What did the Bible mean when it says in John 12 that the Father has glorified His name and will glorify it again?
We should begin by reading the entire passage in which your verse appears:
John 12:20 Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast;
John 12:21 these then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”
John 12:22 Philip came and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus.
John 12:23 And Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
John 12:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
John 12:25 “ He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.
John 12:26 “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.
John 12:27 “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.
John 12:28 “Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
John 12:29 So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, “An angel has spoken to Him.”
John 12:30 Jesus answered and said, “ This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes.
John 12:31 “ Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.
John 12:32 “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”
John 12:33 But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die.
John 12:34 The crowd then answered Him, “We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”
John 12:35 So Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.
It is helpful to remember that Jesus' mission was not to draw attention to Himself but to glorify His heavenly Father. John 4:34 declares that Jesus came to "do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work." And again in John 5:19, "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself, He can do only what He sees His father doing."
Through His life, Jesus glorified His Heavenly Father by living obediently to the Father's will. In this passage, Jesus first explains that He must go to death (v. 24) to bear the fruit of His ministry. He does so because this is the request of His Father, and He will obey His Father (v. 27).
After Jesus declares to the Father glorify Your name, the Father responded that He has glorified His name, meaning the name of the Father has been glorified in the obedient life of Jesus, and the Father says He will glorify it again in the death of Jesus. In fact, the ultimate evidence of obedience in Jesus' life was His obedience to go to the death willingly, even to the point of death on a cross (Philipians 2:8-10)
So Jesus glorified the Father's name in His obedient life, and He was about to glorify God's name again in His obedient death.
