John xii. 31, 32. Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted tip from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
INCONCEIVABLY arduous was the work which Christ had undertaken : yet amidst his heaviest trials his confidence never for a moment forsook him. He had just complained of the insupportable weight of his mental agonies ; yet not so complained, but that he had desired his heavenly Father to glorify his own name, whatever sufferings he might have to endure for that end. For the satisfaction of those who would otherwise have drawn wrong conclusions from those sufferings, the Father answered him by a voice like thunder, " I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again :" and immediately Jesus, with his wonted calmness, resumed his discourse respecting the na- ture and necessity of his approaching death, and confidently predicted,
I. The issue of his conflicts —
The world and Satan were his great adversaries : and though by his death they would appear victo- rious over him, yet he declared that by his death,
1. The world would be judged —
[What we are to understand by " the judgment of this world," we cannot absolutely determine : but we apprehend the import of that expression to be, that his death would be the means of exhibiting in the clearest view, first, the wicked- ness, and next, the desert of the ungodly world.
Who would have conceived the wickedness of the world to be so great as it really is ? Who would have conceived, that, if God himself should become incarnate, and sojourn in a familiar manner upon earth, and cause the light of his perfec- tions to shine around him, and diffuse innumerable blessings by the unbounded exercise of omnipotence and love, his creatures should rise up against him, and put him to death ? Who would conceive too, that this should be done, not by ignorant savages, but by the people who had enjoyed the light of revelation, heard his gracious instructions, beheld his bright example, and received the benefit of his miraculous exertions : yea, that it
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