Your Eternal Glory or My Temporary, Earthly Gain?
- Sherry Coyle
- 12 hours ago
- 2 min read
". . .[Jesus] looked toward heaven and prayed: 'Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.'" (John 17:1, italics mine)
The Father's completed glorification of the Son—His resurrection, ascension, and placement at God's right hand—came after the completion of the Son's glorification of the Father:
unadulterated oneness,
absolute submission,
death on a cross.
But go back and really consider this verse a moment more. Even in the anticipation of His own glorification, still, Jesus' overwhelming desire was that His Father be glorified. In John 17:1, it's as if Jesus prays, I desire to glorify You, Father, and because of this, I know You will glorify Me; but even in Your glorification of Me, my prayer is that it will ultimately glorify You.
Undoubtedly, with radical pervasiveness, the Father's eternal glory consumed Jesus' temporary, earthly life.
Reading through the Gospels will certainly testify that no matter the cost to Himself, the glorification of the Father, evidenced in Jesus' daily life, is what mattered most to Christ in His earthly mission. The glorification of His Father was His continual mindset.
And what did the glory of the Father look like in the Savior's everyday life as He walked and lived among men? How specifically was God's glory displayed through this only Son?
It was evidenced in Jesus' humility.
It was evidenced in His intentional, continual oneness with the Father.
It was evidenced in His reverent submission and sacrificial obedience to His Father's words and will.
It was evidenced in His daily giving up of Himself in love for the benefit—earthly and eternally—of mankind, wherever He was.
It was evidenced in His unyielding resolve that His sacrifice and suffering were the requirements for humanity's salvation.
Right now, as I sit and type these words, I'm struck by some hard, candid questions: Am I really always about the consumption of the Father's glory in my personal sojourn? Is it my genuine desire to bring Him glory, every minute of every day? Do I want to operate at all times according to His Word and ways and indwelling voice? Or, do I desire to bring Him glory, of course, but just on my own terms, in ways I prefer? Can I honestly say that I'm more concerned about a consuming—yes, even radical—pervasiveness of God's glory in my own life than I am earthly comfort, contentment, and temporary gain?
So difficult, yet so pressing and necessary, are these confrontational questions I can't escape from asking myself in this contemplative moment.
Fellow sojourner, if we want to truly live life like our Lord lived His—which should be our aim for this one life we've been gifted—then you and I, every single day, must confront ourselves with this question:
Your eternal glory, Father, or my temporary, earthly gain?
Yes, a hard question to ask and a harder question to honestly answer. Even so, I believe it's the needed question—the warp and woof query of this crucial hour on Earth's clicking clock— of whether we truly desire, or really don't, to live as a surrendered disciple in authentic engagement with the person of Christ and the Gospel's proclamation, or merely a blessed Christian recipient on his or her way to Heaven.
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