Jesus therefore said to them, When ye shall have lifted up the Son of man, then ye shall know that I am [he], and [that] I do nothing of myself, but as the Father has taught me I speak these things.
Jesus points His hearers forward to the cross. The act by which they reject Him will prove who He is, and His words come from the Father, not from Himself.
"Lifted up" here means the cross. The Lord warns His hearers in advance of what their own hands would do:
The Jews were warned in advance of their guilt, for the Lord spoke of their lifting Him up in death. They would crucify Him. Afterwards they would know that they had rejected and killed not only their Messiah, but One who was the great I AM. They used the occasion of His Manhood to reject and kill Him, but He allowed them to do it. That sealed their guilt, yet it opened the way for higher purposes — even God's eternal purpose for the whole creation.
Older translations read simply "I am" here. Those who believed came to see who the lowly man on the cross really was:
The Lord, as the Light, went on to show the awful sin of man and the indescribable grace of God even more deeply. He said, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am." The lowly Jesus was the Son of Man among men, and He showed people their own hearts. Sinners were about to lift Him up on the cross. When this crowning crime of man was complete, those who believed on Him would know Him as the eternal Jehovah.
"Then you will know" means proof set before their eyes, not faith in their hearts. People then split over that same proof:
His lifting up was His death. Once that was done, resurrection would follow, and it would declare Him to be "the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness" (Rom. 1:4). Then they would know, in the sense that they had full proof before their eyes. A few did know, because the proof enlightened them. Most of them deliberately shut their eyes against the light. Still, the proof that He was wholly and always pleasing to the Father was there for every eye to see.
Commentators differ on when this knowing arrives. Some see more than one moment of fulfilment:
Their minds were full of delusions, and under Satan's power these had darkened their souls. Evidence so clear would sweep them away, and they would no longer be able to resist its force. We are not told when this would happen. It may well have had a double fulfilment: on the day of Pentecost, and in that wonderful day of grace for God's ancient people which Zechariah describes. Then they will look on Him whom they pierced, and will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son.
Others weigh the title itself, and warn that this knowledge can come too late:
Son of man is equally His title as the rejected Messiah and as the appointed Judge of living and dead. So He was crucified, and so He returns for the kingdom of universal glory. How terrible to know this too late, when pride shuts out repentance and the acknowledgment of truth!
The same sentence that claims the divine name also says He does nothing on His own. That obedience reaches even to His words:
We have seen this principle of dependent obedience in the works of the blessed Lord. Nothing gives a greater sense of how complete it is than to find it true of His words too. Men would only recognise who He was when they had lifted up the Son of man. Only then would they see that in the place He had taken He neither acted from Himself nor spoke except "just as the Father taught Me." In words and works alike He is the revealer of the Father.
- Crime. The lifting up is the cross, and the Lord names His hearers as the ones who would do it. He allowed it, sealing their guilt and opening the way for God's wider purpose.
- Claim. "I am" is the divine name; the lowly Son of Man among them was the eternal Jehovah.
- Confirmation. His death and resurrection put the proof before every eye. A few saw it; most shut their eyes.
- Consequence. Some writers see the knowing fulfilled at Pentecost, and in a coming day when Israel mourns over the One they pierced. Others warn of knowing too late, when pride blocks repentance.
- Character. The same voice that says "I am" also says He does nothing from Himself. His words came from the Father, so in word and work He reveals Him.
And he that has sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, because I do always the things that are pleasing to him.
Jesus says this in a sharp argument with men who reject Him, just after warning them that they will lift up the Son of Man. Rejected by them, He says two things that belong together: the Father is with Him, and He always does what pleases the Father.
These men would reject Him all the way to the cross. Even so, His words carry an authority they cannot escape.
His cross might not convince them by divine power or win their heart to God. But it would convict them of deliberate, willful rejection of the Messiah. And it would prove that what He spoke came from the highest authority. The One who sent Him also taught Him. The Father was with Him too, for Christ was doing always the things that pleased Him. If we know this in our small measure, how much more completely and steadily was it true of Him who did not sin, and in whose mouth no deceit was found!
Though He is the Son, He speaks here as a Man who trusts. The unbroken presence of the Father is tied to His faithfulness.
Though He was sent, and though He was the Son, He did not act in the strength of that power. If He had, He could not truly have obeyed. He learned that as Man. But the One who sent Him was with Him... Jesus acknowledged His dependence, for here He declares His Manhood: also, "He has not left Me alone." ... The Father did not leave Him alone, and that was the reward of His faithfulness as Man.
Men refused Him; the Father did not. And His fellowship with the Father had two layers.
Rejected by the Jews, the Son had the deep consolation of the Father's company... Nothing could disturb the communion that always existed between the Father and the Son, which belonged to them in the relationships of the Godhead. But there was also a communion between the Son as Man and the Father, one that had to do with carrying out the Father's will on earth. And how blessed this communion! The Son, perfect in obedience, never sought His own will, but only and always the will and pleasure of the Father.
Pleasing God takes more than avoiding wrong. It takes positive good, and here He stands alone.
The absence of sin would not have been enough. We cannot stop at saying there was no sin, either in the nature or the acts of the Man Christ Jesus. We look for positive good, for we read, "So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin" (James 4:17). And we find this positive goodness in Him at all times and in every circumstance. It was His glory... Every other man broke away from the known will of God and rebelled against it. He could say, "I always do the things that are pleasing to Him."
Set this verse beside the cry from the cross. The two cannot be flattened into one.
Put the Lord's words in Psalm 22, "you do not answer," beside His words at the grave of Lazarus, "I knew that you always hear Me" (John 11:42). Put "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?" beside His words elsewhere, "And He who sent Me is with Me. He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him" (John 8:29). Who cannot see here the infinite difference? If hearing and not hearing are the same thing, and forsaking and not forsaking can go together, then words have lost all meaning.
Not everyone who heard Him stayed hostile. Something in these words won people.
This is the truth that by grace wins the heart. It is the Person of the Lord, Son and Servant in wonderful union. As Son, He is the conqueror of sin; as Servant, He is the victim for sin. "As He was saying these things, many believed in Him." This is the word, the foundation truth, and the one who continues in it is a disciple indeed.
The same standard now stands over our own work. It tests the motive, not just the action.
In service our one motive should be to please the Lord, who has in this Himself become our great Example. Speaking of the Father, He said: "I always do the things that are pleasing to Him" (John 8:29). To do right things is not enough. Right things done with a wrong motive are wrong in the sight of heaven.
- Sent — He acts as One sent and taught, speaking with the Father's own authority behind every word.
- Dependent — He would not act in His own power. If He had, He could not have obeyed.
- Accompanied — the Father stayed with Him, the reward of His faithfulness as Man. Men left Him; the Father did not.
- Forsaken — the cross is the one exception. Forsaken and not forsaken cannot mean the same thing.
- Followed — the same test now falls on us. Right actions are not enough; the motive behind them must be to please Him.