Drawn To and From

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

DRAWN TO AND FROM

John 12:30-36

30 Jesus said, "This voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself."  33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. 34 The crowd spoke up, "We have heard from the Law that the Christ will remain forever, so how can you say, 'The Son of Man must be lifted up'? Who is this 'Son of Man'?" 35 Then Jesus told them, "You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. 36 Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light." When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.

NIV

We had just heard the voice of the Father telling Jesus that the Father’s name has glorified his own name and he will do so again. Although some people thought they heard thunder, others believed they heard an angel speaking to Jesus. It is interesting when God speaks each of us might hear him in a different way. Jesus makes it clear what they heard spoken in response to what Jesus asked, was not for his benefit, but for theirs. Whenever God speaks it is for our benefit. Even when he speaks words of correction, or even rebuke, it is for our benefit. We may never actually hear an audible voice, although some of us have at certain times in our lives, we always have his word, which is him speaking into our lives. We can say that his word, the Bible has corrected us, is always correcting us, our thinking, our behavior, or way of life. His word also brings us hope and comfort. His word is always for our benefit. Jesus goes on and speaks about what is about to happen. It is interesting he says that the prince of this world will be driven out. Once again our scholars just cannot come to an agreement on what these words of Jesus mean. It does seem difficult to consider Jesus actually meant that the reign of Satan, the kingdom of the devil, his power and influence over the world will end, as he is driven out of power. However, in another sense that is exactly what Jesus meant. Although there have been a few men throughout the course of history in the Old Testament whose faith was counted to them as righteousness, such as Abraham and Enoch who walked with God and was no more, or God took him home. We have a record of the great faith of those individuals in Hebrews 11. However, the reign of Satan over the earth, his power and influence over men, started right there in the Garden of Eden and has continued, even to this very day. But there has been no way, no method to break those chains, to loss oneself from the grip Satan held us in, until this moment Jesus was speaking of, his moment on the cross, his death, which seems for all practical purposes been driven by the power of Satan. Yet, Satan only played the role God allowed him to in order to accomplish God’s plan which did demolish Satan’s stronghold over the world. It is sort of ironic, that God used Satan to destroy his own reign over men. There is now a way, which we have taken, to have our chains broken, his reign over our lives smashed to bits. Jesus breaks ever fretter, He sets the captives free.  When Jesus set us free from the power of the evil one, we have been set free indeed. Of course in the long great scheme of things, Satan will be completely crushed, broken forever, and sent into the lake of burning sulfur to be tormented in eternal punishment. But as far as we are concerned right at this moment in our lives, his reign no longer exists. We serve a risen Savior, He is in the world today, and we know that he is living, no matter what men may say. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today, you may ask me how I know He lives; He lives within my heart. Because Jesus Was lifted up, he drew us to himself. We have been drawn to Jesus and away from Satan. We cannot have the power of both Jesus and Satan ruling in our lives. It is one or the other, so we have been drawn, we have been summoned, and we have been called to follow Jesus. We heard the voice of God, we heard his call, his drawing us to himself and we said, yes Lord, we hear your calling, and we have come home where we belong.