B
In Ephesians 1:17 Paul uses the term the Father of glory:
１
The Father of glory is God expressed through His many sons—Heb. 2:10.
２
The title Father implies regeneration, and the word glory implies expression; therefore, the title Father of glory implies regeneration and expression.
C
Christ the Son and God the Father are the same in glory—John 17:5:
１
Christ the Son is the effulgence of God’s glory; the Son is the shining, the brightness, of the Father’s glory—Heb. 1:3a.
２
Christ is the King of glory, Jehovah of hosts (that is, of armies), the consummated Triune God embodied in the victorious and coming Christ—Psa. 24:7-10; Luke 21:27; Matt. 25:31.
３
Christ is the Lord of glory—1 Cor. 2:7-8:
ａ
Christ is our life today and our glory in the future—Col. 3:4; 1:27.
ｂ
To this glory God has called us, and into it He will bring us—1 Pet. 5:10; Heb. 2:10.
Morning Nourishment
Eph. 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory...Heb. 1:3 Who, being the effulgence of His glory and the impress of His substance...
John 17:5 And now, glorify Me along with Yourself, Father, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
The Father of glory [Eph. 1:17] is God expressed through His many sons. The title Father implies regeneration, and the word glory implies expression... We have been regenerated by God, and we are His expression.
The regeneration of many sons and the expression of God are the consummation of the divine economy. Through His crucifixion the Lord Jesus accomplished redemption for us. As a result, we, the fallen creatures, have been redeemed. Then we were regenerated to become sons of God the Father so that we may express Him. On the day we are glorified, God will be fully expressed from within us. In this way we shall become His expression in full. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 37-38)
Today’s Reading
Hebrews 2:10 says that God is leading many sons into glory. The last step of God’s great salvation is to bring His many sons into glory. Romans 8 tells us that God’s work of grace upon us began with His foreknowing through His predestination, calling, and justification and will end with His glorification (vv. 29-30)... [and] that the whole creation eagerly expects the revelation, the glorification, of the sons of God, hoping that the creation itself will enter into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (vv. 19-20). This will be accomplished by the Lord’s coming back (Phil. 3:21), at which time we shall appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:4). This is our hope (Col. 1:27). This glorification of the sons of God, as the goal of God’s salvation, will last through the millennial kingdom and will be manifested in fullness in the New Jerusalem for eternity (Rev. 21:11, 23).[In Hebrews 1:3] the effulgence of God’s glory is like the shining, or the brightness, of the light of the sun. Christ is the shining, the brightness, of the Father’s glory. The effulgence cannot be separated from the glory just as the shining of the sun cannot be separated from the rays of the sun, since the shining and the rays are one. Hebrews 1:3 says... also that He is the impress, the express image, of God’s substance. The glory is the outward expression, and the substance is the inward essence. God has His essence as well as His appearance; He has His substance as well as His glory... As far as His glory is concerned, Christ is the effulgence of this glory, and as far as God’s substance is concerned, Christ is the express image of this substance.
The express image of God’s substance is like the impress of a seal. Christ is the expression of what God the Father is. A seal has an image. When the seal is pressed upon paper, the paper bears the same express image as the seal bears. Suppose a seal has certain letters. When this seal is pressed on a piece of paper, the paper will bear the same image with the same letters as the seal. Christ is not only the effulgence of God’s glory; He is also the impress of God’s substance... The substance within is the source of the express image, and the expression without is the effulgence of God’s glory.
For Christ to be the effulgence of God’s glory and the express image of His substance means that He is God coming to us... The shining of the sun’s rays is the sun reaching us. If we remain in the sunshine for a period of time, some element of the sun will be transfused into us. This is an experience of the sun reaching us. Likewise, Christ, the Son of God, is God Himself reaching us and coming to us. We have a God who reaches us, a God who comes to us to save us and to dispense Himself into us. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 38, 226-228)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1983, vol. 2, “The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity,” chs. 14, 17, 39