"In Glorifying the Father" (Devotional)

The object and motivation for our walk should be that Jesus and the Father would be glorified in us. When we glorify Jesus, we glorify the Father. Jesus came and conquered sin and redeemed us back to the Father and our heavenly inheritance. Our lives should reflect that so that His glory is revealed through us. Walking in divine health and wealth reflects that glory. Walking in divine power to heal and cast out demons relects that glory.

This chapter of the "Believer's Secret of Living Like Christ" by Andrew Murray shows how all of Jesus' life was motivated to glorify His Father. So must our be also.
O Lord, remove all hinderance and imperfection in us that Your glory may be see in us. Amen

    

"In Glorifying the Father"

"Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy

Son also may glorify thee. I have glorified thee on the earth."

John 17:1

Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit;

so shall ye be my disciples."

John 15:8

     The glory of an object is when its intrinsic worth and excellence answers perfectly to all that is expected of it. That excellence or perfection may be so hidden or unknown that the object has no visible glory to those who behold it. To glorify is to remove every hindrance, and to so reveal the full worth and perfection of the object that its glory is seen and acknowledged by all.

     The highest perfection of God is His holiness. In it righteousness and love are united. As the holy One He hates and condemns sin. As the holy One He also frees the sinner from its power and raises Him to communion with himself. His name is "The holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer." The song of redemption is "Great is the holy One of Israel in the midst of thee." To the Blessed Spirit, whose special work it is to maintain the fellowship of God with man, the title of Holy in the New Testiment belongs more than to the Father or the Son. It is this holiness, judging sin and saving sinners, which is the glory of God. For this reason the two words are often found together. So in the song of Moses: "Who is like thee, glorious holiness?" So in the song of Seraphim: "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." And so in the song of the Lamb: "Who shall not glorify thy Name? for thou only art holy." As has been well said: "God's glory is His manifested holiness; God's holiness is His hidden glory."

     When Jesus came to earth to glorify the Father, He demonstrated in its true light and beauty that glory which sin had so entirely hidden from man. Man had been created in the image of God that God might place His glory upon him--that God might be glorified in him. The Holy Spirit says, "Man is the image and glory of God." Jesus came to restore man to his high destiny: He laid aside the glory which He had with the Father, and came in our weakness and humiliation to teach us how to glorify the Father on earth. God's glory is perfect and infinite: man cannot contribute any new glory to God. He can only reflect the glory of God. God's holiness is His glory. As this holiness of God is seen in man, God is glorified; His glory as God is demonstrated.

     Jesus glorified God by obeying Him. In giving His commandments to Israel, God continually said, "Be ye holy, for I am holy." In keeping them they would be transformed into a life of harmony with Him and enter into fellowship with Him as the holy One. In His conflict with sin and Satan, in His sacrifice of His own will, in His waiting for the Father's teaching, in His unquestioning obedience to the Word, Christ showed that He counted nothing worth living for except to let this holy God really be God. His will alone acknowledged and obeyed. Because He alone is holy, His will alone should be done, and so His glory be shown in  us.

     Jesus glorified God by confessing Him. He not only taught the message God had given Him, but there is something far more striking. He continually spoke of His own personal relationship to the Father. He did not silently trust the influence of His holy life. He wanted men to distincly understand what the root and aim of that life was. Time after time He told them that He came as a servant sent from the Father, that He totally depended upon Him, that He only sought the Father's honor, and that all His happiness was to please the Father.

     Jesus glorified God by giving himself for the work of His redeeming love, God's glory is His holiness, and God's holiness is His redeeming love--love that triumphs over sin by conquering sin and rescuing the sinner. Jesus not only told of the Father being the righteous One, whose condemnation must rest on sin, and the loving One, who saves everyone who turns from his sin, but He gave himself to be sacrifice to that righteousness, a servant to that love, even unto death. It was not only in acts of obedience or words of confession that He glorified God, but in giving himself to magnify the holiness of God, to vindicate at once His law and His love by His atonement. He gave himself, His whole life and being, to show how the Father loved, how the Father must condemn the sin, and yet would save the sinner. He counted nothing too great a sacrifice. He lived and died only that the glory of the Father, the glory of His holiness, of His redeeming love, might break through the dark veil of sin and flesh, and shine into the hearts of the children of men. As He himself expressed it in the last week of His life, when the approaching anguish began to press in upon Him: "Now is my soul troubled. And what shal lI say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour: Father, glorify thy name." And the assurance came that the sacrifice was well-pleasing and acceptable in the answer: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again."

     Jesus as man was prepared to have part in the glory of God. He sought it in the humiliation on earth; He found it on the throne of heaven. And so He became our forerunner, leading many children to glory. He shows us that the sure way to the glory of God in heaven is to live only for the glory of God on earth. Yes, this is the glory of a life on earth: glorifying God here, we are prepared to be glorified with Him forever.

     Is this not a wonderful calling, blessed beyond all conception--calling to live only to glorify God, to let God's glory shine out in every part of our life? Our daily life, down to its most ordinary acts, may be transparent with the glory of God. Oh! let us study this trait of the wonderous image of our Jesus: He glorified the Father. Let us listen to Him as He points us to the high aim, that your Father in heaven may be glorified, and as He shows us the way, "herein is my Father glorified." Let us remember how He told us that when He answers our prayer, this would still be His object: "That the Father may be glorified in the Son." Let our whole life, like Christ's be so animated by this as its ruling principle that our watchword becomes: "All to the glory of God". And let our faith hold fast the confidence that in the fullness of the Spirit there is ample provision for our desire being fulfilled: "know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you?...Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit" (1 Cor 6:19,20)

     If we want to know the way, let us again study Jesus. He obeyed the Father: Let simple obedience mark your whole life. Let humble, childlike, waiting for direction, a Christlike dependence on the Father's showing us His way, be our daily attitude. Let everything be done to the Lord, according to His will, for His glory, in direct relationship to himself. Let God's glory shine out in the holiness of our life.

     He confessed the Father: He did not hesitate to speak of His personal relationship with the Father. It is not enough that we live right before men: how can they understand if there be no interpreter? They need as a personal testimony to hear that what we are and do is because we love the Father and are living for Him. The witness of the life and the words must go together.

     And He gave himself to the Father's work. So He glorified Him. He showed sinners that God has a right to have us wholly for himself, that God's glory alone is worth living and dying for, and that as we give ourselves to this, God will most wonderfully use and bless us. It was that men might glorify the Father in heaven that Jesus lived, and that we must live too. Oh let us give ourselves to God for men; let us plead, and work, and live, and die that men may see that God is glorious in holiiness, that the whole earth may be filled with His glory!

     Believer, "the Spirit of God and of glory, the Spirit of holiness, rests upon you." Jesus delights to do in you His beloved work of glorifying the Father. Fear not to say: Oh, my Father, in your Son, like your Son, I will only live to glorify you.

     O my God, show me Your glory! I know how utterly impossible it is by my own effort to lift myself up or bind myself to live for Your glory alone. But if You will reveal Your glory, if You will make Your goodness pass before me, if You will let Your glory shine into my heart, I will never be able to do anything but glorify You. I will live to make known what a glorious holy God You are.

     Lord Jesus, give me by Your Holy Spirit a sight of how You lived. Teach me the meaning of Your obedience to the Father, Your acknowledgement that, at any cost, His will must be done. Teach me by Your confessions of the Father and by Your personal testimony to tell men what He was to You. Let my lips too tell out what I taste of the love of the Father that men may glorify Him. And above all, teach me that it is in saving sinners that redeeming love has its triumph and its joy, that it is in holiness casting out sin that God has His highest glory. And so take possession of my whole heart that I may love and labor, live and die, for this one thing, "That every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

      O my Father, let the whole earth, let my heart, be filled with Your glory! Amen