John 12:27 “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. 28 Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
Embodied in this phrase, “but for this cause came I unto this hour”, is the very beating heart of Christianity. This Man-God, our Beloved, Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8); as Simeon prophesied to His mother Mary, He was born to die in what we now know was a Sacrificial Death on our behalf (Luke 2:35). He was so strong in His Holy conviction to accomplish His “cause”, that He prophetically declared “For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.” (Isaiah 50:7). In explaining to Joseph how and why Mary, his espoused wife, was with Child, the angel told him, “fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. 21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20-21). And, the angel in explaining it to Mary told her, “behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS” (Luke 1:31). Even His name heralds His great “cause”, for His Blessed name means “Jehovah Is Salvation”; “for he shall save his people from their sins”. Paul writes concerning His great “cause”, that it is Jesus Christ alone “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,” (II Timothy 1:9). The Blessed and Holy Man-God, Who completely and eternally “finished” (John 19:3) His “cause” declared that it was “finished” with no errors: “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 39 And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.” (John 6:38-39). This blessed truth is the pulse of our encouragement and hope coursing the veins of the Children of God in every generation, including ours; for, because our Lord “hath saved” us from our “sins” we wake each day listening for the sound of His trumpet like voice as He declares, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34); will it be today?!