OUR BIBLE CLASS.
The Glory of Christ.
(John xvii)
In the large, upper room of that house at Jerusalem, where Jesus had eaten the Passover with His disciples, and instituted His own new feast, "The Lord's Supper," He had been speaking, and they hearing, most wonderful truths. "Arise, let us go hence," He had said (John xiv. 31). Yet He arose not, and they lingered still, held fast in solemn wonder while He spoke the parable of the vine, and warned and encouraged them concerning their future course when He had left them. And then, having assured them that He had overcome the world, and bidden them rejoice in Him, He lifted up His eyes to heaven, and prayed for Himself, for them, and for all His people to the end of time.
A wondrous prayer! He was just about to enter into His deepest sufferings; yet He says not a word of pain or sorrow. "The glory that should follow," "the joy that was set before Him," fill His heart and tongue, and all His prayer breathes of that reward—that crown of all His labours—the everlasting life of all His beloved ones.
He thought of His ancient glory, "the glory which I had with Thee before the world was" (ver. 5); and that glory was connected with His dear people, as we read in Proverbs viii. 23, where Christ, speaking as Wisdom, says, "I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was"; and "Then I was beside Jehovah, as One brought up with Him: I was daily His delight, and My delights were with the sons of men" (ver. 30, 31).
"The sons of men," as yet unborn; but "His gracious eye surveyed them" as they should in future days appear, and He was then their "Elder Brother," "the First-born among many brethren," and in His image Adam was formed as a man, "a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honour," and the lord of God's earthly creation (Psa. viii.). And Jesus looked on to the glorious time when all His people, though they have fallen, and become sinners, shall be purified and fully saved, and be "presented to God without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." It was His glory, before time, to think of this; it shall be His glory, when time is ended, to see all His desires fulfilled, and all His wishes accomplished.
Next, Jesus thought and spoke of "the glory His Father had given Him" (ver. 24)—given Him in the world, in the sight of His people. In Revelation xiii. 8, He is called "the Lamb that hath been slain from the foundation of the world"—slain in pictures and shadows; "the firstling of the flock" that Abel offered; the paschal lamb, and all the numberless sacrifices slain of old by God's command, pointed always to the Lamb of God; and He was glorified when His people, in by-gone times, like Abraham, "saw His day," His coming, and His work, and were glad in His salvation.