THE GLORY OF THE SON OF GOD
It is important to distinguish between the Person and His glory. Glory is something attaching to the Person. Whatever position or circumstances He may enter, in Person He is ever the same. In His person He is unchangeable. No glory conferred upon Him adds anything to Him personally, and however He might humble Himself it detracts nothing from His Person. There is glory which ever belonged to Him in the Godhead, and there are glories which He has acquired as man. The former is eternal and incommunicable, the latter He can and will share with others. “The glory which thou hast given me I have given them”, v 22.
In verse 5 in His prayer to the Father he says, “And now glorify me, thou Father, along with thyself, with the glory which I had along with thee before the world was”. This evidently refers to a glory He had with the Father, but which He had laid aside in coming into the world in manhood. In taking the form of a servant, He made Himself of no reputation, He, as it were, unrobed Himself, John 13: 4. It was His own act. In taking part in flesh and blood He was made a little inferior to angels, that is, as to position, Heb 2: 9. In coming into the world He took the form of a bondsman, saying, “Lo, I come … to do, O God, thy will”, Heb 10: 7.
Having accomplished the work He came to do, He returned as man into the glory from which He came. When we are with Him it will be our joy to behold His glory. “Father, as to those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”, v 24.
From Words of Grace and Comfort vol 8 (1932)