Another bit from N. T.
Another bit from N. T. Wright’s Reflecting the Glory:
John goes on [in 1:14] to say that we have seen his glory, the glory as of a Father’s only Son, the perfect reflection of the glory of God. As we continue to read through the Gospel, we shall see that, for John, this glory was revealed not in a blaze of majesty, not in Jesus’ sweeping all before him in some triumphal earthly procession. This glory was revealed supremely in Jesus’ giving of his own life as the sacrifice for the sins of the world, enthroned on the cross outside Jerusalem and crowned with cruel thorns. It is in the light of that knowledge that John writes verse 18: “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” In other words, when we look at this Jesus, and above all at Jesus crucified for the sins of the world, then we see the true nature of the Father’s heart. It is a heart of glory, the glory of self-giving love.
Given the prominence of this theme in John’s Gospel (and elsewhere in Scripture), why don’t most systematic theology textbooks emphasize God’s self-giving love in their discussions of His glory?