Before Us: The Godhead
‘Before the world existed’
4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
We are now in the final verse of Jesus’ prayer for himself. In verse 4, we saw how Jesus prayed about his work of glorifying his Father on earth. Now we see Jesus that Jesus is praying for glory in heaven. It is a mysterious verse in that it gives us a peek into the very depths of God. In verse 3, we saw that eternal life is a relationship with the only true God and Jesus Christ. Now we see the root of that relationship in the very nature of God. And there are two things we learn about God here.
(1) God is relational. Jesus says, ‘Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.’
Often, when people think of the trinity, they think of some vague idea about three mini-gods that come together to make up one big God. Or they think of God as a schizophrenic god with three personalities. But the Bible teaches that God is one (Deut. 6) and that God is also three (Matt. 28:19). The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are each fully God while being separate persons. As the hymn ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’ says, ‘God in three persons; Blessed trinity!’
Now, this truth is a mystery. I can’t understand it. No one can! But I think Jesus’ prayer here helps us to start to see what it means in practice. Jesus as God the Son has a relationship with God the Father. His deepest longing is to be reunited with his Father with the glory he had before the world existed. And though this verse doesn’t answer all our questions about the trinity, it does show us what the trinity isn’t. It isn’t merely a propositional truth. It, or rather, He is a relational being.
In verse 3, we learn that at the heart of eternal life is relationship with God. And here we see that at the heart of God is relationship. Hence, Christianity like nothing else in the world explains the why of relationships. We all desire some sort of relationship. It’s a part of being human. And here we see where that desire comes from. Within God himself is perfection of relationship. The Father and the Son long to be together with all of their glory.
When you feel the joy of being with one you dearly love – a spouse, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, a friend, a parent, a child, a sibling, a family member – you are feeling something that originated within God. You were created by a relational God who in himself contains the joy, the comfort, the love, the humor, the peace, and all of the good things of relationship. Relationship flows from him because it is his very nature.
(2) God is eternal. Jesus says, ‘Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.’
We often idolize relationships between beautiful people in the media. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie is one in recent years. But even as I mention them now, I feel out of date. There’s always a new couple in the media that replaces the old one. And the reason they go out of fad is because relationships aren’t eternal in quality or permanence. They become dull. They decay in their quality. And they die out. They are never permanent. They are good things, but even good things get old.
But here, Jesus reveals to us a relationship that never grows dull or dies out. It’s an eternal relationship within the very being of God. God the Son and God the Father in eternal relationship with each other. No decay. No bad days. At the heart of this relationship is glory. Glory as defined by Exodus 34:6-7. Glory, meaning a constant, faithful, covenantal love between God the Son and God the Father. And unlike God’s glory when displayed to us sinful human beings, this is a glory where both Father and Son are all love, all the time with no sin to forgive or to punish. Pure eternal love.
It’s hard to imagine this kind of a relationship. There are no earthly comparisons. All we can do is stand in awe as we contrast it to our own monotonous and temporary relationships. Our response must be worship. Not a desire to figure everything out, but worship. The trinity isn’t there to inspire scholarly prowess, but humble adoration.
God is relational. God is eternal. ‘Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.’
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