Finish

"[Jesus said] : Father, the hour is come; glorify your Son so that your Son may glorify you... I have glorified you on earth, I have finished the work you have given me to do. And now, glorify me, you, Father, with yourself, for the glory that I had with you before the world was." John 17. 4, 5

His creative work completed, God sits on the seventh day. Seeing what he has just realized, God finds that it is "very good" (Gen. 1:31). Everything is over, everything is complete, everything is in order. God can look upon creation with satisfaction : everything is in accordance with his purpose, and we can only admire the beauty and perfection of created things ; yet our praise does not go to creation, but rises to the Creator.

If the creative work has been completed, the work that saves us has been too. Before giving himself up, Jesus turns to his Father and considers the results of his life on earth : "I have glorified you on earth, I have finished the work you have given me to do".

Jesus glorified his Father on earth by manifesting all the divine perfections. He glorified him by his miracles, by his words, by his holy life. All that the Father was to him was seen : "We saw his glory, a glory as of an only son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).

When Jesus prays thus, he considers his work as finished, this work which he has accomplished on earth by veiling his glory as the only Son. He may ask that his Father glorify him as he has glorified him. The veil cast on his splendor during his life on the earth can be lifted.

But if there remains before him the work of the cross to be done, "the hour has come" (John 17: 1), Jesus is already measuring all the consequences. The glory he seeks from his Father will enable him to give eternal life to those whom the Father has given him. The work of redemption ends in perfection and meets the full approval of God : He raises his Son to sit on his right. This work, of an eternal and universal scope, will reconcile all things with God, will allow the man, formerly far from God, to come in the presence of God and to call him Father. We can simply believe that the work of Jesus Christ is perfect, that it is fully finished, that God will be able to rest in his love (Soph 3. 17).

Source (Pleasing the Lord)