Glorification

At the time of this intercession the Lord was in the world and in His infirm human; yet He was far advanced in glorification.  Hence the opening words of His intercession told of the immediacy of His glorification.  He was becoming, in mind and body, even as He was in His Soul, that mercy for which He prayed; and He was now entering into the power of extending that mercy to all repentant souls who might receive of it through faith in Him, to each according to the measure of his faith, - the measure of the life of faith.  In this way, and to this degree, that for which in His humiliation He prayed, and which in His glorification He became, was by Him extended to men; so that, souls who might receive of it through faith in even as He was glorified, and because thereof, so might men become regenerate, and this as if by their own power.

But this power of regeneration with men was His gift, - the gift of His presence and Person as a Man.  For this He was born, and to this end He contended victoriously with the evil influent into His mortal frame.  He was born in fulfillment of ancient prophecy, which told in veiled symbols of His coming and in cryptic words the inner life - story of His contest with the evil which by birth He was to put on, and of His continuous and final victory, through which He Himself, in mind and in body, became Divine, and one with the Father, even as in the beginning and from conception He was, as to His Soul, one with God.

This unity of His mind and body with the Father was now near completion.  The hour was come.  The realization of this on His part appears as the opening feature of the intercession recorded in John: "Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee." Something of incomparable import is here revealed.  Not only was He entering into full and final union with the Father, but it is made manifest that that union was reciprocal; that is, accomplished by a mutual and reciprocal interaction between the Father and the Son.  "Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee."

This deepest of Divine mysteries is central to all heavenly arcana bearing upon the Lord's glorification.  The Writings describe it to rational thought by saying that His glorification was reciprocal; that is, it was effected by a mutual action and reaction between the Father and the Son, or, what is the same, as between the Lord's Soul of Divine conception and His body of human birth.  In this process His mind partook, in a varying and changing degree, of His Soul, on the one part, and His body on the other.  This intermediate mind was interiorly an output from His Soul, while outwardly it was as of bodily derivation; in this, like the mind of every man.  With all men the mind is distinct from the soul, on the one hand, and from the body on the other.  This distinction connoted a certain independence, as well as interdependence of the one plane upon the other.  The independence was so marked, and of such a nature, that it may be said of the Lord that His glorification was and could be brought about only by a reciprocal interaction between the Divine and the Human, that is, between the Father and the Son,  - between the Infinite Soul of the Lord and His seemingly finite mind and His obviously finite body.

Reciprocality expresses a relation between two separate entities, the one distinct from the other; or between two separate planes in one and the same individual.  This last was the case in point with our Lord, though the appearance was of two separate Persons.  The Lord in the world was, to all appearances, quite a distinct Person from the Father; and this appearance was so confirmed in the minds of men that, while acknowledging His Divinity, they separated the Divine into two and even three individuals, and maintained this separation as an eternal distinction.

The human which the Lord put on in the world was in ultimates a material vessel, not in itself Divine; but it became so by virtue of the mutual and alternate interaction between the human and the Divine Soul of His conception.  A marvel is here involved, of surpassing import, which should be seen.  The reciprocation of His Human with His Divine implies the non-destruction of His Human by the process of glorification; and if so, then, even after His full glorification, His Human, though made Divine, was withheld from entire evanishment in the abstract Infinite.  This Human was therefore secured in its ultimation to eternity as God-Man, and as God with man.  Thus it stood forth everlastingly as the object of human worship - above the heavens, indeed, but also in the heavens, and in all worshipful minds, - an object and a subject eternally Divine and in the Human form of Truth, clothed with the power of contact with men.  As such, His Human was retained and maintained in the power of conveying saving mercy to all repentant souls.

If, in thought, we predicate a total resolution and evanishment of His Human through the process of glorification, we cannot see it as forthstanding to human and angelic view, which is so necessary to our hold upon our Lord.  We must, therefore, believe that by His ascension He is nearer, not farther removed from man.

While in the world, He interceded with the Father as if He were a separate individual.  Our doctrine teaches that, while His glorification led to a perfect union, yet His intercession continued thereafter; and that it also became eternal, though changed from the mode employed in the world.  The teaching is that His intercession for the human race when He was in the world was made when He was in a state of humiliation.  (See A. C. 2250:2)  But after His glorification He no longer interceded as a Son with His Father, but as the Lord of the universe with Himself.  When He was in the world, and before He was fully glorified, He became Divine Truth.  As this Truth He mediated and interceded.  But after His full glorification He was still called the Mediator and Intercessor, because no one can conceive the Divine in itself, save through some idea of a Divine Man.  Still less can anyone be conjoined with Supreme Divinity except through such an idea.  Hence it is that the Lord, as to the Divine Human, and after His glorification, is called the Mediator and Intercessor; but, as said, He mediates and intercedes with Himself. (See A. C. 8705)  It is to be understood that this mediation with Himself was the eternal and infinite interaction between the Divine Truth and Divine Good, looking to the salvation of mankind.

It is further taught that in all love there is intercession.  It is love pleading, and this involves on the part of the Lord a continual extension of mercy.  We are further informed that the Divine Truth which now proceeds from the Lord intercedes continually in its going forth from Divine Love, and that when the Lord was in the world He first became this Truth; that is, before He became Divine Good also. (See A. C. 8575)

When in the world, the Lord prayed as a man prays for human salvation.  This was His very life, namely, the love of the human race which He had come to save, and which, through His intercession, He excused and forgave. (See A. C. 8573)  And this, even as in Himself He overcame the evils of mankind, and in so doing extended to men the power to become regenerate in His name.  It is to this end that men, and the church composed of men, must take a vital hold upon the Lord as a Divine Man, through faith in Him - through faith in Him as the Truth.  When in the world He was that Truth; and in and by the Truth He in turn glorified the Father; for His relation to the Father was that of Truth to Good; and of this relation it is said that Truth lives from Good, and that Good is qualified by Truth.  As the Truth, therefore, He qualified the Father, or the Divine Good.  He qualified that Good in Himself, and so to man.  By this qualification the Son glorified the Father even as by the descent of the Divine Good into the form of Truth in the Lord, the Father glorified the Son.

The qualifying of good by truth is also the prime mode in man's regeneration.  Only thereby can man be saved; and only thereby could the Lord become united with the Father.  By this qualification, therefore, the Son glorified the Father.

Note that the conjunction of man with God the Father, or with the Divine Good, is not possible save through some qualification of that Good; and this qualification is and can be effected only by some mode of accommodation.  Indeed, qualification and accommodation are one and the same.  This opens to a further realization of the great truth enunciated in the True Christian Religion, that "accommodation on the part of God was brought about when He became Man."  By this accommodation the Supreme Divine was so qualified that man could see and know his God.

The Scriptures teach, and reason sees, that God the Father has never been and cannot be seen.  He was brought forth to view in the Person of our Lord, but not, in truth, as another and separate Person.  For it was Jehovah Himself who descended; but in His descent He was veiled by degrees of human finition; that is, by the humanity of man.  This was His accommodation, and His needed qualification; and herein it was, that by the reciprocal action of the human with the Divine, the Son was not only glorified of the Father, but He glorified the Father.  This occurred in the "hour" mentioned in the text; and by that "hour" is signified every state of Divine exaltation which the Lord experienced as a Man in the world.  In every such state the Lord was uplifted; and as He was uplifted, by the same token Jehovah descended; and this is the same as to say that glorification was effected by reciprocation.  This is why the angels were seen ascending and descending upon Jacob's ladder.