Jesus closed a short prayer with this request and the prayer is answered immediately. The reaction of those who were present was typical. Some said, It thundered. Others said an angel spoke to him. How little man understands of the Glory of God! All too often we expect God to be glorified only in ways which will elevate man to a lofty position. God said on this occasion that he had both glorified his name and would glorify it again. The question might well be asked, How had He glorified His name in the past? It is as natural for God to be glorified as it is for natural man to be prone to sin. The fact is, God WILL BE GLORIFIED whether man likes it or not. Note that the request of Christ on this occasion was NOT that man might glorify His name but that the Father, himself would glorify it .The answer was, I have and I will.
As we think back to the record of man's earliest days, we see man walking in the Garden and we see God Glorified as He fellowships and communes with the creature He created in His own image. At this time man walked in uprightness and communed with his creator of his own free will. Then a dark cloud comes over the scene as man uses that divine gift of a free will to disobey his God. In doing so he broke that communion. The question now is; Will man, who was created for the glory of God, now rob God of that glory by willful disobedience?
The sad truth is that man, in his sinful condition has it neither in his mind or will to glorify his maker. Yet God has said, "I have glorified my name." As long as Adam walked uprightly he walked in fellowship with God ans shared in his glory. Sin brought about a sad change. Man not only does not walk with God and share his glory. Instead, man is separated from God by that very glory! Why? Because now is glorified by the judgment and condemnation of sin. Instead of being glorified by the creatures walking by His side, He is glorified by the cherubim with the flaming swords, which keep sinful man out of his presence.
A quick trip through Bible history reveals how, over and over, God is glorified in the goodness and merciful provisions He made for His people and the sure and quick way His complete holiness causes man to reap the consequences of disobedience to Him.
As He delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage, He was glorified in the mercy he showed to those who applied the blood of the Passover Lamb. For these the Angel of Death passed over and left them safe. His glory was also manifested in the homes of the Egyptians and any
others who refused to apply the blood. Into these homes the death angle came. Not one escaped. From the homes of the lowliest slave to the palace of Pharoah the first born is slain.
As He led the Israelite to the Red Sea, His glory is seen equally in the delivery of them through the deep and in the destruction of Pharoah and his armies in it.
He showed his glory to Israel in the quail he gave them to eat and in the serpents he sent to bite them when they murmured against Him.
As he led them to the plain at the foot of Mt.Sinai they realized again that they were being led by a God of great power and glory. They saw the thick darkness settle over the mountain. They saw the lightening flash and the ground tremble under their feet. They knew they were in the presence of a glorious God. Their reaction was,"Moses, you go up and find out what He wants and we will do it". It was a rash promise which they would break over and over to their great sorrow.
When God had written His Laws upon the Tables of Stone and sent them to His chosen nation, they had a glorious Law which, as one historian has said, 'Between the Law of Moses and the laws of other nations, there is a gulf which cannot be spanned.' The reason is simple, no other nation was ever ruled by Laws which were written by the Hand of God!.When she obeyed those Laws, she glorified God and was blessed by Him. When she turned away from obedience to follow other gods He glorified Himself as he brought swift and terrible punishment upon her. That Law still stands as testimony of God's perfect righteousness and as witness to man's inability to measure up to His demands. It stands as a reminder of our sinfulness and our need to throw ourselves upon the mercy of our glorious God!
The New Testament opens with the account of the birth of Christ. The angels announced it with the words,'Glory to God in the highest'.
From the earliest of times, when a son was born, the father caused a great celebration to be made. Never before and never since has the birth of a son been celebrated as it was on this occasion. He did not gather a chorus of beggars from the back street of Jerusalem nor even hire the Temple choir for the occasion. He sent forth the angels and for the first time in all eternity, the praise which has been heard around the throne in heaven, reached the ears of men. The message was "Glory to God in the highest."
It reminds us of the request made by Moses many years before. As he came into the presence of God on the mount, he made a request,"Show me thy glory?" The answer was, "I'll show you my goodness." No man can look into the face of the glorious God and yet we can see that glory manifested in His goodness toward us in Christ Jesus. This is why John said concerning Him, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
No prince was ever born, even to the world's most powerful ling, who received such a grand proclamation of his birth as did the Son of God. There may have been no twenty- one -gun salutes and no national holidays declared, but the Father sent His angels to announce his
arrival among men.
God glorified His Name in the life which Jesus lived as he walked among men. It was by the power of God that Jesus performed his miracles. Every time blind eyes were made to see or deaf ears were opened or withered limbs made whole, God was glorifying His Name. As Christ and his disciples were in the little ship in the storm, the disciples feared for their lives. God's glory is shown in an unmistakable way as Jesus arises from the place where he was asleep in the back part of the ship. He made no great production of what he was about to do.
There were no announcements to get the attention of the maximum number of people and no rituals involved. He simply rebuked the wind and the waves and issued the command, "Peace, be still" immediately there was a great calm. In every move Jesus made and in every word he uttered while upon the earth, the Father was being glorified.
Parents are proud when their children achieve great things. As Christ came up out of the water at his baptism the Father spoke of him,"This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." Jesus was entering into the earthly ministry for which the world had awaited since the days of Adam.
Later, those who came to question him, went away saying, "no man ever spake like this man!" God was glorified in the wisdom of His Son. Those who witnessed the healing of the palsied man who had been let down through the roof into the presence of Jesus, went away saying, "We never saw it in this manner before!" God was glorified in the power of His Son. As Jesus stood before Pilate at the time of arrest, Pilate said, "I find no fault with this man." and God was glorified in the righteousness of His Son.
"I will glorify it again." was the promise. As the events immediately following this promise unfold we might be made to wonder if God had forgotten or changed His mind. Christ was lead as a sheep to the slaughter. He stood after being beaten and abused with a crown of thorns pushed down on His brow. He heard the vulgar jeers of the soldiers as they knelt in mockery before the King of the tiny nation they so despised. We might be made to ask, "How is God to receive any glory from all this?"
They nailed him to the cross between two thieves and taunted Him, "He saved others but he can't save himself!" His disciples went away. The cry fell from the parched lips, "I thirst." and the final most agonized cry of all, "My God my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" The natural assumption for man to make is, "Surely God is not being glorified in all this!" But when one realizes what is really taking place one understands that this is not the sad and gloomy scene of defeat it first appears. Rather, it is the manifestation of the glorious triumph of the Love of God!
Ever since sin had entered the world through Adam it had held man in its iron grip. There had been no sacrifice man might make or ritual he could perform nor penance he could do which could break the power of sin's hold upon him. It was At the cross that the Love of God triumphed over sin, death and hell in our behalf. God had, in the glory of His complete righteousness, pronounced condemnation upon sin and now, in the person of His perfect Son has again glorified Himself by providing a remedy for sin!. As Christ bare our sins in His own body he did something all the blood of bulls and goats could never do. He provided a way in which sinful man could stand, in complete righteousness before God.. The promise of God had been kept. He had glorified his name again.
Our thoughts progress next to the empty tomb. The devil and all his crowd have tried in every conceivable way to diminish its effect but it stands as a silent testimony to the world that the one who had been laid there was not a mere mortal. He had said, on the day he had died, John 10:18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. Because of that commandment of the Father, all the power of the Roman government, her army, the Sanhedrin court and even the devil and his angels, could not keep Christ in the tomb. In a way never before even imagined by any other, God had glorified his name as Christ broke the power of Death, Hell and the grave from the inside!
How is a king or ruler more glorified? Is it by a great palace bulging with riches obtained at the expense of his downtrodden subjects? Or is it by his people dwelling in safety, peace and prosperity as they enjoy the Royal Bounty of the King? God is glorifying Himself today, not by the demands he makes upon us as much as by the provisions he has made FOR us. While there are things he demands and desires from us, they are not to provide Him more glory, but rather,to elevate us so that we might share His glory.
Paul made the statement. Gal 6:14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. We may all glory in the Cross of our Lord because it is the preaching of the Cross which is the power of God unto salvation. In our preaching of the Gospel, God glorifies himself even more than he did by the Law, which He gave at Mt.Siniai. The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to pen these words;2 Cor 3:7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
2 Cor 3:8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
2 Cor 3:9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
2 Cor 3:10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
2 Cor 3:11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
Every time the Word of God is preached, God glorifies himself by sending the Holy Spirit to use that Word to convict men of their sins. Great orators have been able to sometimes move men to action or emotions by the use of words but here is something far different. It takes no silver tongued orator to effectively present the Gospel. Any child of God can be used by God to change the destiny of others from hell to Heaven by the use of the simple testimony of Jesus Christ..Praise God for the glory to Himself as he uses the preaching of the Gospel to save them that believe.
In the early part of his life, Jesus was raised in an obscure village in Galillee..When he began his ministry and started calling out his disciples, he did it without fanfare. If man set out to establish an institution which was to endure throughout the ensuing ages, he would, no doubt, want to use every means at his disposal to advertise it. He would want the best press agents and get all the advance publicity possible. Yet as Jesus set out to build a Church which would face persecution from every quarter and yet be charged with the responsibility of preaching the Gospel to every creature and endure unchanged for all time, he did it without any fanfare. Luke 17:20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
The first men he called to the work were not the well known public figure of their day. They were two lowly Galileean fishermen. It is doubtful that the Church of our Lord could
have had a more unlikely beginning. Yet He gave them the promise, "Follow me and I will make you to become fishers of men." They were still but a small band of disciples when he further promised, "Upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." They still had not grown to be very large when He promised again, "In this world ye shall have tribulation, but fear not, I have overcome the world." God is still glorifying His Name for that Church with the unlikely beginning, is still here and is still preaching the Gospel of Christ in all its purity.
Every time a lost sinner answers the Gospel call and comes to Christ, there is rejoicing in heaven and God glorifies himself once again. Every time a New Testament Church takes one who has been saved into the waters of Baptism in obedience to His command, God glorifies Himself again. When we are able to look into the face of one who had been ruined by the shame and degradation of sin and see there the radiance of joy in Jesus Christ, we realize this did not happen by the wisdom or the power of men. It is by the power of an all mighty God and we can say, "Praise God, He has glorified Himself again!"
Christ now sits at the right hand of the throne of the Father making intercession for his saints. Some day soon he will arise from that throne and come in clouds of great glory to call his people home. At that time, the dead in Christ will be raised in their incorruptible bodies and those still living will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye to be fashioned like unto his glorious body. Then we shall all go to meet the Lord in the air and God will have again glorified His Name in a marvelous way. Not only will he have proven his ability to redeem lost, sinful men, but to keep them and eventually give them their glorified, eternal bodies.
The Bible tells us of a time when He will sit upon David's throne as King of kings and Lord of lords and rule over this earth with a rod of iron. When this takes place and even the rulers of this earth bow down before him, God will have again kept his promise, "I will glorify it again." At that time the words of the prophet will be fulfilled, Hab 2:14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
Again, when the wicked dead are raised to stand before Him at the Great White Throne judgment, his promise as found in several scriptures will be fulfilled.;
Isa 45:23 I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.
Rom 14:11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
Phil 2:10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
Phil 2:11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
There is no question as to, WILL God be glorified by you? The only question is WHEN AND UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS YOU WILL GLORIFY HIM. WIll it be now as you receive him as your savior and as you server him? Or will it be at the Great White Throne as you bow and say, "Amen, and Amen!" to you own condemnation?
In What Shall I Glory?
I gloried in youth.
It passed on.
I gloried in wealth
and freedom from pain.
But gone is the hope
In what can I glory
I'll glory in love
I'll glory in this,
I'll glory in Grace
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