He again joins the human to the divine. The discourse is, as it were, mingled and directed toward two aims. On the one hand, it does not raise the person of the Speaker as though He possessed only complete omnipotence and divine authority. On the other, it does not leave Him within the limits of mere human limitation. Rather, from both Godhead and humanity it forms one reality, lacking neither of the properties named.
Our Lord Jesus Christ judged it necessary to teach believers not only that He is the Only-begotten God, but also that He became man for our sake. He did this to present all to God the Father and to transform them to new life, redeeming humanity by His Blood and, alone worthiest of all, giving His life for all.
Therefore He says that He has glorified the Father "on earth," having "finished the work" which He gave Him. Here too, taking a kind of twofold path in considering this, we shall affirm that this is said with reference both to Christ's Godhead and to His humanity.
Therefore, if He says this as man, understand it in this way. Christ became for us the pattern, beginning, and example of the divine life, and He clearly showed how and what kind of life we ought to live. For this reason the authors of the divine Scriptures, the Evangelists, give the most detailed account of Him.
Thus by these words He teaches us and says that each of us glorifies God by his labors precisely when he completes the ministry appointed to him and carries out God's commandments. He does not do this by adding anything to God, as though He lacked glory. The divine and ineffable Nature is full of glory. Rather, he causes those who see and benefit to glorify Him, as the Savior 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).
When we courageously and willingly perform the labors of virtue for God's sake, we do not acquire glory from this for our own heads. We acquire blessing for the glory and honor of the Almighty.
When we lead a life contrary to God and most abominable, and by this weaken His ineffable glory, we fall under just judgment and make our soul liable to punishment. We hear this through the voice of the prophet: "Because of you My name is continually blasphemed among the nations" (Is 52:5). In the same way, I think, when we practice most glorious virtue, then without doubt we prepare the glorification of God.
Therefore, when we have completed the work given us by God, then, quite justly rising to the boldness proper to His true children, we may as it were claim for ourselves equal glory from the God glorified by us. "For as I live, says the Lord, those who glorify Me I will glorify, and he who despises Me shall be despised" (1 Sam 2:30).
Wishing to show that only then is it fitting for us to ask glory from the One God, that is, for the age to come. When in all things we show Him blameless obedience and prove to be most zealous keepers of His commandments, He says that He glorified the Father, "having finished the work on earth" which He gave Him.
Yet He Himself also asks glory for Himself. It is not foreign glory, nor acquired glory as with us, but His own. For we ought to ask for this, but He does not.
Notice also that, in both respects, He again communicates boldness to our nature in Himself and through Himself as something new. In Him first, and through Him, we were enriched both with the power to fulfill what God entrusted to us and with the ability to ask boldly for the honor fitting to the worthy.
Formerly, because sin had reigned over us and apostasy had taken place in Adam, we did not have the strength to perform any labors of virtue. We were very far from boldness toward God. But God, in His exceeding mercy, raised us to this boldness and encouraged us by the voice of the prophet: "Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed; be not confounded, for thou shalt not be disgraced" (Is 54:4).
Thus, as in all other good things, our Lord Jesus Christ became for us both firstfruits, door, and way, so also here. If the Savior here asks for His own glory before the world, and, applying this saying to us as an example, declares that we too must fulfill the will of God with great readiness and in this way ask boldly for glory from above. Let no one think that we say it is fitting for a man, in imitation of Christ, to demand some glory before the world and from the beginning, as though it also belonged to him.
Rather, let him understand that He speaks according to what is proper to each, to Christ and to man. Therefore, if only our humanity in Christ is being considered, let only what is proper to creatures be said, and let the human measure not be transgressed. But if the Word, being God, became flesh, then when He says something proper to God, this must be referred to Him alone, and not to those who are in His likeness.
This is how we must understand the meaning of the words under interpretation, referring them, according to the argument just given, to Christ's humanity. Yet on the other hand, when we consider Christ's divine dignity, we rightly understand something greater than human nature.
Therefore, we say that He glorified His God and Father by finishing the work which He received from Him, not as a servant or as one under compulsion, as if by necessity. The Lord of all must not appear limited like us, or as a ministering creature. It is proper to men or angels, as servants, to submit and obey divine commands like slaves.
Rather, as the Power and Wisdom of Him who begot Him, He fully accomplished the correction of us which was, as it were, entrusted to Him. So too the divine Psalmist, explaining the meaning of the mystery to us in the Spirit, said: "Command Thy Power, O God; strengthen, O God, what Thou hast wrought for us" (Ps 67:29).
To show clearly that the Son is the Power of the Father and not another distinct from Him, I mean in identity of essence and nature, the Psalmist first says, "Command Thy Power," introducing the duality of persons, that is, the One who commands and the One to whom the command is given. Then he immediately joins them in natural unity, ascribing the outcome of the work wholly to the divine and ineffable Nature in the wise words, "Strengthen, O God, what Thou hast wrought for us."
Therefore the Son takes to Himself, or receives from His own Father, our work. But how God commands His own Power must be considered and stated, insofar as what surpasses the mind can be accessible to human explanation.
Imagine some man like ourselves, and suppose that he is skilled in the art of engraving. He must undertake the engraving of a new statue, or correct some damage or defect in it. How will he work and accomplish what he desires? Clearly, by giving to the strength of his hands and the wisdom of his art the accomplishment of what he wishes to do.
His wisdom and power may seem in the mind to be something else, distinct from him. Yet in reality they are not separated from him, for by essence they also belong to him. You must think something similar about God, but do not take the force of the example in its entirety. God must be conceived as above all things, and above this example too.
The same reasoning, taken as an example, may also be applied to the sun and to fire. The sun, as it were, commands the light that proceeds from it to illumine all things, and gives to the activity of its rays the work of implanting the power of warmth in the things that receive it. Likewise, fire in some manner commands and orders the property of its nature to accomplish what is proper to it.
But we do not affirm that for this reason the ray and light are in slavish subjection to the sun, or that the power of burning is in slavish subjection to fire. Both act through what belongs to them by nature. Although they may seem not to act of themselves, still by nature they are not different from that from which they come.
Something similar must be thought about God the Father and the Word begotten of Him by nature, when it is said that He takes upon Himself something human. Therefore the Wisdom and Power of God, that is, Christ, glorified God the Father on earth by "finishing the work" which He gave Him.
Since the work proper to Him was already coming to its end, He asks for the glory that always belongs to Him. When the time now called for this, He demands the reception of His ancient glory.
But what work did He accomplish, through which He says He glorified the Father? Being true God, by the Father's good pleasure and will He became man. He willed to save the whole universe and renew the fallen race on earth to endless life and true knowledge of God.
This was accomplished by the power and divine authority of Christ, who abolished death, destroyed the dominion of the devil, and annihilated sin. He showed His incomparable love for us by forgiving all transgressions, enlightening those who had gone astray, and bringing them to know the one true God.
Since Christ accomplished this by His own power, the Father is glorified by all, that is, by all in the world who understand the wisdom, power, mercy, and love for mankind that belong to Him. He shone forth and was finally manifested in the Son as in the image and reflection of His nature, and the tree became known by its fruit, as it is written (Mt 12:33).
When the works had already been accomplished and the beautiful divine economy concerning us had reached its proper end, He returns to His glory and receives His ancient honor. Yet, as still clothed in the form of man, He assumes the form of prayer and asks as one who does not possess, for everything in man is from God.
Although, since He is God begotten of God the Father, He was certainly not deprived of divine glory, still, during the divine economy concerning us, He in a certain way lessened or concealed it by taking this most inglorious body. Therefore He rightly asks for it as truly absent, speaking thus as man.
Understanding something of this, the wise Paul himself writes to us about Him in the Epistle: "Let this mind be in each of you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God. Did not consider equality with God a thing to be seized, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted Him and gave Him the name above every name, that at the name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that the Lord is Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil 2:5-11).
Although He is the Son of the Most High, since He appeared from Him as God and Lord, nevertheless it is written that He is exalted as man. To man belongs the need for the exaltation of his lowly nature.
Thus He asks to receive His own glory, ancient and before the world, that is, divine glory, together with the flesh. He does not say this as one who lacks His own divine glory, even if He had not received it during the Incarnation on earth. For the Logos was never without His own dignities, being true God.
Rather, He says it as one who raises His own temple, His humanity, into the glory that always belongs to Him. Better yet, He raises Himself with His flesh, because of which the temporary absence of glory followed.
Precisely so that no one might suppose that He asks for a glory not belonging to Him, foreign to Him, and not His from the beginning, He declares it to be before the world and with the Father Himself. For the Son was never outside the Father's glory. He always reigns with Him, is hymned with Him, and is worshiped with Him by us and by the holy angels, as God from God, in God, and with God.
THEOSIS