
and he made as though he would have gone further." (Luke 24:25-28) And
to the eleven in the upper room later that same day: "And he said unto them, These are the
words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with
you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of
Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he
their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto
them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise
from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should
be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." (Luke 24:44-47) It
was only after Jesus was crucified and risen from the dead, that the eyes of
the disciples were opened to understand that Jesus had already been
"glorified" by what had happened on the Cross, making it possible
to preach the Good News about "repentance and remission of
sins". That
was when he was LIFTED UP:
AT
THE LAST SUPPER "(Judas)
then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night. Jesus
was about to be GLORIFIED. It happened when he was crucified. CONCLUSION The
GLORY which God planned for Jesus BEFORE THE WORLD WAS MADE, was not about an
event before Creation! Nor was it primarily about something which happened
after he ascended to heaven. Rather it was about what he has achieved on the
CROSS! Through
this Jesus won the right to forgive those who turn to him in repentance. He
has won the right to give them ETERNAL LIFE. This is his GLORY for ever! Allon |