www.thegospelcoalition.org
Lifted Up: Discover John’s View of the Cross
Why does the Gospel of John read so differently than Matthew, Mark, and Luke? I wrestled with that question as I began reading the Gospels as a young teenager. Only later did I discover that Christians have been grappling with this same question since the earliest days of the church. I believe part of the answer lies in John’s use of the Old Testament.
Grasping John’s use of Scripture is crucial to understanding his Gospel, especially when considering the significance of Jesus’s crucifixion in John’s theology. John sharpens our theology of the cross through an Old Testament lens.
Although John’s Gospel contains the fewest Old Testament quotations of the four, we find allusions on every page. Many of John’s most distinctive themes and images come from the Old Testament, including Jesus as the “good shepherd” and the “true vine” (10:11; 15:1).
In the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), Jesus offers a threefold prediction of his death and resurrection on his journey to Jerusalem (Mark 8:31–32; 9:30–31; 10:33–34 and parallels). These sayings, however, aren’t included in the Fourth Gospel. John does include a threefold series where Jesus speaks of being “lifted up” (John 3:14; 8:28; 12:32). The three sayings effectively serve as John’s counterpart to Jesus’s passion predictions in the Synoptics.
These sayings reveal that Jesus’s death on the cross is also, paradoxically, the hour of his glorification. We see this most clearly in Jesus’s use of Scripture. The word for “lifting up” (hypsoō) has great significance in several Old Testament texts, especially in the book of Isaiah. John calls our attention to these passages to illuminate that the cross isn’t merely the place of Jesus’s suffering; it’s also the moment when God’s glory is supremely revealed.
Three ‘Lifted Up’ Sayings
Jesus tells Nicodemus, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14–15). Jesus’s words clearly allude to Moses’s act of setting up the bronze serpent during Israel’s wilderness journey (Num. 21:8–9).
The cross isn’t only the place of Jesus’s suffering; it’s also the moment when God’s glory is supremely revealed.
Just as God’s people were delivered by the lifting up of the serpent, Jesus’s lifting up will result in eternal life for everyone who believes in him. At this point, it’s unclear to the reader the exact meaning of Jesus’s lifting up. Nevertheless, John links it with our salvation in a veiled sense. The meaning behind the pregnant term, however, gains greater clarity in the second and third sayings.
The second saying occurs in John 8:28, during Jesus’s conflict with the Jewish authorities. He tells the Pharisees, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.” The occasion of his lifting up is also the moment of greatest revelation. At that time, people will understand: “I am he” (egō eimi).
The final saying occurs in John 12:32, when Jesus speaks to his disciples about the hour of his glorification. He announces, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” John explicitly links Jesus’s lifting up with his death by offering this commentary: “He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die” (v. 33). At Jesus’s death, when he is lifted up from the earth, Jesus “will draw all people to [himself].” These latter words recall an earlier statement: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day” (6:44).
But why did Jesus choose to speak of his death as his “lifting up”?
Jesus as Isaiah’s Servant
Throughout John’s Gospel, the prophet Isaiah is a key witness to Jesus’s identity and mission. Later in chapter 12, John offers two quotations from Isaiah to explain Jewish unbelief in response to Jesus’s public ministry (vv. 38, 40; cf. Isa. 53:1; 6:10). He states, “Isaiah said these things because he saw [Jesus’s] glory and spoke of him” (John 12:41).
John uses the Old Testament by appealing to the broader contexts of his quotations. If we examine the contexts of the quoted passages more carefully, we discover that the phrase “lifted up” (hypsoō) occurs in both passages:
“Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.” (Isa. 52:13)
“In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.” (6:1)
Isaiah prophesies that the one true God will reveal himself to the world so that all the nations of the earth will turn to him and be saved. John states, “Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him” (12:41). Isaiah saw Jesus’s glory in both the vision of the Lord’s glory in the temple (Isa. 6:1–3) and the glorification of the rejected Servant among all nations (Isa. 52:13–53:12).
The one true God will reveal himself to the world so that all the nations of the earth will turn to him and be saved.
According to John, then, the moment of the Lord’s greatest revelation and the hour of the Servant’s glorification is when Jesus is lifted up on the cross, exalted in his humiliation. In this way, Jesus’s unique divine identity (“I am he”) is revealed for all who look on him. Together, the three “lifted up” sayings make a stunning claim: The cross of Jesus reveals his divine identity (John 8:28) so that all nations are drawn to him (12:32) to be saved (3:14–15).
When we consider Jesus’s crucifixion, we’re not only moved by the pain he suffered; we also marvel at God’s glory revealed. It’s at the cross where we see God most clearly.
Charles Spurgeon recalls listening to a sermon on John 3:14–15 when he was a young man struggling in his faith. The preacher lifted up his voice and said, “Look to Jesus Christ! Look! Look! Look! You have nothing to do but to look and live.” Spurgeon recollects, “I saw at once the way to salvation. . . . There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun . . . and the simple faith which looks to him alone.”
New Posts (Home)
ChatBox
Popular Posts 
Game Zone
Top PodCasts
