Why Did Jesus Not Seek His Own Glory?
Chapters
0:04:15 He Did Not Seek Glory
6:27 I Do Not Seek My Own Glory
7:0 He Does Not Seek His Glory Apart from the Father's Glory
00:00:00.000 | James O'Leary, a listener from Georgia, writes in, "Hello Pastor John.
00:00:03.920 | Today I came across John 8 verse 50 where Jesus says that he is not seeking his own glory.
00:00:10.120 | I was surprised. Jesus goes on to say that there is
00:00:13.320 | one who does seek his glory." I think this might be a reference to the Father.
00:00:18.120 | So why did Jesus not seek his own glory when that is what the Father is seeking?
00:00:24.340 | Was this refusal to seek his own glory temporary?
00:00:28.280 | Does he now seek his own glory? And what does this teach us about Jesus?
00:00:32.960 | The heart of
00:00:35.560 | Christ's
00:00:36.920 | redemptive work in coming to earth as
00:00:40.000 | the incarnate God/Man
00:00:42.720 | in order to save sinners by dying in our place,
00:00:46.680 | the heart of this redemptive work is
00:00:49.960 | that Christ came to be
00:00:53.800 | inglorious
00:00:56.680 | for 30 years.
00:00:58.680 | Inglorious, not glorious.
00:01:00.720 | Isaiah 53, 2, "His appearance was so marred
00:01:05.920 | beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind. He had no form or
00:01:12.760 | majesty
00:01:15.160 | that we should look at him. No beauty,
00:01:17.840 | you could say glory, that we should desire him. He was despised,
00:01:23.760 | rejected by men, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, as one from whom men hide their
00:01:30.200 | faces. He was
00:01:32.840 | despised and we esteemed him not." Or as Philippians 2 says, "Though he was in the form of God,
00:01:41.040 | he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a
00:01:49.760 | slave. Being born in the likeness of man and being found in human form, he
00:01:55.120 | humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of
00:02:00.480 | death." And then he adds,
00:02:03.160 | "Even the death," and he means the utterly despicable,
00:02:08.120 | humiliating
00:02:10.520 | death on a cross, the most
00:02:13.600 | inglorious
00:02:15.960 | experience a human could
00:02:18.160 | have. So
00:02:20.160 | Jesus
00:02:22.160 | steadfastly
00:02:23.480 | refused earthly honors and power and prestige and wealth and glory.
00:02:29.240 | This was his vocation on the earth.
00:02:33.120 | He came to be identified with sinners and to bear the suffering and the shame that was owing to sin.
00:02:40.480 | On the other hand, he came to represent God the Father.
00:02:44.600 | And so John 1 14 says, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory,
00:02:50.680 | glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." And he said to Philip,
00:02:56.920 | "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." In fact, seeing this glory,
00:03:04.120 | this beauty of the Father's power and goodness and wisdom and love in and through the
00:03:10.680 | inglorious Jesus, seeing that was
00:03:14.360 | necessary for anyone to be saved. That's how you get saved.
00:03:18.080 | This is what the Pharisees could not see, the glory of God in the
00:03:24.760 | inglorious Christ. This was the peculiar glory they couldn't see.
00:03:29.880 | "Seeing you do not see,"
00:03:32.400 | Jesus said. This is what Paul said Satan blinds
00:03:36.320 | unbelievers from seeing. He says the God of this world keeps
00:03:42.280 | them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
00:03:49.560 | And when he means gospel, the gospel of the glory of Christ, he means the message of the horrible,
00:03:55.840 | horrible,
00:03:57.880 | horrible death of the Son of God on a despicable cross as
00:04:03.040 | the place where the glory of the love of God was shining most brightly.
00:04:09.000 | So Jesus came to be inglorious, and he came to be
00:04:14.340 | glorious.
00:04:16.040 | He did not seek glory, and he did seek
00:04:19.720 | glory. And the glory he did not come to seek, the glory
00:04:25.480 | he did not come to seek and didn't seek was the glory of this world.
00:04:31.640 | So in Satan's final temptation,
00:04:34.640 | he took him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of this world and their
00:04:39.520 | glory.
00:04:41.440 | And he said, "All these I'll give you, and if you'll fall down and worship me."
00:04:47.600 | And Jesus said, "Be gone, Satan, for it is written you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve."
00:04:54.200 | He said, "I'm not here to embrace the glory of the world." And the glory Jesus did seek
00:05:01.320 | was the glory of his Father,
00:05:04.520 | John 8, 49, "I
00:05:06.520 | honor my
00:05:08.520 | Father, but"—
00:05:10.360 | this is key—"but" he didn't just seek the glory of his Father
00:05:15.200 | separate from himself.
00:05:17.920 | That's what we do. We seek the glory of God separate from ourselves. He sought the glory of the Father
00:05:25.360 | beyond himself. The Father and the Son are not the same reality.
00:05:31.360 | They are united in essence, but they're different persons. He sought the glory of the Father beyond himself and
00:05:38.000 | he sought the glory of the Father
00:05:41.400 | embodied in himself. He said, "If you have seen me,
00:05:46.520 | you have seen the Father." He knew that in seeking the glory of the Father,
00:05:53.760 | he was seeking his own glory, but not the glory of this world.
00:06:00.200 | He said, "I glorified you on the earth,
00:06:02.800 | Father,
00:06:04.600 | having accomplished the work you gave me to do, and now, Father, glorify me
00:06:09.440 | in your presence with the glory that I had with you before the world
00:06:15.760 | existed," that he emptied himself of
00:06:18.880 | these outward displays of
00:06:21.480 | beauty and glory. So what does Jesus mean in John 8, 50 when he says, "I do not seek my
00:06:30.000 | own
00:06:31.080 | glory"? And I think he means two things. First, he means, "I do not seek the glory and wealth and power
00:06:39.600 | and prestige of this world. I am here to suffer and be shamed, not honored by the world." And
00:06:46.520 | second, he means,
00:06:49.160 | "The glory that I do seek is
00:06:52.360 | my Father's glory,"
00:06:55.920 | which, for those who have eyes to see, is also my glory.
00:07:01.080 | He does not
00:07:03.680 | seek his glory apart from the Father's glory.
00:07:08.440 | He does not seek to be glorious with a private
00:07:13.040 | glory, but only with the Father's glory embodied in his own
00:07:19.040 | person. So he says in John 5, 22,
00:07:24.320 | "The Father has given all judgment to the Son that all may honor the Son."
00:07:29.640 | Honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor
00:07:37.240 | the Father who sent him. And again, chapter 17, verse 4, "Father,
00:07:42.640 | I glorified you on the earth, having accomplished the work you gave me to do. Now, Father,
00:07:48.520 | glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed." So, no,
00:07:55.400 | he does not seek worldly glory, and no, he does not seek
00:08:00.160 | private glory apart from the Father's
00:08:03.940 | glory. But yes, yes, he does seek
00:08:08.640 | his glory after his redemptive work is done, and this is the love that he pursues
00:08:17.020 | because this is the glory he invites us to enjoy forever, John 17, 24.
00:08:22.580 | "Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my
00:08:29.740 | glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world."
00:08:36.440 | Amen. What a day that will be. Thank you for making those connections, Pastor John, and thanks for the email and for your very perceptive
00:08:43.860 | question, James. For more details about this podcast or to catch up on the episodes or to subscribe to our audio feed, even send us
00:08:50.520 | a question of your own, like this one. Go to our home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:08:56.700 | And Pastor John and I will return on Friday, and I think the next email on the docket is about the topic of personal
00:09:03.900 | assurance, namely this important question of "How can I be assured of my salvation right now if
00:09:11.020 | perseverance to the end is the final proof?"
00:09:13.700 | That's a great way to ask it. I'm your host Tony Reinke. We'll see you on Friday.
00:09:17.420 | [BLANK_AUDIO]
00:09:25.840 | you