John 12:23-26 And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.… We shrink too much from investigating the mental struggles of Jesus as though it were a profanation. But in this we commit two errors. 1. We lose sight of Christ's proper humanity, of the fact that He had a mind governed like our own, a heart and sympathies which throbbed as ours. 2. A false conception of true reverence. It is reverential to be cautious of approaching too closely an earthly sovereign, because near approach would only produce familiarity, and make us feel that he too is but a frail and sinful man. But the Majesty of Jesus requires no such precautions, because the nearer we get to Him the more we realize His Divine Majesty. Note — I. THE LAW OF THE ATONEMENT. 1. The gloriousness of suffering. There are two ways of looking at every act — at the appearance, and at the reality. Hence what seems mean is often inwardly glorious, and vice versa. Thus there is nothing in the outward circumstances of a soldier's death to distinguish them from an ignoble brawl; but over the soldier's death is shed the glory of that cause for which his life was offered. So in external circumstances Christ's death was mean, but in inward principles it was glorified by God. We say that a throne is glorious and a coronet noble; but nothing can ennoble cowardice or selfishness. We say that a dungeon, scaffold, and the lower arts of life are base; but Christ's death has sanctified the cross, and His life shed a glory over carpentry. 2. The death of one for the life of many. This is the great law upon which God has constructed the universe. If there is to be a crop, there must first be the destruction of the seed. The lives of vegetables and animals are given for us. So the doctrine of the atonement is no strange, arbitrary principle. The Father who made the law by which the flesh of living things sustains the life of others is the same Being who made and obeyed the law by which the flesh of Christ is to the world "meat indeed." 3. Self-devotion (ver. 25). The previous parallel fails in one thing. We do not thank the grain of wheat for dying, because its death is involuntary; and therefore to constitute a true sacrifice a living will is needed. Christ's sacrifice was a voluntary act, else it had been no sacrifice at all. II. THE MENTAL STRUGGLE BY WHICH THAT LAW WAS EMBRACED AS THE LAW OF THE REDEEMER'S LIFE. It is one thing to understand a law and another to obey it. To admire that which is right is one thing, but to do what is right is another. The Divine life of Christ subordinated innocent human ideas to itself by degrees. Here He was literally distracted between the natural craving for life and the higher desire to embrace the will of God. But the victory was won by prayer, that communion of the mind with God through which our will becomes at last merged into His. And so there was one perfect will, the will of the Father being that of the Son. "Father, glorify Thy name." (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) 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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