"AND now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." These words were not uttered by a triumphant potentate returning from conquest, but by a man about to experience crucifixion for his goodness. They were not spoken in a time when peace reigned throughout the civilized world, but when cruelty, injustice, persecution, aggression, and wickedness stalked the earth. This remarkable statement was made in a country where racial hatreds permeated religious doctrines, political actions, and governmental decrees. They were made by one "despised and rejected of men," yet they have lived in the hearts of men through all the ages that followed. They were spoken in the shadow of a cross, but fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Shortly before Jews and Romans, politicians and soldiers, priests and populace, united to attempt the destruction of the temporal life of this just man, he had declared that he had power to give eternal life to as many as God had given him. When carnality was boasting that it would end his mission, destroy his existence, and rob him of all holy fame, he knew that he was being glorified by the power that was primeval, eternal, universal Love. He asked not for glory from the world, but for the glory "before the world was." Could physical force prevent the answer to this request? Could human hatred shut him out from the presence of his Father? Could the world intervene between eternal Life and its infolded manifestation?
Jesus' utterance of this remarkable prayer indicates that he knew that right then and there Life was keeping man at the point of perfection. He was declaring that divinity at that moment was causing the facts of eternal Life to appear in man, who is always the spiritual son of God, and was bringing this truth to human consciousness. He was virtually repeating his declaration, "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." No power could keep the man who was in heaven out of heaven.
