John 13:31-3831Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. 33Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you. 34A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. 36Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards. 37Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake. 38Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice. (John 13:31‑38)
WITH the passing of Judas the dark shadow, that rested upon the little company, was lifted. The troubled spirit of the Lord was relieved, and the questionings of the disciples were stilled. The words, “When he was gone out” mark this change. Judas had left the light of the Upper Room and passed into the darkness of the outer world. The light inside shines the brighter in his absence, even as the darkness outside is deepened by his presence. The door which closed on the traitor, severed the last link between Christ and the world. The atmosphere is cleared, and, alone with His disciples, the Lord is free to unfold the secrets of His heart.
(Vv. 31, 32). The Lord is departing to be with the Father, His own will be left behind as witnesses for Christ in a world from which He has been rejected. In the course of these last discourses the disciples will be put in touch with Heaven (14); they will be instructed how to bear fruit on earth (15); and they will be strengthened to withstand persecution from the world (16). Such high privileges and honors require a preliminary work on the part of Christ as well as preparation amongst His own. Thus this opening discourse presents God glorified in Christ on earth, Christ glorified as a Man in heaven, and the saints left on earth to glorify Christ. These great truths prepare the way for all subsequent revelations.
All blessing for man, for heaven and earth, throughout eternal ages, rests upon the great foundation truths that come before us in the opening of this discourse. The Lord presents Himself as the Son of Man, and in connection with this title, proclaims three truths of vital importance:
First, “Now is the Son of Man glorified,”
Second, “God is glorified in Him,”
Third, “God shall glorify Him in Himself.”
We may well linger over these great truths seeking to learn something of their deep meaning; for faith’s apprehension of these truths forms the solid basis in the soul for all spiritual growth and blessing.
The first great truth is, “Now is the Son of Man glorified.” This brings before us the infinite perfection of the Son of Man—the Saviour. The reference is to the suffering of the Son of Man at the Cross. The statement is that in those sufferings the Son of Man is glorified. To be glorified is to have all the qualities that exalt a person brought into display. At the Cross all the infinite perfections of the Son of Man were displayed in the highest degree.
In the eleventh of John we read that the sickness of Lazarus was “for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.”
There the glory of the Son of God was displayed in raising a man from the dead. Here the glory of the Son of Man is seen in going into death. Power over death displays the glory of the Son of God, submission to death the glory of the Son of Man.
Already the Lord had said, in answer to the Gentiles’ desire to see Jesus, “The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified.” There however the Lord was anticipating the glories of the Kingdom; here He speaks of the deeper glories of the Cross. In the future, as Son of Man, He will receive dominion and glory and an everlasting kingdom; and in that bright day the whole earth will be filled with His glory (Dan. 7:13, 1413I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. 14And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13‑14); Psa. 72:1919And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen. (Psalm 72:19)). Even so, the excellent glories of the coming Kingdom will not exceed, and cannot equal, His far deeper glories as the Son of Man upon the Cross. The glory of His earthly throne is exceeded by the glory of His shameful Cross. The Kingdom will display His official glories, the Cross witnesses, to His moral glories. In the day of His, reign all dominions shall serve and obey Him and all will be put in subjection under Him as the Son of Man. In the day of His sufferings, He Himself was the obedient and subject Man. Truly every step of His path witnessed to His moral glories, for they could not be hid; but at the Cross these glories shone in their full luster. The One who learned obedience in every step of the way was at last tested by death and found “obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.” The perfect subjection to His Father’s will that marked His path, has its brightest display amidst the approaching shadows of the Cross when He can say, “Not My will but Thine be done.” Every step bore testimony to His perfect love to the Father, but the supreme witness of His love is seen when, in view of the Cross He can say, “That the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave Me Commandment, even so I do.” His holy nature that was undefiled, and undefilable, by the sinful world He passed through, is seen in its perfection when in anticipation of the agony of being made sin, He can say, “If it be possible let this cup pass from Me.”
Truly at the Cross His moral glories—His obedience, His subjection, His love, His holiness, and every other perfection, have their brightest display. There the Lord’s words were made good, “Now is the Son of Man glorified.”
Thus the first great statement assures us of the infinite perfection of the Son of Man—of our Saviour—the One who as the great propitiatory sacrifice has glorified God. Moreover as we seize the import of this statement, telling us of the perfection of Jesus, we see how worthy He is of our full confiding trust. In the presence of such perfection no one can say that there was any imperfection in Him, which makes it impossible to trust Him, His perfections, brought fully into display, reveal Him to be the One who is altogether lovely, possessing every beautiful trait that renders Him worthy of our trust.
Gazing upon the Son of Man at the Cross, seeing Him glorified by all His infinite perfections being brought into display, prepares us for the second great statement, “God is glorified in Him.” All others had dishonored God, but at last One is found—the Son of Man, Himself morally perfect, who is able to undertake a work which glorifies God. But to glorify God He must be made sin, and go into the place of death. “The heavens declare the glory of God” as Creator, with infinite wisdom and power, but cannot declare the glory of His moral Being. For this the Son of Man must suffer, that by those sufferings every attribute of God may receive its highest expression. By the Cross the majesty of God is vindicated, the truth of God maintained, the righteousness of God is seen in the judgment of sin. The holiness that demanded such a sacrifice, and the love that gave it, shine in their brightest luster. Truly the Son of Man, by His sufferings, has glorified God.
This great work leads to the truth of the third great statement, “If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him.” If God has been glorified in Christ, God will give an everlasting proof of His satisfaction with what Christ has done. Christ glorified as a Man in the glory, is the only adequate answer to His work on the Cross, and is the eternal proof of God’s satisfaction with that work.
In the first statement, “Now is the Son of Man glorified,” we learn the perfection of the Son of Man. In the second statement, “God is glorified in Him,” we learn the perfection of His work. In the third statement, “God shall glorify Him in Himself,” we learn God’s perfect satisfaction with that work. We have a perfect Saviour who has done a perfect work to God’s perfect satisfaction. Other Scriptures will tell us that this perfect Saviour, this perfect work, and God’s perfect satisfaction are available for all, for we read, “He gave Himself a ransom for all.” And God’s perfect satisfaction in Christ and His work, enables God to say, “Through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.”
(V. 33). The glorification of the Son of Man will involve separation from the disciples. The Lord, with His perfect sympathy, enters into the sorrow that fills the disciples’ hearts at the thought of being parted from the One they had learned to love. Again and again, with touches of human tenderness He will refer to the inevitable parting, and prepare their hearts for the coming break in the earthly companionship (cf. 14:4, 28, 29: 16:4-7, 16, 28).
Never before had the Lord addressed the disciples as “little children.” It is a term, in the original language, expressive of compassionate endearment. Thus, with tender solicitude, He broaches the subject of the coming parting. Yet a little while He would be with them. The Lord was going back to glory traveling by a road that none could follow. Afterward believers may follow, even by a martyr’s death, but not death in the way the Lord would have to meet it—as the penalty of sin. That was a path of which the Lord could say, “Whither I go, ye cannot come.”
(Vv. 34, 35). Moreover the coming parting would mean that the disciples would be left without the powerful bond of the personal presence of the One they all loved. Hence the Lord gives a new commandment, “That ye love one another; as I have loved you.” It has been suggested that the Lord speaks of this command as a new command, in contrast to the old command, well known to these Jewish disciples, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” The new commandment is, “That ye love one another as I have loved you.” Christ loved with a love which, while never indifferent to evil, yet triumphed over all the power of evil. If we love one another after the pattern of Christ’s great love, we shall not suffer evil in one another, but we shall find a way of dealing with the evil without ceasing to love one another. Nothing but the bond of love, after the divine pattern, will hold together a company of people each having a distinct personality, with different shades of character, and diverse temperaments.
Moreover a company marked by love would be so passing strange in a scene governed by lust and selfishness, that the very world would realize that such must be the disciples of Christ. The world cannot appreciate the faith and hope of the Christian circle, but divine love and its effects they can at least see and admire, if they cannot imitate. Thus a company marked by love to one another, after the pattern of Christ, would become a witness to Christ in the world from which He is absent, so that Christ, if glorified with the Father in heaven, would be glorified in the saints on earth.
(Vv. 36-38). The closing scene while occupied with Peter, carries a warning to the whole company. If the disciples are left behind to glorify Christ, let them not forget that each one has the flesh within that is ready to deny Christ. Simon Peter, apparently heedless of the new command, and thinking only of the coming parting, asks, with seeming resistance to that which he does not understand, “Lord, whither goest Thou?” The Lord answers, “Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now; but thou shalt follow Me afterward.” The Lord was going to suffer death as the Martyr at the hands of wicked men: but, far more terrible to His holy soul, He was going into death as the holy Victim under the hand of God. This, indeed, was a path that He alone could take; Peter could not follow in that path. Afterward, in the years to come, Peter will have the high honor to follow the Lord in the path of martyrdom.
Trusting in his love to the Lord, Peter self-confidently asserts “I will lay down my life for Thy sake,” only to hear the Lord’s solemn warning, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied Me thrice.”
If the flesh in a false disciple can betray the Lord, the flesh in a true one can deny the Lord. Yet let us not forget that the Lord’s love triumphed over Peter’s denial, for, as we have seen, “Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” Deceived by our self-confidence we may even deny the Lord, yet we are loved by the Lord with a love that will not let us go.
The New Command.
His hour has come; at last the Father’s home,
Beyond dark death, as sunlight on the hill,
Shines o’er the valley of the Father’s will.
The day has dawned, when He must leave His own
To tread a path that He must take alone;
And drawing nearer to that day of days,
Upon His soul a load of sorrow weighs:
Upon His heart of love divine, well known,
One rests his wearied head, with great delight;
One takes the sop, and passes into night:
And thus set free, the Master’s voice is heard
‘If all men are to learn that ye are Mine,
Then take to heart My last—My parting word—
And let your love to one another shine.’