A father is glorified in his son’s accomplishments, in that his own nature and abilities are extended into new areas of accomplishment. In Jesus, the Father was glorified on a human level. For example, the sickness of Lazarus resulted in God being glorified in the Son when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:4).”Did I not say to you that if you believed in me you would see the glory of God?” (11:40)
God was glorified again and again in His Son (John 13:31). He shares His glory with no one, but desires to glorify Himself in His children. Whenever people believe in Jesus because of our testimony, they see the glory of God in His Son.
We could say that they see the glory of God in His Son through His sons. Salvations? Miracles of healing? Needy people helped? The hearts of rebellious children softened through loving words? Mercy shown to those who know they don’t deserve it? How will you glorify God today? How will the Son be glorified in what you do? And the Father in His beloved Son?
One of my favourite verses in the Gospel of John is “Thou in me, I in Thee, and they in Us.” Or in today’s English: “You in Me, I in You, and they in us.” God is a spirit and so is everywhere: “In Him we live and move and have our Being.” Although composed by a pagan poet, it was a universal truth. God is Omnipresent: everywhere at once. The closest He was able to come in touch with humankind — except through words — was in the person of the mysterious “Angel of the LORD” who was not an ‘ordinary’ angel but one in whose form God could appear and through whom He could interact with people in a personal way.
Gideon, for example. Also the parents of Samson. And, spectacularly, with Jacob, with whom he wrestled! But after Jesus was born, never again, because although God’s Name was “in” the Angel of the LORD as the agent of the LORD — he was not in any way human. Jesus, however, as “the image of the invisible God”, was “God in Christ”!
We are not gods; however, “we are now the sons of God” in that God has created us anew “in Christ” who is our Elder Brother and through his resurrection became “the firstborn of many brethren”. Thus the tri-unity of the Father in the Son through the Divine Nature of Jesus — the “You in me” factor; the Son in the Father through personal, intimate fellowship and unity of purpose — the “I in You” factor; and the Father and the Son in us t — the “They in us” factor!
This boggles the mind but not the heart because believing overrides the mind, which ‘catches up’ as it is renewed by the Word of God (Ephesians 4:23). Some things, such as peace, pass our understanding, but delighting ourselves in them is what makes Christianity not a religion but a Way of Life.