The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 2 — Section 138

he cfJUl\lly trne, revo1:11ing the fundament1:1l viotory of truth, which is pursue,\ moro ldonlily of oharnctor nncl personality, the explicitly in the next verse. ono, moreover, prop1:1ring for the other? (Soo Vere. 32, 33.-And I, if I be lifted ont of ( or, notes on eh. xix.) from) the earth, will draw all (men) to mysell. Vere. 31-36.-5. T11ejudgmenlof lhiaworld. Now this he apake, signifying by what death Ver. 31.-SUll more emphatically docs he was about to die. ··,,i,.,e,;, hns been by Obrist expound the heavenly voice, and vin- Meyer, o.s well o.s many of the Fathers, clioote for himself the most solemn position referred to the Lord'd resurrection anrl ascen- with reference to the world and its prince, sion. The I« "T,js -y,j, would ccrtflinly be in The'' world," or humanity evolving itself to favour of it, and be a possi blo rendorini; if the highest form ofo. complicate<l civilization, we hold (with Westcott and others) that wo.s present to him far more vividly tho.n resurrection and uplifLing from the earth when the tempter showed him all the king- involve o.nd presuppose a previoua death, or doms of the world and the glory of them. th1:1t John alway~ speaks of Christ's death Inste1:1d of holding them in royal fee of the o.s itself o. glorioWI thing, os itself the com- devil, o.nd of compelling them to do his bid- mencement of the supreme glory of the ding, he declares that his hoar, which had Son of man. On the other hand-though come, was o.n hour of judioial coademnation for this idea is reiterated by the opponents of tho world. The corruption of the world, the the Fonrth Gospel-there is nothing in the ro.dico.l injury done to human nature, sto.rts New Testament which makes the cross of out on its beautiful o.nd decorated front like Christ in itaelf o. symbol of the exo.lta.tion of the leprosy did on the fo.oe of Na.a.man. Now Jesus. Moreover, the next verse compels a is a judgment of the world, Observe, not 11 closer reference to "the way in which ho «pio-is. Thie is compatible with the state- was about to die "-a mode of <lepartnre ments of eh. iii.17-19, and not incon,istent admirably expressed by the term " uplift- with the frequent references in eh. v. to the ing." The langnage of Jesus to Nicodemus, "lo.st day." Because John gives prominence in which the same word owurs in describing to the great principles of judgment, and the lifting up of the Son of man after the implies that the books of remembrance and fashion in which the serpent was uplifted in condemnation are written all over indelibly the wilderness, confirms this interpretation by the hand of the world itself, there is of the evangelist, which we have no claim no proof tho.t the Lord (in John) says to traverse (cf. also eh. xviii 32; xxi. 19). nothing of the great catastrophic judg- Christ declared that the 11ttra.ction of the ments of which the synoptic Gospels pre- cross would be mightier than ell the fasci- serve the prophecy. Our Lord has rather nation of the prince of this worlcL The word revealed (according to John) the principles hucvo-01, "I will draw," is applied elsewhere which make the judgment of the great day (eh. vi44)to the Father's work of grace, which credible. What a wan he.a become 11t any preveniently prepares men to come to Christ. epoch of his existence, what a nation is In these wordB we learn that the attraction about at any cri.Ria of its history, whatsoever of the cross of Chrut will prove to be the 11ct represents the spirit of the whole world, mightiest and most sovereign motive ever is in each case the judgment which God, by brought to beo.r on the human will, and, his providence, passes upon him or it. Still when wielded by the Holy Spirit as a revela- more impressively with a second, Now, he tion of the matchless love of God, will involve 11dds, shall the prince of this world be oast out. the most sweeping judicial sentence that ea.a The phr11Se, "archon of this world," is a well- be pronounced upon the world and its prince. known later Hebraic phrase for "the ruler of In eh. xvi 11 the belief or the conviction that the darkness of this world," the shir-olam the prince of this world ha.a been al.ready of the ro.bbinical books, the angel of death, condemned (,ce,cp,.,a.1) is one of the great to whom. was entrusted the rulership of the results of the mission of the Comforter. world outside of the Bllcred family. Christ Ver. 34.-The audience of Jesus on this decl11res that his own hour, in which the occasion has swollen into a vast group. The world and its prince would seem to be few Greeks, with Philip and Andrew, the triumphant, would be the hour when he other disciples, the smaller circle of sympa- should be cast out of earth e.s he had been thetic listeners, the disturbed and feverish already cast out of heaven.. This expulsion arowd, are all about him, a.a he claims by e.nd destruction of the power e.nd works of death itself to judge the world, to win all the devil was one great end assigned to the men, and cast out the spirit and prince ol ruo.nifostation of the Son of God (1 John iii. the world from his ~urped throne. The 8). It is important. howevor, to notice the dif- multitude then 1 &D11wered him, We heard- ference of tonses. "Now is the judgment of this world,"-this is the immediate result of 1 The o~v is inserted by Tischendotf (8th his death; "Now shall the prince of this edit.) and R.T., with ~. B, L, X. Lach- world be cast out" desoribos the gradual ma.nn, Tregelles, and T.R. omit it.  14--4 THE GOSPEL AOOORDING TO ST. JOHN, [on. xu. 1-oO.