⁹ “… for they are Yours; ¹⁰ and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them.

How was Jesus glorified in the disciples? We must first see that God was glorified and is glorified in His creation. The angels understood this when they hovered around the throne of God, saying, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3). All of creation is designed to illustrate God, to demonstrate what He is like. “Since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (Rom 1:20).

More particularly, when God created humankind in His image (Gen 1:26), the reflection took on a tangible, embodied form, like a magnifying glass that gives a close-up picture with more details. We humans reflect a God who creates, relates, and chooses. And when we do that in community with God, we reflect Him accurately. But, when we eat the tree of the forbidden fruit, we break communion with Him, providing a distorted picture. Unity with God is the critical component of reflecting His glory, for that unity among the Father, Son and Spirit is foremost in Jesus’ Upper Room teaching and His prayer.

Now as Jesus prays, He is thinking about the disciples who have left all to follow Him. And they are following Him to the end. They have experienced the community of fellowship that has existed in the Trinity since before time. This is what glorifies God. This is what glorified Jesus. Think of this as an ever increasing focus of God’s glory. First creation, then mankind in general. With the coming of the Messiah, God’s glory shone more brightly, embodied not just in those created in God’s image, but now in Jesus, the very image of God, God in the flesh, as it were, substantially. “He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature” (Heb 1:3a). “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form…” (Col 2:9).

Now, Jesus said He has been glorified in His disciples. When people saw them, they recognized them as followers of Christ. Their lives brought attention to the Son of God. Later, when the religious leaders, “… observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). The disciples had lived and continued to live in community with the Triune God—and they made God known. When we live and act in community with the Triune God, He will be glorified in us as well.

Lord, in my life be glorified in me, that I might reflect You to the world around.