Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this cause came I unto this hour. (28) Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. (29) The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to him. (30) Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes.
In reading the first of these verses, in consequence of the words of the Lord Jesus being improperly marked in the stops, the sense is apt to be overlooked. The Lord speaks of his soul being troubled. And, as the words are in our Bibles, it seems to convey an idea, as if the Lord was at a loss what to say. And what shall I say? But this could not be the case. He, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, could never pause, by way of considering what to say. Neither do our Lord's words convey any such meaning, when the words themselves are placed as they ought to have been. Now is my soul troubled. And what. Shall I say Father save me from this hour? As if the Lord had said. Now is my soul troubled. And what if it be so. Shall I call upon the Father to save me from this hour? Oh! no. This were to defeat the very purpose for which I came. But for this cause came I unto this hour. I will therefore say, Father glorify thy Name. By reading the verse in this manner, we have the whole rendered perfectly clear and intelligible, And what a blessed view, the words give us of the Lord Jesus, at this solemn season. He had in full prospect before him, those tremendous exercises both of body and soul, which as the Head and Surety of his people, he had to go through. He felt, all that human nature could feel, upon the occasion. (See Hebrews 5:7-9) But in the midst of all, nothing of personal sorrow would he allow to stand in the way to obstruct the divine glory. Yea, the Lord intimated by his expressions, that in those humiliations, the divine glory should be the more manifested.
And the answer from heaven became the most blessed confirmation of what Christ had said. I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. This was the third time, during our Lord's ministry upon earth, in which God the Father had publicly proclaimed his perfect approbation to the Person, and Office-work, as Mediator, of his dear Son. Once, at Christ's entrance upon it at his baptism, Matthew 3:16-17. Once again at Mount Tabor, at the transfiguration. Matthew 17:5. And now just before the close of his ministry, in the garden, and at the cross. I beg the Reader to ponder the subject well, for it is most blessed. All the words of the Lord are precious words, when at any time he speaks in love and mercy to his Church. But those are eminently so, in which God the Father, or God the Holy Ghost, speak to Christ as Mediator. For they confirm Christ's authority, and prove that he was called of God, to be the servant and High Priest of Jehovah, as was Aaron. Hebrews 5:4-5. The perfection of Christ's person, and the perfection of his office, as our surety, are blessed things. But it forms a most essential part to our assurance in pleading both before God, when we can and do tell him, that the Lord himself both ordained the plan of mercy, and consecrated Christ his dear Son into the office of performing it. For when Christ took both the names and the nature of his people, to bear their sins, and to become their righteousness; the whole was in consequence of covenant-agreement between the persons of the Godhead. Hence the Church is represented as pleading this in prayer, and in which every child of God, truly taught of God, finds joy and comfort to join. Behold, O God! our shield! and look upon the face of thine anointed! Psalms 84:9
In relation to the soul-troubles of Christ, and God's glorifying his name in Christ; these are subjects in which our most earnest enquiries go but a little way. Who indeed can be competent to the apprehension of the soul agonies of the Redeemer, when the frowns and rebukes of his Father, as the Sinner's Surety, went so near, as he saith himself, to break his heart, Psalms 69:20. And we must be possessed of somewhat more than human, or even angelic intellect, before we can enter into an apprehension of the full extent of the glory of Jehovah's name, in the great events connected with the person and offices of Christ. It may not be improper, however, to attend to the scriptural account of this wonderful subject, in order to gather some few glimpses of the Lord's manifested glory, when in answer to Christ's prayer for the glorifying of his name, the Lord said, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.
That Jehovah in his three-fold character of person can receive no possible addition to his essential glory, by any act of his creatures, is a truth which both Scripture and reason loudly confirm. The everlasting obedience of the whole creation of God, had it been so without interruption, could not have added to God's glory. Yea, the obedience and death of Christ did not. For the being and glory of Jehovah is incapable of accession or increase. And hence Christ himself, under the spirit of prophecy, saith, My goodness extendeth not to thee, but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight. Psalms 16:2-3. But, there is a glory which the Lord hath been pleased to manifest of himself, in his three-fold character of person, in covenant engagements towards the Church, whereby his name is glorified in every display of it, when at any time the Lord is pleased to make it known in any of the departments of nature, providence, and grace. And it is in this sense we are to consider the words of the Lord, when in answer to Christ's prayer, God the Father said, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again,
And hath not the Lord done so, in all the revelations he hath been pleased to make of himself, in his three-fold character of person, when in Christ, God-Man united, he hath communicated all that is capable of communication, in relation to his love to the Church from all eternity? Hath he not glorified himself to our apprehension, in the personal glory put upon Christ, as God-Man, when before a single revelation was made of him to the Church, yea, before the Church had been called into being, in this time-state of her existence, Christ was set up from everlasting, the wonder of heaven, the adoration of angels, and the present, future, and eternal praise of all his saints? Proverbs 8:22-23; Isaiah 9:6; Hebrews 1:6; Psalms 148:14
And, to come down to the time-state of the Church, when we behold with what a vast apparatus Jehovah introduced Christ into the world, commanding all the angels to worship him, and the Church to love and adore him, what greater demonstrations could be given of Jehovah's glorifying his name, than in such decided tokens of glory? In short, what is the Bible itself, from beginning to end, but one continued manifestation of Jehovah's glory, set forth and magnified in all the riches of it, in the Person, Work, Offices, Relations, and Characters of the Lord Jesus Christ? And what but Jehovah's glory is the ultimate object of the innumerable instances of love shewn to the Church in the Father's favor, the Redeemer's grace, and the communion and fellowship of the Holy Ghost? Revelation 4:11
And, as in every manifestation Jehovah hath glorified his name in all that is past, so will he glorify it again in all that is to come. Particularly in reference (as this scripture might be supposed to have in view) to what remained, in the personal work and offices of Christ. God's glory had been displayed in the whole of Christ's ministry to the present hour, and God the Father engaged that it should be to the end. And when did ever the glory of God shine with more lustre than in the day of Christ on the cross, when he made his soul an offering for sin. Reader! let you and I attend to those gracious words of our God and Father to his dear Son, as they relate to the divine glory in Jesus Christ; and then, under the Holy Ghost's teaching, we shall have a more sure word to take heed to, than all our own reasoning's, or all those men here spoken of debated upon, whether it thundered, or whether it was an angel which spake to Jesus.