08/02/2024 – The Glory of the Risen Christ
John 17: Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, 2 as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He [a]should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. 6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
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One of the greatest accomplishments of the Lord Jesus in His earthly ministry is that He manifested the glory of God perfectly through His human nature. God had revealed His attributes through creation, His prophets, His works to redeem His people and the written revelation. But the glory of God had never been so perfectly revealed as it was through the person of Jesus. He demonstrated perfectly the attributes of God!
In His priestly prayer, Jesus stated: I manifested your name. To manifest means to demonstrate beyond the shadow of a doubt. To show it perfectly. It is one thing to talk about the love of God- that brings glory to God. But the ultimate glory is in the demonstration of that love. We are able to perfectly know the love of God, the grace of God – as much as it is possible for a person to know these mysteries, because of Christ!
The reason He was able to manifest the glory of God is His holiness. There was nothing in His human nature that in any way hindered the manifestation of the glory of God.
The goal of the risen Christ is that WE manifest the glory of God through the work of the Holy Spirit in us. He wants to manifest the glory of God to you, in you and through you! There is a multiplication of the glory of God through His people. This is how His glory is to fill the earth!
When we pray for the glory of God to be manifested, we usually aim for God to work through others, circumstances, and angels. But His goal is to manifest His glory to the world through us!