The Glory of Jesus

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

Where would you expect to see Jesus in His glory? Do you have a place in mind? Is it a picture of Him sitting on a throne in heaven? Is it a picture of Him surrounded by an angelic host? Is it a picture of His countenance shining like the noonday sun? Fair enough; good choices, all of them. I have one more picture to proffer: His battered and bloody body hanging on the cross of Calvary, where the very Son of God gave His life for your sins and mine. Doesn’t seem a likely picture of His glory, does it? 

When Jesus said, “It was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name” [John 12:27-28], He was a mere five days from His death. When He spoke those words, the cross was right before Him. It was an unlikely place to find the Creator of the universe, yet He was going there knowingly, determinedly, willingly. Why, you ask? Because the cross was not a place of defeat for Jesus. Rather, it was a place where His glory was magnificently displayed. 

What glory the cross! It was the place where the redemption price was offered once and for all for our sins. It was the place where God’s wrath against sin was satiated. It was the place where “the prince of this world” — the devil, himself — was completely defeated and “driven out.” So there He hung, in all His glory. For what could be more glorious than saving the world — saving you and me — so that, by faith in Him, we will live with Him in glory forever!

Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him. 30 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. John 12:27-33