February
18, 2003
FOR
THIS PURPOSE I CAME TO THIS HOUR
"Now
My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save Me
from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour.
Father, glorify Your name" (John 12:27, 28, NKJV).
"The
message of the Greeks, foreshadowing as it did the gathering
in of the Gentiles, brought to the mind of Jesus His entire
mission. The work of redemption passed before Him, from the
time when in heaven the plan was laid, to the death that was
now so near at hand. A mysterious cloud seemed to enshroud
the Son of God. Its gloom was felt by those near Him. He sat
rapt in thought. At last the silence was broken by His mournful
voice, 'Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? "Father,
save Me from this hour."? ' In anticipation Christ was
already drinking the cup of bitterness. His humanity shrank
from the hour of abandonment, when to all appearance He would
be deserted even by God, when all would see Him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. He shrank from public exposure,
from being treated as the worst of criminals, from a shameful
and dishonored death. A foreboding of His conflict with the
powers of darkness, a sense of the awful burden of human transgression,
and the Father's wrath because of sin caused the spirit of
Jesus to faint, and the pallor of death to overspread His
countenance.
"Then
came divine submission to His Father's will. 'For this purpose,'
He said, 'I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.'
Only through the death of Christ could Satan's kingdom be
overthrown. Only thus could man be redeemed, and God be glorified.
Jesus consented to the agony. He accepted the sacrifice. The
Majesty of heaven consented to suffer as the Sin Bearer. 'Father,
glorify Your name,' He said. As Christ spoke these words,
a response came from the cloud which hovered above His head;
'I have both glorified it and will glorify it again' (John
12:28). Christ's whole life, from the manger to the time when
these words were spoken, had glorified God; and in the coming
trial His divine human sufferings would indeed glorify His
Father's name" (The Desire of Ages, pp., 624, 625).
God has
reconciled the world to Himself through Jesus. "God was
in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their
trespasses to them... For He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew
no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness
of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:19, 21). Herein is love, "God
demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were
still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). God
loves us so much that He gave His Son, "that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal
life" (John 3:15).
"For
this purpose I came to this hour"
(John 12:27).
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