John 17:1Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

So too with Lazarus, when He states the reason: “I said this for the sake of the people standing here, that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me,” Jn 11:42. You will say that this was fitting among the Jews. But why was it needed among the disciples? It was fitting among the disciples as well. Those who after so much said, “Now we see that Thou knowest all things,” needed confirmation more than all. Yet the evangelist does not call this act prayer. What does he say? “He lifted up His eyes to heaven.” Thus, according to his words, this was rather a conversation with the Father. If in other places he speaks of prayer and presents Christ now bending His knees, now lifting His eyes to heaven, do not be troubled. From this we learn with what zeal we ought to offer prayers. We learn, even while standing, to look upward not only with bodily eyes, but also with the eyes of the soul. We also learn to bend the knees with contrition of heart. Indeed, Christ came not only to reveal Himself, but also to teach ineffable virtue. A teacher must teach not by words alone, but also by deeds. Let us then hear what He says here. “Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.” Again He shows us that He does not go to the Cross unwillingly. Otherwise, how would He pray that this come to pass? How would He call the Cross glory, not only for the One crucified, but also for the Father? So it truly was. Not only the Son was glorified, but also the Father. Before the Cross even the Jews did not know Him: “Israel,” it is said, “does not know Me,” Is 1:3. But after the Cross the whole inhabited world ran to Him.

For not only the Son was glorified, but also the Father. Before His Cross even the Jews did not know Him, as it is said, “Israel did not know Me,” Is 1:3. But after the Cross the whole inhabited world ran to Him. He also shows what His glory and the Father’s glory consist in. The glory of God is that every flesh should believe and be benefited. For grace will not be limited only to the Jews, but will extend to the whole inhabited world. He said this because He was going to send them to the Gentiles. So that they might not consider this an innovation displeasing to the Father, He declares that authority over every flesh was given to Him by the Father. Before this He had said to them, “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles,” Mt 10:5.

In this also He again showed us in Himself the pattern of excellent conduct. Indeed, I think that one who strives for piety must know that he should always gladly converse with the brethren about what is necessary and profitable. Or, if this does not take place, he should hasten to spend the use of speech in prayers to God, so that no excess of words may creep in.

Only in this way can the good order of the tongue proceed along its proper path. Who does not know how easily much that deserves blame is very often introduced into idle talk? Thus one wise man said: From many words you will not escape sin, but by guarding your lips you will be wise (Prov 10:19).

Besides this, you may marvel here at something else which brings us no small benefit. He begins His prayer with His own glory and the Father's. After this He immediately joins and introduces the prayer for us.

What is the cause of this? He again instructs the well-disposed and God-loving man, and makes him truly skilled in prayer. Just as we must do good and perform everything not in order to turn zeal for it toward our own glory, but toward the glory of the Father of all, I mean God, so also in prayer we must first pray for God's glory before praying for ourselves.

For He says: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father Who is in heaven (Mt 5:16). And when the occasion disposes us to prayer, we should pray first for the glory of God, as Christ Himself certainly teaches: Pray then like this: Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread (Mt 6:9-11).

This serves as a pattern of prayer for us. Truly it was fitting that the leader and teacher for us of every good thing and of the way of life that leads to God should be no mediator, no Angel, but Christ Himself (Is 63:9). For by the word of the prophet we are called, and truly are, taught by God (Is 54:13).

But we must also examine with all possible skill what He says to His Father. Those who devote themselves to the interpretation of this saying should, I think, observe the exactness of the doctrines with special care.

He says: Father, the hour has come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee. As far as the outward construction of the speech is concerned, one might perhaps suppose that the Speaker appears to be lacking glory. But if one considers the dignity of the Only-begotten, it will, in my opinion, be easy to avoid such wretched thoughts.

It is utterly foolish to think that the Son needs any glory or lacks the honor proper to Him, though He is the Lord of glory, as the God-inspired Scriptures call Him (1 Cor 2:8; Jas 2:1). Yet elsewhere also He may be seen saying to the Father: Father, glorify Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world existed (Jn 17:5).

Who could still doubt this? Who is so devoid of understanding and so hostile to all truth as not to understand and confess that the Only-begotten is not deprived of divine glory, so far as concerns His own nature?

But He was in the form and equality of all things with God and the Father, and did not consider equality with God a thing to be seized (Phil 2:6). Yet He descended into our lowliness and emptied Himself, bearing this most inglorious body and clothing Himself in the likeness of human insignificance out of love.

When the fitting time appeared and arrived, it was proper for Him, having fulfilled what was required by the mystery of the Incarnation, to be clothed again in His original and essential glory. He had saved the whole world, that is, saved those living in it unto life and the knowledge of God.

In this also He again shows the Father as One Who consents and wills together with Him. Therefore He turns to Him, saying that He, the Son, must without doubt ascend again into the dignity of His own nature.

In what way does He ascend? Evidently as the accomplisher of the works of the Godhead, and as One Who appeared with flesh. He is not a servant of another's activity, but is the Power and Wisdom of God and the Father. Thus, and not otherwise, we must think that He performed the works of the Godhead with authority.

All things are from God, yet not without the Son. How could God the Father accomplish anything proper to Him, if His Wisdom and Power, that is, the Son, were not present with Him and acting with Him in everything in which the manifestation of activity must be conceived?

Therefore the wise Evangelist, the author of the book now being interpreted, says at its beginning that all things came to be through Him, and without Him nothing came to be (Jn 1:3).

The concept of consubstantiality compels us consistently to confess that all things are from the Father, but certainly through the Son in the Spirit. And after He had slain death and corruption and destroyed the dominion of the devil, He was to enlighten the whole earth by guidance through the Spirit. Through this He would already be manifested as truly God by nature and true.

Therefore He necessarily says: Father, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee. No one who has understanding will say that the Son asks glory from the Father as, perhaps, a man asks from a man, and promises in return to give it to the Father. It is most improper, or rather wholly mad, to think this about God.

But the Savior said this to show that His glory is most necessary for the Father, so that He may be acknowledged as consubstantial. It would be a cause of dishonor for God the Father if He did not have as His own Son, born and proceeding from Him, One such as God from God by nature ought to be.

So, I think, it brings Him glory and praise if He has His Son such as He Himself is understood and called to be. Therefore the Father is glorified in the glory of the Son, as I have just said. He communicates glory in that, through the works, it is made known from whom and from what kind of Father the Only-begotten was born.

In return He receives it, as it were, in that it is again made known whose Father He truly is, and of what kind of Son. Consequently, the dignity of glory, essential and natural, must pass from the Father to the Son, and from the Son to the Father.

If someone perhaps supposes that, because of the abasement in His becoming man, the Lord here also calls Himself less than He is in Himself by nature, for this too was His custom, he will not depart at all from sound reasoning. Yet he will not fully and exactly disclose the meaning of the words being interpreted.

If He were asking glory from the Father only for Himself, such a request would present nothing unnatural for human limitation. But since He promises that He also, on His part, will glorify the Father, is there not a necessity rather to agree with the explanations we have just given?

When He says, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son," He shows that every time, both when He did something and when He allowed something to be done, was ordered by Him who is not subject to time. Let no one think that this hour came by some necessity of fate. It came by divine ordering.

No necessity in the heavens demanded the Passion of Christ. God forbid that the stars should compel their Creator to die. Time did not drive Christ toward death. Christ chose the time when He would accept death.

Together with the Father, from whom He is begotten apart from time, He also chose the time when He would be born of the Virgin. Therefore let Him say, "Father, the hour has come," who with the Father ordered all hours. It is as though He said, "Father, the hour chosen for the sake of mankind and for My glorification has come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee."

If He was glorified by suffering, how much more by His Resurrection? For His suffering showed His humility far more than His glory. Humility is the gaining of glory, and glory is the reward of humility. Thus the words, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son," should be understood as meaning that the hour has come to sow the seeds of humility. Do not, then, neglect the fruits, which are glory.

We must ask how the Son can glorify the Father, if the Father's eternal glory is neither diminished in human form nor increased in the perfection of the Godhead. In itself, the Father's glory can neither be diminished nor increased. Yet among men it was certainly less when God was known only in Judea.

Thus the Son glorified the Father when the Gospel of Christ spread the knowledge of the Father among the Gentiles.

If the Son had only died and had not risen, He would certainly not have been glorified by the Father, nor would He have glorified the Father. But now, glorified by the Father through the Resurrection, He glorifies the Father by the preaching of the Resurrection. "Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee," as though He said, "Raise Me from the dead, that through Me Thou mayest become known to the whole world."

After He had said why He had spoken all these things to them, namely, that they might have peace in Him while enduring tribulations in this world, and after He had called them to take courage because He had overcome the world, He ended His discourse to them. Then He directed His words to the Father and began to pray to Him.

The Evangelist continues and says: "When Jesus had spoken these words, He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son." The Lord, the Only-begotten and coeternal with the Father, in the form of a servant and from the form of a servant (Phil 2:7), could have prayed silently if there had been need. Yet He willed to show Himself as praying, because He remembered that He is our Teacher.

Therefore He also revealed to us the prayer which He offered for us. For the instruction of such a Teacher to His disciples consists not only in His words addressed to them, but also in His prayer to the Father on their behalf. If His words were useful to those who were to hear them, then surely they are useful to us when we read them.

So when He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son," He showed that every time, and everything He did or allowed to be done at any time, was ordered by Him who is not subject to time. Whatever happens in the future at different times has its causes in the Wisdom of God, in whom there is no time.

Therefore let no one believe that this hour came by the demand of fate, rather than by the order established by God. Nor did the motion of the stars determine the Passion of Christ. It is unlawful to think that the stars determine the hour of death for the Creator of the stars.

Thus time did not determine when Christ should die. Christ determined the time when He would die, just as, together with the Father, from whom He is begotten outside time, He chose the time when He would be born of the Virgin.

In accord with this true and saving teaching the Apostle also spoke: "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son" (Gal 4:4). God also said through the prophet: "In an acceptable time I have heard Thee, and in the day of salvation I have helped Thee" (Is 49:8; cf. 2 Cor 6:2). Again the Apostle says: "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor 6:2).

Therefore He says, "Father, the hour has come," who together with the Father ordered all times. It is as though He said, "Father, the hour has come which We together appointed for men and for My glorification among men. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee."

Some understand the Son's being glorified by the Father to mean that He did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all (cf. Rom 8:32). Yet if He is said to have been glorified in suffering, how much more was He glorified in the Resurrection?

In His suffering, His humility is entrusted to us more than His glory. The Apostle bears witness to this when he says, "He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (Phil 2:8). Then he continues and speaks already of glorification: "Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. In heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father" (Phil 2:9-11).

This is the glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ, which began with His Resurrection. Thus the Apostle begins to speak of His humility where he says, "He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross." He speaks of glorification where he says, "Therefore God also has highly exalted Him," and continues to the words, "in the glory of God the Father."

If one consults the Greek codices, from whose language the Apostolic Epistles were translated into Latin, the word read here as gloria is there read as doxa. From this in Greek comes the verb doxason, which the Latin translator renders as clarifica, "make manifest," although he could also have used glorifica, "glorify," which is the same in meaning.

Therefore, in the Apostle's epistle, where the word gloria is used, the word claritas could also have been used, and it would have carried the same sense. Yet the particular sound of the words is preserved. As clarificatio is formed from claritas, so glorificatio is formed from gloria.

Thus, that the mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Tim 2:5), might shine forth or be glorified through the Resurrection, He was first humbled in the Passion. For He would not have risen from the dead had He not died.

Humility serves for the obtaining of glory, and glorification is the reward of humility. But this happened to Him in the form of a servant. In the form of God (Phil 2:6-7), He always had glory and always will have it.

Indeed, His glory was not such that afterward it was no longer present, nor did it become something it had not been before. It was eternal glory, without beginning and without end.

As for His words, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son," they should be understood as though He said, "There was an hour for humility to be sown. Do not delay the hour to reap the fruit of glory."

But what did He mean when He continued, "that Thy Son also may glorify Thee"? Did God the Father also undergo the humility of the flesh or suffering, by which He had to be glorified? How, then, will the Son glorify Him, if His eternal glory could not be lessened in human form and could not be increased in the form of God?

That the Father glorified the Son in the form of a servant (cf. Phil 2:7), which form the Father raised from the dead and placed at His right hand, is proved by the very nature of what happened. No Christian doubts this glorification according to the form of man.

But because He said not only, "Father, glorify Thy Son," but also added, "that Thy Son also may glorify Thee," the question deserves attention. How will the Son glorify the Father, if the Father's glory is eternal, was not diminished in human form, and could not increase in its divine perfection?

In itself, the Father's glory could become neither less nor greater. Yet among men it was certainly small when God was known only in Judea (cf. Ps 75:2), before the servants of the Lord praised His name from the rising of the sun to its setting (cf. Ps 112:3).

But because this happened through the Gospel of Christ, so that through the Son the Father became known to the Gentiles, the Son certainly glorified the Father. Yet if the Son had only died and had not risen, He would certainly not have been glorified by the Father, nor would He have glorified the Father.

Now, glorified by the Father through the Resurrection, He glorifies the Father through the preaching of His Resurrection. He said, "Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee," as though saying, "Raise Me up, that through Me Thou mayest become known throughout the whole world."

By His coming He would destroy their deficiencies through the baptism of death, as He Himself said: “The hour is coming and has now come. Glorify Thy Son, and Thy Son shall glorify Thee.” He asked this not as one who needed to receive it. Rather, intending to bring the first ordering of creation to perfection, He asked for the glory with which He was clothed when creation was being clothed with glory. For as He ordered the first creatures by grace so that they were without defect in the glory and splendor with which He Himself was clothed, so let their final ordering, by mercy, be without blemish in the glory with which He was being clothed. Therefore this is precisely what He indicated when He said, “Give Me,” namely, what He had before creation with the Father and in the Father. Scripture also affirms the same and says clearly: “Glorify Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the creation of the world.” And by the words, “Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee,” He indicated not His own need, but the free will that stood in need. Therefore the Father does not receive glory from the Son as though He needed it. Nor, if the Son is glorified by the Father, does He have any need of this glory.

It is the time that the incarnate God appointed for the manhood He assumed. “Glorify Thy Son” through sufferings for the world. For Me, as Lord, it will be glory to suffer for My servants and to show men My great love for mankind. Then all nations will know that I am God and will flee to Me. The Apostle Paul also says that Jesus Christ loved us so much that He gave Himself for us, Gal 2:20; Eph 5:2. Or again: “Glorify Thy Son” by revealing, during My sufferings, wondrous and fearful signs, and thereby showing that I am Thy true Son. The same was said in the explanation of the saying, “Now the Son of Man is glorified,” Jn 13:31. “That Thy Son also may glorify Thee” with His own glory, since Thou too wilt be glorified when all nations believe in Me. They will believe also in Thee because Thou didst not spare Thy Son for them. My glory will also be Thy glory. In desiring to be glorified, Jesus Christ showed that He goes voluntarily to death on the Cross. Then He states the reason why He desires to be glorified.

Those who nailed Him to the Cross confess Him to be the true Son of God. “Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.” The Lord said, “Glorify Thy Son,” testifying that He is the Son not only in name, but by a distinctive property, according to which He said, “Thy.” Many of us are sons of God, but He is not the Son of God in this sense. He is Son properly and truly: by origin, not by adoption; in reality, not by name; by birth, not by creation. And when He was glorified, the confession of the centurion reached the truth. When the centurion confesses Him to be the true Son of God, no one who believes in Him will doubt what even His persecutors cannot deny. Perhaps it is a testimony to the Son’s weakness that He awaited glorification from One who is greater, since He Himself said, “My Father is greater than I,” Jn 14:28? One must beware lest the honor of the Father diminish the glory of the Son. But to the words, “Glorify Thy Son,” there is added, “that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.” Therefore the Son is not weak, if in response to glorification He gives glory in return. Thus the request to be glorified and the glorification given in return take nothing from the Father and in no way weaken the Son.

He lifted His eyes to heaven to show us that when we pray, we too must lift our eyes to heaven. We must have no earthly or worldly thought, but dedicate mind and heart to the care and contemplation of what is heavenly and above the world.

He bent His knees so that we also would bend ours during prayer, humbling ourselves and showing by kneeling that we have fallen into sin.

"Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come." What hour? The hour of His Passion.

Why, then, does He ask to be glorified at the time of suffering? The suffering of Jesus Christ scandalized both those who saw it and those who heard of Him, as He Himself foretold: "You will all be offended because of Me this night" (Mt 26:31).

Who would have acknowledged as God Him whom he saw despised, blasphemed, crucified, and hanging between two thieves? The Cross caused offense, and the Crucified One was regarded as folly.

"We preach Christ crucified," says Paul, "to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness" (1 Cor 1:23).

Therefore, to abolish this offense, and so that all might believe that He Himself, suffering and hanging on the Cross, is the Son of God, He prayed as man to God His Father. He asked that He be glorified in the very hour in which He suffered.

His prayer was heard. For when He suffered, the veil of the temple was torn, the sun was darkened, the earth shook, rocks were split, tombs were opened, and the dead arose.

All this extinguished the offense of the Passion and the Cross. Therefore all who saw what had taken place returned beating their breasts and cried aloud: "Truly this was the Son of God" (Lk 23:48; Mt 27:54).

Paul, who spoke with divine words, preached this in the same way: "We see Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor" (Heb 2:9).

The God-man asked for this glory not only so that He alone might be glorified, but that His Father might be glorified together with Him. For after saying, "Glorify Thy Son," He immediately adds, "that Thy Son also may glorify Thee."

The Father is glorified when He glorifies the Son, for the nature and essence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one. Therefore the glory, power, worship, and service of Their Godhead are one.

Whoever glorifies one Person of the Holy Trinity with true faith glorifies together with Him the other two Persons, because of the unity and indivisibility of Their Godhead.

The Son is the glory of the Father, for He is "the brightness of His glory and the image of His hypostasis" (Heb 1:3).

Just as a ray of light born from the sun is the brightness of the sun's radiance and the image of its illuminating property, so the Son, begotten of the Father, is the brightness of the Father's glory and the image of His paternal hypostasis.

When you believe in the Son of God, you necessarily believe also in God the Father. For as the Father is not without the Son, so the Son is not without the Father.

By the surpassing glory of God, we barely know and believe that He is by nature Father of the Son. All creatures proclaim Him Creator, Maker, almighty, and all-wise. But the Son alone proclaims Him Father.

When we believe that Jesus Christ is by nature the Son of God, and glorify and worship Him as Son, we also believe in, glorify, and worship together with Him the Father who begot Him.

For this reason Christ said, "Glorify Thy Son," that is, reveal Me to those who do not know Me. Show that I am Thy only-begotten Son, "that Thy Son also may glorify Thee."

For if the world believes that Thou hast a consubstantial Son, it will glorify Thee not only as Creator, but also as Father of the Son by nature.

The following words of the Master's prayer also explain this thought, namely, that when the Son is glorified, the Father is glorified together with Him: "As Thou hast given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to all whom Thou hast given Him."

For no sinful man can ever experience what filled the soul of the God-man, who gave His human life for the sins of others, for the sins of the whole world. Let us therefore bow before the majesty and holiness of this sacrifice. Let us lay aside every boldness in conveying to readers, in other words, the content of this prayer. Let us read it in the very words recorded by the Evangelist, who wrote not only from memory, but also by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

The first prayer is solemn, in the presence of the disciples. The second is hidden, in the solitude of the garden. The first is victorious, the second sorrowful. The first is called the high-priestly prayer, since its chief subject is Christ’s approaching great sacrifice and its boundless meaning for the world. “He lifted up His eyes to heaven.” This is the natural impulse of the soul in prayer toward the contemplation of the living God, whose majesty is especially manifested in the heavens, cf. Jn 11:41; Acts 7:55. “Father, the hour has come.” This is the hour of the Lord’s sufferings and death, as a transition to His heavenly glory, cf. Jn 12:27 and parallel passages. “Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.” By the glorification of the Son is meant His ascent into the heavenly glory of the Father, see Jn 17:5. By the glorification of the Father by the Son is meant the revelation of God’s glory through the acts of the glorified God-man. This takes place in the establishment and spreading of the new Kingdom of God on earth, Jn 17:2. Compare the notes on Jn 13:31 and Jn 12:28. But since this glorification is the fruit or consequence of Christ’s redemptive death, the glorification of the Son by the Father and of the Father by the Son means their glory in general. It is the glory revealed in mankind’s redemption by the Son’s death, according to the Father’s love both for the Son and for mankind, Jn 3:16. This general thought is unfolded further in Jn 17:2-5 in more particular features.

Therefore He made known to us the prayer which He poured forth for us. With such a Teacher, not only His discourse with the disciples edifies them, but also His prayer for them. If it edified those who heard the words of the prayer then, it certainly edifies us who read what was written."

With desires for the edification of the soul, and with feelings of deep reverence before the divine Intercessor, let us also approach the understanding of the Savior's prayer to God the Father.

There are three chief parts in the prayer of our Savior. First is His prayer for Himself (Jn 17:1-5). Then comes His prayer for the Apostles (Jn 17:6-19), and finally His prayer for all believers (Jn 17:20-26).

"Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son." What is this hour, so important that the Son of God points it out to the heavenly Father?

It is the hour of which He had said earlier: "My time has not yet come" (Jn 7:6). And because the hour had not yet come, "no one laid hands on Him" (Jn 7:30), and "no one seized Him," though they had come to take Him (Jn 8:20).

It is the hour of which He said to the Father: "Father, save Me from this hour. But for this purpose I have come to this hour" (Jn 12:27).

It is the time appointed in the counsel of God for His sufferings and death. It is the time for offering Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind.

He knows this hour and does not turn away from it. He knows this hour and speaks of it, because it is appointed by the will of God the Father and by His own will.

"Glorify Thy Son." Reveal Me to those who do not know or understand My great work.

The Cross, which the Son of God was ready to ascend, was a stumbling block in the eyes of the Jews and foolishness in the eyes of the Gentiles. For both it was the instrument of a dishonorable death.

"Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" said the Prophet concerning the sufferings of the Messiah (Is 53:1).

The Son of God, who appeared in the world for men, prays to His Father. He asks that from the darkness of dishonor into which He plunges Himself for men, the light of His glory may shine before the face of the world.

He asks that men may see the lofty and weighty meaning of His sufferings on the Cross for the whole universe. In them divine love for men is revealed, sacrificing itself to reconcile God's righteousness with sinful mankind.

He asks also that men may see with what glory the Son must be exalted for the works of His love toward men (Phil 2:3).

The glorification of the Son by the Father, for which the Son prays, was to begin even on Golgotha with dread signs. Then it was revealed by the resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead, His ascension into heaven, and the sending down of the Holy Spirit.

Through the Spirit the mysteries of the Cross of Christ were proclaimed to men (Heb 2:9-10). Man by himself understands little of his own need for salvation, and still less the mysteries of the saving God (2 Cor 4:6).

"That Thy Son also may glorify Thee." The glory of God is the highest purpose of every being. The Son of God desires this glory also. He desires to be glorified for the glory of God.

How will the Son glorify God the Father? In His resurrection and in the sending down of the Holy Spirit, men will see and glorify the power, goodness, righteousness, and faithfulness of God the Father (Rom 3:25; 8:32; Eph 1:19-20).

Until then God was known only in Judea, and even there not by all truly (Is 1:3). With the spread of the glory of the risen Jesus Christ, the heavenly Father will be proclaimed to all nations of the earth.

Then every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:11).

For it was fitting that what was wholly subject and subordinate to the almighty God the Word should once be saved and abide in unending good. Thus nothing would any longer be subject to the tyranny of death, overcome by corruption, or liable to sins and ancient vices.