As Son of Man He is to possess all the kingdoms of the earth. The Greeks come (for His fame had gone abroad) and desire to see Him. Jesus says, “The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified.” In taking His place as the Son of Man, a very different thing necessarily opens before Him. How could He be seen as Son of Man, coming in the clouds of heaven to take possession of all things according to the counsels of God, without dying? If His human service on earth was finished and He had gone out free, calling, if need were, for twelve legions of angels, no one could have had any part with Him: He would have remained alone. “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” If Christ takes His heavenly glory and is not alone in it, He dies to attain it and to bring with Him the souls whom God has given Him. In fact, the hour was come: It could no longer tarry. Everything was now ready for the end of the trial of this world, of man, of Israel — and, above all, the counsels of God were being fulfilled.
In order to bring men into that glory, He must needs pass through death Himself. But He was engrossed by one thing which detached His thoughts from the glory and from the suffering — the desire which possessed His heart that His Father should be glorified. Perfect in His desire to glorify His Father, and that unto death, the Father could not but answer Him. In His answer, as it appears to me, the Father announces the resurrection. But what grace, what marvel, to be admitted into such communications! The heart is astounded, while filled with worship and with grace, in beholding the perfection of Jesus, the Son of God, unto death, and in seeing Him, with the full sense of what death was, seeking the sole glory of the Father, and the Father answering—an answer morally needful to this sacrifice of the Son and to His own glory. Thus He said, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” I believe that He had glorified it in the resurrection of Lazarus; He would do so again in the resurrection of Christ — a glorious resurrection which, in itself, implied ours, even as the Lord had said, without naming His own.
All was now come to the point at which this was to be accomplished, and the moment had arrived when Judas was gone out, to consummate the crime which would lead to the wonderful fulfillment of the counsels of God. Jesus knew Judas’s condition. It was but the accomplishing of that which He was going to do, by means of one for whom there was no longer any hope. “That thou doest,” said Jesus, “do quickly.” The door which closed on Judas separated Christ from this world. “Now,” He says, “is the Son of Man glorified.” He had said this when the Greeks arrived, but then it was the glory to come — His glory as the head of all men, and, in fact, of all things. But this could not yet be, and He said, “Father, glorify Thy name.” Jesus must die. It was that which glorified the name of God in a world where sin was. It was the glory of the Son of Man to accomplish it there, where all the power of the enemy, the effect of sin, and the judgment of God upon sin, were displayed; in fact, through that which took place, all the perfections of God have been glorified, being manifested through Jesus, or by means of that which Jesus did and suffered.
These perfections had been directly unfolded in Him, as far as grace went, but now that the opportunity of the exercise of all of them was afforded, by His taking a place which put Him to the proof according to the attributes of God, their divine perfection could be displayed through man in Jesus there where He stood in the place of man, and (made sin, and, thank God, for the sinner) God was glorified in Him, for see what, in fact, met in the cross:
Satan’s complete power over men, Jesus alone excepted;
man in open, perfect enmity against God in the rejection of His Son;
God manifest in grace: then in Christ, as man, perfect love to His Father, and perfect obedience, and that in the place of sin, that is, as made it (for the perfection of love to His Father and obedience were displayed when He was as sin before God on the cross);
His perfect, righteous judgment against sin as the Holy One;
but therein His perfect love to sinners in giving His only-begotten Son.
Good and Evil Fully Settled
For hereby know we love. To sum it up: At the cross we find man in absolute evil — the hatred of what was good; Satan’s full power over the world — the prince of this world; man in perfect goodness, obedience and love to the Father at all cost to Himself; God in absolute, infinite righteousness against sin and infinite divine love to the sinner. Good and evil were fully settled forever, and salvation wrought, the foundation of the new heavens and the new earth laid. Well may we say, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him.” Utterly dishonored in the first, He is infinitely more glorified in the Second, and therefore puts man (Christ) in glory, and straightway, not waiting for the kingdom. The cross is the brightest manifestation of God’s own glory, the center of the history of eternity.
On the Cross
Now, in Jesus on the cross, the Son of Man has been glorified in a much more admirable way than He will be even by the positive glory that belongs to Him under that title. He will, we know, be clothed with that glory, but, on the cross, the Son of Man bore all that was necessary for the perfect display of all the glory of God. The whole weight of that glory was brought to bear upon Him, to put Him to the proof, that it might be seen whether He could sustain it, verify and exalt it, and that by setting it forth in the place where, but for this, sin concealed that glory, and, so to speak, gave it impiously the lie. Was the Son of Man able to enter into such a place, to undertake such a task, and to accomplish the task, and maintain His place without failure to the end? This Jesus did. The majesty of God was to be vindicated against the insolent rebellion of His creature, His truth, which had threatened Him with death, maintained, His justice established against sin (who could withstand it?), and, at the same time, His love fully demonstrated. Satan having here all the sorrowful rights that he had acquired through our sin, Christ — perfect as a man, alone, apart from all men, in obedience, and having as man but one object, that is, the glory of God, thus divinely perfect, sacrificing Himself for this purpose — fully glorified God. God was glorified in Him. His justice, His majesty, His truth, His love — all was verified on the cross as they are in Himself, and revealed only there, and that with regard to sin.
And who had accomplished this? Who had thus established (as to its manifestation, and the making it good where it had been, as to the state of things, compromised by sin) the whole glory of God? It was the Son of Man. Therefore God glorifies Him with His own glory. God, being glorified in the Son of Man, glorifies Him in Himself. But, consequently, He does not wait for the day of His glory with man, according to the thought of John 12. God calls Him to His own right hand and sets Him there at once and alone. Who could be there (save in spirit) excepting He? Here His glory is connected with that which He alone could do — with that which He must have done alone, and of which He must have the fruit alone with God, for He was God.
Other Glories
Other glories shall come in their time. He will share them with us, although in all things He has the preeminence. Here He is, and must ever be, alone (that is, in that which is personal to Himself). Who shared the cross with Him, as suffering for sin, and fulfilling righteousness? We, indeed, share it with Him so far as suffering for righteousness’ sake, and for the love of Him and His people, even unto death — and thus we shall share His glory also. But it is evident that we could not glorify God for sin. He who knew no sin could alone be made sin. The Son of God alone could bear this burden.
J. N. Darby, excerpts from Synopsis, Vol. 3