We Are Glorified Sons
That they all may be one, asYou, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. (22) And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one. ~ John 17:21-22
This glory (the glory the Father had given Him) was given to us. The glory of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit WAS GIVEN TO US. Not “may be given” or “might be given,” the way it’s sometimes translated… but WAS given. The word “was” is a perfect indicative verb tense in Greek. Meaning it WAS a completed action… a FINISHED action with ongoing results in our life. It wasn’t our doing! We were COMPLETELY given the glory of the Father, Son, and Spirit IN us… FINISHED, DONE! And Their glory continues to work IN our lives!
It was given for the purpose that we may be ONE as They are ONE. The word be is eimi in Greek, and means to exist. We were glorified to exist as ONE – the SAME AS Jesus and the Father exist as ONE. We were glorified to exist as ONE – the SAME AS Jesus and the Father exist as ONE. His glory was given to us for the purpose of ONENESS. His very essence in us… the fullness of the Godhead IN us, and us IN Them!
A seamless ONENESS… FACE TO FACE with the Father through Jesus in the Spirit.
ALL of this — chosen, pure, flawless, without fault, sinless, judged innocent, sons, glorified, filled with the fullness of the Godhead, made in His image and after His likeness — describes who we have ALWAYS been from BEFORE time began.
And all of this is what Paul understood. He was intimately acquainted with all of this and was able to call this good news at the end of his life, MY Gospel! His Gospel of Christ had been faithful in his life! His Gospel of Grace was MORE THAN sufficient IN him. When he asked God to remove a thorn in his life, God told him that grace was sufficient IN him.The word sufficient in Greek means to raise a barrier. Grace is the barrier in our life. God was telling Paul (and us!) to have a GRACE way of thinking, which would cause him to speak the language of grace!!
I like the Mirror Bible paraphrase of 2 Corinthians 12:9, “Finally it dawned on me that grace is God’s language; he doesn’t speak “thorn-language”! He said to me, “My grace elevates you, to be fully content.” And now, instead of being overwhelmed with a sense of my own weakness, he overwhelms me with an awareness of his strength! Oh what bliss to rejoice in the fact that in the midst of my frailties I encounter the dynamic of the grace of God to be my habitation!”
It says that His strength is made perfect. The word perfect is teleo in Greek, meaning FINISHED. His strength is FINISHED in our life! There is nothing we can add to it. We don't need to ask Him for strength in the circumstances. We can rest in the fact that His strength is PERFECT, it's FINISHED, and it's IN us! The word rest in this verse is episkeno, comprised of two words epi, meaning continuous influence upon and skenoo, meaning to encamp, or to reside in a tent. The noun, skenos, reminds of the English word skin! The Mirror Bible notes say — Paul suggests that God's grace fits you like a skin! One feels most at home in the consciousness of his grace!
His grace is FINISHED and resides IN us! We can REST in it.
Paul was asking God to do something that God had already made him well able to do. Moses did a similar thing when he asked God for help when the Egyptians were closing in on them. God said, "Moses, why are you crying out to Me? I've given you what is needed. Use your staff." Like Moses, Paul just needed to be reminded of what he had been given. To remember the Grace plan from BEFORE time began. To recall the barrier or the boundary of his life.
Grace reveals our sonship. In Hebrew, the word grace is chen. This word chen is made up of two words chet and nun. The ancient picture for chet is a wall or fence (a boundary, a barrier). And nun is a picture of a seed sprout and means offspring or heir. Grace is a picture of Abba predestining us as sons in love, marking out our ETERNAL boundaries, marking out our grace barriers in sonship.
God is saying to Paul, “Paul, remember who you are, and in Whose image and likeness you are made. Remember, you’re My son! You can rest in that”
And as a son, our good Daddy gave us dominion over ALL things. Genesis 1:28 says that after God made mankind in His image and after His likeness, He blessed them and said have dominion. In other words, He said to them REIGN in life. The letter nun in the word chen (which is grace in Hebrew) means offspring or heir and has a crown on top. We are sons who received the gift of righteousness and the abundance of grace through the One, Jesus Christ, to reign in this life. Grace is the revelation of who we are IN Christ…. sons made in the image and likeness of our Daddy. Sons who have been given dominion.
Created in His image and likeness, we are reigning sons, made a "little lower" than God (Psalms 8:5), crowned with glory and honor. The word crowned in Psalm 8:5 is an imperfect verb and reads as will crown. Mankind had forgotten who they were. Genesis 1:26 reveals that man was crowned (given dominion) in the garden. But then after the fall, they had forgotten they were reigning sons, and creation no longer responded to them…. "the ground no longer yielded." Man lost their dominion and began to forget his origin – BUT God did not!
Hebrews 2 tells us, “BUT we see Jesus!” He restored to us the authority men thought they lost.
Hebrews 2 quotes Psalm 8 and puts the word crowned in the aorist indicative tense…. A past tense, FINISHED fact! I love the past tenses of Scripture. FINISHED! DONE!! Jesus restored to us once again (what was always ours) dominion or reigning. We are crowned… adorned as victors… with glory and honor and with dominion. Ruling over the works of His hands with ALL things in subjection under our feet!
And just in case we didn’t understand the vastness of our dominion, the writer of Hebrews adds, “He left NOTHING un-subject to him.” Nothing in this verse is a strong word. It means NOT ONE THING!
Leaving NO exceptions… ALL things = ALL things!
IT IS FINISHED!!
