And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
32. If I be lifted up. Next follows the method by which the judgment shall be conducted; namely, Christ, being lifted up on the cross, shall gather all men to himself, in order that he may raise them from earth to heaven.
Honour is here done to Christ by his Father in a voice from heaven, occasioned by the following part of his discourse, and which gave occasion to a further conference with the people. In these verses we have, I. Christ's address to his Father, upon occasion of the trouble which seized his spirit at this time: Now is my soul troubled, Joh 12:27.
Commenting on John 12:27-36
This he said,.... These are the words of the evangelist, interpreting the design of Christ in the above words, thereby signifying what death he should die; the phrase of being lifted up from the earth, not only signified his death, but the kind, or manner of it, that it should be by crucifixion; a person crucified being stretched forth upon a cross, and that erected...