The Glorification of the Lord 
Being the Bearing of Much Fruit

The glory of God is truly a great topic. In His thirty years of human living and three and a half years of ministry, the Lord gave many profound and excellent messages. Among them, there are two that are most impressive and delightful. One is in Matthew 5—7, the teaching on the mountain concerning the truth of the kingdom; the other is in John 14—16, the Lord’s speaking to His disciples on the night that He was betrayed concerning the mystery of the union of the Triune God with His believers. Before He was going to speak this long final message, He had already referred to glory several times. For example, in John 12:23 He said, “The hour has [399] come for the Son of Man to be glorified,” and in verse 28 He prayed, “Father, glorify Your name.” Thus, in His speaking and in His prayer He had already referred to glory.

Following this, in chapter 13 before Judas went out, the Lord pointed out that Judas was going to betray Him, and gave him a morsel. Most Bible readers do not understand this. They think that the Lord’s dipping the morsel and giving it to Judas was a sign to let the disciples know that Judas was the one who would betray the Lord. However, that was not what the Lord intended to do. The Lord’s intention was to send Judas to betray Him, for the Lord also said to him, “What you do, do quickly” (v. 27). The Lord seemed to say, “Are you going to betray Me? Now the hour has come; go and betray Me.” What was the hour that had come? In 12:23 the Lord said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” This was the hour, so the Lord asked Judas to do what he was going to do. Thus, having taken the morsel, Judas went out. Immediately after that, the Lord said, “Now has the Son of Man been glorified, and God has been glorified in Him. If God has been glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and He will glorify Him immediately” (13:31-32). What the Lord meant was that Judas would go to betray Him and that He was very happy, because as a result, He would be glorified.

From this we can see clearly what glory is. In fact, we can say that the subject of John 12 and 13 is the unveiling of God’s glorification of Christ with His glory and the issue of the glorification of Christ through His death and resurrection—a grain of wheat producing many grains (12:24). To the Lord, glory was His being sown as a grain of wheat into the ground as a result of Judas’s betrayal. When men killed and buried the Lord, they sowed the Lord into the ground. However, when the Lord was sown into the ground as a grain of wheat, that was not His end. As the grain sown into the ground, the Lord died, but as a result, He bore much fruit; this “much fruit” is His glory. The life of God, the element of God, and everything of God that was originally in the Son are now expressed through His becoming the many grains. This is glory.

After Judas went out, the Lord said, “Now has the Son of Man been glorified” (13:31). Following this, He spoke the message in John 14 through 16 to the disciples. Then after this speaking, at the very beginning of chapter 17 He prayed, “Father, the hour has come; [400] glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You” (v. 1). When He prayed this, what He meant was, “O Father, may You accomplish this matter. Let them arrest Me, put Me on the cross, and bury Me, for only then can I be resurrected and glorified, and You can also be glorified!” This was the Father glorifying the Son that the Son might glorify the Father.

Removing the Veils That Hinder 
the Glory from Being Expressed

This glory was fully expressed in the Lord Jesus, but it has not yet been fully expressed through us today. God has already wrought Himself into us, and He desires to be lived out from us. Sadly, however, He has been “detained” in us and has no way to come out. Our self, our natural man, our flesh, our temperament, our disposition, our habits, our opinions, our insight, and our preferences have become factors that hinder the release of the divine glory. Our sins, trespasses, and covetousness are not the only obstacles to the expression of the divine glory, but even the brothers’ inappropriate shirts and ties and the sisters’ improper hairstyles and adornment are as well.

This kind of speaking is not too much. I know too well the story of the young people. For example, when the sisters enter into the department stores, they are totally disarmed and defeated. Not to mention how they were in the past, even after being saved they still buy many things that the Lord does not want them to buy. Even though they know clearly that the Lord does not want them to buy those things, they still give the Lord many excuses, such as, “It is on sale,” “I will regret it if I do not get it,” and “It is going out of stock.” Eventually, they buy everything. We all have to confess that too many times we refuse to do what the Lord wants us to do; instead, we do all the things that the Lord forbids. If this is the case, how can the Lord be glorified from within us? How can He be expressed through us?

I would like you to know that people in business put out advertisements so that they can transfer other people’s money into their own pockets. Therefore, when the sisters go shopping, they should buy things only according to their need and the Lord’s leading. They should not be influenced by the advertisements. Whenever we do things according to our own desire instead of according to the Lord’s [401] leading, we are covered by a layer of veils. Every time we are covered with one more layer, until layer after layer the veils become so thick that the glory within us has no way to be expressed. How many times today, not to mention in the past or even in our entire history since being saved, did we go ahead and do something, big or small, that we clearly knew the Lord did not want us to do? And how many times did we know clearly that the Lord wanted us to do something, yet we would not do it? If during the course of one day we have been covered by so many layers of veils, how can the Lord be expressed through us?

In light of our condition, Paul asked the Father to work according to His glory. This means that he asked the Father to remove the veils layer by layer from within us. Many Bible readers acknowledge that Paul had a very high level of scholastic ability in Greek. When he wrote the book of Ephesians, he used the Greek language to the fullest extent. Paul prayed to the Father “according to the riches of His glory”; in Greek this means that the glory of the Father is not poor but rich and unsearchable. He asked the Father to work according to the riches of His glory so that the Triune God may be expressed from within us.

Being Strengthened with Power through His Spirit

Moreover, Paul asked the Father to grant us to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into our inner man. Our inner man is our regenerated spirit, which has God’s life as its life and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. It is also our new person.