I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world comes, and in me he has nothing;
The conversation is about to stop, and Jesus tells the disciples why: someone is on his way. In one sentence He names the power behind the arrest and the cross, and denies him any hold at all. Older translations end the verse "he has nothing in Me," which is the wording the writers below discuss.
After this evening the teaching stops. What comes next is betrayal, arrest and trial — and through it He says almost nothing.
After that evening He would not talk much with them. Satan was about to unleash all his hatred against Him. He would be betrayed, arrested, abused as a criminal, put through a mock trial, and crucified. In all of this He said very little, even to Pilate, the judge. But as to Satan, He only says, "he has nothing in Me." Wonderful words! All that Satan, the prince of this world, could do was confirm the perfection and purity of the Lord Jesus. A Stronger One defeated him.
The title belongs to a moment: after the world has settled its verdict on the Son.
"Prince of this world" is an important expression. It was then that the devil showed himself to be the prince of this world. He is never called that until Christ was rejected. As long as it was still possible for the world to receive the Son and own Him, the name did not belong to him. But in the rejection of Christ the devil could raise both Jews and Gentiles against Christ Himself, and even the disciples ran away. His full power came out. And so now the devil is a judged being — "the prince of this world is judged" — and the world lies under Satan's power. He is its god and its prince. The opposite is in Christ: he "has nothing in Me."
The claim is not that Jesus resisted well. The enemy arrived and found nothing in Him to use.
It was not only that He never sinned, but He had no sin; and this makes all the difference possible. He was the Holy One, and this came out above all in the temptations He endured, which no one else has ever faced. In Him was no sin — not sins merely, but sin. It was not only that He did not yield to sin, but there was no sin there to yield. His nature as man had no evil to be acted on by the devil.
The enemy changed his method from the beginning to the end. The result did not change.
Come when he might, he had no more in Christ at the end than at the beginning. At first he tried to lure the Saviour off the path of obedience by offering Him pleasure. Now he tries to fill Him, on that same path, with fear and horror of the death ahead. It was useless: "Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?"
Try the sentence in any other mouth and it fails.
His holy nature shrank from any suggestion of sin. He had taken the place of a servant to do the will of the Father — was He now going to leave that path and do His own will? Satan came to Him when the cross was in view, and He said: "The prince of this world comes, and has nothing in Me." No other man could have said such words. There is a great deal in us that Satan can act on: the flesh is in us, open to his influence.
What was fully true of Him has an echo in those who belong to Him.
The perfectly obedient One could say, "The ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me" (John 14:30). And when the will of the flesh is held under the judgment of death, he finds nothing in us either.
Why was there no foothold in Him? The answer joins two things.
One more passage connects obedience with the spring it flows from — LOVE. Whether in Him or in us, love gives obedience all its blessed character and acceptance. I refer to John 14:30-31… What foothold could the enemy find in a life made up of nothing but love and obedience?
Satan could not stop Him, and what followed was something Jesus gave.
The prince of this world came to Jesus as the head of the world's religion and power, acting through Jews and Gentiles. He could not hinder Him. This is what we who believe know of Jesus: the prince of this world had nothing in Him. He willingly gave Himself to be the sacrifice, and the act of giving Himself was perfect.
- He comes. The talking ends because the enemy is on his way. From here Jesus answers hatred, and Pilate, with near silence.
- He has nothing. Not "Jesus resisted" but "there was no sin there to yield" — no inner material for temptation to grip.
- Nothing gained. Pleasure offered at the start, terror pressed at the end: the same result both times.
- Nothing but love. What the enemy met was a life made of love for the Father and obedience — no foothold anywhere in it.
- Nothing owed. With no claim on Him, Jesus gave Himself, and the world's prince stands judged.
but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father has commanded me, thus I do. Rise up, let us go hence.
The enemy is at the door and the cross is in view as Jesus ends His last talk with the disciples. He does not call Himself a victim, but a Son who loves His Father — and then He stands up and walks toward it.
The verse opens with a "but", answering the words just before it. One writer shows how Satan's attack on Jesus changed, and why it failed both times.
Earlier he would have been glad to lure the Saviour off the path of obedience by offering pleasure. Now, while He walks that path, he tries to fill Him with fear and horror of the death ahead of Him. It was in vain: "The cup which My Father gives Me, shall I not drink it?" In us, naturally, there is everything that can give Satan a handle; in Christ he had nothing.
If Satan had no hold on Him, what brought Him to the cross?
His death would not be the result of Satan's power, but the outcome of Christ's love to the Father. His perfect obedience to the Father's commandment, even obeying to death, is the everlasting proof of His love to the Father.
Jesus names the audience: the world. One writer points to the one thing still left to show them.
One thing only remained to make it completely clear to the world that He loved the Father, and that the Father's commandment was everything to Him. That one thing was the Cross — the last, the supreme test. And with that in full view He said: "Rise, let us go from here."
The verse says Jesus acts as the Father commanded Him. One writer shows that this obedience did not make His death any less His own free choice.
He gave Himself in death of His own will, to carry out the Father's will. There is another side too, where the glory of the Son shines out in the perfection of His obedience. His death was a free act, and yet an act of obedience to the Father's commandment. The free act proves His divine glory and right. The obedience proves the perfection of His place in Manhood.
The last words of the verse are a call to move, and the disciples go too. One writer finds a larger meaning in leaving the room.
These words meant leaving the upper room. But there is a deeper spiritual lesson here. He was leaving the world behind, and they too were to be identified with Him in this. As He is not of the world, neither are they. It appears that He spoke John 15 and John 16 as they walked toward Gethsemane.
Another writer reads the same rising as the end of an era for the nation of Israel.
The Lord had now closed His present relationship with the disciples as a remnant connected with the Jews. He gets up and leaves that association: "Rise, let us go from here." A fatal word for Israel! He had shown this in advance when He got up from supper, looking ahead to His priestly action in chapter 13. But He had not yet done it in fact. Then He sat down again.
Hours later, in the garden, this verse turns into action. One writer shows what Jesus faced there, and what His obedience secured for the disciples.
Before He left Gethsemane, the whole power of Satan was morally destroyed. He had gone through the hour with His Father, and now takes the cup at the hand of His Father, as an act of obedience... He presents Himself again (as He says in John 14:31, "so that the world may know that I love the Father… Rise, let us go from here") saying, "Whom do you seek? … If therefore you seek Me, let these go their way," and they were not touched, as a token of the complete deliverance of us all.
- Nothing in Him — Satan tried pleasure first, then terror. Both failed. There was nothing in Christ for him to grip.
- Love, not force — His death was therefore not the outcome of Satan's power but the outcome of His love to the Father.
- Proved at the cross — the cross was the supreme test. It made that love plain to the watching world.
- Free and obedient — the free act shows His divine glory. The obedience shows the perfection of His place as Man.
- "Let us go" — He rises to leave and takes His own with Him. In the garden the same obedience sets them free: "let these go their way."