I. THROUGH THE BREAKING OF THE SHELL OF HIS HUMANITY BY HIS DEATH
The glory of Christ’s divinity was released through the breaking of the shell of His humanity by His death (John 12:24). The death of Christ was a release. In John 12:23 the Lord Jesus said, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified." For Him to be glorified was not to be exalted but to be released. This is clearly indicated by the following verse: "Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." This was His release.
If a grain of wheat does not fall into the ground and die, it abides by itself alone and no one knows what is within the grain. But when the grain enters into death, its content is released. In John 12:24 the Lord Jesus likens Himself to a grain of wheat. When He was living in His humanity for thirty-three and a half years, no one, including His mother, knew who He was. Others regarded Him as nothing more than a man, but no one knew what He was according to the contents of His inner being. He was a man in the flesh, but there was another One in this man. This other One was God Himself, and God is glory. Since God as glory was concealed in His flesh as a shell, He needed the release spoken of in John 12:24. In order to be released and not to remain alone, the one grain of wheat had to fall into the ground and die. Through the Lord’s death the glory of His divinity was released.
A. The Unique Grain That Contained His Divine Life with His Divine Glory
The Lord Jesus was the unique grain that contained His divine life with His divine glory. Concerning John 12:24 we often speak about the release of the divine life. Now we need to see that the divine glory of Christ was released with His divine life. When we received Christ, we received His life, and this life is His glory.
B. The Shell of His Humanity Being Broken through His Crucifixion, and All the Elements of His Divinity Being Released
When the shell of the Lord’s humanity was broken through His crucifixion, which was the baptism He went through, all the elements of His divinity-His divine life and His divine glory-were released. In Luke 12:50 the Lord Jesus said, "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am pressed until it is accomplished!" The Lord’s baptism was His crucifixion. He longed to be baptized, to be crucified, in order to be released. He was pressed, constrained, in His flesh, and He desired to be released by the baptism of His death. Through the breaking of the shell of His humanity by His death, His glory was released. His release was His being glorified. We need to praise Christ for His death because His death was His release.
C. The Life-releasing Death
In the sense explained above, Christ’s death is considered the life-releasing death with His glory released simultaneously. We cannot separate His life from His glory. When His life was released, His glory was released also.
(The Issue of Christ Being Glorified by the Father with the Divine Glory, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee)
