In verse 15 the Lord Jesus said, “All that the Father has is Mine.” The Son is the embodiment of the Father. Therefore, all that the Father is and has are embodied in Him (Col. 2:9). All that the Father is, the fullness of the Godhead, dwells in Christ. Hence, the fullness of the Father is the Son’s fullness, and the life and nature of the Father are the Son’s life and nature.
In John 16:14 the Lord Jesus spoke of the Spirit of reality: “He will receive of Mine and will declare it to you.” The Lord repeated these words in the last part of verse 15. All that the Father is and has are the Son’s; all that the Son is and has obtained have been received by the Spirit. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ, and the Spirit has received this fullness from Christ.
The Spirit of reality declares to us what He has received from the Son (vv. 14-15; 14:26) and guides us into all the reality (16:13). Not only so, the Spirit of reality also testifies of Christ (14:26) and glorifies Him (16:14). All that the Son is and has is revealed to the believers as the reality by the Spirit. This is to glorify the Son and the Father. The Spirit reveals the Son with all the fullness of the Father and thus glorifies Him. This is to say that the Spirit’s revealing of the Son to us glorifies the Son.
The Spirit declares the Son with the Father to the believers. He makes all that Christ is and has real to us. Stanza 3 of Hymns, #501 speaks of this matter: “All things of the Father are Thine; / All Thou art in Spirit is mine; / The Spirit makes Thee real to me, / That Thou experienced might be.”
Verses 14 to 15 of chapter 16 reveal the dispensing of the Divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—into the believers. The Father is the source, the origin, with many riches. All that the Father has became the Son’s; today the Son not only possesses what the Father has, but He also possesses all the riches gained through His incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. All these riches contained in the Son have been received by the Spirit, and the Spirit declares them to us. This declaration is the transmission of what the processed Triune God is and has into our whole being. The Father is embodied in the Son, the Son is transfigured to become the Spirit, and the Spirit is the Divine Trinity reaching us. Hence, all the riches of the Triune God reach us in the Spirit.
All that the Triune God is and has, He declares, conveys, and transfuses into us. When we are organically united with the Spirit, we are organically one with the processed Triune God. In this way whatever He is and has becomes our portion. This means that whatever the processed Triune God is and has will become our element, essence, and being, making the processed Triune God the essence of our whole being.
The Lord Jesus prayed in verse 1 of chapter 17: “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You.” The subject of the Lord’s prayer in this chapter is the Father’s being glorified in the Son’s glorification. The Son is God becoming flesh, and His flesh was a tabernacle in which God could dwell on earth (1:14). His divine glory was concealed in His humanity, just as God’s shekinah glory was concealed within the tabernacle. On the Mount of Transfiguration His divine glory was temporarily manifested to His disciples from within His flesh (Matt. 17:1-4). Afterward, this divine glory was again concealed in His flesh. Before the prayer recorded in John 17, He predicted that He would be glorified and that the Father would be glorified in Him (12:23; 13:31-32). He passed through death so that the shell of His humanity could be broken and His divine element, including His divine life and divine glory, could be released. He resurrected so that He might uplift His humanity into the divine element and so that His divine element might be expressed with the result that His entire being, His divinity and His humanity, would be glorified. The Father would thus be glorified in Him. Hence, His prayer was for this.
The Lord’s prayer concerning glorification is fulfilled in three stages. First, this prayer was fulfilled in His resurrection, because His divine element, including His divine life and His divine glory, was released from within His humanity into His many believers (12:23-24), bringing His whole being, including His humanity, into glory (Luke 24:26), and because the Father’s divine element was expressed in His resurrection and glorification. In the Lord’s resurrection, God answered and fulfilled His prayer (Acts 3:13-15). Second, this prayer has been fulfilled in the church, in that as His resurrection life is expressed through His many members, He is glorified in them, and the Father is manifested in Him through the church (Eph. 3:21; 1 Tim. 3:15-16). Third, this prayer will be fulfilled ultimately in the New Jerusalem, in which He will be fully expressed in glory, and God will be glorified in Him through the holy city for eternity (Rev. 21:11, 23-24).
The subject of the divine glorification, that is, the Father’s being glorified in the glorification of the Son, is a lengthy subject in the Gospel of John. It starts in the middle of chapter 12 and ends with chapter 17. In 12:23 the Lord Jesus declared, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” This is the first time glorification is mentioned. Later the Lord prayed for this in chapter 17. Verse 24 of chapter 12 indicates that the glorification of the Son of Man is the release of His divine element, His divine life, and His divine glory from the shell of His humanity in resurrection, producing many believers, just as a grain falls into the ground and dies to release the life element, producing much fruit, the many grains. Hence, in verse 24 the Lord said, “Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” From this we see that the Lord’s glorification is His death and resurrection for the producing of many grains. The producing of many grains is His glorification. These grains are the believers as constituents of the house, the vine, and the new man.
In the beginning of John 12:28 the Lord prayed, “Father, glorify Your name”; then we are told that a voice came out of heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” To glorify the Father’s name is to cause the divine element of the Father to be expressed. The Father’s divine element, which is the eternal life and the divine glory, was in the incarnated Son. The shell of the Son’s incarnation had to be broken through death that the Father’s divine element might be released and expressed in His resurrection. This is similar to the life element of a grain of wheat being released by the breaking of its shell and being expressed by its blossoms. This is the glorification of God the Father in the Son.
After the Lord Jesus spoke of His glorification, He continued with the Father’s house, the vine, and the new man. These three are the issue of the Father’s being glorified in the Son’s glorification. The glorification of the Son of Man is His dying to produce many grains in resurrection for the constitution of the vine. The grains constituting the vine equals the building of the Father’s house. Not only so, the building of the Father’s house equals the cultivation of the vine and also the birth of the new man. These items—the house, the vine, and the new man—are all related to glorification.
The Father is glorified in His house and in fruit-bearing. The Lord Jesus said, “In this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit” (15:8). In the matter of fruit-bearing, the Father’s life, the divine life, is expressed. Hence, He is glorified in fruit-bearing. Fruit-bearing is a matter of increase, multiplication, and reproduction. This increase is the glorification of the Father. Hence, the organism of the vine with its branches is for the Son’s glorification that the Father may be glorified in Him. Moreover, the birth of the corporate child through Christ’s resurrection is another aspect of His being glorified.
The section from verse 23 of chapter 12 to the end of chapter 17 contains the real significance of the divine dispensing. The divine dispensing is for our transformation and in reality is in this transformation. In the divine transformation, we enjoy the divine dispensing for our conformation to the image of God’s firstborn Son. Ultimately, we, the many sons, will be the same as He is, having both humanity and divinity. When we have a share in the dispensing of the Divine Trinity, the Son is glorified in us, and the Father is glorified in the Son’s glorification.
For their divine conformation the believers are indwelt by the Spirit. The Lord promised this to the disciples in John 14:17 and fulfilled it in 20:22 on the evening of His resurrection. This is fully developed in the New Testament Epistles, which reveal that Christ today is the life-giving Spirit dwelling in the spirit of the believers to be their life and everything for the building up of the Body of Christ.
The Spirit’s abiding in the believers is with the Son and the Father because He was sent from the Father in the name of the Son to be the reality of the Son’s name. The Son came in the Father’s name and is one with the Father; the Spirit is sent in the Son’s name and is also one with the Father. Ultimately, the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—as the Spirit reaches the believers. The Spirit is also the reality of the Son abiding in the believers. The Spirit is called the Spirit of reality because whatever the Father is in the Son and whatever the Son is are realized in the Spirit. The Spirit abides in the believers as another Comforter—the Advocate, the One summoned to our side to help; thus, He is a Consoler, a Comforter, and an Advocate to take care of the needs of the believers in their daily life.
The Spirit who dwells in the believers is the transfiguration of the Son so that the believers may participate in the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. Whatever the Father has, has been given to the Son; whatever the Son is, has, and has done has been received by the Spirit, and what He has received from the Son, the Spirit declares and reveals to the believers as the reality to testify of the Lord and glorify Him. In this way, all that the Triune God is and has are declared, conveyed, and transmitted into the believers to be the essence of their whole being.
The subject of the divine glorification, that is, the Father’s being glorified in the Son’s glorification starts in the middle of chapter 12 of the Gospel of John and concludes at the end of chapter 17. The Lord’s glorification is that He died and resurrected to produce many grains; these grains are the believers, who constitute the Father’s house, the universal true vine, and the newborn child. The Lord prayed for this glorification, and this prayer is fulfilled in three stages: first, in His resurrection His whole being, including His humanity, was brought into glory; second, in the church His resurrection life is expressed through His many members; and third, in the New Jerusalem, the ultimate consummation, God will be fully expressed in glory, and God will be glorified in Him through the holy city for eternity.