"The hour had come." Time and again, His enemies had not been able to arrest Him because His hour had not yet come. But now the time had come for the Lord Jesus to die. "Glorify Your Son," prayed the Savior. He looked ahead to His imminent death on the cross. If He were to remain in the grave, then the world would know that He was merely an ordinary man. However, if God were to glorify Him by raising Him from the dead, then that would be proof that He is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. God answered His prayer by raising Him from the dead on the third day, later taking Him back into heaven, and crowning Him with glory and honor.
"...so that the Son may glorify You," the Lord continued. The meaning of these words is explained in the next two verses. Jesus glorifies the Father by giving eternal life to those who believe in Him. It brings much honor to God when wicked people repent and manifest the life of Jesus here on earth.
"...so that the Son may glorify You," the Lord continued. The meaning of these words is explained in the next two verses. Jesus glorifies the Father by giving eternal life to those who believe in Him. It brings much honor to God when wicked people repent and manifest the life of Jesus here on earth.
 | Author: William MacDonald Rank: Author Posted on: 2024-03-02 Source: Title: Commentary on the New Testament Year (original): 1989 Author: William MacDonald Number of pages: 1504 Publisher/Editor: CLV Print: GGP Media GmbH, Pößneck |
We now come to the so-called high priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus. In this prayer, Jesus intercedes for His own. In it, we have a picture of His current service in heaven, where He prays for His people.
Marcus Rainsford puts it very well:
The entire prayer is a beautiful picture of our beloved Lord's intercession at the right hand of God. Not a word against the members of His people, no mention of their faults and shortcomings... No. He speaks of them only as if they live entirely in the will of the Father and in connection with Himself. They are for Him recipients of the fullness, for which He came from heaven to give them... All of the Lord's petitions for His own concern spiritual matters, all relate to heavenly blessings. The Lord does not ask for wealth or honor for them, no worldly influence or special privileges. Instead, He earnestly prays that they may be kept from evil, remain separated from the world, be equipped for their duty, and safely find their way to the heavenly home. Spiritual wealth is the best wealth, it is the sign of true wealth. [1]
Marcus Rainsford puts it very well:
The entire prayer is a beautiful picture of our beloved Lord's intercession at the right hand of God. Not a word against the members of His people, no mention of their faults and shortcomings... No. He speaks of them only as if they live entirely in the will of the Father and in connection with Himself. They are for Him recipients of the fullness, for which He came from heaven to give them... All of the Lord's petitions for His own concern spiritual matters, all relate to heavenly blessings. The Lord does not ask for wealth or honor for them, no worldly influence or special privileges. Instead, He earnestly prays that they may be kept from evil, remain separated from the world, be equipped for their duty, and safely find their way to the heavenly home. Spiritual wealth is the best wealth, it is the sign of true wealth. [1]
Footnote
[1] Marcus Rainsford, Our Lord Prays for His Own, S. 173.
Verses that belong to this explanation: 1-5
1 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, ‹Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:› 2 ‹As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.› 3 ‹And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.› 4 ‹I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.› 5 ‹And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.›
| Author: William MacDonald Rank: Author Posted on: 2024-03-02 Source: Title: Commentary on the New Testament Year (original): 1989 Author: William MacDonald Number of pages: 1504 Publisher/Editor: CLV Print: GGP Media GmbH, Pößneck |
The Glorification of the Son
This chapter is unparalleled in depth and range of vision. It breathes perfect holiness, devotion and love. We may listen to the Son opening His heart to the Father at the moment He is about to die and leave His own, to go to Heaven.
Because we hear the Son speaking to the Father, we cannot speak of a ‘high priestly prayer’, because then we would hear Him speaking as Man to God. If we can speak of a prayer, it is in the sense of a confidential asking of the Son to the Father and not begging the Father for anything.
We hear the Son asking the Father to glorify Him, then to care for His disciples when He will no longer be with them, and finally to give the disciples a place with Him in glory. These are questions that are not really a request, but a sharing with the Father of things that live in the heart of the Father in exactly the same way. The Lord knows all that, but He wants us to know that He intercedes for us with the Father. This prayer shows us how He is Helper.
In His prayer, which forms a beautiful unity, we can roughly distinguish two sections:
1. In the first section, [Verse 1-8], the Lord speaks to the Father in view of His glorification and His connection with His disciples.
2. In the second section, [Verse 9-26], the disciples are the subject, in which He clearly distinguishes them from the world.
We can also make a somewhat finer division into seven parts:
1. In [Verse 1-5] the Lord Jesus asks the Father for His glorification as Man on the basis of the work accomplished by Him.
2. In [Verse 6-8] He speaks to the Father about what the disciples mean to Him.
3. In [Verse 9-12] He asks His Father to keep His disciples in unity.
4. In [Verse 13-19] He entrusts His disciples to His Father in order to keep them in the world.
5. In [Verse 10-21] He extends His prayer and asks the Father for the unity of all the believers on earth.
6. In [Verse 22-23] it is about a unity that still lies in the future and that will become visible at His revelation.
7. In [Verse 24-26] it is about being with the Son in the Father’s house.
After these introductory words we now want to focus on the prayer. I will express myself as limited as possible because speaking about this prayer makes you feel as if you want to illuminate the sun with a flashlight. When reading this chapter it is especially important that the Holy Spirit can work in each reader the feelings appropriate to this chapter. I hope that this is the case with me and that I can pass something of it in this explanation. I myself have also been helped by what others have discovered of beauty in this prayer.
When the Lord addresses Himself to the Father in His prayer, He does so while lifting up His eyes to heaven. Similarly, He raised His eyes at the tomb of Lazarus [John 11:41]. There He asked the Father for the resurrection of Lazarus. Here He does not ask for the resurrection, here He asks for the glorification of Himself. Yet the question of His glorification is not about Himself. He immediately adds that with His question He is aiming at the glorification of the Father.
With this question the Lord places Himself behind the work as accomplished by Him. That is why He says that “the hour has come”. By this He means the hour that He will go back to the Father. When He asks for His glorification by the Father, it means that He asks this question as a result of the work He has accomplished. And when He asks for His own glorification with a view to the glorification of the Father, it means that He continues to glorify the Father after He is glorified in heaven. He has glorified the Father both on earth and on the cross and He does the same in heaven.
He does this glorification of the Father in connection with the power over all flesh that He has received from the Father based on His work. He always remains faithful to the place He has taken and does not exercise power according to His own right. He will exercise the power over all flesh when He returns to judge Israel and the world. In the present time He uses this power to give eternal life to all He has received from the Father. Now that the Son is in heaven, He glorifies His Father by giving eternal life to those He receives from the Father. He still glorifies the Father every day in every sinner who comes to faith.
Because we hear the Son speaking to the Father, we cannot speak of a ‘high priestly prayer’, because then we would hear Him speaking as Man to God. If we can speak of a prayer, it is in the sense of a confidential asking of the Son to the Father and not begging the Father for anything.
We hear the Son asking the Father to glorify Him, then to care for His disciples when He will no longer be with them, and finally to give the disciples a place with Him in glory. These are questions that are not really a request, but a sharing with the Father of things that live in the heart of the Father in exactly the same way. The Lord knows all that, but He wants us to know that He intercedes for us with the Father. This prayer shows us how He is Helper.
In His prayer, which forms a beautiful unity, we can roughly distinguish two sections:
1. In the first section, [Verse 1-8], the Lord speaks to the Father in view of His glorification and His connection with His disciples.
2. In the second section, [Verse 9-26], the disciples are the subject, in which He clearly distinguishes them from the world.
We can also make a somewhat finer division into seven parts:
1. In [Verse 1-5] the Lord Jesus asks the Father for His glorification as Man on the basis of the work accomplished by Him.
2. In [Verse 6-8] He speaks to the Father about what the disciples mean to Him.
3. In [Verse 9-12] He asks His Father to keep His disciples in unity.
4. In [Verse 13-19] He entrusts His disciples to His Father in order to keep them in the world.
5. In [Verse 10-21] He extends His prayer and asks the Father for the unity of all the believers on earth.
6. In [Verse 22-23] it is about a unity that still lies in the future and that will become visible at His revelation.
7. In [Verse 24-26] it is about being with the Son in the Father’s house.
After these introductory words we now want to focus on the prayer. I will express myself as limited as possible because speaking about this prayer makes you feel as if you want to illuminate the sun with a flashlight. When reading this chapter it is especially important that the Holy Spirit can work in each reader the feelings appropriate to this chapter. I hope that this is the case with me and that I can pass something of it in this explanation. I myself have also been helped by what others have discovered of beauty in this prayer.
When the Lord addresses Himself to the Father in His prayer, He does so while lifting up His eyes to heaven. Similarly, He raised His eyes at the tomb of Lazarus [John 11:41]. There He asked the Father for the resurrection of Lazarus. Here He does not ask for the resurrection, here He asks for the glorification of Himself. Yet the question of His glorification is not about Himself. He immediately adds that with His question He is aiming at the glorification of the Father.
With this question the Lord places Himself behind the work as accomplished by Him. That is why He says that “the hour has come”. By this He means the hour that He will go back to the Father. When He asks for His glorification by the Father, it means that He asks this question as a result of the work He has accomplished. And when He asks for His own glorification with a view to the glorification of the Father, it means that He continues to glorify the Father after He is glorified in heaven. He has glorified the Father both on earth and on the cross and He does the same in heaven.
He does this glorification of the Father in connection with the power over all flesh that He has received from the Father based on His work. He always remains faithful to the place He has taken and does not exercise power according to His own right. He will exercise the power over all flesh when He returns to judge Israel and the world. In the present time He uses this power to give eternal life to all He has received from the Father. Now that the Son is in heaven, He glorifies His Father by giving eternal life to those He receives from the Father. He still glorifies the Father every day in every sinner who comes to faith.
Verses that belong to this explanation: 1-2
1 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, ‹Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:› 2 ‹As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.›
 | Author: Ger de Koning Rank: Author Posted on: 2024-01-11 Source: Title: John Author: Ger de Koning |
Our Lord prayed as a man, and as the Mediator of his people; yet he spoke with majesty and authority, as one with and equal to the Father. Eternal life could not be given to believers, unless Christ, their Surety, both glorified the Father, and was glorified of him. This is the sinner’s way to eternal life, and when this knowledge shall be made perfect, holiness and happiness will be fully enjoyed. The holiness and happiness of the redeemed, are especially that glory of Christ, and of his Father, which was the joy set before him, for which he endured the cross and despised the shame; this glory was the end of the sorrow of his soul, and in obtaining it he was fully satisfied. Thus we are taught that our glorifying God is needed as an evidence of our interest in Christ, through whom eternal life is God’s free gift.
Verses that belong to this explanation: 1-5
1 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, ‹Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:› 2 ‹As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.› 3 ‹And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.› 4 ‹I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.› 5 ‹And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.›
 | Author: Matthew Henry Rank: Priest AD: 1714 Source: Title: Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible Author: Matthew Henry |
Must surely have been on earth) is once more recognised by the Son as in heaven, when, "lifting up His eyes thereto"
 | Author: Tertullian of Carthage Rank: Author AD: 220 |
1. He that has done and taught, it says, the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of heaven. And with much reason; for to show true wisdom in words, is easy, but the proof which is by works is the part of some noble and great one. Wherefore also Christ, speaking of the endurance of evil, puts Himself forth, bidding us take example from Him. On this account too, after this admonition, He betakes Himself to prayer, teaching us in our temptations to leave all things, and flee to God. For because He had said, In the world you shall have tribulation, and had shaken their souls, by the prayer He raises them again. As yet they gave heed unto Him as to a man; and for their sake He acts thus, just as He did in the case of Lazarus, and there tells the reason; Because of the people that stand by I said it, that they might believe that You have sent Me. John 11:42 Yea, says some one, this took place with good cause in the case of the Jews; but wherefore in that of the disciples? With good cause in the case of the disciples also. For they who, after all that had been said and done, said, Now we know that You know John 16:30, most of all needed to be established. Besides, the Evangelist does not even call the action prayer; but what says he? He lifted up His eyes to heaven, and says rather that it was a discoursing with the Father. And if elsewhere he speaks of prayer, and at one time shows Him kneeling on His knees, at another lifting His eyes to heaven, be not thou troubled; for by these means we are taught the earnestness which should be in our petitions, that standing we should look up, not with the eyes of the flesh only, but of the mind, and that we should bend our knees, bruising our own hearts. For Christ came not merely to manifest Himself, but also about to teach virtue ineffable. But it behooves the teacher to teach, not by words only, but also by actions. Let us hear then what He says in this place. Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You. Again He shows us, that not unwilling He comes to the Cross. For how could He be unwilling, who prayed that this might come to pass, and called the action glory, not only for Himself the Crucified, but also for the Father? Since this was the case, for not the Son only, but the Father also was glorified. For before the Crucifixion, not even the Jews knew Him; Israel, it says, has not known Me Isaiah 1:3; but after the Crucifixion, all the world ran to Him. Then He speaks also of the manner of the glory, and how He will glorify Him.
 | Author: John Chrysostom Rank: Bishop AD: 407 |
After having said, In the world you shall have tribulation, our Lord turns from admonition to prayer; thus teaching us in our tribulations to abandon all other things, and flee to God.
He lifted up His eyes to heaven to teach us intentness in our prayers: that we should stand with uplifted eyes, not of the body only, but of the mind.
He said, You have given Him power over all flesh, to show that His preaching extended not to the Jews only, but to the whole world. But what is all flesh? For all did not believe? So far as lay with Him, all did. If they did not attend to His words, it was not His fault who spoke, but theirs who did not receive.
He says, on the earth; for He had been glorified in heaven, both in respect of the glory of His own nature, and of the adoration of the Angels. The glory therefore here spoken of is not that which belongs to His substance, but that which pertains to the worship of man: wherefore it follows, I have finished the work which You gave Me to do.
Or, I have finished, i.e. He had done all His own part, or had done the chief of it, that standing for the whole; (for the root of good was planted:) or He connects Himself with the future, as if it were already present.
| Author: John Chrysostom Rank: Bishop AD: 407 |
He does not say that the day, or the time, but that the hour is come. An hour contains a portion of a day. What was this hour? He was now to be spit upon, scourged, crucified. But the Father glorifies the Son. The sun failed in his course, and with him all the other elements felt that death. The earth trembled under the weight of our Lord hanging on the Cross, and testified that it had not power to hold within it Him who was dying. The Centurion proclaimed, Truly this was the Son of God. The event answered the prediction. Our Lord had said, Glorify Your Son, testifying that He was not the Son in name only, but properly the Son. Your Son, He said. Many of us are sons of God; butnot such is the Son. For He is the proper, true Son by nature, not by adoption, in truth, not in name, by birth, not by creation. Therefore after His glorifying, to the manifestation of the truth there succeeded confession. The Centurion confesses Him to be the true Son of God, that so none of His believers might doubt what one of His persecutors could not deny.
But perhaps this proves weakness in the Son; His waiting to be glorified byone superior to Himself. And who does not confess that the Father is superior, seeing that He Himself said, The Father is greater than I? But beware lest the honor of the Father impair the glory of the Son. It follows: That Your Son also may glorify You. So then the Son is no tweak, inasmuch as He gives back in His turn glory for the glory which He receives. This petition for glory to be given and repaid, shows the same divinity to be in both.
For being made flesh Himself, He was about to restore eternal life to frail, corporeal, and mortal man.
If Christ be God, not begotten, but unbegotten, then let this receiving be thought weakness. But not if His receiving of power signifies His begetting, in which He received what He is. This gift cannot be counted for weakness. For the Father is such in that He gives the Son remains God in that He has received the power of giving eternal life.
And in what eternal life is, He then shows: And thisis life eternal, that they might know You, the only true God. To know the only true God is life, but this alone does not constitute life. What else then is added? And Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
The Arians hold, that as the Father is the only true, only just, only wise God, the Son has no communion of these attributes; for that which is proper to one, cannot be partaken of by another. And as these are as they think in the Father alone, and notin the Son, they necessarily consider the Son a false and vain God.
But it must be clear to every one that the reality of any thing is evidenced by its power. For that is true wheat, which when rising with grain and fenced with ears, and shaken out by the winnowing machine, and ground into corn, and baked into bread, and taken for food, fulfills the nature and function of bread. I ask then wherein the truth of Divinity is wanting to the Son, Who hasthe nature and virtue of Divinity. For He so made use of the virtue of His nature, as to cause to be things which were not, and to do every thing which seemed good to Him.
Because He says, You the only, does He separate Himself from communion and unity with God? He does separate Himself, but that He adds immediately, And Jesus Christ Whom You have sent. For the Catholic faith confesses Christ to be true God, in that it confesses the Father to be the only true God; for natural birth did not introduce any change of nature into the Only-Begotten God.
This new glory with which our Lord had glorified the Father, does not imply any advancement in Godhead, but refers to the honor received from those who are converted from ignorance to knowledge.
After which, that we may understand the reward of His obedience, and the mystery of the whole dispensation, He adds, And now glorify Me with the glory with Your own Self, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
Or He prayed that that which was mortal, might receive the glory immortal, that the corruption of the flesh might be transformed and absorbed into the in corruption of the Spirit.
 | Author: Hilary of Poitiers Rank: Bishop AD: 368 |
CHAPTER III. That no man should consider that the Son has any lack of God-befitting glory, though He be found to say, Father, glorify Thy Son. Having given His disciples a sufficiency of things necessary for salvation, and incited them by fitting words and arguments to a more accurate apprehension of His doctrines, and made them best able to battle against temptation, and confirmed the courage of each one, he straightway changes the form of His speech for our profit, and turns it into a kind of prayer, allowing no interval to elapse between His discourse to them and His prayer to God the Father; herein also by His own conduct suggesting to us a type of admirable life. For the man who aims at serving God ought, I think, to bear in mind that he ought at all events either to be fond of discoursing to his brethren of things profitable or necessary for their salvation, or, if he be not so engaged, to hasten to employ the service of the tongue in supplications to God, so as to render it impossible for any random words to slip in between; for in this way the governance of the tongue may be well and suitably ordered. For is it not quite obvious that, in vain conversations, things blameworthy may very readily escape a man? Moreover, a wise man has said: In the multitude of words thou shalt not escape sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise. You may find besides another thing to admire, which is in no small degree profitable for us. The beginning of His prayer has reference to His own glory and that of God the Father, and afterwards, in intimate connexion with this, He introduces His prayer for us. And why is this? The reason is one which convinces the pious man that loves God, and actually disposes the worker of good deeds to prayer. For just as we ought to perform good actions, and do all things, not turning to our own glory our zeal herein, but to the glory of the Father of the Universe, I mean God, for He says: Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Which is in heaven; so also it best befits us, when occasion calls us to prayer, to pray for what redounds to God's glory before what concerns ourselves, as indeed Christ also Himself enjoins us when He says: After this manner pray ye: Our Father Which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done as in Heaven so on earth. Give us this day our daily bread. What Christ here does, then, ought to be to us the pattern of prayer. For it was necessary that not an elder or messenger, but Christ Himself, should manifest Himself to be our Leader and Guide in all good, and in the way which leadeth to God. For we are called, and are in very truth, as the prophet says, taught of God. And what He says to His Father it is right that we should consider with the greatest care. For I think we ought in a spirit of the most earnest attention to handle the investigation of His words, and most carefully search after the true intent of His teaching. Father, then, He says, The hour is come; glorify Thy Son that Thy Son may also glorify Thee. So far as the mere form of His language is concerned, one could think that the speaker had some lack of glory; but any one who considers the majesty of the Only-begotten would, I think, quickly shrink from so grievous a conclusion. For it were great folly to think that the Son has any lack of glory, or falls short of the honour which is His due, though He is the Lord of glory, for so the inspired writings call Him. Especially when in another place we observe Him saying to His Father: O Father, glorify Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. Then who can any longer doubt, or who is so demented and so far the enemy of all truth as not to know and confess that the Only-begotten is not bereft of Divine glory so far as His own Nature is concerned; but that since being in the form of God, and in perfect equality with Him, He counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, but nevertheless descended to the humiliation of human nature, and emptied Himself of His glory, wearing this mean body; and from love towards us putting on the likeness of human littleness, now that the fitting time had actually arrived, at which He was destined, after fulfilling the mystery of our redemption, to gird Himself about with His pristine and essential glory; having wrought out the salvation of the whole world, and secured life and the knowledge of God to those that are therein; herein I say He shows that He has God's Will and favour, and makes this speech to Him, saying that He ought to recover the majesty due unto His Nature. And how does He ascend into heaven? Surely He That even in the flesh showed Himself able to accomplish the deeds of a God was not in this subject to another's power, but ascended of Himself, being the Wisdom and Might of God the Father. For we must think that thus in no other way He accomplishes the words of a God with power. For all things are from the Father, but not without the Son. For how could God the Father perform any of His proper functions, if His Wisdom and Might, I mean the Son, were not with Him, and accomplishing with Him those things in which His power is seen in active operation? Therefore also the wise Evangelist who wrote this book at the beginning of His work says: All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made. Since then the doctrine of His Consubstantiality compels us by consequence to think that all things proceed from the Father, but wholly through the Son in the Spirit, and that He, having slain death and corruption and taken away from the devil his kingdom, was about to illumine the whole world with the light of the Spirit, and to show Himself thereby henceforth in very deed the true God by Nature, He is impelled to say, Father, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may also glorify Thee. And no man of sense would maintain that the Son asks glory from the Father as a man from man, but rather that He also promises to give Him glory, as it were, in return. For it would be very unbecoming, nay rather wholly foolish, to have such an idea about God. The Saviour indeed spake these words to show how very necessary His own glory was to the Father, that He might be known to be Consubstantial with Him. For just as it would entail dishonour on God the Father, that the Son That was begotten of Him should not be such as He That is God by Nature and of God ought to be, so I think, to have His own Son invested with those attributes, which He is conceived of as having, and which are predicated of Him, will confer honour and glory upon Him. The Father therefore is glorified in the glory of His Offspring, as I said just now; giving glory to the Son, by considering throughout His earthly career, both from how great, and of what, a Father the Only-begotten sprang; and in turn receiving glory from the Son by the consideration of how great indeed is the Son, of Whom He is the Father. The honour and glory then, which is Theirs essentially and by Nature, will be reflected from the Son on the Father, and in turn from the Father on the Son. If any man concede that, owing to the degradation of His Incarnation, our Lord here speaks more humbly than His true Nature warrants, for this was His custom, he will not altogether miss arriving at a proper conclusion, but will not quite attain to the truth in the inquiry. For, if He were seeking only honour from the Father, there would be nothing unlikely in setting down the request to the inferiority of human nature; but, since He promises to glorify the Father in turn, does it not follow of necessity, that we should readily embrace the view we have just given?
 | Author: Cyril of Alexandria Rank: Pope AD: 444 |
1. Before these words, which we are now, with the Lord's help, to make the subject of discourse, Jesus had said, These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace; which we are to consider as referring, not to the later words uttered by Him immediately before, but to all that He had addressed to them, whether from the time that He began to account them disciples, or at least from the time after supper when He commenced this admirable and lengthened discourse. He gave them, indeed, such a reason for speaking to them, that either all He ever spoke to them may with the utmost propriety be referred to that end, or those especially, as His last words, which He now spoke when on the eve of dying for them, after that he who was to betray Him had quitted their company. For He gave this as the cause of His discourse, that in Him they might have peace, just as it is wholly on this account that we are Christians. For this peace will have no temporal end, but will itself be the end of every pious intention and action that are ours at present. For its sake we are endowed with His sacraments, for its sake we are instructed by His works and sayings, for its sake we have received the earnest of the Spirit, for its sake we believe and hope in Him, and according to His gracious giving are enkindled with His love: by this peace we are comforted in all our distresses, by it we are delivered from them all: for its sake we endure with fortitude every tribulation, that in it we may reign in happiness without any tribulation. Fitly therewith did He bring His words to a close, which were proverbs to the disciples, who as yet had little understanding, but would afterwards understand them, when He had given them the Holy Spirit of promise, of whom He had said before: These things have I spoken unto you being yet present with you. But the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Such, doubtless, was to be the hour, wherein He promised that He would no more speak unto them in proverbs, but show them openly of the Father. For these same words of His, when revealed by the Holy Spirit, were no more to be proverbs to those who had understanding. For when the Holy Spirit was speaking in their hearts, there was not to be silence on the part of the only-begotten Son, who had said that in that hour He would show them plainly of the Father, which, of course, would no longer be a proverb to them when now endowed with understanding. But even this also, how it is that both the Son of God and the Holy Spirit speak at once in the hearts of their spiritual ones, yea the Trinity itself, which is ever inseparably at work, is a word to those who have, but a proverb to those who are without, understanding. 2. When, therefore, He had told them on what account He had spoken all things, namely, that in Him they might have peace while having distress in the world, and had exhorted them to be of good cheer, because He had overcome the world; having thus finished His discourse to them, He then directed His words to the Father, and began to pray. For so the evangelist proceeds to say: These things spoke Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son. The Lord, the Only-begotten and coeternal with the Father, could in the form of a servant and out of the form of a servant, if such were needful, pray in silence; but in this other way He wished to show Himself as one who prayed to the Father, that He might remember that He was still our Teacher. Accordingly, the prayer which He offered for us, He made also known to us; seeing that it is not only the delivering of discourses to them by so great a Master, but also the praying for them to the Father, that is a means of edification to disciples. And if so to those who were present to hear what was said, it is certainly so also to us who were to have the reading of it when written. Wherefore in saying this, Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, He showed that all time, and every occasion when He did anything or suffered anything to be done, were arranged by Him who was subject to no time: since those things, which were individually future in point of time, have their efficient causes in the wisdom of God, wherein there are no distinctions of time. Let it not, then, be supposed that this hour came through any urgency of fate, but rather by the divine appointment. It was no necessary law of the heavenly bodies that tied to its time the passion of Christ; for we may well shrink from the thought that the stars should compel their own Maker to die. It was not the time, therefore, that drove Christ to His death, but Christ who selected the time to die: who also fixed the time, when He was born of the Virgin, with the Father, of whom He was born independently of time. And in accordance with this true and salutary doctrine, the Apostle Paul also says, But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son; Galatians 4:4 and God declares by the prophet, In an acceptable time have I heard You, and in a day of salvation have I helped you; Isaiah 49:8 and yet again the apostle, Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2 He then may say, Father, the hour has come, who has arranged every hour with the Father: saying, as it were, Father, the hour, which we fixed together for the sake of men and of my glorification among them, has come, glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You. 3. The glorification of the Son by the Father is understood by some to consist in this, that He spared Him not, but delivered Him up for us all. Romans 8:32 But if we say that He was glorified by His passion, how much more was He so by His resurrection! For in His passion our attention is directed more to His humility than to His glory, in accordance with the testimony of the apostle, who says, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross: and then he goes on to say of His glorification, Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father. This is the glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ, that took its commencement from His resurrection. His humility accordingly begins in the apostle's discourse with the passage where he says, He emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant; and reaches even to the death of the cross. But His glory begins with the clause where he says, Wherefore God also has exalted Him; and reaches on to the words, is in the glory of God the Father. For even the noun itself, if the language of the Greek codices be examined, from which the apostolic epistles have been translated into Latin, which in the latter is read, glory, is in the former read, δόξα: whence we have the verb derived in Greek for the purpose of saying here, δόξασον (glorify), which the Latin translator renders by clarifica (make illustrious), although he might as well have said glorifica (glorify), which is the same in meaning. And for the same reason, in the apostle's epistle where we find gloria, claritas might have been used; for by so doing, the meaning would have been equally preserved. But not to depart from the sound of the words, just as clarificatio (the making lustrous) is derived from claritas (lustre), so is glorificatio (the making glorious) from gloria (glory). In order, then, that the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, might be made lustrous or glorious by His resurrection, He was first humbled by suffering; for had He not died, He would not have risen from the dead. Humility is the earning of glory; glory, the reward of humility. This, however, was done in the form of a servant; but He was always in the form of God, and always shall His glory continue: yea, it was not in the past as if it were no more so in the present, nor shall it be, as if it did not yet exist; but without beginning and without end, His glory is everlasting. Accordingly, when He says, Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, it is to be understood as if He said, The hour has come for sowing the seed-grain of humility, delay not the fruit of my glory. But what is the meaning of the words that follow: That Your Son may glorify You? Was it that God the Father likewise endured the humiliation of the body or of suffering, out of which He must needs be raised to glory? If not, how then was the Son to glorify Him, whose eternal glory could neither appear diminished through human form, nor be enlarged in the divine? But I will not confine such a question within the present discourse, or draw the latter out to greater length by such a discussion.
 | Author: Augustine of Hippo Rank: Bishop AD: 430 |
Our Lord, in the form of a servant, could have prayed in silence had He pleased; but Here membered that He had not only to pray, but to teach. For not only His discourse, but His prayer also, was for His disciples’ edification, yes and for ours who read the same. Father, the hour is come, shows that all time, and every thing that He did or suffered to be done, was atHis disposing, Who is not subject to time. Not that we must suppose that this hour came by any fatal necessity, but rather by God’s ordering. Away with the notion, that the stars could doom to death the Creator of the stars.
But if He was glorified by His Passion, how much more by His Resurrection? For His Passion rather showed His humility than His glory. So we must understand, Father, the hour is come, glorify Your Son, to mean, the hour is come for sowing the seed, humility; defer not the fruit, glory.
But itis justly asked, how the Son can glorify the Father, when the eternal glory of the Father never experienced abasement in the form of man, and in respect of its own Divine perfection, does not admit of being added to. But among men this glory was less when God was only known in Judea; and therefore the Son glorified the Father, when the Gospel of Christ spread the knowledge of the Father among the Gentiles. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You; i.e. Raise Me from the dead, that by Me You may be known to the whole world. Then He unfolds further the manner in which the Son glorifies the Father; As You have given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. All flesh signifies all mankind, the part being put for the whole. And this power which is given to Christ by the Father over all flesh, must be understood with reference to His human nature.
He said, As You have given Him power over all flesh, so the Son may glorify You, i.e. make You known to all flesh which You have given Him; for You have so given it to Him, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.
Dismissing then the Arians, let us see if we are forced to confess, that by the words, That they may know You to be the only true God, He means us to understand that the Father only is the true God, in such sense as that only the Three together, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are to be called God? Does our Lord’s testimony authorize us tosay that the Father is the only true God, the Son the only true God, and the Holy Spirit the only true God, and at the same time, that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together, i.e. the Trinity, are not three Gods, but one true God? .
Or is not the order of the words, That they may know You and Jesus Christ, Whom You have sent, to be the only true God? the Holy Spirit being necessarily understood, because the Spirit is only the love of the Father and the Son, consubstantial with both. If then the Son so glorifies You as You have given Him power over all flesh, and You have given Him the power, that He should give eternal life toas many as You have given Him, and, This is life eternal, to know You, it follows that He glorifies You by making You known to all whom You have given Him. Moreover, if the knowledge of God is life eternal, the more advance we make in this knowledge, the more we make in life eternal. But in life eternal we shall never die. Where then there is no death, there will then be perfect knowledge of God; there will God be most glorified, because His glory will be greatest. Glory was defined among the ancients to be fame accompanied with praise. But if man is praised in dependence on what is said of him, how will God be praised when He shall be seen? as in the Psalm, Blessed are they who dwell in Your house: they will be always praising You. There will be praise of God without end, where will be full knowledge of God. There then shall be heard the everlasting praise of God, for there will there be full knowledge of God, and therefore full glorifying of Him.
What He said to His servant Moses, I am that I am; this we shall contemplate in the life eternal.
For when sight has made our faith truth, then eternity shall take possession of and displace our mortality.
But God is first glorified here, when He is proclaimed, made known to, and believed in, by men: I have glorified You on the earth.
Not You command Me, but, You gave Me, implying evidently grace. For what has human nature, even in the Only-Begotten, what it has not received? But how had He finished the work which had been given Him to do, when there yet remained His passion to undergo? He says He has finished it, i.e. He knows for certain that He will.
He had said above, Father, the hour is come: glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You: the order of which words shows that the Son was first tobe glorified by the Father, that the Father might be glorified by the Son. But now He says, I have glorified You; and now glorify Me, as if He had first glorified the Father, and then asked to be glorified by Him. We must understand that the first is the order in which one was to succeed the other, but that He afterwards uses a past tense, to express a thing future; the meaning being, I will glorify You on the earth, by finishing the work you have given Me todo: and now, Father, glorify Me, which is quite the same sentence with the first one, except that He adds here the mode in which He is to be glorified; with the glory which I had before the world was, with You. The order of the words is, The glory which I had with you before the world was. This has been taken by some to mean, that the human nature which was assumed by the Word, would be changed into the Word, that man would be changed into God, or, to speak more correctly, be lost in God. For no one would say that the Word of God would by that change be doubled, or even made at all greater. But we avoid this error, if we take the glory which He had with the Father before the world was, to be the glory which He predestined for Him on earth: (for if we believe Him to be the Son of man, we need not be afraid to say that He was predestined.) This predestined time of His being glorified, He now saw was arrived, that He might now receive what had been aforetime predestined, He prayed accordingly: And now, Father, glorify Me i.e. that glory which I had with you by your predestination, it is now time that I should have at your right hand.
| Author: Augustine of Hippo Rank: Bishop AD: 430 |
The listed verse explanations of the individual persons have nothing to do with the explanations of the other persons. This also applies to the Bible translations.
