Our final meeting of One Ekklesia bible study was focused on glory. Jesus spoke these words to his Father in John 17:22
“I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one.”
These words are enough to knock the wind out of every believer in Jesus Christ. Jesus is saying that he has given every believer the glory he received from his Father, so that we can be as one as the Father and the Son.
The Father and Son have been one in the Spirit for eternity. And now we have been given an element that we, as believers, have not had before, enabling us to lay our lives down for one another to be one.
We discussed the fact that Jesus had glory eternally as God before the incarnation but received glory as a man through death and resurrection. And through his death and resurrection he brings every believer into this same glory.
This is not glory that puffs us up and brings us notoriety. The opposite is true. It’s glory that enables us to be nothing and humble ourselves to become a servant to all. And the outcome of our love expressed through service is oneness.