Glorify You

Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You . . .” (John 17:1).

Jesus was glorified on the cross as the only acceptable sacrifice for sin and its propitiation. He defeated sin and the power of sin by His atoning sacrifice. He defeated Satan and his ministers, ending the power and threat of death that they possessed. Because of these things, Jesus has been praised, magnified, exalted, and given the greatest and highest honor of God the Father. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:8-11).

Jesus glorified the Father by His death on the cross by revealing the power of God. Through the death of Christ, God judged Satan, his ministers, and the wickedness of a sinful world. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it (Colossians 2:15). 

Second, God’s holiness was revealed by the death of Jesus on the cross. The Father loved Jesus with an infinite love we can never understand. Yet on the cross Jesus became sin, our sin, so that He might atone for it by His death. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Because God cannot look upon sin without judging it (Habakkuk 1:13), He turned His back (abandoned) Jesus on the cross to die alone (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34).

Third, the power of God was revealed in raising Jesus from death. But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses (Acts 3:14-15).

Fourth, God’s faithfulness was revealed by the death of Jesus. It was promised that, even though the Messiah would die on the cross, He would be raised from the dead (Psalm 16). God is faithful and keeps His promises. He [Jesus] indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God (1 Peter 1:20-21).

Fifth, Jesus Christ, His incarnation, sinless life, powerful ministry, death, and resurrection, demonstrates the great love that God has for mankind. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). He is glorified above all, for there is no man, no self-proclaimed god, no other power in the universe who has demonstrated these things. Amen.  

Pastor Martin