I Have Glorified You on the Earth — John 17 Part 1

Christ declares “I have glorified You on the earth” meaning that He revealed the Father’s glory to people — not by giving God new glory as if lacking, but by acknowledging and uncovering His eternal attributes before humans: His holiness, power, love, justice and knowledge.

Glory as manifestation not addition
The lecturer explains with a practical analogy: just as a university recognizes a student’s knowledge and does not add that knowledge to him, so the person proclaims and witnesses to God’s glory — not that he gives God glory but that he manifests and acknowledges it.

How Christ revealed the Father’s glory
By His holy words, by His exemplary life, by His miracles, and by the redemption on the cross — all practical images of God’s glory that caused people to love God’s name and trust in Him.

The work You gave me to finish
The verse “the work which You gave Me to do I have finished” indicates full completion and reaching perfection in faithfulness: Christ completed the work to its perfection, while entering into partnership with the Holy Spirit. The believer is called to work in the same spirit — partnership with God, not an individual work apart from His grace.

Practical and spiritual dimensions of service
Completion includes personal life, family, studies, profession and spiritual life. Faithfulness is not limited to public ministry only but to all the responsibilities of a person toward himself and others.

Biblical examples
Joseph and his role in preserving life during the famine, and David bringing the name of the Lord into the field before Goliath, are two examples of those who fulfilled God’s work in different spheres and made the Lord’s name present.

A call to self-examination and witness
A practical question left for the listener: how many people came to know God through you? Is God’s name on your tongue in your conversations with people, or are you ashamed to mention Him? Witnessing is showing God’s name in a way people will love it so that they love the Lord’s name.

The Coptic Orthodox dimension
Emphasis on partnership with the Holy Spirit, the holiness of Christian life, building the kingdom through service and personal sanctification, and the belief that the person is called to be a temple of the Holy Spirit and to share in God’s glory by revealing His love and truth to others.

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