The most important hour of all history was the hour when the Lord Jesus Christ died on Calvary’s cross for the sins of mankind. Often, in Scripture, the hour of our Lord’s death is called simply “the hour,” “My hour,” or “His hour.”

To fulfill prophecy, He could not have died one hour earlier, or one later: Until that hour arrived His enemies were somehow restrained from doing Him bodily harm, so that we read in John 7:30:

“Then they sought to take Him: but no man laid hands on Him, because His Hour Was Not Yet Come” (See also John 8:20).

This hour was to be for Him a time of unspeakable agony and shame. Referring to this, He said to Andrew and Philip:

“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” (John 12:27).

He had come to die for the sins of the world and would not now turn away from the sufferings involved. But this hour of suffering and shame was also an hour of glory, for there the Son of God paid a debt which would have sunk a world to hell. This is why, at this same time, in the very shadow of the cross, He said:

“The Hour Is Come That The Son Of Man Should Be Glorified. Verily, verily I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:23-24. See also John 17:1-2).

Little wonder we read in John 3:35,36:

“The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand. He That Believeth On The Son Hath Everlasting Life: And He That Believeth Not The Son Shall Not See Life, But The Wrath Of God Abideth On Him.”

- By Cornelius Stam -