John 12:32-33

³² And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” ³³ He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

The words of Jesus in John 12:32 are extremely important. “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself.” There are different opinions about what these words mean.

• Some say that Jesus was talking about His resurrection because He said, ‘When I am ”lifted up from the earth”.
• Others say that He didn’t say ”lifted out of the earth”, He said ”lifted up from earth”. So He was talking about His ascension.
• Still others say that Jesus was urging Christians to worship Him, that this verse is a promise for worship. As we worship Jesus, He’ll be lifted up and will draw people to Himself.

But none of these is the truth. Jesus himself told us what v32 means. “He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.” So in v32 Jesus was talking about the cross and the death that He would die upon the cross.

The Greek word translated “lifted up”’ in v32 (NIV) is “hypsoō”. The New Testament uses this word to describe the exaltation and glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ (read Acts 2:33, Acts 5:31).

How amazing that Jesus used the same word that’s used to describe His exaltation in glory to also describe His death on the cross. A cross is a cruel, ugly thing. It’s an instrument of death, the worst possible way to die. But from God’s perspective, the cross was a thing of victory from which came great glory.

It’s all about what happened at the cross. So what did happen at the cross? I want to highlight two things:

• All of our sins (all your sins, all my sins) were paid for. Jesus was the sin offering for our sins. His death satisfied the righteous wrath and judgement of a holy God. He took the judgement of God that we deserve upon Himself.
• Satan’s power was broken (Col 2:13-15).

This means that anyone who wants to be forgiven (their sins), can be. Anyone who wants to be freed from their sins, can be. All because of the Saving Power of the Cross.

What you need to do is to:

• recognize that you deserve the judgement of a holy God because of your sins,
• repent (turn away) from sin, darkness and your own way,
• believe that what Jesus did on the cross was for you.

Thank you, Lord, for dying on the cross for my sins. Thank you for taking the judgement that I deserve. I believe that you did it for me. I confess my sins to you and I turn away from sin, darkness and living my own way. I want everything that I am, do, and say to bring glory to you. Amen.