"Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall immediately glorify Him." [Jn 13:31-32]
These verses say something quite incredible regarding Jesus’ life. After it was revealed through the taking of the dipped bread that Judas was the betrayer, and after Judas went out into the night, Jesus proclaimed that now He was glorified. Everything had come to a climax, and now Jesus was glorified. The verb is in the Aorist tense which indicates a complete action. Though Jesus, in time, had not yet been crucified and resurrected, Jesus was fixed in mind and His course of action here-on-out was determined – it was as if it had already happened for His heart was perfect and steadfast in doing God’s will; as He said through Isaiah, “…therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.” [Isa 50:7b] And as it says in Romans, God is a God who “calleth those things which be not as though they were.” [Rom 4:17b]
See too Jesus’ confidence that what would happen would glorify The Father also, for He said, “and God is glorified in Him.” And further Jesus concludes that if God has in fact been glorified, then God will glorify Jesus in Himself and will immediately glorify Jesus. This statement boldly shows Jesus’ confidence of His own righteousness and goodness; so much so that Jesus here claims to have equal glory, or honor, to The Father. See that Jesus says in effect, “because I have perfectly honored my Father at all points, even up until now, therefore I know that The Father will magnify me in Himself; my Father will magnify me and shall immediately do it because I have perfectly represented and lifted Him up in all my actions. There is no distinction between my glory and The Father’s.”
This is a remarkable thing for Jesus to say. Imagine hearing these words as one of His disciples. And again, a few moments later Jesus would plainly say that He and The Father were indistinguishable in character, in glory: “If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him…he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?” [Jn 14:7; 9b] Jesus was so confident of this that He prayed out loud, “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with tine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” [Jn 17:4-5]
In Romans it says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” [Rom 3:23] Here we see a plain definition of sin: to fall short. But to fall short of what? To fall short of God’s glory. Plainly stated, sin is anything that does not perfectly represent God’s character. Glory literally means to be heavy; that is, honor, renwon, glory, majesty. Glory refers to the intrinsic worth, to the character or reputation (name) of a person; in this case, God. When God promises to show Moses His glory, along with the accompanying brightness, God tells Moses who He is. He tells Him His character/attributes. Therefore, when we say that to sin is to fall short of God’s glory; we do not mean to say, that sinning is not to shine brightly; nor that to sin is to not be exalted. But we mean to say that sin is anything which is not perfectly representative (equal) to God’s character. That which is not like God is sin.
Now combine these two truths: mainly that one; Jesus claimed to, and did in fact, glorify The Father perfectly and was a perfect image of Him in word, thought, and deed, and two; that anything which does not perfectly reflect God’s character is sin. We see from Jesus’ words, “God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall immediately glorify Him,” that Jesus so perfectly and always glorifed The Father that the glory of either one of them was indistinguishable and equal; and that because of Jesus’ life, He would forever be exalted and raised up, being given a name (glory) above all others just as Philippians says [Phil 2:9-10].
When we meditate upon this truth of Jesus’ glory it becomes exceedingly humbling to hear Jesus’ words from His prayer, when He said, “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one.” [Jn 17:22] This very same glory that Jesus earned from His own innate goodness and righteousness, which was equal to The Father, He has given to us. He has given this to us as a free gift because surely, as Romans says, we have all fallen desperately short and there is none that doeth good, no not one. Truly, we have an awesome God; truly, we have a beautiful and precious Christ who would do these things.
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