John 12:23-26 And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.… As regards — I. THE GREAT ENEMY. In the wilderness Christ did not achieve a complete victory. The devil departed from Him for a season only, and was actually and finally vanquished on the cross. He who hoped to crush Adam was himself crushed in Christ. Satan had brought ruin and misery into a happy world. Christ brought out the world into happiness tenfold as bright and holy as that which Satan ruined. II. MAN. On the cross was transacted the central event of man's world. All before had reference to this; all after flow from it. The whole system of types found its end on the cross; the whole state of acceptance in which believers stand before God, the whole dispensation of the Spirit, had its origin here. Wherever there breathes a man, there the cross has a deep and never-failing interest. Here also was the triumph of human nature. You hear of the power and dignity of human nature, its wonderful capacities for knowledge, its high endowments for enterprise; but in none of these did it reach its noblest height, nor bear its fairest fruit. Not in Athens or Rome, in poesy or art, has man been most glorified; but on the cross of Jesus. There manhood bore its fruit of love untouched by a blight, and was honoured with the union of the Godhead, stooping to share its sentence of death and to bring it to glory. III. HIMSELF (Romans 14:9). Christ was born that He might be a King; and here we have His Lordship established and His kingdom inaugurated. Remember what He said to the dying thief. The cross is Christ's throne; His atonement His basis of empire (Revelation 5:6); from it proceeds the work of the Spirit, whose office it is to glorify Christ. IV. THE FATHER. By the counsel of the Father's will was the plan of redemption directed, and His perfections find their highest example on the cross. 1. Love. "Herein is love," etc. 2. Truth. "For this end He came into the world, to bear witness unto the truth"; and He bore it here. 3. Righteousness. "He made Him to be sin for us," etc. (Dean Alford.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.WEB: Jesus answered them, "The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. |
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