John 12:32-33

John 12:32-33. And I, if I be lifted on high out of the earth, will draw all men unto myself. But this he said, signifying by what manner of death he should die. ‘Myself' is used in emphatic contrast with, and opposition to, the ‘prince of this world.' To Himself Jesus will ‘draw' men; and any difficulty connected with this is not to be met by weakening the force of the word ‘draw,' but by taking into account the limitations implied in the context, and in the nature of the case. The lesson alike of the whole Gospel and of experience is that some will not be drawn. They resist and quench the light. They love and choose the darkness. In the same way the force of ‘all men' must not be weakened, although we ought to keep in view the two thoughts which the context shows us to be prominent (1) that not ‘the prince of this world,' but Jesus Himself shall have the empire of the world; (2) that not Jews alone but Gentiles, some of whom had already been seeking Him, shall be drawn. ‘All men,' however, is universal in its meaning. Jesus would not merely draw some, He would draw all; and if some are not saved, it is because they deliberately refuse to submit themselves to His influence.

The condition and means of this drawing are the ‘lifting on high of Jesus out of the earth.' What is this ‘lifting on high'? The word has already met us in John 3:14 and John 8:28; and in the first of these passages in particular we have seen that it must be referred to the crucifixion. The whole context of this verse demands, primarily at least, a similar reference. The thought of the death of Jesus is prominent throughout. Even when He receives the homage of Mary, of the multitude, of the Greeks, He has upon Him the stamp of death. It is thus too that in John 12:33 the Evangelist explains the expression; and his explanation is confirmed by the remarkable use of the preposition ‘out of' instead of ‘from.' That preposition is much more applicable to the crucifixion than the ascension, and its use seems to imply that simple separation from the earth satisfies the conditions that are in the mind of Jesus. At the same time the thought of glorification must surely be included in the ‘lifting on high.' In the teaching of this Gospel, indeed, the facts of crucifixion and glorification go together, and cannot be separated from each other. The dying Redeemer is glorified through death: the glorified Redeemer died that He might be glorified. The crucifixion is the complete breaking of the bond to earth: it is the introduction of the full reign of spiritual and heavenly power.