The Best Prayer Ever Offered
W. F. Adeney, M. A. John 12:28-30 Father, glorify your name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.… I. ITS OBJECT. 1. It is unselfish. Personal apprehension is swallowed up in the craving for Divine glory. Compare this with Matthew 6:9. Prayer is often too selfish. 2. It seeks the revealing of God's glory. God is changeless and cannot grow more glorious in Himself. But His name is glorified when the beauty of His character is revealed. The mountains are not changed when the mists lift; but they are glorified in being unveiled. 3. The particular form is the glory of the Fatherhood of God. His creative glory of wisdom and might had been revealed in nature; His regal glory of justice and government in providence; His highest glory of goodness awaited its full manifestation when His Fatherhood would be seen in personal self-sacrificing love to His children. II. ITS MOTIVES. 1. The name of God as our Father deserves to be glorified. 2. Christ found His own greatest encouragement in the vision of the glory of God. So did Moses (Exodus 33:18, 19). We are most strengthened when we forget self in God. 3. Christ's work is accomplished when the name of God as our Father is glorified. This name had been dishonoured till Christ raised it to honour among His disciples. The Christian is glorified only as he reflects the glory of God, and this can only be as God is first revealed to him (2 Corinthians 3:18). III. ITS ANSWER. 1. God's Fatherhood had been revealed — (1) In creation, providence, and Old Testament revelation, but dimly and partially. (2) In the incarnation, life, character, words, and works of Christ, but still not perfectly. 2. It was destined to be revealed more fully. (1) In the passion of Christ, by the love of God shown in sustaining His Son, by His holiness and goodness in the suffering Saviour, and by the great act of redemption then accomplished. (2) In the resurrection, and the proof this gave of God's redeeming goodness. (3) In the fruits of the redemption seen in the history of the Church. (4) Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in helping the Church to read aright the mystery of the Cross, which, after Pentecost, became the central theme of the Church's praises. (W. F. Adeney, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. WEB: Father, glorify your name!" Then there came a voice out of the sky, saying, "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again."