Scripture Reading: John 16:8-11, 13-15, 20-21; 17:1, 5, 22-23
Ⅰ
In John 16:20-21 Christ is presented to us as the newborn child:
A
In verse 21 the Lord indicated that the disciples were then like a woman travailing in birth and that He was "the little child" to be brought forth in His resurrection—Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5; Rom. 1:4:
１
The bringing forth in John 16 is the begetting in Acts 13:33.
２
The incarnated Christ, including all His believers, was begotten in His resurrection to be the Son of God—1 Pet. 1:3:
ａ
According to Acts 13:33, the Lord Jesus was born, begotten, in resurrection to be the Son of God with respect to His humanity.
ｂ
The Lord's resurrection was a birth; this means that when Christ was resurrected, He was born—John 16:20-21.
３
Christ has become the firstborn Son of God, and all His believers have become God's many sons as His brothers to constitute His church as His multiplication, His increase, and His Body, which is His fullness, His expression— Rom. 8:29; John 20:17; Heb. 2:10-12; John 3:29-30; 12:24; Eph. 1:23.
B
The birth of a new corporate child comprising Christ and His believers was the birth of the new man; the new man was born through the death and resurrection of Christ—2:15.
C
This accomplished fact is applied to us in our experience by the two categories of the work of the Spirit unveiled in John 16:8-11 and 13-15:
１
The first category of the work of the Spirit is to convict the world, mankind, concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment—vv. 8-11:
ａ
This convicting work is related to three persons: Adam, Christ, and Satan; sin entered through Adam, righteousness is the resurrected Christ, and judgment is for Satan—vv. 9-11.
ｂ
Those who believe into the Son of God are transferred out of Adam into Christ and will not share the judgment upon Satan—3:16.
ｃ
To us, the believers, the Spirit has become the regenerating Spirit (v. 6), the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), and the Spirit of reality, dwelling within us (John 14:17).
２
The second category of the Spirit's work is His indwelling in the regenerated believers to reveal Christ, to glorify Christ, and to make Christ real in the believers—16:13-15:
ａ
The reality in verse 13 refers to what the Father has, what the Son has, and what the Spirit receives of the Son and of the Father.
ｂ
The Spirit guides the believers into all the reality; that is, He makes all that the Son is real to the believers—v. 13.
ｃ
All that the Father is and has is embodied in the Son (Col. 2:9), and all that the Son is and has is declared as reality to the believers through the Spirit—John 16:14-15.
Ⅱ
As the embodiment of the Triune God, Christ the Son is the Father's glorification— 17:1, 5, 22-23:
A
Glorification means manifestation; to be glorified is to be manifested.
B
The main point of the Lord's message in John 14 through 16 is that the Son may be glorified so that the Father may be glorified in the Son:
１
In His message the Lord spoke of glorification, and in His prayer He prayed for glorification—13:31-32; 14:13; 15:8; 17:1, 5.
２
To glorify the Father is to cause the divine element of the Father to be released and expressed—12:28.
３
Through His death and by His work in His resurrection, Christ released the divine life from within Him to produce many grains for His glorification—v. 24.
４
Christ was glorified by the Father with the divine glory in His resurrection— 7:39:
ａ
Glorified stands for resurrected, for the Lord was glorified when He was resurrected; His resurrection brought Him into glory—Luke 24:26; 1 Cor. 15:43; Acts 3:13, 15.
ｂ
According to the New Testament thought, resurrection is a release in life, and this release in life is a matter of glorification; glorification is therefore a synonym of resurrection.
C
Today, it is by the church that the Son will be glorified so that the Father might be glorified in and through the Son—John 17:22; Eph. 3:21:
１
The Son of God will be glorified in the oneness of the church, and the Father will be glorified in and through the Son—John 17:22-23.
２
Glory is the expression of the divine life and the divine nature; the more we live by the divine life and the divine nature, the more divine glory there will be in the church—v. 22; Eph. 3:21.
３
The Father is glorified through the organic union of Christ's believers with the Father in the Son in a wonderful coinhering oneness—John 17:23:
ａ
When we are one, Christ is glorified, and the Father also is glorified.
ｂ
The oneness in John 17 is for the Father's glorification in the Son; this oneness is actually the divine glorification.
４
In the divine glorification the Triune God is glorified in humanity, and humanity is glorified in divinity—Rev. 21:10-11.