John 12.
This chapter opens by showing us the Son of God in relation to three different companies, those who are nearest to Him, His own disciples; then His earthly people Israel; and lastly, the Gentiles. In the loved circle of His own, picturing the assembly, Martha, in single-eyed devotedness serves her Lord; Lazarus, raised from the dead, is in communion with Him to whom he owes his life, while Mary, anointing the feet of Jesus with precious ointment, worships Him whom she has learned as the Resurrection and the Life. Like the favoured circle of Bethany, we are privileged to be in communion with the Lord, and to serve and worship Him while He is in our midst.
On His coming into Jerusalem the multitude take branches of palm trees and go forth to meet Him, crying, "Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the Name of the Lord." Though so near to the time of His crucifixion, the triumphal entry of the Lord into Jerusalem is a lovely foreshadowing of the time when He will take His kingly power and reign over the house of Israel. For a few short hours the Lord has His rightful place as the King of Israel in the midst of His earthly people.
Just at the time when, for the moment, Jesus is acclaimed by the multitudes of Israel as their rightful King, the Greeks who had come to the feast ask Philip, "Sir we would see Jesus." Here too there is a picture of the coming day when the Gentiles will acknowledge the King of Israel, and desire to see Him. Although Israel's King, Jesus as Son of Man will have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. Heaven and earth will come under the sway of the Son of Man, as prophesied in Psalm 8 and interpreted for us in Hebrews 2.
Before Jesus could bring all the blessing indicated to the different circles, the Son of Man had to enter into death. He had not only to be glorified at God's right hand in heaven, but also on the cross (John 13:31). The corn of wheat had to fall into the ground and die, or else abide alone. To communicate His life to those who were to be associated with Him beyond the reach of death, the Son of God must die. The coming day will display the greatness of the harvest, the much fruit, that has come from that wondrous death.
Death was a dread reality to the Son of God, and its anticipation brought deep trouble to His soul. His entering death was a voluntary act, yet an act of obedience, but it would bring to Him the deepest sorrows in the forsaking of God. But the thought that controlled all His desires and actions was the Father's glory, and of this He spoke to the Father. The answer of the Father is immediate, "I have both glorified, and will glorify again." In the resurrection of Lazarus the Father's Name had been glorified by the Son; the Father would glorify His Name again in the resurrection of the Son.
The closing testimony of the Son commences with the words, "This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes." Just as the Son was about to begin His public testimony, the Father's voice had been heard proclaiming His pleasure in Him; now, as His testimony is about to close, the Father's voice is heard again. But the Jews had not an ear to hear or understand the Father's voice; they had refused the Son's testimony to the Father, and were unable to discern the Father's testimony to the Son.
If the Son was about to glorify the Father in His death, the world, as refusing and crucifying the Son of God, would seal its judgment. God had lingered over the world, giving it every opportunity to turn from its evil course, and last of all sending His Son to "reconcile the world" to Himself. Its treatment of His Son manifested most clearly that it was impossible to reconcile the world to God, and God, in the cross, has judged this evil world.
Leading the world in its deadly opposition to God was Satan, the god of this world, which the world had also accepted as its prince. Satan must have thought his victory was complete when he used man as his instrument to cast the Son of God out of this world. But this very act was used of God for the complete overthrow of Satan, and it will end in his being cast out. Very soon he will be sealed in the bottomless pit for a thousand years, and after a little season, cast into the lake of fire for ever and ever.
Lifted up in death, between the heavens and the earth, a spectacle for the whole universe that He created, the Son of Man will be God's gathering centre, to draw to Himself those who shall share His mighty triumph in His kingdom and glory. In that glory, the Son of Man will be the great administrator of the universe of God, and all will be brought to His feet to own that He is Lord. The people around had "heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever," but they could not under-stand the lifting up of the Son of Man or who He was. The refusal of the testimony of the Son had blinded their minds to the Scriptures concerning Him.
At the beginning of John's Gospel it is written, "That was the true Light, which coming into the world is light for every man" (John 1:9). In John 9:5 the Lord had said, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world," thereby indicating that He would not always be here. Now, in John 12:35, He tells them plainly that His time was short, "Yet a little while is the light with you." In this chapter the Lord speaks His final words in testimony, and in the next chapter it is written, "He (Judas) … went immediately out: and it was night" (John 13: 30). The thick darkness settled down upon this world, unbroken for it until "The Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings" (Mal. 4:2).
How awful is the condition of those in the darkness; "he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth." Such is the condition of man without the knowledge of God as found in Jesus. There is not a ray of divine light outside of Christ, nothing in the philosophy or religion of man to guide man aright in this world or to lead him to God and to the eternal life that is in His Son.
As still with them, the Lord graciously exhorts, "While ye have the Light, believe in the Light, that ye may be the children of Light." For the world, all was over; it had been fully tested, and its judgment was sealed in the rejection of God's Son; but there was grace for the individual that believed in Him. Although the Light has departed from this world, John tells us in his First Epistle, "The darkness is passing, and the true Light now shineth" (John 2:8). The true Light now shines in the presence of God in heaven, and those who believe in Him are the "children of Light."
The Spirit of God breaks into the closing testimony of the Son to tell us what He had caused Isaiah to write so long ago. Israel was without excuse, for the Son of God had done many miracles, signs that made crystal clear the source of His testimony and who He was. Isaiah had written, "Who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?" The prophet foresaw, by the Spirit, that the testimony of the Lord would be refused by the nation, and that only a remnant would accept it. Christ, "The Arm of the Lord," the One with the divine power that wrought the great signs of the opening of the eyes of the man born blind, and raising Lazarus from death and corruption, was unknown by all saving those whose eyes God in grace had opened.
Having refused the testimony of the Son, in His Person, His words and His works, there was no more hope for Israel. God had now intervened judicially in hardening their hearts and blinding their eyes. They had been as obdurate as Pharaoh when he had seen the signs of God in Egypt, and persisting in their refusal to hear God's words, like Pharaoh, they became the subjects of judicial hardening. Isaiah had seen the glory of the Lord, and wondered at the nation's refusal of Messiah, and testified to the righteousness of God's judgment on them.
The commentary of the Spirit of God on the chief rulers who believed on Jesus is a solemn one, "They loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." They were like those in John 2:23 who believed in His Name when they saw the miracles of Jesus, but knowing all men, Jesus did not commit Himself to them. And they were like the disciples of John 6, who not liking to hear that He would die, "went back, and walked no more with Him." Refusing to be associated with a rejected Christ by the confession of His Name, they would not behold the glory of the Lord in His place on high, as had Isaiah.
His last words to the world are concerning the Father, the source and subject of the testimony of the Son. To believe on the Son was to believe on the Father, for the Father was seen in the Person of the Son. Again, and for the last time, the Lord speaks of the light, saying, "I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness." By nature man is in darkness, and he walks in the darkness without the knowledge of God; but the believer walks in the light of the revelation of God, and so does not abide in darkness.
Then the Lord speaks of the judgment of those who heard His words and did not believe. The mission of the Son on earth was not to judge the world, but to bring salvation. We see this when the woman taken in sin was brought to Jesus. He did not condemn her, it was not His mission, but He said to her, "Go, and sin no more." His grace was manifested in refusing to condemn the sinner condemned by the law of Moses; but the word which He spoke would judge, in the coming day, those who had rejected the grace of God made known in the Son. How very solemn it was that the One who brought the grace of the Father should be rejected by the world, and His words refused.
Never did the Son claim to be the source of His testimony; and for the last time He tells men that He did not speak from Himself; He came as sent from the Father, and spoke by commandment from the Father. The substance, details, and the very words that He spoke to convey His Father's message, were the Father's. If those who refused His words brought judgment upon themselves, those who received them received life eternal. The words of the Son expressed what He was in Himself, the Eternal Life; and they were eternal life for those who accepted them by believing on the Son.
Wm. C. Reid.