John 12:32-33
Ps Paul Cheng
~4 min read
Jesus said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die” (John 12:32-33). In this article, we shall consider a couple of very important implications of this saying of Christ.
The Glory of Christ, the Crucified
The Lord uses the words “lifted up” to express the manner of His death. But notice the choice of the words to express His death. He did not say, “And I, if I be crucified,” or “And I, if I be hanged on the tree.” But He clearly said, “I, if I be lifted up.” In the Greek, the word for “lifted up” has the meaning of exaltation. So, “And I, if I be lifted up” can also be understood to mean “And I, if I be exalted.” The Lord was instructing us to view the lifting up of Him on the cross as the symbol of His glory.
In what way can we describe the cross of Christ as His glory? Firstly, the cross of Jesus reflects His glorious, matchless love. Men seek to get crowns of gold while He sought a crown of thorns; men think that glory lies in being exalted over others while Christ thought that His glory lay in His humiliation. Man, being self-loving, seeks to win his glory by the slaughter of others, but Christ by the slaughter of Himself. Christ is glorified on the cross because His love, that brought Him to suffer the reproach of the cross, is marvellous.
Christ wins our love because on the cross His love was first manifested in a glorious fashion. Christ won glory by His cross. He was never so lifted up as when He was cast down.
Every Christian will bear witness that though he loves every stage of his Master’s deeds while He was on earth, nothing moves his heart to a perfectly devoted love more than the story of Christ’s crucifixion.
If Jesus had remained seated in heaven forever, we would not have comprehended the greatness of His glorious love. Since He stooped in love to die for us, we are drawn to love Him most dearly. As a saint once prayed, “O Lord, You won love more abundantly by the nail than by the sceptre. Your bleeding side brought You no emptiness of love, for Your people love You with all their hearts.” All His redeemed, both in heaven and on earth, love Him so wondrously because He loved them even to His death on the cross.
If you, my reader, will take time to think about the abundance of Christ’s divine attributes so wondrously manifested on the cross, you will see how great the glory of Christ, the crucified, is. The cross of Our Lord Jesus shines so splendidly with His glorious attributes such as mercy, holiness, power, justice, and wisdom.
Again, He is glorified because His crucifixion was the completion of all the work, which He had taken upon Himself in obedience to the Father’s will concerning our salvation. Surely, the accomplishment of an enterprise is where the highest honour awaits. Our Lord has achieved for us what none of us could have ever accomplished. O what a glorious Saviour Jesus is who triumphantly uttered on the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30).
Dear reader, Christ pressed forward to the cross, because He looked for it as the goal of His coming to this world. Only on the cross He could say, “It is finished.” When crowds came to hear His preaching and to witness His healing, He did not say that His work is fully accomplished. When the crowd cheered “Hosanna” as He entered Jerusalem, riding a donkey, He did not count it as the finale of His mission. He endured till the hour of His sufferings on the cross. Only sacrificing His life on the cross could fulfil the redemptive work He came to accomplish for us. His death on the cross was His great glory. He won the battle on the cross by crushing the devil, the enemy of our soul. Praise the Lord!
The Glory of Preaching Christ, the Crucified
There is a lifting up of Him upon the pole of the Gospel, in the preaching of the Word. This is our glorious duty. Christ Jesus is to be lifted up every day; for that purpose, He came into the world. Jesus Himself said, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14). He must be lifted up through the preaching of the Gospel “that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:15).
Christ must be the grand theme of our preaching. Only if Christ is lifted up, then all men will be attracted. If we are content with just a discussion on morality, then people will not be attracted to our glorious Lord. We must always remember to lift up the glory of Christ’s cross.
The preaching of Christ and His cross can melt the hearts of hardened sinners, change the hearts of devotees of false religions and even transform an atheist. Dear brethren, lift up Jesus in your Gospel attempts, in your conversations, in all your efforts. Pray also that you will lift Jesus everywhere you go without doubting His glory. May our desire be that “the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4b), shine unto all around us.
Let us cherish the Gospel of our Lord Jesus just as Paul, who said, “the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust” (1 Timothy 1:11). Let us also be resolved and be “not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16).
[Rev Prabhudas Koshy, Bible Witness: Meditations on the Passion Week, March-April 2006]
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