As Octavius Winslow said, in reference to this passage, it is commonly accepted "that the personal and official glory of the Redeemer stand or fall together." Then continuing, if we may summarize a little of Winslow's writings on this subject (from "The Glory of The Redeemer," first published 1844, then in 1865, now recently reprinted by Soli Deo Gloria), he says they are so united and interwoven in the grand scheme of mercy, and so necessary to the perfection of our salvation, that the one can not be exalted or depressed without seriously affecting the other. All the true saints of God must be unanimous in maintaining the Godhead of our Lord as the basis of the Atonement, and the atonement itself as the one and only medium of reconciliation with a holy God.

Winslow then gives a wonderful discussion and exposition of the idea that the personal glory of the Lord Jesus Christ is to the Bible what the sun is to our planet.

Although the Word of God, the Bible, in and of itself is of inestimable value and worth, revealing doctrines, teaching valuable precepts, illustrating with marvelous types and parables, recording facts both historical and scientific, and unveiling the glorious promises of God to His people, in a beautiful and magnificent display of grace, wisdom, love and omniscience, yet still until it is seen in its relationship to Christ, our Glorious Redeemer, it is largely hidden from the human heart and mind.

But when the Word of God is studied by a sincere and born-again believer, the doctrine of the incarnate God makes radiance and light to shine upon every difficulty and truth of the inspired Word. Though the doctrine of the incarnation is deeply mysterious of itself, yet, when accepted and absorbed as truth, it explains every other mystery in the Book.

John Gill (one of the greatest of our old time Baptist writers and preachers, in spite of the fact that he is far too Heavy On Calvinism for my taste), wrote many wonderful things in his "Expositions," and said some really well spoken things, including the following about John 17:5, and the whole of the subject here considered. "(Slightly edited by JHD) "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self," &c. Not with his perfections, these he had, they dwelt bodily in him; or with his nature, in which he was one with him; but as Mediator, with his glorious presence in heaven, by setting him at his right hand, and crowning him with glory and honour. The Jews have a notion that God will give to the King Messiah, "of the supreme glory" {g}: the glory Christ prays for is, as he says, "the glory which I had with thee before the world was;" the same phrase (which was) used by the Jews {h}.

"This is not to be understood of the glory of the human nature of Christ, abstractly considered; for that is no person of itself, but what is taken up into personal union with the Son of God; and therefore cannot be intended by this personal character I; nor did it exist from eternity; it was indeed written in God's book of predestination, even all its members, when as yet there were none of them in actual being; it was set up in God's thoughts and counsel, as the pattern and exemplar of human nature; it had a federal union with the Son of God, or a covenant subsistence with him; and in the Old Testament Christ was often spoken of as man, because of his frequent appearances in an human form, and because of the certainty of his incarnation; but he did not really and actually exist as man, until he took flesh of the virgin.

"For Christ, as man, is the seed of the woman, the son of David, Abraham, and Adam; he is called the last and second Adam, and was not as man before the first: the Old Testament speaks of his incarnation as future, nor is it possible that a creature can exist before time; for as soon as a creature exists, time begins, which is nothing else than the measure of a creature's duration; nor was the human nature of Christ with the Father from eternity; nor had it a glory before the world began, neither in whole, nor in part: nor is the glory of the divine nature abstractly considered here meant; this glory indeed Christ had from everlasting; he had it with his Father, in common with him, being in union to him.

"And it is true that it was in some measure veiled and covered in his state of humiliation; for though there were some breakings forth of it in that state, these were seen but by a few; wherefore he is thought by some, to pray here for the manifestation of this glory; but this glory was essential to him, was his natural right, and not to be prayed for, and which he then had as much as ever, and of which there could be no suspension: but this designs the glory of him as Godman, and Mediator; he was not only predestinated to be a Mediator, but was really set up as such from everlasting, and had a mediatorial fulness of grace put into his hands, and had the honour and glory of that office given unto him by the other two persons; and now that he might appear to be what he was, to be made, that is, made manifest that he was both Lord and Christ, he here prays; which was to be done, upon his ascension to heaven, and session at the right hand of God, by the pouring down of the Holy Ghost."

{g} Midrash Tillim in Psal. 20 apud Galatin. de Arcan. Cathol. Ver. l. 3. c. 9. {h} Gloss in T. Bab Pesachim, fol. 54. 1.

"Psalms 36:9 "For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light. (Those who have read John Flavel, of course, are reminded by this verse of the source of his title for one of his best writings, "The Fountain of Life.")" There are many, (more and more in these modern days) who deny Christ had a Divine personal existence previous to His appearance in New Testament days. Some even go so far as to assert that He made no claims to a pre-incarnation state of being, that He never existed before the world was with His Father, and that all the passages we use as proofs of a Divine pre-existent state of great glory are simply expressions of the foreknowledge and purpose of God, not proofs of a superior, eternally existent Divine nature.

"It solves what is inexplicable, fathoms what is profound, illumines what is obscure, and reconciles what is discrepant. And yet, while thus irradiating every other doctrine, and elucidating every other mystery, it remains as it ever will, enshrined in its own unapproachable light, the most wonderful, incomprehensible, and sublime of all --- the great mystery of godliness." (Winslow, Glories of the Redeemer, 1865).