Now is [the] judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out
Days before the cross, Jesus announced what His death would settle: the world's judgment, and the fall of its ruler. Two questions follow: what did that judgment mean, and why does its ruler still seem so active?
Nothing dramatic happened in the sky when Jesus died. One writer points to what the moment put on display:
When Christ died, no lightning flashed and nothing was destroyed. Yet the full truth about the world came out then. Its judgment was proved, though not carried out. The world showed what it really was by putting the Lord out of it.
The gap between a sentence and its carrying out explains the delay we now live in:
A court passes sentence on a murderer days or weeks before it is carried out. So in this verse you see the judgment was a present thing: the casting out was a future thing. Between the verdict and its carrying out stands this present day of grace. The word "now" covers it, as in 2 Corinthians 6:2. In His patience God delays carrying out the judgment.
The word "world" here points to something people built:
John uses the word "world" for the moral condition of the vast organisation that man built for himself after he was driven out of the Garden of Eden. With his skill and his learning, man slowly formed a great system to run all the affairs of this life without God's help and without recognising Him. Sinful indulgence and selfish ease became the main parts of man's world. When the Son of God came into it, men despised Him, hated Him, and crucified Him.
Older translations call this ruler "the prince of this world." Many assume the cross ended his rule; one writer argues the opposite:
It is strange how many people imagine that the cross put an end to Satan's rule. The opposite is true. The cross was the one great proof, and there never was such a proof before, that Satan is the prince and god of this world. Until Christ had been rejected, Satan was never called the prince of this world. Before that, the LORD was on the earth, and His glory was in the temple. When the Lord comes again, He will be the Prince of the world; but till He comes again, Satan is that prince.
The same writer explains why the Lord could speak of it as settled while using a future tense:
By death He has destroyed the one who has the power of death — that is, annulled his power. Though the verse says "will be," his power is now destroyed. The sentence is passed, but not carried out. It is the cross that is referred to. The world is a judged world. I fully admit that he is not cast into the bottomless pit until Christ comes again. But through Christ's death Satan's power is annulled. To faith his power is annulled now.
Commentators differ over how much has already changed in fact. Some press that a later title given to Satan settles the question:
Does He not also say, when predicting the effect of His cross, "Now shall the prince of this world be cast out"? Has he not, then, been cast out of his kingdom? The Lord only predicts the certain effect of the cross, and the "now" simply declares it to be the effect. , going beyond even that which the Lord uses, is decisive: he calls the devil — long after the cross — "the god of this world."
If the verdict is already in, the world is not waiting for a better outcome:
That solemn event of the cross is the judgment of this world. The world is therefore no longer under probation, but under sentence of judgment. The cross has ended the world's trial. There the world was shown to be guilty of a crime. By the cross of Christ the strong man, Satan, has been bound. The blessed Lord triumphed over him in the very thing by which Satan meant to destroy Christ.
For those who face the world's hatred, He leaves a plain assurance:
He tells us that the world which will hate and persecute us stands judged. The great prince who governs and guides its affairs is deposed. His power is already broken and made useless, and he himself is doomed to everlasting punishment.
- Verdict. The cross exposed what the world is; its judgment was proved there, though not carried out.
- Reprieve. Between the verdict and the execution stands this present day of grace, in which God delays.
- Ruler. Satan was never called prince of this world until Christ was rejected; the title dates from that hour.
- Deposed. Christ's death annulled his power. Faith counts that real now, though his final removal waits for Christ's return.
- Choice. The world is no longer on trial but under sentence, so safety lies only with the One it condemned.
and I, if I be lifted up out of the earth, will draw all to me.
Some Greeks had just asked to see Jesus. His answer speaks of a death, a magnet, and a reach far wider than Israel — and it raises a question commentators still weigh: when is "all" drawn?
The phrase points to how He would die. It rules out other kinds of execution:
The Lord described the way He would die as being lifted up out of the earth. Death by stoning would not have matched this. John 3:14; John 8:28; John 12:32. We also read that He was made a curse for us; for "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree." Galatians 3:13; Deuteronomy 21:23. So the blessed Lord, in saving rebellious man, went down to the very lowest form of death.
The words "from the earth" matter. One writer ties them to rejection, and to the foundation of Christianity itself:
In His dying for us the foundation of Christianity was laid. He was "lifted up," not crucified on the earth, as He says, "Lifted up from the earth." He had to be a completely rejected Christ, rejected even to death. Otherwise there could be no point of attraction for men.
Verse 31 condemns the world and casts out its prince. Verse 32 opens the way to all. Both meet at the cross:
Note the completeness of verses 31 and 32 of John 12. The death of Christ judges the world, and Satan (shown to be its prince) is cast out. But then, "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." See how the cross shows both things at once! It shows the complete condemnation of the world, and with it the overthrow of Satan. It also shows grace — grace in the attractive object, and in its own effective work towards all.
The word "all" covers two groups, and one of them stood outside Israel:
His death opened up the way to glory "above," in the Father's house. It opened it not to Jews only, but to Gentiles. The words "all" and "whoever" include both. The "other sheep" were Gentiles (John 10:14-16).
Here commentators differ. Some read "all" (older translations: "all men") as every kind of person, drawn now:
How blessed to know that He is God's centre of attraction, at the present time, for all men, as we read in verse 32... This means "all men without distinction," but not "all men without exception." Not all men have been drawn to Him. It is in keeping with the character of John's Gospel, which takes in the whole world in its scope, and not just the Jews.
Others hold that the sentence looks past this age to a public, worldwide submission:
The key to this lies in the incident of the Greeks who wanted to see Jesus. They can be taken as representatives of all the families, peoples, and languages that will one day bow the knee to Jesus. So when the Lord speaks of drawing all men to Him after being lifted up, we cannot doubt what He means. He points to what will happen in this world, in the world to come, the thousand years, when everyone will confess His supremacy and authority... in virtue of His death and exaltation, all will be drawn, either by His attractions or His power, in subjection to His feet.
So what does the drawing? A death — and a force nothing can resist:
The cross of Christ is the divine necessity of divine light and love. Jesus crucified will always attract people to God. As long as the world lasts, this marvel will stand: the story of the sufferings and the death of Jesus draws men from the glory and the glitter of the world. It draws them from its fame and its shame, right to God Himself... Jesus crucified is the sacrifice for sin and the friend of sinners. He is the mighty magnet God uses to draw us to His heart of love. Christ crucified is the irresistible force that no power of Satan or of the world can withstand.
The attraction is a Man lifted off the earth. That changes where your heart lives:
Three times in the Gospel of John the Lord speaks of being lifted up. Only in John 12 do those significant words follow: "will draw all people to myself." It is lifted up "from the earth." He has left the earth, and we are to leave the earth in our affections as He attracts us.
- Lifted — the phrase names crucifixion. Stoning could not fit it, and hanging on a tree placed Him under the curse.
- Rejected — "from the earth" means a Christ cast out. Only a Christ rejected to death is a point of attraction.
- Judged — one cross condemns the world and casts out its prince. The same cross draws all people.
- All — the word reaches past Israel. "All" and "whoever" cover Jew and Gentile alike. Commentators differ on the timing: drawing now, or full submission when He reigns.
- Drawn — the crucified Christ is the magnet no power can resist. He has left the earth, so hearts drawn to Him leave it too.
But this he said signifying by what death he was about to die.
John stops to explain what the Lord had just said. "Lifted up" could sound like a promise of glory. John says it meant a cross. So why did the manner of His death matter so much?
Other men of God died in other ways. The manner of the Lord's death was fixed, and it took both Jewish and Gentile hands.
The Jews might stone Stephen in an outburst of religious fury. Herod might kill James with the sword. But the Son of man had to be condemned by the Jewish chief priests and scribes, and crucified by the Gentiles. All mankind had to prove its guilt to the last degree.
Crucifixion was the Roman penalty, yet the hatred behind it was Jewish. The method was meant to end Him. It did the opposite.
In mentioning this He signified crucifixion as the manner of His death. Now this was the Roman way of executing the death sentence, but seeing that all the animosity against Him was in the breast of the Jew, it signified that He would die a death of utmost shame, repudiated by both Jew and Gentile. He was lifted up from the earth in order that He might be contemptuously dismissed — the extinguisher dropped, so to speak, upon His cause and His Name. And the result to be attained is precisely the opposite. He who once was crucified is to be the universal and everlasting Object of attraction!
The Lord said He would be lifted up from the earth. One writer draws out the strange position that puts Him in.
He is no longer of this world at all, nor in heaven either. Here is a Saviour rejected, suffering, dying, who has left the world for ever — a Saviour shamefully rejected, driven away, cast out by the world. He is no longer on the earth, and not yet in heaven. He is exposed to the gaze of men, lifted up from the earth, alone between the two with God, like the altar that was neither in the camp nor in the tabernacle. He is the refuge that draws those who would flee the world that has rejected Him. He opens for them the way into heaven.
Men raised Him from the earth to be rid of Him. God answered with a lifting up of His own.
Our attention is therefore called to the fact that He was cast out of this world, lifted up from the earth, and crucified on that shameful cross. But we behold in this God's triumph over man's sin, and the Lord's own victory over death, the grave, and Satan's power. Man lifted Him up from the earth, as unworthy to live on it any longer. To add to the shame of His death, they crucified Him between two thieves. But God stepped in. After His burial, God lifted Him up higher still — to the highest place in the universe, to His own right hand.
Commentators differ on how far the phrase reaches. John ties it to His death. But the word for lifting up is also the word for being exalted, and one writer asks whether both were meant.
The word for lifting up and being exalted is the same. We are plainly told that the Lord used it to show by what kind of death He was going to die. It is still true that His exaltation comes by His death and follows from it, and that it is the exalted Christ who will draw all men to Himself. So may it be that we are meant to include His exaltation in His being lifted up?
The crowd could not fit a dying Messiah into what they had been taught. Their difficulty came from a partial reading of their own Scriptures.
"We have heard," they said, "out of the law, that the Christ abides for ever: and how do You say, The Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?" It was a difficulty they had no answer to. True, the Christ will abide for ever (Ps. 72:15-17; Isa. 9:7; Ezek. 37:25; Dan. 7:14). But that would be in resurrection, when He reigns in power. His humiliation and death were foretold just as clearly, and they had not grasped that.
- Signified — John fixes the meaning. The "lifting up" was not honour but a cross, the death that threw Him out of the world.
- Shame — the death itself was shame by design. Jew and Gentile joined to throw Him out.
- Between — off the earth, not yet in heaven, He hung alone with God. There He became the refuge for all who flee the world that cast Him out.
- Reversed — man raised Him up as unfit to live; God raised Him higher still, to His own right hand.
- Attraction — the cross meant to blot out His Name made Him the One who draws all men. The crowd missed it. They held the promises of His reign and left out the prophecies of His death.