It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you…He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.
—John 16:7, 14
Scripture speaks of a twofold glorifying of the Son. The one is by the Father, the other by the Spirit. The one takes place in heaven, the other here on earth. By the one He is glorified in God Himself; by the other, in us. (See John 13:32; 17:10.) Of the former Jesus spoke, “If God be glorified in him [the Son of Man], God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him” (John 13:32). Of the latter He said, “[The Spirit] shall glorify me” (John 16:14).
To glorify is to manifest the hidden excellence and worth of an object. Jesus, the Son of Man, was to be glorified when His human nature was admitted to the full participation of the power and glory in which God dwells. He entered into the perfect spirit-life of the heavenly world. All the angels worshipped Him as the Lamb on the throne. The human mind cannot conceive or understand this heavenly, spiritual glory of Christ.
It can be truly known only by being experienced and shared in the inner life. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. He reveals the glory of Christ in us by dwelling and working in us. The Holy Spirit makes Christ glorious to us and in us. The Son does not seek His own glory. The Father glorifies Him in heaven. The Spirit glorifies Him in our hearts.
When the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus in us, He reveals Him to us in His glory. He takes of the things of Christ and declares them to us. He does not give us just a thought or an image or a vision of that glory in heaven. Instead, He shows it to us as a personal experience and possession. He makes us partake of it in our innermost life. He shows Christ as present in us. All the true, living knowledge we have of Christ is through the Spirit of God.
Throughout our renewed nature there rises the song, “Glory to Him who sits on the throne.” (See Revelation 5:13.) The holy presence of Christ as Ruler and Governor so fills the heart and life that His dominion rules over all. Sin has no dominion. The law of the Spirit of the life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death.