John 12:28, commentary and pictures

With His soul troubled as He faces suffering and death for the hour He came to, Jesus submits to the Father's will and asks that the Father's name be glorified. The Father answers with a voice from heaven declaring that He has glorified His name and will glorify it again. What has glorified it is Christ's whole life to that moment, and what will glorify it again is His coming suffering, trial and death as the sin-bearer. The voice is given for the people's sake, publicly confirming His mission and Sonship and that His death will glorify God, judge the world and defeat the prince of this world. Through that death Satan's kingdom is overthrown and humanity redeemed, and seeking God's glory rather than His own, which guided Christ's life, is to guide the life of all who follow Him.

Prayer and Heavenly Answer

His soul was troubled as He faced the hour of suffering and death for which He came, and in submission to the Father's will He prayed for the Father's name to be glorified. His humanity shrank from the coming humiliation, abandonment even by God, public exposure as the worst of criminals, and shameful death on the cross. The Father answered with a voice from heaven declaring that He had glorified His name and would glorify it again. The prayer and answer occurred at the temple visit of the Greeks, in words spoken just before His betrayal and death, and they belong to the hour when He is lifted up on the cross.

As He prayed a cloud enwrapped Him and divinity shone through humanity, with heavenly light surrounding Him as visible testimony of the Father's communion with the Son. He who is equal with God asked the Father to reveal glory in Him through the Son. Christ, His disciples, and Greeks who had received the truth heard the voice in a larger gathering than at the baptism or the transfiguration. Others nearby mistook it for thunder or for an angel speaking, while the Greeks understood its meaning as revealing Jesus as God's Sent One.

The voice was given for the people's sake rather than because Jesus needed reassurance, so they could hear and recognize God's revelation in Christ. It publicly confirmed His mission, Messiahship, truthfulness, and Sonship, testifying that He had spoken the truth and was the Son of God. It confirmed that His coming death would glorify God and bring judgment on the world and defeat of the prince of this world. This was the third time God's voice was heard during Jesus' ministry bearing witness to Him as Son, after the baptism and the transfiguration, giving the people a crowning confirmation.

Glory Through Sacrificial Death

“I have glorified it” means the whole life from the manger and birth to that moment has glorified God, and “will glorify it again” means the coming divine-human sufferings, trial and death will glorify the Father’s name again. His humiliation and death would bring life to humanity and reveal God’s glory.

Jesus consents to agony and accepts sacrifice as the sin-bearer, and only through His death could Satan’s kingdom be overthrown, humanity be redeemed, and God be glorified. This was in fulfillment of the plan laid before the world was created that the Majesty of heaven should come to earth as the sin-bearer. Glory was to come from humiliation, and life and immortality were to be brought to light by His death.

Through His death Satan’s kingdom is overthrown, humanity is redeemed, and God is glorified. By making atonement for human sin He brings people to God. His approaching death on the cross brings glorious victory, judgment on the world, and defeat of the prince of this world.

The Greeks who came to see Jesus are a sign that people of every nation will be drawn to Him. The gathering of Gentiles and the worldwide spread of salvation with a kingdom extending throughout the world will follow His death. On the cross His death fulfills the covenant between Father and Son to offer fallen humanity another chance of eternal life, making salvation possible for repentant believers and bringing life to humanity.

In that suffering He bears the sin of the whole world as the second Adam, taking human nature and passing over the ground where Adam stumbled and fell. As the Elder Brother He has intense interest in human beings and feels keenly the sinfulness and shame of sin. He does this to prove that human beings through God’s power can live sinless lives.

Belief, Witness, and Following

Seeking the glory of God rather than one's own was the guiding motive and purpose of Christ's life, and following Him means making that same seeking the guiding motive and purpose of one's own life. A faith that does this removes selfishness and pretense and leads a person to seek God's glory, and such faith bears the mark of the Holy Spirit's work. Whoever serves and follows Christ will be where Christ is and will be honored by the Father, as joined to Jesus with troubled soul facing His hour praying for the Father to glorify His name and the Father answering from heaven that He has glorified it and will glorify it again. Those moved by His love when He is lifted up on the cross are likewise to carry the truth to the world and to advance by faith, relying on His strength and aid.

The heavenly voice and Christ's mighty miracles did not move the impenitent Jews to believe, even though the voice with light surrounding Jesus was public testimony that Jesus had spoken the truth and was the Son and confirmed His Messiahship for the people's sake. Their response shows that people can resist strong evidence and develop a perverted and distorted understanding. Continual association with unbelievers and continual exposure to unbelief puts others in danger of sharing that same unbelief.

God's audible voice from heaven is understood by believers but is heard by unbelievers only as thunder and earthquake or as words they cannot understand, and its heavenly origin may be recognized by some while others mistake it for thunder. In the final time of trouble, amid divine glory resting on those who have honored God's law, that voice like many waters announces deliverance to the righteous and gives the day and hour of Jesus' coming. The living saints, 144,000 in number, know and understand it, while the wicked hear it but think it is thunder and an earthquake and do not understand its words. When God speaks the time He pours the Holy Spirit upon His people, and their faces begin to light up and shine with the glory of God as Moses' face shone when he came down from Mount Sinai.

The disciples remembered that glory and God's voice when they saw the angel's light around Jesus in the garden, and this reassured them that God had taken charge of Jesus and that an angel was there to protect Him. By contrast, at the cross no voice from heaven testified in Christ's favor or witnessed to His divinity while He suffered mockery and abuse. There He suffered alone amid abuse and mockery, with no heavenly testimony in His favor heard.