New Park Street Pulpit · Sermon No. 139
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, July 5, 1857.
“And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.”—John 12:32.
IT was an extraordinary occasion upon which the Saviour uttered these words. It was the crisis of the world. We very often speak of the “present crisis of affairs,” and it is very common for persons of every period to believe their own age to be the crisis and turning point of the whole world’s history. They rightly imagine that very much of the future depends upon their present exertions; but they wrongly stretch the thought, and imagine that the period of their existence is the very hinge of the history of the world: that it is the crisis. Now, however it may be correct, in a modified sense, that every period of time is in some sense a crisis, yet there never was a time which could be truly called a crisis, in comparison with the season when our Saviour spoke. In the 31st verse, immediately preceding my text, we find in the English translation, “Now is the judgment of this world;” but we find in the Greek, “Now is the crisis of this world.” The world had come to a solemn crisis: now was the great turning point of all the world’s history. Should Christ die, or should he not? If he would refuse the bitter cup of agony, the world is doomed, if he should pass onward, do battle with the powers of death and hell! and come off a victor, then the world is blessed, and her future shall be glorious. Shall he succumb? Then is the world crushed and ruined beneath the trail of the old serpent. Shall he conquer? Shall he lead captivity captive and receive gifts for men? Then this world shall yet see times when there shall be “a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” “Now is the crisis of this world!” “The crisis,” he says, “is two-fold. Dealing with Satan and men. I will tell you the result of it. ‘Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.’ Fear not that hell shall conquer. I shall cast him out; and, on the other hand doubt not but that I shall be victorious over the hearts of men. ‘I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.’” Remembering the occasion upon which these words were uttered, we shall now proceed to a discussion of them.
We have three things to notice. Christ crucified, Christ’s glory. He calls it a lifting him up. Christ crucified, the minister’s theme. It is the minister’s business to lift Christ up in the gospel. Christ crucified, the heart’s attraction. “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.” His own glory—the minister’s theme—the heart’s attraction.
I. I begin then: CHRIST’S CRUCIFIXION IS CHRIST’S GLORY. He uses the word “lifted up” to express the manner of his death. “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die.” But notice the choice of the word to express his death. He does not say, I, if I be crucified, I, if I be hanged on the tree; no, but “I if I be lifted up:” and in the Greek there is the meaning of exaltation. “I, if I be exalted—I if I be lifted on high.” He took the outward and risible fashion of the cross, it being a lifting of him up, to be the type and symbol of the glory with which the cross should invest even him. “I, if I be lifted up.”
Now, the cross of Christ is Christ’s glory. We will show you how. Man seeks to win his glory by the slaughter of others—Christ by the slaughter of himself: men seek to get crowns of gold—he sought a crown of thorns: men think that glory lieth in being exalted over others—Christ thought that his glory did lie in becoming “a worm and no man,” a scoff and reproach amongst all that beheld him. He stooped when he conquered; and he counted that the glory lay as much in the stooping as in the conquest.
Christ was glorified on the cross, we say, first, because love as always glorious. If I might prefer any glory, I should ask to be beloved by men. Surely, the greatest glory that a man can have among his fellows is not that of mere admiration, when they stare at him as he passes through the street, and throng the avenues to behold him as he rideth in his triumph; the greatest fame, the greatest glory of a patriot is the love of his country—to feel that young men and maidens, old men and sires, are prepared to fall at his feet in love, to give up all they have to serve him who has served them. Now, Christ won more love by the cross than he did ever win elsewhere. O Lord Jesus, thou wouldst never have been so much loved, if thou hadst sat in heaven for ever, as thou art now loved since thou hast stooped to death. Not cherubim and seraphim, and angels clad in light, ever could have loved with hearts so warm as thy redeemed above, or even thy redeemed below. Thou didst win love more abundantly by the nail than by thy scepter. Thine open side brought thee no emptiness of love, for thy people love thee with all their hearts. Christ won glory by his cross. He was never so lifted up as when he was cast down; and the Christian will bear witness, that though he loves his Master anywhere, yet nothing moves his heart to rapture and vehemence of love, like the story of the crucifixion and the agonies of Calvary.