Now is the judgment of this world:— The subject of our Lord's address to the Father, and the answer which he received, naturally led him to meditate on the happy effects of his coming into the world; namely, the destruction of Satan's kingdom,andtheexaltationofthe faithful with himself into heaven. These grand events afforded a prospectvery reviving, amid the melancholy thoughts which now afflicted his soul. Wherefore, that his disciples might share with him in the comfort of them, he foretold them, as the necessary effects of his sufferings, "Now is the judgment of this world; the time of the destruction of wickedness is come: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. The devil who has so long reigned in the hearts of the children of disobedience, is about to be dethroned: (compare Ephesians 2:2 and 2 Corinthians 4:4.) And I, if I be lifted up, &c. John 12:32."—Our Lord cannot be supposed in this passage to talk of his own death as a thing uncertain; and therefore the original, εαν υψωθω, should be translated, when I am lifted up; a sense which the word εαν sometimes bears. See Deuteronomy 7:1.Judges 6:3. LXX. Dr. Heylin gives a somewhat different interpretation of this passage. "It appears from John 12:27 says he, that our blessed Saviour had been in great trouble on account of his approaching sufferings, by which he was to redeem the world." He was now about to accomplish that great work; therefore he saith, Now is the crisis of this world; wherein its fate would be decided, the usurper ejected, and the Redeemer established in the acquisition that he makes of it by his death. When I shall be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself. To be lifted up from the earth, is a Hebraism to signify dying; we have met with it twice before in this gospel; and that it was then familiar, and commonly understood, appears from the immediate answer of the Jews, who use it in the same sense. "We are taught by the law, say they, that the Christ is to live for ever. Why then do you say, that the Son of man must be lifted up; that is to say, die." They meant only death in general; for that was all that the phrase imported.
But our Lord made use of this, rather than other phrases which were equivalent, because it so well suited the manner of his death on the cross. See the note on Ch. John 6:44.