Jesus talks about this glory He gives to His bride here in John 17, verse 22, where He says,
So the glory that the Father has given Him, He has given to His people. This is something that often happens in marriage. The bride, being part of the husband and having his name, shares his whole position. The glory that the Father gave Christ, we are given by Christ and we are expected to uphold that state of dignity.
Now let us consider another way to state the matter. Hear what Christ said about Himself in John 8.
What do we have in common? We share the Father's love. It is truly remarkable.
This statement affirms that God the Father has loved us as He loves His Son. It means that because of our connection to Christ, we share the same relationship with God, not fully, but we are being trained for it.
And what did Christ say about the Father's relationship? That the world may know that You have loved them as You have loved Me. That is the privilege. It works this way: it gives us access to the Father through Christ. A father is always willing to receive the bride of his son. She did not have that access to him before; there was no relationship. But once she married the son or becomes betrothed to him, she gains a legal and personal right to entry into the presence of the father, which is not completed until the marriage supper.
Now just as a father is ready to welcome his son and grant him privileges that he would not give to his most trusted employees, he now grants those privileges to the bride because she is his son's wife.
The saints have a right of entry and of access into the presence of the Father and Jesus Christ the Bridegroom. He will always listen to the bride of the Son if asked according to His will.
So there is no higher privilege than that He loves us as He loves His Son. We should remember this before we pray. As we become aware of what we are doing and who we are, we should not forget the rights and privileges that are and will be given to us as Christ's bride.
Please turn to John 17, verse 22. The moment a woman becomes a man's bride, she shares his privileges, and whatever they are, she becomes a participant in them and a sharer of them, and this is also true of the church.
What do we have in common? We share the Father's love. It is truly remarkable.
This statement affirms that God the Father has loved us as He loves His Son. It means that because of our connection to Christ, we share the same relationship with God, not fully, but we are being trained for it.
And what did Christ say about the Father's relationship? That the world may may know that You have loved them as You have loved Me. That is the privilege. It works this way: it gives us access to the Father through Christ. A father is always willing to receive the bride of his son. She did not have that access to him before; there was no relationship. But once she married the son or becomes betrothed to him, she gains a legal and personal right to entry into the presence of the father, which is not completed until the marriage supper.
Now just as a father is ready to welcome his son and grant him privileges that he would not give to his most trusted employees, he now grants those privileges to the bride because she is his son's wife.
The saints have a right of entry and of access into the presence of the Father and Jesus Christ the Bridegroom. He will always listen to the bride of the Son if asked according to His will.
So there is no higher privilege than that He loves us as He loves His Son. We should remember this before we pray. As we become aware of what we are doing and who we are, we should not forget the rights and privileges that are and will be given to us as Christ's bride.
But there is another way to understand the glorification here that also answers the question that many have asked, which is why sanctification is not mentioned here.
In John 17:22, during His Passover prayer, Jesus says to the Father, “. . . the glory which You gave Me I have given them . . ..” Jesus gave glory to the disciples, even as He had glory while He walked the earth. It was not the glory of a luminescent body, but rather the glory of a life of absolute purity and truth. Christ gave glory to the disciples through His instruction and His overwhelming example. This relates to what Paul says in II Corinthians 4:6:
Drawing this all together, it means that those whom God has called into a relationship and who thus come into His presence, like Moses did, have been glorified in the sense that our lives begin to radiate the light of Christ’s life and truth. This is why Jesus said both that He is the light of the world, but also that His disciples are the light of the world (John 8:12; 9:5; Matthew 5:14; Philippians 2:15).
When someone has spiritual understanding upon which he acts, it becomes visible—there is a glory. To glorify someone can also mean to bestow honor on them, which also applies to all whom God has called and justified—it is a tremendous honor that has been given to us. We are already partakers of the divine nature, which is another way of describing this glorification. It is the initial stage of a future glorification, but it is glorification, nonetheless. Those whom God justified, He has also glorified. We shine as lights in a darkened world.
