I Have Glorified You on the Earth
“I Have Glorified You on the Earth”
A Meditation on John 17
On the evening of Great Thursday, or the Last Thursday, when the Lord Christ was on the way to Gethsemane, and from there to trial and crucifixion, He said to God the Father, as though presenting a report of His service on earth:
“I have glorified You on the earth.”
Here the Lord Christ presents a report of His service to God the Father at the end of the period of His incarnation on earth, saying to Him:
“I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17:4).
Here we ask, from a theological point of view:
What does it mean that a person glorifies God?
It is obvious that when you glorify God, you do not grant Him glory, nor do you give Him glory, because God lacks no glory and is not in need of glory that He might take from you. The Lord Christ Himself said: “I do not receive glory from men” (John 5:41).
This reminds me of what some say, that God created human beings in order that they might glorify Him. Certainly not. God is not in need of glory that He might receive from human beings. Before He created humans, He was glorified by His angels, and before He created the angels, He was glorified—how?
God is glorified by His divine attributes: glorified in His eternity, glorified in His omnipotence, glorified in His boundlessness, for He is not limited by place or time, glorified in His greatness, in His indescribable beauty, in His holiness, in His wisdom, in His unlimited knowledge, in His power of creation. In short, the glory of God is in His divinity.
So what does the phrase “I have glorified You on the earth” mean? It means: I have manifested Your glory to people.
I have declared it to them. I have made people know Your glory. It does not mean granting Him a glory He does not have. I say plainly:
If a person’s glory is not in himself, then the glory others grant him from outside is nothing. The psalmist spoke truly when he said: “All the glory of the king’s daughter is within” (Psalm 45:13), even though she is clothed with gold-embroidered garments and adorned with many ornaments.
Here we may ask by way of example: What does it mean for a person to receive an academic degree? Does it mean that the college or university has granted him something he does not possess, or that it has testified to his academic level—whether bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate? That is why it is called a certificate: an academic certificate, meaning a testimony to the knowledge he already has.
If this is the case with human beings, then why do we say of God—blessed be His name—that we glorify Him? That is, we acknowledge His glory. Perhaps this is also what the Jews meant when they said to the man born blind: “Give glory to God” (John 9:24)—that is, acknowledge God’s glory, do not deny it, and do not blaspheme against Him. Likewise, when we say in the Psalm: “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Your name give glory” (Psalm 115:1), meaning: manifest Your glory to people. This meaning is made clear in the Psalm:
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork” (Psalm 19:1).
Their way of glorifying God is that they declare His glory, proclaim it, and speak of the work of His hands. Thus, when we glorify God, we proclaim His glory, declare it, manifest it to people, and speak about Him. With this meaning we understand the Lord Christ’s words to God the Father:
“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world” (John 17:6).
I manifested to them a new name for You: that You are the Father, their heavenly Father who loves them. They did not know You before as I made You known to them. Perhaps their relationship with You was one of fear, ever since their father Adam hid from You and said: “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid” (Genesis 3:10). But I made Your name known to them: “God is love” (1 John 4:16). I made them know that You are their Father, and that You dwell in them by Your Holy Spirit.
“I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26).
Yes, thus Christ glorified God the Father: by making people know Him, since they did not truly know Him. Therefore He said: “O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You” (John 17:25). And my glorifying You is that I make them know You, so that they may know You: “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God” (John 17:3).
This is your mission, my brother the servant: to make your disciples and all those around you know God—not merely the God of books, but the God of life, the God who is within them; the God who is with them, though they do not see Him or perceive His presence. As Saint Augustine said to Him: “You were with me, but in my wretchedness I was not with You.” This is the God of whom the Gospel of John says: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1:5), the One about whom John the Baptist proclaimed: “There stands One among you whom you do not know” (John 1:26).
Thus we glorify God: we make people know Him so that they may love Him. This is what Christ did when He said: “I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it” (John 17:26).
You are the loving Father who knows what they need and gives it to them before they ask: “Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things… and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:32–33). You are the heavenly Father who has written on the gate of His heaven: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). You are the One who cares for the birds of the air and feeds them, though they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; and the One who clothes the lilies of the field with beauty greater than Solomon in all his glory (Matthew 6:26–29). You are the heavenly Father who “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
I know, my brother the servant, that you make people know God. But which God do you make them know? It is surely the image that is in your mind. May it be a true image. For if you give them a false image of God, your service does not glorify Him. Therefore, you must know Him in order to make people know Him. Thus the Lord Christ said: “But I have known You… and I have declared to them Your name” (John 17:25–26). Have you, my brother, known Him?
How many servants have not yet known God, yet they try to make people know Him! Have you known God before making people know Him? Have you known Him with a true, deep knowledge that made you love Him and abide in Him? Have you said with Saint Paul the Apostle: “What things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ… for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:7–8)? Have you known the Lord with this experiential, heartfelt knowledge?
And is the knowledge you give people about Him knowledge that leads them to love, or merely intellectual knowledge that does not pass from the mind to the heart and to life with God? If so, then know that service is not merely knowledge, and knowledge alone does not glorify God. See what the Lord says to the Father:
“I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26).
By this love they enter the Kingdom of God, as God reigns over their hearts and is glorified in them. By love they live with God, and their lives reveal that they are God’s work, so that people may see their good works and glorify their Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:16).
Is this how you are in your life and in your service? Is God glorified in your life, and is God glorified in your service? Is God the center of the service you offer? In all that you do and all that you say, do you manifest His name to people, bind them to His love, and make them long for Him and rejoice in His fellowship? Or is your service detached from God—mere information and knowledge, or mere activities, meetings, encounters, culture, and study, which you call service—while those you serve do not have in them the love with which He loved you and loved them?
Can you, in all this, say to Him with Christ: “I have glorified You on the earth”?
Ask yourself: In what way is God glorified through you? Has the Kingdom of God spread through you? Have people known God, loved Him, and abided in Him because of you? Were you the vessel that God filled, and the mouth through which the Spirit of God spoke?
How was Christ able to glorify the Father? We said that He made people know Him and love Him. What else? He presented to people the beautiful image of God, for He is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3), “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son… He has declared Him” (John 1:18). They saw all holiness in Him—indeed, they saw God the Father. He said to them clearly: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). They saw in Him the beautiful image of God in all its perfection and beauty, and thus they loved God in Him.
Does your life present the image of God, by which God is glorified? Is God glorified by your life as He is by your words? Or are you a stumbling block to others, so that because of you people blaspheme the name of God, as Saint Paul said to the Romans: “For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you” (Romans 2:24)?
How beautiful it is when the children of God become a cause for glorifying His holy name through their exemplary lives that people admire, giving everyone a beautiful image of the teachings of their faith and their loftiness.
The Lord Christ glorified the Father through this beautiful image He presented to people. He also glorified Him through His preaching and through His miracles, manifesting the power of God, for He Himself is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24). He showed them God Almighty, who did works that no one had done before (John 15:24), and He attributed these works to the Father, saying: “The Father who dwells in Me does the works” (John 14:10), and “the works which the Father has given Me to finish” (John 5:36).
I am not asking you to be a miracle-worker like Christ, for not all have gifts of power (1 Corinthians 12:29). But I simply say that the servant whose prayer is answered glorifies God through him.
The Lord Christ also glorified the Father on the Cross, when He paid the price of divine justice and became a sin offering, a burnt offering, and a Passover. There He presented the most glorious image of love, self-giving, and redemption: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” (John 3:16). As He glorified the Father on the Cross, the Son was also glorified, showing us that suffering is the path to glory, as the Apostle said: “If indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Romans 8:17).
Christ was glorified through suffering, and His most glorious image is His image on the Cross—the image of love in the depth of glory. Saint Paul loved this image and said: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
Christ glorified the Father on the Cross through obedience: “He became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the Cross” (Philippians 2:8). We too can glorify the Father through obedience, love, and self-giving, as an image of Christ on the Cross—by service, by building His Kingdom, by making people know Him and drawing them to His love, and by presenting His image to people in practical life.
But the worst thing in service is when the servant seeks to glorify himself rather than God. This is no longer true service, because God is no longer the goal; the self has taken His place. Thus the servant seeks to appear, grow, and be glorified by others, rather than being last of all, servant of all, and slave of all, as Christ said (Mark 9:35). The Lord Christ Himself “did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:26–28).
John the Baptist gave us a noble example of how the self disappears so that glory may be to God alone, saying: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). Saint Paul said: “That the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). And Saint Peter, when he healed the lame man at the gate, turned the people’s eyes to Christ, saying: “Why do you look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?” (Acts 3:12).
In contrast stands King Herod, who accepted words of praise; “Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died” (Acts 12:23).
Finally, I conclude with this word:
If we glorify God on earth, God will glorify us in heaven—and even here as well: “Moreover whom He predestined, these He also glorified” (Romans 8:30); “If indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Romans 8:17); He “called us to His eternal glory” (1 Peter 5:10), that we may be “partakers of the glory that will be revealed” and “receive the crown of glory that does not fade away” (1 Peter 5:1, 4). “In bringing many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10).
How great is the glory God has given us and continues to give us.
Do we, then, glorify God on earth—He who has glorified us, we who are dust and ashes, created us in His image and likeness, made us temples of His Holy Spirit, and granted us the gifts of the Spirit?
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