Alonzo T. Jones
The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald | January 4, 1898
“THESE words spoke Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come: glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify Thee” (John 17:1).
This prayer may be ours as really as it was his. Yes, this prayer should be ours as really as it was his. It is our part to glorify God, as really as it was his. But we cannot glorify God without both praying and living this prayer.
Let us study the Word, and see that every word of the prayer in this verse does really belong to us, and that we not only may, but should, use it as our own.
First, he says, “Father.” Are we not to say, “Father”? Is he not our Father also? Is it not true that “we have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father”? So much of this prayer, then, is certainly ours.
“The hour is come.” What hour? —The hour to “glorify thy Son.” And are not you his son? To as many as believed on him “gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” You believe on his name. To you has he given power to become the son of God; for “ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” And “behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” Therefore, “beloved, now are we the sons of God” and our Father loves us precisely as he loves his other Son. He has no favorites among his children. He loves us all alike, and what belongs to the One belongs jointly to all.
This word of prayer, “Glorify thy Son,” is our prayer as really as it was the prayer of Jesus. And is it not true that “the hour is come” that he should glorify us? —In answer let us read that word which, for several years, we have been reading with special emphasis: “Arise, shine: for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord IS RISEN UPON THEE. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.”
That word is ours just now. God has given it to us just now. It is certainly true, then, that “the hour is come” that he should glorify us. So far, then, each one of us can sincerely and truly pray this prayer, every word: “Father, the hour is come; glorify thy son.”
But why did he and do we ask that he should glorify us? —“That thy Son also may glorify thee.” We must glorify God. we were created to glorify God. The very object of our existence is that we glorify God. But this word plainly shows that we cannot glorify him unless he first glorifies us—“Glorify thy Son, thatthy Son also may glorify thee.”
You have wanted to glorify God, and have mourned because you have failed. But that was because you tried to glorify him before he had glorified you. You want to glorify God in all things, and have been disappointed that you have failed in so many things. But have God glorify you in all things: then you can glorify him in all things. Do you not see how much you need, daily and always, to pray this prayer? O, then, do not neglect ever to pray, “Father, glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee”!
This is the truth as to the fact that he must glorify us in order for us to glorify him, and that if he does not first glorify us, we cannot glorify him; but now the question comes, How does he glorify us? When we know how he glorifies us, we know just how to glorify him, for he is to glorify us, so that we may glorify him.
How, then, does he glorify us? —Read: “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self.” That is how he glorifies us; he does it with his own self. He gives himself to us. He gave himself to the whole world, and for the whole world, so that the whole world might glorify him, and so meet the object of their creation. If he had not glorified the world with his own self, if he had not given himself to the, it would have been forever impossible for the world, or any one in the world, to glorify God. But since God has glorified the world with his own self, since he gave himself to the world, it is not only possible forevery one, but it is the blessed privilege of every one, to glorify God.
Therefore, as it is with his own self that he glorifies us, and as he has given his own self, it is for each one of us to receivehis own self, that he may indeed glorify us with his own self. Then when we have so received him, and have been so glorified by him, we can glorify him.
And how is it that he glorifies us? —With his own self. Then how is it that we shall glorify him? —With our own selves. How much of himself did he give, how much was required, to glorify the world, in order that the world mighty truly glorify him? —All—“all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”
How much, then, of ourselves must be given, how much is required, in order that we may glorify him? —All; all there is of us—body, soul, and spirit.
He gave himself up, he abandoned himself wholly, to mankind, that they might do with him just what they might choose. We are to give ourselves up, we are to abandon ourselves wholly to God that he may do with us just what he chooses.
And O, the difference! When he abandoned himself to men, they crucified him; but when men abandon themselves to him, he saves them. Yet he even abandoned himself to men, even to be crucified by them, in order to glorify them, that they might glorify him. Then can you not abandon yourself to God, even to be saved by him, that you may glorify him? Accept, then, just now, his giving up of himself, his abandonment of himself, to you, that he may glorify you with his own self. Then you can abandon yourself to him, and you will surely glorify him. Accept his abandonment of himself to you always and in everything to glorify you: then you can, you will be glad to, abandon yourself to him always and in everything, and you will surely glorify him always and in everything.
Therefore, this prayer is surely ours. Bless the Lord! Then let every soul pray, now and always, “Father, the hour is come; glorify thy son, that thy son may glorify thee. . . . And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self,” that I may glorify thee with mine own self. Amen. And let all the people say, Amen.
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