John 17:5 | Fish Out of Water

John 17; John 17:5 (NKJV): “And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world began.”

1) Truly God and truly man

Jesus, being fully God, left the glory that He had from all eternity, and stepped down into our fallen world. John 17:5 provides us with such an incredibly powerful picture: Jesus--who existed with God before the world began--left His glory to dwell among us. And, at the same time, we also know that God alone is God and that there is no other; “The Lord our God, the Lord is One.” (Deuteronomy 6:4). There are not multiple gods to be worshiped--there is only One. And to be God means one is absolutely outside all bounds of confinement--that there is nothing that can inhibit or restrict one’s power.

We can make ourselves the god of our own lives if we want to, but, in the end, we cannot prolong our life more than what we are due. Thus, such a definition of Godhood cannot apply to ourselves. But such a definition is evidenced by the God of the Bible, who is stated to be entirely holy. God’s power is directly tied to His holiness because there is nothing that can prevent Him from doing good--not even death. The Living God is entirely out of the grasp of the chains of sin, making Him the definition of goodness and perfection. He is newness-incarnate. The perfection of God’s nature is what makes Him the only One who is truly worthy of being glorified.

And it’s in this untouchable realm that Jesus shared glory with God before the world began. Christ simply says that He had glory with the Father before creation, implying that this had been their eternal state of existence. God did not, does not, and never will, need our worship of Him, or anything we or this world could ever offer. We define this as God’s aseity; “the quality or state of being self-derived or self-originated; the absolute self-sufficiency, independence, and autonomy of God” (Merriam-Webster). If God was perfect and entirely glorified before our existence, what makes us think that changes when we enter the picture?