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These are the words of Jesus, as recorded in John 12:30-32:
Jesus
answered and said, This voice came not because of Me, but for your sakes. Now
is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And
I, if I be lifted up from the Earth, will draw all men unto Me.
I first encountered this expression, ‘lifted up from the Earth’,
as a child listening to an ole spiritual song, ‘Lift the Savior Up’. Perhaps
you, too, have heard it. (Available on YouTube) As a child, I did not
have a clue of the real meaning of this expression, but the church I attended
suggested it meant exalting (lifting up) the Name of Jesus so all people would
be drawn to Him for their salvation. This song seemed to underscore the
inferred interpretation. Simple enough, but far from being accurate. For
some reason, verse 33 was overlooked in this interpretation.
This He said, signifying by what [manner of] death He would die.
(John 12:33)
Thus, to ‘be lifted up’ actually means to be crucified - raised up
and suspended on a cross between Heaven and Earth. This is the farthest one
could get from being exalted, yet earlier in the discourse He said a grain
of seed abides alone until and unless it is cast into the ground and dies, then
it will bear much fruit, signifying He would ultimately be exalted in His resurrection.
(John 12:24)
With that point clarified, debate still continues today regarding
the real meaning of ‘draw all men unto Me’. Many Bible scholars still blindly
interpret this as referring to salvation, this despite the Bible’s assertion
that not all mankind will accept God’s plan and offer of salvation and eternal
life through Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection.
Other scholars interpret this to mean all mankind,
believers and non-believers alike, will, in the end, be drawn to the judgment
seat of Christ to have their works on Earth judged. Revelation 20:11-15 affirms this point. It also answers questions about the basis for judging people who lived and died before Christ lived on Earth. Before they died, The Lord confirmed who was and was not righteous in His sight, and He recorded His decision in His Book of Life.
For those who were righteous, I believe Jesus, in spirit, delivered His Gospel to them (in ‘Abraham’s bosom, the upper region of hades where, pre-cross, souls and spirits of the righteous were confined after death). Then He defeated satan’s
kingdom, taking back from him the keys of death and hades, and led the righteous souls/spirits through Heaven’s newly opened gates.
Here is my broad interpretation of the phrase, ‘draw all men/people
unto Me’:
1. God has firmly established the death of Jesus as the unequivocal ‘fulcrum of human history'. Even our
system of calendars and dates affirm this, i.e., BC - AD. It is evident He was ‘lifted up’
thrice:
1. Lifted up (raised) on a cross
between Heaven and Earth to be crucified
2. Lifted up (raised)
from the grave to offer eternal life to mankind
3. Lifted up (ascended)
from Earth to Heaven to be glorified
2. Jesus has literally been the most polarizing figure who has ever
lived. My, my, what an interesting way to split human history. Just the mention of His Name
will, like magnets, polarize people in any room. In light of this, the clear
purpose of His death is to draw all mankind, including you, to
Him for three reasons:
a. For you to know He
loves you unconditionally
b. For you to make a
personal decision regarding His offer of eternal life, i.e.,
Whom do YoU say/believe Jesus is?
c. For Him to judge your
works on Earth (i.e., confirm whether your name is in His Book of [Eternal] Life)
God’s express intent, echoed across the pages and ages of The
Bible and human history, is to prompt or extract from our minds and hearts our
personalized, intimate basis for His decision whether to write our name in His Book of Life, period.
Ok, so Jesus was indeed ‘lifted up from the Earth’, was
buried in the Earth, was raised from an earthen grave, and was lifted
up/ascended to Heaven. And in countless ways across our world every day, you, my Friend, are now ‘drawn to Him’ to give your
answer to His clear question:
‘Whom do you say that
I am?’
