In his book, Idols for Destruction, Herbert Schlossberg opines, “The Bible can be interpreted as a string of God’s triumphs disguised as disasters.” When the wicked dig a pit for the righteous to fall into, God uses that pit to destroy the wicked. When the wicked roll a stone to crush the righteous, God causes that stone to roll back on the wicked, crushing them (Pr 26:27). God uses the wickedness of the wicked to triumph over them. While all wickedness must be renounced and resisted, the faithful know that, somehow, God is using this wickedness to glorify his name. The cross of Christ is God’s supreme act of using evil to triumph over it.
As Jesus faces the sovereignly appointed hour of crucifixion, he prays to his Father, asking him, “Glorify your Son.” Earlier, Jesus told the disciples that it was time for him to be glorified. He then explained that “unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain” (Jn 12:23-24). Jesus must die. He must be “lifted up.” By this, he signified by what death he should die, namely, by crucifixion (Jn 12:30-33). His being lifted up in death will be the beginning of his glorification. When Jesus prays in John 17:1, “Glorify your Son,” he is referring to the cross as the beginning of his glorification.
What is this glory? What does it mean for Jesus to be “glorified?” The Hebrew word translated as “glory” speaks of heaviness. Heaviness can be associated with literal weight, but its implications run deeper than that. Glory is the beautiful weight of responsibility. When God gave Aaron and his sons their high priestly garments, they were garments of “glory and beauty.” They were literally heavy, adding weight to their bodies when they wore them, but they also represented the responsibility, the burden, they bore before God for Israel and the world.
The responsibility associated with glory is rule or dominion. Psalm 8, recounting the creation of man, says that God crowned man with glory and honor, giving him dominion over the works of his hands, putting all things under his feet: sheep, oxen, beasts of the field, birds of the air, and fish of the sea (cf. Gen 1:28). Man was created glorious–with position and responsibility of bringing order to God’s world–and he was to move from glory to glory–his kingdom was intended to expand through fruitfulness and multiplication. Paul says that because of sin, man fell short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23), not being able to move into the glory that God intended for him. Jesus came to fulfill this mission. He came to be glorified; that is, he came to assume the rule that God intended for man.
Jesus begins his rule at the cross. Through the cross, Paul says, Jesus dealt with our sins and disarmed the principalities and powers, making a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them (Col 2:13-15). The cross is the necessary beginning of his glorification. He will move from glory to glory. He will move from the glory of the cross to the glory of the resurrection; he will move from the glory of the resurrection to the glory of ascension. He will move from the glory of ascension to the completion of the kingdom project in the world (cf. 1 Cor 15:20-28). This is the glory for which he petitioned the Father, and his prayers will not go unanswered.
Because Jesus’ death, resurrection, ascension, and continuing reign affect God’s entire created order (cf. Col 1:15-20), this means that he is moving the world from glory to glory. Following the pattern of his own glorification, this glory, many times, looks like disasters to the world. The wicked are having their way. The righteous are being defeated. When we see this, we can become discouraged. That’s understandable. Wickedness is never acceptable and should never be celebrated. But as we look at the glorification of Jesus that began at the cross, we know that God is setting up yet another triumph.
For those of us who live in America, these past few days have been discouraging. The election results with the “blue wave” in the midterms are disheartening, not just because Republicans didn’t win, but because we see our country spiraling into sin-fueled insanity. The Christian faith is despised while cities and states in our nation elect Muslims who have vowed to destroy our culture. The victory we experienced with the reversal of Roe v. Wade has been short-lived, as states like Virginia adopt the most extreme abortion policies. Socialist ideologies have captured many of the populace. Things look bad. Things are bad. However, God is not surprised, nor is he inactive. These victories of the wicked will be their own undoing, and the righteous will be victorious. It may not be next week or the next election cycle, but God will triumph through the wickedness of men.