15. And so the Son glorifies the Father
fully and finally in the words which follow, I have glorified Thee
on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to
do. All the Father’s praise is from the Son, for every
praise bestowed upon the Son is praise of the Father, since all that He
accomplished is what the Father had willed. The Son of God is
born as man; but the power of God is in the virgin-birth. The Son
of God is seen as man; but God is present in His human actions.
The Son of God is nailed to the cross; but on the cross God conquers
human death. Christ, the Son of God, dies; but all flesh is made
alive in Christ. The Son of God is in hell; but man is carried
back to heaven. In proportion to our praise of Christ for these
His works, will be the praise we bring to Him from Whom Christ’s
Godhead is. These are the ways in which the Father glorifies the
Son on earth; and in return the Son reveals by works of power to the
ignorance of the heathen and to the foolishness of the world, Him from
Whom He is. This exchange of glory, given and received, implies
no augmentation of the Godhead, but means the praises rendered for the
knowledge granted to those who had lived in ignorance of God.
What, indeed, could there be which the Father, from Whom are all
things, did not richly possess? In what was the Son lacking, in
Whom all the fulness of the Godhead had been pleased to dwell?
The Father is glorified on earth because the work which He had
commanded is finished.