Gloriously Loved; Gloriously Shielded; Gloriously Restored

“The glory you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one—” (John 17:22, NET).

According to this verse, Jesus has given you and me His glory. To understand better what He means by that, let’s find a biblical explanation. Let’s read God’s own definition of His glory. We find that in His response when Moses requested, “Please, show me Your glory” (Ex. 33:18, NKJV).

As He answered, allowing Moses to see His back, He proclaimed these words in his hearing: “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…” (Ex. 34:6-7a, NKJV).

Clearly, He defined His glory as the essence of His love. That shining brilliance that radiates from Him in infinite power… is the presence of Pure Love. Perfect Love. Love that knows you down to every cell in your body, every thought in your head, and embraces you in all-encompassing devotion.

His glory is also full of His holiness and justice. The next thing He expressed to Moses about it was this: “…by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation” (v. 7b).

Let’s apply this to our initial question. What did Jesus mean by giving us His glory? It means He gives us the immeasurable depths of His love. He also imparts to us His holiness. You and I cannot make ourselves holy. He makes us holy, as we learn to walk with Him each day. The more we abide in His presence, the more His nature gets into our nature. Living according to His standards is the natural outflow of intimate relationship with Him. When we walk with Him, we become like Him.

As we do so, our lives shine with ever-increasing glory (2 Cor. 3:18). The brilliance of His love and the beauty of His righteousness become more and more evident in our eyes, and in the outworking of our character. Here are a few amazing benefits of this process of transformation He takes us through:

• As Jesus said in our first Scripture today, receiving His glory causes us to grow in Christian oneness with one another. “The glory you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one—” (John 17:22, NET). His covenant loyalty and long-suffering patience work themselves into our relationships with each other. How good and pleasant this is!
• His glory becomes a protective shield around us. “But you, Lord, are a shield that protects me; you are my glory…” (Ps. 3:3, NET). Surrounded by His glory shield, we become more effective at extinguishing the fiery darts of the enemy. We learn to clothe ourselves in Jesus, our armor of light.
• His glory brings healing to the deep places of our hearts. “You, Lord… are my glory and the one who restores me” (Ps. 3:3, NET). All of us have gone through circumstances in life that wounded us deeply. What we need for restoration is found in His manifest presence; in the revelation of His glory to our hearts.
• The glory He gives us builds unshakable security into our sense of identity. Coming to know His glory means coming to know who we are in His heart.
  We see the opposite of this in the religious leaders of Jesus’ time: “For they loved the glory that men could give them rather than the glory that came from God!” (John 12:43, TPT). Because they had not cared to receive glory from God, they sought it in the praise of men. This made them insecure, ever needing adulation to puff up their egos. How freeing it is to instead live for the Audience of One.

May our prayer today be that of Moses. “Please, Father, show me Your glory!”

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Have you experienced the love-glory of God bringing healing to parts of your heart that deeply needed it? If you have a testimony to share, I’d love to hear it.