The Hour of Glory

In that hour He was betrayed, forsaken, denied, blasphemed, and He was crucified. Sometimes it is hard for us to realize who did this to Him. If you and I have part in the sufferings of Christ and in His resurrection, then we are the ones who crucified Him. He came to atone for our sins. It was our sins that nailed Him to the tree.

This hour was predestined by the Father in the stillness of eternity, in the covenant of peace. TIT 1:2 says, "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began." This hour was the foundation of all promises.

We read in 2TI 1:9, "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." No human mind can begin to fathom the eternal love of the Father toward His chosen children of grace. That hour of perfect obedience by His only begotten Son unto death, even the death of the cross, was ever before the Father from eternity. Had it not been for these covenant promises that the Father and the Son had covenanted, and that that hour of redemption had been established, Adam would have sunk eternally into hell the instant that he sinned. However, the love of the Father was so great that He predetermined this hour that He would give His only begotten Son, that He would restrain His own love that He had for His Son. This was not done impulsively. This was ever before the Father from before the foundation of the world.

The names of His chosen people are "written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" as it says in REV 18:8. The Father's eye was looking on that atonement of His own Son when He wrote our names in the book of life.

For four thousand years this hour was ever before the Father in the way of the sacrifices, burnt offerings that typified the sacrifice of Christ, and the covenant of circumcision, assuring the pledge of the Lord Jesus Christ that He would come with His perfect obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. He would become a debtor to obey the whole law for His church. As it says in 2PE 3:8, "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

If you were sentenced to die, and that sentence would be carried out in thirty days, think how you would start counting down. First, you count the days, then when the day arrives, you count the hours. Can you imagine how the agony intensified as the hour drew near? For four thousand years the Father watched the time count down to come to that predetermined hour. The Lord Jesus Christ was sent. He was born of a woman. Every year He was one year closer, but now it is coming to the day and the hour. As that hour approached, our Savior went to the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed in agony to the Father. No man, nor Satan, nor all the forces of hell could have any power against the Lord Jesus until the Father's appointed hour. He lived for thirty years, then He had His ministry. There were many attempts on His life. JOH 7:30 says, "Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come." The Father had predetermined an exact time for this event, the exact place, and the instruments He would use to bring about that event. In the Father's predestining decrees, He predetermined who would bring His Son to the cross.

In our lives we so often lose sight of this. The Lord has an instrument that He uses to bring some affliction upon us, a trial of our faith, some portion that we would least expect. The Lord used the chief priests, those of the highest religious office, to bring Christ to this hour. This did not cause our Saviour to murmur because He saw that the Father had put this in His cup. He saw that all the dregs of His Father's wrath against the church were in His cup to drink. He left removal of this cup in submission to His Father. When the Lord brings trials upon us, we must realize that it is from His hand and His appointing.

But when His hour was come, all the powers of hell were turned loose against Him. LUK 22:53 says, "When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness." This is the hour that the Lord had predetermined to give them power over Him that He would die in weakness, in His human nature. The Lord removed His hedge, and in His human nature He became as weak as a man. The Lord allowed the chief priests and the Roman soldiers to prevail over Him because that was the hour that He decreed from eternity. Verse 54 says, "Then took they him, and led him, and brought him into the high priest's house. And Peter followed afar off." He went to be condemned to death in the high priest's house.