PARTICIPATING IN THE DOXOLOGICAL LIFE OF THE TRINITY
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Date
2005
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Tangaza University College
Abstract
Doxology comes from the Greek word 'doxa', meaning, 'opinion, reputation.
honor, glory.° It is a word that denotes 'divine and heavenly radiance', the 'loftiness
and majesty' of God, and even the `being of God' and His world'.2 To understand the
term better, we can shift our focus to what is happening in Jn.17:1-5. Here, we have the
mutual glorification of the Father and the Son. Jesus glorifies the Father by
accomplishing his earthly ministry faithfully. Now, he asks the Father to glorify him,
but actually the glorification of the Son is meant for the glory of the Father. So, Jesus is
glorified so that the Father may be glorified. Without the glorification of the Son, in this
sense, there is no glorification of the Father. But the glory of the Son is only when he is
established in his eternal power. He is established in his eternal power so that he can
mediate life to God's creation. The Father is only glorified when the creation, especially
man is fully alive. Man is fully alive when he shares in the life of God. The whole glory
X. LEON-DUFOUR, Dictionary of the New Testament, 169. 2 G. KITTEI., ed. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament 11, 237.
is aimed to go back to the Father. This is what the mutual glorification is all about as the Holy Spirit participates by making all this possible. So, the life of glory is the life of the Trinity in which we are called to participate, in our capacities as human beings and in
all situations of our lives. What motivates God in this is his essence as love. His love is so strong that He cannot keep it to himself. He cannot- not share it. That is why He creates a being like himself to share His life of love with him. This is how God glorifies us. Once we have been gifted with this love do we take a chance to glorify God by passing it on to others. Passing it on authentically as limited beings is not easy. Only when we shall been filled by it, (in the full sense of the term) shall we not fail to pass it on to others. This is our participation in the glorification of God. This is therefore, what I shall be developing in this paper. '1Doxa' is a word that is used in the New Testament to mean the same thing as 'glory'. In my usage of the terms. 'Doxology' and 'Glorification', therefore, I shall alternatively and freely employ them to mean the same thing
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PARTICIPATING IN THE DOXOLOGICAL LIFE OF THE TRINITY