“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. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again” (John 12:27-28).
If you will bear with me for a moment, I would like to make a bald assertion. Here it comes. This verse is talking about the same thing that Reformed theologians are talking about when they refer to the imputation of the active obedience of Christ.
Still with me? Is this going to affect my bounce rates?
In the gospel of John, whenever God glorifies the Son, we are talking about some aspect of the salvation of men. We see this glory principally in the crucifixion (which is what Jesus is praying about here in this passage), but the Father explicitly says that He had glorified His own name (in and through Jesus) already. He would do it again in the cross, but the work of glorifying the Father’s name through the priestly work of Jesus was already in process.
How do we know that Christ’s perfect life as the new Israel was imputed to every true member of the new Israel? We know it because — given what the Father says from Heaven here — it really would glorify the Father’s name if it were true.