Remain in Me

“Now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with that glory I had with You before the world existed.

Before the world existed.  

Can you imagine a time before the world existed?  I can, thanks to Hollywood, but it probably pales in comparison to what actually was.  Whatever was going on had to have been great because Jesus wanted the same thing back, and not something better or different.  There was no further incentive for Him to die, only what He had before He became a man to save us.  He wanted what He had before the world existed, a glory with God ....meaning he lost that for a time...Jesus let go of the glory He once shared with the Father for a time.

Giving up a few dollars or a few hours of your time to some people is kind, but giving up a glory that you share with God Almighty is something of a different depth of kindness.  It's 

an unblemished kindness, pure through and through because there is no question of motives.  Jesus let go of the glory He had shared with the Father.  I mean read that sentence and let it sink:  

Jesus Let Go 

Of The Glory 

He Had Shared 

With The Father. 

He let go of THAT glory.  The glory of God is not like the glory of being rich or famous, or of being smart or accomplished, it's the chief of glories to which all those things look like scrawny pathetic twigs.  Jesus had the chief of glories and He let it go.  For us to have it too.  Why??  Why would He do that?  For good people I would think it reasonably probable for Him to want to do that, but He didn't let go for good people.  He let go for the sick in heart, mind and body.  He let go for sinners.  The glory He had before we all even existed was so great that He simply desired to return to it after His work was complete.  He would let go of glory and God would give it right back to Him.  

Sounds like the wisdom of God.  God's ways are evident when we look at Jesus.  All throughout the bible we see how God uses this exact method to bring broken men's glory into His glory.  For example Joseph had the glory of being the favored one of his father, Jacob, but when his brothers sold him into slavery and then when he was falsely accused of attempting rape to Potiphar's wife, he let go of glory by letting go of the rights of a favored one.  He allowed God to stoop him low into prison, and by letting go of his former glory he was able to work hard in any environment with a steadfast and diligent steadiness.  And God raised him up to the place of not only his former glory (when he was able to see his dad and brothers again as second in command of all of Egypt) but also to His glory.  Joseph was used by God to demonstrate a taste of what Christ would do for us--the betraying brothers and lying and cheating wives.  

Another example of someone who also went through this way of letting go of present glories is Paul.  Paul had the glory of fame, intellect and reputation/status among the majority of his society before encountering God.  Then he let go of that glory, all of it, and through serious whippings, tortures, imprisonments, and people bad mouthing him, he remained in Christ.  Now Paul's fame, intellect, reputation and status is not just restored, but his glory is known throughout the world and in almost every nation and culture, because God restored his glory.  He was a used by God as a glimpse of God's ways and as a reflective glimpse of what Christ has done.  Christ fulfilled the perfect example that began in the Old Testament of those God used to let go of their glories only to be restored to greater degrees of glory by God, but in the New Testament we have the same wisdom of God only this time God does not restore Jesus's glory to something greater.  Because there is nothing greater than what Jesus had before.  You can't top what He had.  Jesus is a reminder that God's glory is THAT awesome.  So awesome that whatever God wants He does, because God is THAT good.  God keeps His promises, God's glory is unbeatable, and God's plans always get done.  

Before the world existed there was Jesus, there was the Father, and there was the Holy Spirit.  All three persons shared the greatest glory, and God decided one day to open that up for us to also enter in.  The glory that Christ let go of in order that we could be let into, while desiring to return to that same glory after giving us a way in.  We let go of our glories and God brings us into His glory.  It just sounds like a deal only NO ONE would pass up.  But the Accuser lies and has us question God, just as he did in the garden at the beginning of humanity's existence.  

"...did God really say?"

"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. 

He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

-Genesis 3:1

The question we must answer everyday in our lives is "did God really say...

I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, protect them by Your name that You have given Me, so that they may be one as We are one.

I am not praying that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one.

Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.

I sanctify Myself for them, so they also may be sanctified by the truth.”

John 17:5, 11, 15, 17, 19

And did God also really say...

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.”

Luke 21:33

And did God really say...

“The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and all your soul so that you will live.

But the message is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may follow it. 

See, today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and adversity.”

-Deuteronomy 30:6, 14-15

If the answer is yes then we have the words of Life to remain in Christ.

We have the way into the glory that existed before the world, the glory that does not fade with time or weaken...ever.  The glory that Christ let go of for us, and then prayed to return right back into.  This glory is our hope, our vision to keep us steady, and what makes letting go of lesser glories possible.  

Remain in Me. 

“As the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you. Remain in My love.”

John 15:9

Jmegrey