“How Much Did Your Salvation Cost?”
John 12:27-36
God’s grace is freely given but it certainly is not cheap! I really don’t think that it is possible for human beings to fully understand what it cost God the Father and Jesus Christ His son to offer forgiveness for our sins. We do not often reflect on just how costly it was for God to affect our salvation. Those who are not Christians certainly do not appreciate it fully and some even mock it.
As we come to this passage in our study of John, it is now “Passion Week” so called because it is the final week of Jesus’ earthly life. He is in Jerusalem for the Passover, after making His triumphant entrance to the city. Jesus has just entered Jerusalem to the shouts and praises of a huge crowd present in the city for the Passover celebration. The people were anxious to proclaim Him king, but the Lord refused to be the kind of king that they wanted.
Some Greeks have come seeking Jesus, which causes Jesus to respond saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.” (v. 23) The coming of the Greeks in some way communicated to the Lord the fact that the climax of his work on Earth was at hand.
Read with me beginning in verse twenty-seven, “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. (28) Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came from heaven saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” (29) Therefore, the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to Him.”(30) Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake. (31) Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. (32) And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” (33) This He said, signifying by what death He would die. (34) The people answered Him, “We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”
(35) Then Jesus said to them, “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. (36) While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.”
Notice with me four things about this special time in the life of our Lord.
First, The Reason Jesus is Troubled. (12:27a) “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’?...”
We begin to see what a great cost our salvation placed on the Lord in verse twenty-seven when we are told Jesus said, “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say?” We need to recognize that being “troubled” is not the same as being afraid, because that would have been completely out of character for the Lord. But we do not need to fail to recognize that the struggle for Jesus was very real. The Gospels agree in telling us that as the Cross approached Jesus began to tremble and was “deeply troubled” (Mark 14:33). The other Gospels tell us of His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is revealed that Jesus was in deep emotional distress and that as He prayed His sweat became “as great drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44). He prayed three times that the cup He was about o drink would pass from Him. But at last, He concludes saying, “Father, if it is your will, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not my will but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:42) John does not tell us of Jesus’ agony in the Garden of Gethse-mane but we should probably see this passage as comparable, but John makes the point in his own way.
As Kent Hughes points out, we find the reaction of Jesus “startling in the light of who He is. After all, He is the one who holds the world together. He is the One who healed the leper with a touch, who with a word cast out demons and calmed the seas. He is the One who walked right through the crowds intent on His murder. Some say the reason our Lord was troubled was he was contemplating the physical horrors of the cross, - …his severely beaten (flayed) back unevenly pressed against the stake, the nails through the nerves of his hands, the agony of constantly pulling himself up to get a breath. But if that is what we think the Lord is fearing, we do him an injustice, because men in our own time have died more painful and prolonged death than that. If it had only been physical pain he faced Jesus would have received it with amazing calm.” [R. Net. Hughes. “John: That You Might Believe.” (Wheaton, ILL: Crossway Books, 1999) pp. 305-306]
The prospect that filled Jesus with horror was that He knew that in just a few hours He would bear the horrible weight of all the world’s sins and would suffer separation from the Father. He who had enjoyed an uninterrupted fellowship with the Father for all of eternity would be separated because of our sins. The Apostle Paul says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us.” (2 Corinthians 5:21). And in his letter to the church at Galatia he wrote, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” (Galatians 3:13)
But knowing full well what awaited Him in the hours ahead Jesus does not debate with God. He does not offer suggestions for alternative plans. He did not give in to sorrow.
In spite of the reason Jesus is troubled we see…
Second, The Resolve Jesus Exhibited. (12:27b-28a)
“…But for this purpose I came to this hour. (28) Father, glorify Your name...”
Jesus is determined to pay he cost for our salvation, but that is not the chief reason He gives to fulfill His mission. He says that His greatest aim is to glorify the Father. In great humility Jesus said, “Father glorify your name.” (v. 28a) So where did Jesus find the resolve He needed not to back away from the horror that lay before Him? His answer was that He found strength in His knowledge that He was following God’s will for Him. The very purpose of His coming led to the Cross but in so doing He sought to glorify the Father.
The question that each of us face as Christ-ians is when we face a crisis are we going to be able to say, “Lord it doesn’t matter what happens to me… I want your name to be glorified.” Are we going to be able to walk faithfully with God even through we don’t know what the future holds? Are we going to be willing to trust in His plan for our life even when we do not see where it is going? Paul wrote, it is “…my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by death or life (21) For me to life is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:20-21)
From the resolve that Jesus exhibited we move to…
Third, The Reassurance Jesus Received. (12:28b-30)
“…Then a voice came from heaven saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” (29) Therefore, the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to Him.” (30) Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake.”
• The Voice From Heaven. (vv.28a, 30)
There were three times in the ministry of Jesus when the Father spoke out audibly from Heaven to express His approval of the Son. At His baptism God’s voice was heard saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matt. 3:17). At His transfiguration the Father again spoke in a similar fashion (Matthew 17:5) and now again here in John 12. Each time He endorsed Jesus and His ministry. But Jesus will make clear in verse thirty this endorsement was not for Jesus’ sake, “This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake.” This was those present; He knew that He had the Father’s approval.
• What the Voice Revealed, (v. 28b)
“I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.”
So how was God glorified through the life of Jesus. The Father was glorified in Jesus’ birth the angels sang “God to God in the highest” (Luke 2:14. God was glorified in his sinless life. God was glorified in his ministry: his miracles and his teachings. But Jesus would especially glorify the Father at the Cross.
God the Father had glorified His name even more through the death, resurrection and ascen-sion of Jesus in the coming days. And He will be glorified yet again as John tells in the book of Revelation when Jesus returns with the host of Heaven in great power and glory (Rev, 19:11-21)
• How People Reacted. (v. 29)
“Therefore, the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to Him.”
I we have already noted the voice from Heaven was evidently audible because those present heard a sound. But while Jesus under-stood what the Father was saying, the people did not! The people reacted in two age-old reactions of mankind to spiritual things that they do not understand. One group took the naturalistic approach to the voice from Heaven; they sought to explain away every supernatural occurrence. It was only thunder and people’s imaginations made it something else.
Others explained it with the mystical approach, saying it was an angel that spoke to Jesus. It is not explained why they thought it was angels speaking, perhaps because the noise came from the heavens. But I believe that all of them missed the point that it was God authenticating Jesus and His ministry. But the truth was that God had spoken for the sake of those who heard it. They should have realized it was the Father’s seal of approval on Jesus, but they did not.
From the reassurance Jesus received we move to …
Fourth, The Results of What Jesus Did. (12:31-36)
• The World Is Judged. (v. 31a)
“Now is the judgment of this world;…”
“The world writes off sin as only a small thing. Today, sin is excused as a dysfunction; no longer viewed as evil, sin is written off as the inevitable result of poor environments. But the cross of Jesus exposes the evil of the world’s sin and in that way judges the world.” [Richard D. Philips. “John” Volume 2: Chapters 11-21 Reformed Expository Commentary. (Philipsburg. NJ: P & Pub., 2014) p. 105]
John has already told us of Jesus’ purpose for coming into the world saying, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:17). But he also warned in the following verse, “He who believes in Him is not condemned but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18)
• Satan Is Defeated. (v. 31b)
“…now the ruler of this world will be cast out.”
By “ruler of this world” Jesus is referring to Satan (John 14:30, 16:11). Jesus’ death on the cross must have at least briefly looked like a victory for Satan, but it was really the moment of his defeat, because Jesus triumphed over sin and death.
Col 2:14-15 vividly describes the defeat of Satan at the Cross. “having wiped out the hand-writing of requirements that was against us, which is contrary to us. And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made public spectacle of them, triumphing over then.”
The “handwriting of ordinances” refers to the record of our sin and legal penalty they require. Jesus’ death canceled the legal debt of our sin. His death not only canceled our sin but rendered Satan powerless.
There are five times when the Bible says that Satan is cast out. First, Satan was cast out of Heaven before creation (Rev. 12:7-9, 10, Isa 14:12-15, Ezek.28:16-17). Second, here in John 12 Satan was cast out 0f a seat of power at the cross. Third, He is cast out of the Earth (Rev. 12:9). Fourth, Satan will be cast into the abyss (Rev. 20:3). Fifth, Satan is cast into the lake of fire (Rev 20:10).
• All Men Are Drawn. (vv. 32-36)
“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” (33) This He said, signifying by what death He would die. (34) The people answered Him, “We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”
When Jesus says, “if I am lifted up” He
meant, as John explains in verse thirty-three, He meant his death on the cross. Jesus used the same term as He spoke to Nicodemus, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” (John 3:14) He used it again in John 8:28 saying, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak those things as the father taught Me.” Usually the verb translated “lift up” means “to exalt some-one” and I think John wants us to see a double meaning: Jesus being lifted up on the cross, which was the ultimate in shame, resulted in His being exalted as the Savior of the world. It resulted in God’s glory and Satan’s defeat. The cross became the defining event in human history, and it is the defining moment in our history.
When Jesus says that He “will draw all people unto myself” (v. 32) He did not mean all of the human race. It means that people from all different nations and races will be drawn to Him through His sacrificial death, not that every single person will be saved. As Jesus had explained to Nicodemus it was those that looked to Him in faith who would be saved.
The response of the people recorded in verse twenty-four should be viewed more as a defiant challenge rather than a legitimate question. They say, “We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?” Notice the emphatic way it is stated. The “we” and the “you” are emphatic in the original language, thereby they are putting themselves in opposition against Jesus. They say we have “heard” not we have read, it is the equivalent of saying “we have been taught this or that!”
They understood Jesus’ words about being “lifted up” to refer to His death, how then they maintain can you say that you are the Messiah. They have been taught from the Old Testament passage such as Psalm 110:4 which says that the Messiah is “a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek” And Daniel 7:13-14 which says the Son of Man will receive an “eternal kingdom.”
But they have not been taught those passages that speak of the Messiah’s suffering. But if their problem had been merely a need for theological clarification, Jesus could have coun-tered their misconceptions by directing them to read Isaiah’s prophecy that the Messiah would die for his people’s sin (Isaiah 53). Or He could have directed them to Psalm 22 which provided details of the Messiah’s death or Daniel 9:26 which speaks of the Messiah being cut off. But their problem was not theological but moral. The crowd had greeted Jesus upon His entrance to Jerusalem as a political conqueror, but they would not even consider His sacrificial death. He did not fit in with their idea of what a Messiah should be!
Instead, Jesus said in verses thirty-five and thirty-six, “Then Jesus said to them, “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. (36) While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.”
Jesus pointed to Himself as the light and said, “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light…. (36) While you have the light, believe in the light.” They had a narrow window of opportunity to put aside their preconceived ideas about the Messiah and accept Him for He is. Their opportunities to believe will not last forever and neither does ours!
Conclusion
“If your soul is cast down, think of the personal pain Christ endured for your salvation and peace, and then remember that now, as an object of redemption, he continues to lavish that same self-sacrificing care upon you. If we are going through difficult times, whether the death of a loved one or a painful family time or a feeling of unworthiness or uncertainty about the future, we must look to Jesus.” [Hughes. p. 306]
