John 17:20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
24 “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
These words from our Lord are often used in a way to undermine the testimony of his deity. At the beginning of the chapter, Jesus speaks about a Glory he had with the Father before the world was:
4 I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
Instead of reading this in terms of the rest of John’s gospel teachings that Jesus was divine with the Father prior to the creation of the world. Unitarians will interpret it along other lines in order to evade such a conclusion. Some think this is saying Jesus will be predestined to future glory and that is what is being referred to here. The issue is this isn’t directed towards a future glory but a past glory that belongs to Christ. The author tells us that the Word was like in the Tabernacle or Tent of meeting amongst us (John 1:14). This profound glory is sent to us that we may have the fullest revelation of God. The reason he has such a profound revelation of God is that he is God. For only God can reveal himself in a way greater than any other revelation before.
When Moses asks God to show him His “glory,” the Hebrew leader is asking that God reveal to him who He is, that is, the very essence of His being. The Lord responds by proclaiming His name Yahweh in front of Moses. This self-designation in Hebrew literally means “I am that I am,” and it signifies three things about the nature of God. …
Because the word glory defines the very essence of God’s being, it came to be used of the very presence of God among His people. So we read in Exodus 16:10 that the people of Israel looked into the wilderness and “the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.” Biblical scholars call this type of appearance of God the shekinah glory, that is, the dwelling presence of God with His people. It is this glory cloud that descends on and covers Mount Sinai when God reveals His word to His people (Ex. 24:15–16). It is this glory cloud that descends into the Holy of Holies in both the tabernacle and the temple (Ex. 40:34–38; 1 Kings 8:10– 11). The shekinah glory is a sign that God’s very being and essence reside in the midst of His people.
The greatest manifestation of the dwelling presence of God’s glory (essence/being) among His people is in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. The Apostle John tells us that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The Greek word that John uses for “dwelt” means “to tabernacle,” and it is a clear reference to the dwelling presence of God in the tabernacle/ temple of the Old Testament.
http://spirited-tech.com/2021/05/19/greater-than-the-temple/
The other contention that Unitarians have is that Jesus shares this glory with his apostles (v. 22) and therefore he isn’t referring to the Divine Glory. Those that maintain certain Neo-Platonic theologies would actually bite the bullet and accept that it is the glory of God (some sort of Theosis). I find both these routes untenable and think that this is a false dilemma.
I maintain that the glory Christ had before the world was is a different glory than that which is given to the disciples of Christ. Firstly, we know that the glory in v. 5 is most likely not in view because this is the glory spoken about in v. 24 that he wishes for the disciples to “behold” (1:14; 2:11; 11:4, 40). Secondly, we should also note the way glory is talked about:
We have seen his glory. In the LXX, the word for ‘glory’, doxa, commonly renders Hebrew kāḇôḏ, a word used to denote the visible manifestation of God’s self-disclosure in a theophany (Ex. 33:22; Dt. 5:22), or even of the ‘glorious’ status of God’s people when he rises to save them (Is. 60:1). Small wonder that all in the temple, aware of the presence of the LORD, cry ‘Glory!’ (Ps. 29:9)—which also shows how the word almost means ‘praise’ in some contexts (e.g. Jn. 5:41). Jesus’ glory was displayed in his ‘signs’ (2:11; 11:4, 40); he was supremely ‘glorified’ in his death and exaltation (7:39; 12:16, 23; 13:31–32). This does not mean he had no glory before he began his public ministry, for in fact he enjoyed glory with the Father before the incarnation, and returned to take up that glory again after his resurrection (17:5, 24). Other men seek their own glory (5:44; 12:43); by contrast, the peculiar relationship the incarnate Word had with the Father was such that he never sought glory for himself, but only God’s glory (5:41; 7:18; 8:50). In the context of incarnation, the we who saw the Word’s glory must refer to the Evangelist and other Christians who actually saw Jesus in the days of his earthly life. Cf. Stephen in Acts 7:55, where kai may mean ‘even’: Stephen, ‘full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, even Jesus standing at the right hand of God.’
The glory John and others saw was the glory of the One and Only. The underlying expression was rendered ‘only-begotten’ Son in earlier translations, but despite the efforts of some to restore that rendering, the NIV is a little closer to what is meant. The glory displayed in the incarnate Word is the kind of glory a father grants to his one and only, best-loved Son—and this ‘father’ is God himself. Thus it is nothing less than God’s glory that John and his friends witnessed in the Word-made-flesh.
Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John (pp. 126–131). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.
1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
2:11 This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.
11:4 When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
11:40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”
Jesus gives to the disciples the glory in the sense that he has brought to completion his revelatory task. He has shown them this glory in the miracles and early ministry and now entrust them to continue that work:
Jesus has completed his revelatory task; it now remains for his followers to pass on the message to others (Carson 1991: 569; cf. 2 Tim. 2:2). The glory that the Father has given to Jesus and that he has passed on to his disciples is not Jesus’ preexistent glory, which he is yet to reclaim (see 17:5), but the glory that Jesus was awarded in order to carry out his earthly mission (e.g., 1:14; 2:11; 11:4, 40; see Ridderbos 1997: 563).73 As they continue his mission, Jesus wants his followers to share in the glory that has been a hallmark of his own ministry, including at the cross (Ridderbos 1997: 563). This implies that the disciples’ path, too, entails lowly service and suffering on behalf of others (Morris 1995: 650).
Andreas J. Köstenberger. BECNT – John (Kindle Locations 9976-9982). Kindle Edition.
The theory that Jesus is giving us the Glory of God is highly unlikely. This is because of the obvious OT passages about us not sharing in the Glory of God.
“I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images” (Isaiah 42:8)
“For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another” (Isaiah 48:11).
Rather we see that Jesus through his message is able to unite Christians from all different ages. The glory we are given will express itself because the Father is in Jesus who is in his disciples by his Spirit. This is expressed in the love amongst Christians (15:10; 17:23, 26). This also is another reason to doubt the notion that Jesus is purely human. As Sam Shamoun once pointed out:
Jesus explains the reason why the disciples could be given the glory of Christ; it is because Jesus lives in them, something which he repeats more than once:
“Jesus replied, ‘If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and WE will come to him and make OUR home with him.’” John 14:23
“Remain IN ME, and I will remain IN you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain IN ME. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains IN ME and I IN HIM, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5
“I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them AND THAT I MYSELF MAY BE IN THEM.” John 17:26
By being united to Jesus by virtue of Christ indwelling them (which shows that he is omnipresent and therefore God!) the believers therefore become his spiritual body
To put it simply, Christ has procured the believers’ right to partake of his own immortal glory by his perfect righteousness and atoning death for sinners, apart from which no person could ever be saved or exalted.
Hence, although the disciples sharing in Christ’s glory doesn’t make them God this does, however, demonstrate that Jesus is God since the reason why his followers can partake of his own eternal glory is because he is able to dwell in all of them, thereby uniting them to God, and has the sovereign right to make them children of the Most High.
https://www.answering-islam.org/Responses/Osama/zawadi_glory.htm
The Council 