The Hour Has Come

"Therefore, when he had gone out, Jesus said, 'Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him.'"

Judas is out of the room. He went out into the darkness and never saw the light of another day. And now Jesus turns to the eleven remaining disciples and says something shocking.

Scripture Focus: John 13:31-32; Exodus 34:6-7

"Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him."

Jesus says, "The hour of My glorification has come." Interestingly, this is the hour of His crucifixion.

Think with me. Jesus refers to the hour of His crucifixion as the hour of His glorification. Meaning that the disfigured body of a gory and bloody man on a cross is actually the hallmark of His glory.

Why? How could a picture of a God-man, naked, stripped, beaten, thorns in His face—how is that glory?

Ephesians 1 says "to the praise of the glory of the grace of God." That's His glory. Not because He's shining brilliantly like the sun, but because He's revealing something about who God is.

What is the glory of God? The glory of God is the harmonization and revelation of His character—who He is.

Remember Moses? He's 81 years old. He's seen God's power. Moses is parting seas with a stick in his hand. And yet, like anybody who has actually witnessed the power of God, he's not content.

Moses prays in Exodus 33:18, "I pray You, show me Your glory."

And how does God respond? He gets behind a pulpit, so to speak, and He preaches a sermon on His character.

Exodus 34:6-7: "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth, who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished."

Don't miss this: When God want to reveal His glory, He reveals His character.

What happens next? Moses made haste to bow toward the earth and worship.

Deep worship is always the derivative of a deeper understanding of the character of God.

So why does Jesus say the hour of My glorification is here? Because at the cross, as Jesus is dying, you see the harmony of all of God's attributes - His character - working in conjunction.

You see His holiness. His eyes are too pure to behold iniquity. He doesn't tolerate sin.

You see His justice—He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.

You see His patience.

You see His wisdom.

You see His power—how could one man take on an infinite amount of sin? Because He's the God-man.

You see His faithfulness—He keeps His promises.

On page three of the Bible, God makes a promise: "I am going to send a second Adam who will break the curse of sin and death. He will be a serpent crusher."

And Matthew 1 begins with a genealogy that punctuates a truth we sing at Christmas: "This, this is Christ the King. He's the serpent crusher. He's the death slayer and He slays death by dying Himself."

You want to know the glory of God? The glory of God is that He keeps His promises. His Word is true.

Stay dialed in