If I Am Lifted Up

And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself. (John 12:32)

When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to me. (GNB)

Even so, provided that I be elevated, exalted abundantly above this earth, that will thoroughly draw everyone in my direction. (Transliteration from Strong's)

I have a number of questions that come to mind when I read this.

This verse starts out with a condition – if or when this event occurs, then... It reminds me of computer programming and what is called an if/then statement: If a condition is met then the result will happen.

So in that context, what is the condition that will trigger the resultant drawing? Jesus says that it has something to do with Him being lifted up. Of course everyone generally associates this primarily with His upcoming execution on the cross and I agree. But looking at the original language it appears to me that it also allows for even more than simply that, or at least a broader application than simply a one-time occurrence. Not that Jesus would be crucified more than once, but being lifted up could certainly occur more than once particularly if the exalting part of the definition is taken into account.

This lifting up or exalting is stated to be relative to something else; it is a relative term linked in the original word to literally the soil or more broadly the earth, the world. But it also includes all the inhabitants of the world as well. Thus it may be seen that Jesus may not have only been referring here to the literal lifting up of His body above the ground on the cross but beyond that the elevating of what He had come to represent and reveal about the nature of His Father and how God actually views us. Jesus is saying here that until we view Him above everything at our ground level and all the ideas and opinions and feelings of men on this earth to see Him as above all of this, we will not experience the drawing power inherent in His revelation of the real truth about God's love for us.

The original word for being lifted up also includes the notion of heaven as well as being above our landscape. It is only from the perspective of heaven that truth and reality can be discerned. From where we live and think and perceive it is impossible to feel drawn toward God or Jesus effectively. Only by Jesus coming to this earth from heaven to reveal to us heaven's perspective and attitudes towards us can we begin to feel the true drawing power that holds all of the rest of the universe in perfect harmony with the love that is the governing influence holding all in unity and peace. From the perspective of this world, all we know is rebellion, disharmony, tension, violence and confusion. The only way we can gain a higher perspective and begin to experience a drawing power to rescue us from this miasma of selfishness and death is to catch a proper view of the real truth about God and how He feels towards us in the lifting up of His Son who came to show us that truth in person.

Another question that comes to mind here relates to this act of lifting up. Jesus does not spell out who is going to do the lifting up, but in the way this is worded it is evident He is not talking about doing it Himself. He is not going to be the one doing the lifting up but rather it will be done to Him. And even that is stated conditionally in this verse, leaving open the possibility that it might be possible that it would not happen. The condition at the beginning of this verse certainly leaves open the possibility of an alternative to Him being lifted up or exalted as well as this action necessarily happening to Him to be initiated by others and not Himself.

The two Greek words translated draw and all infer some interesting dynamics. Many Bible translators have assumed the all to mean only men or peoples. But it is clear from other passages both in the Old and New Testaments that God has a far greater purpose in mind for this drawing. We are a spectacle, a stage for the entire universe where this great drama has been unfolding far longer than this earth has even been in existence. The trial over God's character has been going on far longer than the drama between good and evil has been playing out on this earth; but God chose this planet to demonstrate what needed to be revealed about His own character and nature as the pivotal place from which to draw all intelligent beings into a deeper knowledge of His true nature of love. Thus the reason for this drawing power extends far beyond simply the humans who would be drawn toward God and His Son Jesus by this lifting up; the whole watching universe would become far more deeply attached in their loyalty to God themselves after witnessing what would take place on this earth through the revelation of the heart of God exposed in the death of Jesus on the cross.

At this point in the great controversy between Christ and Satan, the vast majority of those who have been most affected by His drawing power are clearly outside the realm of this planet. The watching universe appreciates far better than anyone here the distinct issues at stake in the accusations against God and in the actions and spirit that Jesus demonstrated. Under the greatest duress it was made plain that God was nothing like what Satan had accused Him of being. But this understanding is far less appreciated at this point in humans. We are the only ones left that still need to perceive in our minds what is really going on and who still need to grasp the spectacular truth about God's character that Jesus revealed at the cross. Because Satan moved so swiftly after that event to distort and subvert the true meaning of that display of love by introducing false religious interpretations of the cross, most people today see the cross in very different terms than how the rest of the universe views it. Men have been led largely to embrace lies of Satan about God in the way religion has typically presented the message of the death of Jesus.

Because of this tragic distortion of the truth intended to be revealed at the cross, God is assembling a group of people in these last days of this earth's history to once again reveal in their lives the truth about God's character that will be unmistakable and will once again unmask the drawing power of God's love in its purity. In essence, God will again be manifested in the flesh as Jesus richly dwells within the lives and hearts of true believers who finally grasp the truth about God's perfect and unconditional love and forgiveness and who will allow Him to live through them these principles under the most severe persecution and wickedness that will pressure them just like what happened to Jesus. One last time the universe and the world will witness humans who act like God under the worst of circumstances, people who will cling to the principles of God's character and are filled with the same trusting spirit in the heart of God that kept Jesus faithful and forgiving all the way to the point of death.

Revelation describes these people in the end of time as ones who live in the love of God so thoroughly that they prefer Him to their natural love for staying alive; people who are not contaminated by false beliefs about Him represented in the Bible as adultery with women.

But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not cling to life even in the face of death. (Revelation 12:11 NRSV)

These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless. (Revelation 14:4-5 NIV)

Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the faith of Jesus. (Revelation 14:12 NRSV)

Casting Out

Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself. (John 12:31-32)

I just happened to be reading a book that discusses this very subject that peaked my interest and sent me into research mode to see what and when this casting out took place. The author of the book asserted from good biblical evidence that it took place at the time of the cross as implied in this passage. However, upon closer investigation I am coming to the conclusion that in fact there may be references in the Bible to three different events involved in the casting out or casting down of Satan.

By what I can gather it still seems evident that there was a time before the creation of this earth that Satan was in some way cast out of heaven with his angels down to this earth. But it was not a complete evacuation as evidenced by the record from Job where Satan is seen strutting around in heaven's courts asserting himself as the legitimate representative for this earth.

To understand the nature of how he and his followers were cast out of heaven is key to perceiving the nuances of what took place. It is important to realize that the war in heaven referred to in Revelation 12:7-9 was not a physical war in any respect. Rather it was an intense battle of ideas, of beliefs, of claims about what is true and who is trustworthy. The Greek word used to describe this makes it clear that this was a battle for the minds, hearts and allegiance of intelligent beings who were compelled to choose sides of allegiance for the first time in the history of the universe.

After the sides had formed and each one had made an initial decision whom they were going to follow and emulate, a massive realignment became necessary in the society of the universe. One third of the angels of God were so convinced by Lucifer's compelling logic and promises of a better system of government than what God had been using that they threw in their lot with the accuser of God. Because of the incompatibility of the two belief systems of how to run things, Satan and his angels had to find another place to hang out, for the Bible says there was no room found for them to live in heaven any longer. Evidently in heaven's ways of living one must have permission from those around them to remain long-term and to live together with others. Without this permission there is evidently no place to live and so Satan and his loyal angels evacuated to an as yet uninhabited region of the universe which apparently was the precursor of this earth before it was formed into an organized creation as described in the first chapter of Genesis.

The Bible refers to this planet before creation as being a formless void or more accurately in a state of chaos. The Hebrew text there has significant inferences as to the chaotic nature of the effects of Satan's attempts to organize and govern. It was not only the fact of disorganized material on this planet but was also a description of this formless void as an illusion to the chaos that resulted from the kind of government that Satan was proposing the whole universe should adopt in place of God's government. The great war that was still heating up revolved around which form of governance was a better one, the more viable and useful one that should be used to operate social systems, not just on this planet after its creation but all throughout the universe. Satan had asserted that he had come up with revisions and improvements that needed to be implemented to compensate for God's apparently weak and faulty reliance on love alone as the underlying principle upon which everything should operate. Satan insisted that these new elements must be introduced to make things more secure; that force and fear were necessary when the limits of love might be exceeded and would then surely fail to keep order.

Because of the extreme subtlety of this wisest of all of God's created beings, even those angels who had initially rejected Satan's notions and remained loyal to God still had lingering sympathies for some of Lucifer's ideas and implications about God's character and ways of governing. As long as there were any questions unresolved in their minds a place remained open for Satan to return to heaven and carry on dialog with those still entertaining questions about these issues. This is an amazing revelation of God's grace and tolerance and fairness that should impress anyone aware of this. God is so respectful of the freedoms and rights of every individual that He never imposes restrictions on their ability to entertain doubts about Him but wants them to fully investigate to the very fullest every question they have in their mind so that their loyalty will be based on their own conclusions rather than on any arbitrary claims.This exposes the lying accusations of Satan that God is not that way.

Because of these lingering doubts and sympathies and questions in the minds of some who had chosen God's side, Satan and possibly some of his followers still had access to the heavenly councils and those involved there until the climatic event that took place at the time of the cross of Jesus. The death of Jesus dramatically exposed the true diabolical nature of Satan in a way never before seen and clearly revealed him to be a murderer at heart and a fraud through and through. It was not until Jesus allowed Satan to exercise his influence to take the life of the innocent Son of God that the universe saw clearly the utter depravity of Satan's character and the complete falsity of his accusations against God. From that point onward Satan was banned from access to heaven because he had lost all credibility to claim representation of this world in the heavenly councils. From that point on Jesus has exercised His right to be humanity's representative in heaven and this restored the peace and joy that had up till then been disturbed every time Satan showed up to continue his disruptive accusations in heaven.

Jesus was fully aware of this bigger picture and his role in fully resolving the conflict. The main purpose for Him coming to this earth was to wrest from Satan his claim as humanity's representative and to adopt into Himself all the fallen race whom He had originally created in His own image. By living with us as a human being, taking on our weakened nature and yet demonstrating the true character of God through all the abuse and outrage that Satan could heap upon Him, Jesus not only vindicated the truth about what God is really like but in the process exposed all the violence, deceit and evil in the heart of Satan. By exposing Satan fully before the universe by the humility of Jesus under the most harsh conditions, Jesus won the complete and unconditional allegiance and affections of those who had up to this point entertained lingering questions about Satan's ideas. Now all agreed that Jesus was the legitimate owner of this earth and was the only one to be recognized in heaven for us because He had humbled Himself to become a human Himself which even Satan would not do.

Thus in His great act of removing the mask of Satan and fully exposing his evil character, Jesus effectually cast out Satan as the ruler of this world as far as heavenly intelligences were concerned. This was the pivotal point in the great war and solidified God's loyal followers in heaven behind His methods and His government. But the war is not over on earth as Revelation 12:12 points out. When Satan had his mask torn away in being fully exposed by the horrific death of the innocent One, he then knew that his own demise was now unavoidable.

Up to this point Satan had counted on his own eternal existence as secure so long as he could keep questions and doubts about God's character alive in the minds of anyone. He knew God well enough that he was assured of his own continued life as long as there were any doubts that could spring up again and reinfect the universe with sin. Because God values freedom even more than salvation, as much as He longs to save everyone, Satan had been confident that he could continue his own existence indefinitely based on this attribute of God. It was the loophole that Satan had figured out in the character of God in which Satan continued to hide as an exception to the principle of sin producing death.

But Satan destroyed his own loophole by his hatred of the Son of God that compelled him to cause the death of Jesus; he in essence cut off the very branch that he had relied on to maintain his own existence. Satan permanently destroyed the reason that had caused God to preserve him alive and now the clock was counting down to the inevitable termination of Satan's own life.

Because of this new awareness of his own sudden mortality that he had never experienced previously, Satan became infuriated with rage at the thought of his own impending doom. From that point on his tactics and attitude shifted dramatically and his only thought since that time has been to seek destruction and promote disloyalty toward God of as many humans as he possible can affect. His attempts to misrepresent God's character that was so clearly revealed at the cross kicked into high gear as he knew he had to do everything possible to distort this revelation of God or it would draw nearly everyone into God's loving kingdom. Satan then bent all his powers to come up with even more diabolical misrepresentations of what actually occurred at the cross to obscure the beauty of God's character of self-sacrificing love and unconditional forgiveness. He had to place God in the worst possible light in the minds of all through false teachings by those who would claim to represent Him.

This casting out of Satan at the cross was the second casting event that terminated his influence over the minds of the rest of the universe. This is why the first part of Revelation 12:12 invites the universe to rejoice at this event for they are now finally in full agreement with God without any dissent and are fully united behind the government of God that is based on pure love alone. But there is a third and final casting down to take place that will go even further than removing doubts from the minds of heavenly intelligences. The Bible speaks of a final time when Satan's influence and lies about God will be completely exposed to the minds and hearts of every living being in the universe, human or otherwise. This is revealed in the prophesy from Isaiah and its context.

But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit. Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: "Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble?" (Isaiah 14:15-16 NIV)

It will be at this point that Satan will be fully unmasked for the fraud that he has been. Up to this point there will still be many who have sympathies for the validity of the system he introduced to compete with the government of God. But when all the facts of the history of the great war are finally laid bare for all to see clearly, none, even among those who are lost with him, will have any more sympathy for his assertions and accusations against God. Thus God will be at last fully vindicated and seen as right, fair and loving in the minds of every creature in heaven and on earth. Significantly, this last time Satan will be cast out of the minds of everyone, both saved and lost. His credibility will be completely destroyed and in this way the safety of God's universe will be eternally secured without His ever resorting to the use of force, intimidation or any other of the false methods of His enemy. Love will be proven to be the most powerful and effective means of unity, and life and freedom will be secured forever.