Word of Encouragement (3/29/2021)

We are reflecting on what we should be praying for. We have gone over the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. Starting today, let’s review Jesus’ High Priestly prayer in John 17 and learn about what we should pray for from what Jesus prayed.

The first is, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you...” (v. 2). Here, we have a glimpse of what the theologians call “the covenant of redemption.” This is the covenant that was made between the three Persons of the Trinity before the foundation of the world regarding our salvation. In it, God the Father designated the Son as the Redeemer of His people and promised to Him, upon the condition of perfect obedience, 1) the redemption of His people and 2) the Holy Spirit so He could pour out the Holy Spirit upon His people to apply His redemption to them. As you can see, it was a covenant of works, which was reflected in God’s covenant with Adam (which is called “the covenant of life”). Jesus alludes to the covenant of redemption when He says a couple of verses later, “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do [in the covenant of redemption]. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed [as you promised in the covenant of redemption]” (vs. 4-5).

There is an irony in this prayer, however. Throughout the Book of John, Jesus’ hour of glory is closely identified with the hour of His suffering, particularly of His crucifixion. At the wedding in Cana, Jesus tells Mary that His hour has not yet come (2:4). But when the Greeks come to see Jesus, He says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (12:23). Then, right away, He hints of His impending death: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (12:24). Given the fact that Jesus prayed His High Priestly prayer right before His arrest and crucifixion, it is clear that “the hour” of His glory refers to His death on the cross. His crucifixion is the hour of His glory because it is the final act of His perfect obedience to God, for which He will receive the promised of glory as the Redeemer of His people. By fulfilling His covenant with the Father, He brought glory to the Father, who decreed our redemption.

Here, we see that the glory of the Son is bound up with the glory of the Father. Not only that, the glory of the Son and the glory of the Father are both bound up with our redemption! This is why our salvation is secure. As John Piper pointed out, the chief end of God is to glorify Himself and to enjoy Himself forever. If God never fails to glorify Himself and His glory is glorified in our redemption, then He will never fail to redeem His people, to the very last and least of them.

So, we should pray that Christ would be glorified and God would be glorified through Him. Yes, Jesus was already glorified when He died and He already glorified His Father through His obedience to the point of death. But in praying this prayer, we are expressing our desire to know nothing except (or, more than) Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2) and to see Christ crucified preached to the ends of the earth (1 Cor. 1:23). We are praying that, since His hour of glory was bound up with His death on the cross, we will not be ashamed of “Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:23-24). We are also praying that we would not despise suffering for the sake of Christ crucified that we might receive great reward (Matt. 5:12) and glory at the resurrection (Phil. 3:11). Soli Deo Glory—all glory be to God!