March
16, 2003
BEFORE
THE WORLD WAS
"I
have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work
which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify
Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with
You before the world was" (John 17:4, 5, NKJV).
Jesus,
just before entering the garden where He would be betrayed
- then put on trial, be condemned and crucified the following
day, prayed to His Father, "I
have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work
which You have given Me to do."
Jesus had glorified His Father by His representation of God
and God's Kingdom to all people during His sojourn on earth
and now He was on the verge of completing His work for the
redemption and salvation of mankind. Through Christ's ministry
we have been blessed
in so many ways.
Just
before His condemnation and crucifixion, Jesus is looking
forward to, and anticipating, His reunion with His Father,
"And now, O Father, glorify Me
together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You
before the world was." "After His resurrection
He tarried on earth for a season, that His disciples might
become familiar with Him in His risen and glorified body...
He had authenticated the fact that He was a living Saviour.
His disciples need no longer associate Him with the tomb.
They could think of Him as glorified before the heavenly universe"
(Desire of Ages, p. 829).
Jesus
was one with the Father before the world was created. John
records, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning
with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him
nothing was made that was made... And the Word became flesh
and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as
of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth"
(John 1:1-3, 14). Revelation refers to Jesus as "the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation
13:8).
Adam
and Eve received the first promise of a Redeemer when the
Lord said to Satan in the disguise of the serpent, "I
will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your
seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall
bruise His heel" (Genesis 3:15). Satan was defeated at
the cross and fatally wounded whereas Jesus was wounded but
was resurrected and said, "I have
the keys of Hades and of Death" (Revelation 1:18).
Before
the world was, Jesus was the One chosen to be our Savior.
God "has saved us and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time
began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior
Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and
immortality to light through the gospel" (2 Timothy 1:9,
10).
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