kind of dream; we see images that are unreal and we make conjectures
based on them that we think are real but are just made up. We are like
someone walking out [to a tryst] at night, who, thinking that the leaves
of a tree within his grasp are human tresses, sidles closer, only to entan-
gle his own hair in them.
Although redemption and the suffering on the cross are two different
things, nevertheless they become one in contributing to salvation. When
the Lord became united to his Father, which happened through the suf-
fering on the cross, he became the Redeemer forever.
128 The suffering on the cross completed the process of glorification
(meaning the uniting of the Lord’s divine-human nature to the divine
nature of the Father). The Lord himself says so in the Gospels: “After
Judas left, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Humankind is glorified, and God
is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him
in himself and glorify him immediately’” (John 13 : 31 , 32 ). Here glorifi-
cation refers to both God the Father and the Son; it says “God is glori-
fied in him and will glorify him in himself.” Clearly this means that
they became united.
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so that your Son may
also glorify you” (John 17 : 1 , 5 ). This form of expression occurs here
because the uniting was reciprocal. As it says, the Father was in him and
he was in the Father.
Jesus said, “‘Now my soul is disturbed.’ And he said, ‘Father, glorify
your name.’ And a voice came out of heaven, ‘I both have glorified it and
will glorify it again’” (John 12 : 27 , 28 ). It says this because the uniting
occurred in successive stages.
“Was it not fitting for Christ to suffer and enter into his glory?”
(Luke 24 : 26 ). In the Word when “glory” is related to the Lord it means
the divine truth united to divine goodness.
From these passages it is very clear that the Lord’s human manifesta-
tion is divine.129 The Lord was willing to undergo spiritual tests, including even the
suffering on the cross, because he was the ultimate prophet. The
prophets stood for the church’s teachings from the Word. As a result they
represented the nature of the church in various ways—even by doing
unjust, harsh, and wicked things that God commanded them to do. In
the Lord’s case, however, he was the Word itself. During his suffering on
the cross he was the ultimate prophet, representing the way the Jewish
church had desecrated the Word.