Christ’s Crucifixion (Charles H. Spurgeon, 1834-1892)

John 12:32

“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” 

Christ’s crucifixion is Christ’s glory.69 He uses the words lifted up to express the manner of His death. “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die” (Joh 12:32-33). But notice the choice of the word to express His death. He does not say, “I, if I be crucified, I, if I be hanged on the tree”; no, but “I, if I be lifted up.” And in the Greek, there is the meaning of exaltation: “I, if I be exalted—I, if I be lifted on high.” He took the outward and visible fashion of the cross, it being a lifting of Him up, to be the type and symbol of the glory with which the cross should invest even Him. “I, if I be lifted up.”

Now, the cross of Christ is Christ’s glory. We will show you how. Man seeks to win his glory by the slaughter of others—Christ by the slaughter of Himself. Men seek to get crowns of gold—He sought a crown of thorns. Men think that glory lieth in being exalted over others—Christ thought that His glory did lie in becoming “a worm, and no man” (Psa 22:6), a scoff and reproach amongst all that beheld Him. He stooped when He conquered; and He counted that the glory lay as much in the stooping as in the conquest.

Christ was glorified on the cross, we say, first, because love is always glorious. If I might prefer any glory, I should ask to be beloved by men. Surely, the greatest glory that a man can have among his fellows is not that of mere admiration, when they stare at him as he passes through the street and throng the avenues to behold him as he rideth in his triumph. The greatest fame, the greatest glory of a patriot is the love of his country—to feel that young men and maidens, old men and sires,70 are prepared to fall at his feet in love, to give up all they have to serve him who has served them.

Now, Christ won more love by the cross than He ever did win elsewhere. “O Lord Jesus, Thou wouldst never have been so much loved, if Thou hadst sat in heaven forever, as Thou art now loved since Thou hast stooped to death. Not cherubim71 and seraphim,72 and angels clad in light, ever could have loved with hearts so warm as Thy redeemed above, or even Thy redeemed below. Thou didst win love more abundantly by the nail than by Thy scepter. Thine open side brought Thee no emptiness of love, for Thy people love Thee with all their hearts.” Christ won glory by His cross. He was never so lifted up as when He was cast down; and the Christian will bear witness that though he loves his Master anywhere, yet nothing moves his heart to rapture and vehemence of love like the story of the crucifixion and the agonies of Calvary.

Again: Christ at this time won much glory by fortitude. 73 The cross was a trial of Christ’s fortitude and strength, and therein it was a garden in which His glory might be planted. The laurels of His crown74 were sown in a soil that was saturated with His own blood…Christ looked upon the cross as being His way to honor. “Oh!” said He, “Now shall be the time of My endurance: I have suffered much, but I shall suffer more; and then shall the world see what a strong heart of love I have!” How patient is the Lamb, how mighty to endure! Never would Christ have had such paeans75 of praise and such songs of honor as He now winneth, if He had avoided the conflict, the battle, and the agony. We might have blessed Him for what He is and for what He wished to do; we might have loved Him for the very longings of His heart; but we never could have praised Him for His strong endurance, for His intrepid76 spirit, for His unconquerable love, if we had not seen Him put to the severe test of crucifixion and the agonies of that awful day. Christ did win glory by His being crucified.

Again: Christ looked upon His crucifixion as the completion of all His work; therefore, He looked upon it as an exaltation. The completion of an enterprise is the harvest of its honor. Though thousands have perished in the arctic regions and have obtained fame for their intrepid conduct, yet, my friends, the man who at last discovers the passage is the most of all honored; and though we shall for ever remember those bold men who pushed their way through winter in all its might and dared the perils of the deep, yet the man who accomplishes the deed wins more than his share of the glory.

Surely the accomplishment of an enterprise is just the point where the honor hangs. And, my hearers, Christ longed for the cross because He looked for it as the goal of all His exertions. It was to be the place upon which He could say, “It is finished” (Joh 19:30). He could never say, “It is finished,” on His throne; but on His cross He did cry it. He preferred the sufferings of Calvary to the honors of the multitude who crowded round about Him; for, preach as He might, bless them as He might, heal them as He might, still was His work undone. He was straitened.77 He had a baptism to be baptized with, and how was He straitened until it was accomplished! (Luk 12:50). “But,” He said, “now I pant for my cross, for it is the topstone78 of My labor. I long for My sufferings because they shall be the completion of My great work of grace.” Brethren, it is the end that bringeth the honor; it is the victory that crowneth the warrior rather than the battle. So, Christ longed for this, His death, that He might see the completion of His labor. “Ay,” said He, “when I am crucified, I am exalted and lifted up.”

And, once again, Christ looked upon His crucifixion with the eye of firm faith as the hour of triumph. His disciples thought that the cross would be a degradation; Christ looked through the outward and visible and beheld the spiritual. “The cross,” said He, “the gibbet79 of My doom may seem to be cursed with ignominy, and the world shall stand round and hiss at the crucified. My name be forever dishonored as one who died upon the tree; and cavilers80 and scoffers may forever throw this in the teeth of My friends that I died with the malefactor;81 but I look not at the cross as you do. I know its ignominy, but I despise the shame—I am prepared to endure it all. I look upon the cross as the gate of triumph, as the portal of victory. Oh, shall I tell you what I shall behold upon the cross? Just when Mine eye is swimming with the last tear and when My heart is palpitating82with its last pang; just when My body is rent with its last thrill83 of anguish, then Mine eye shall see the head of the dragon broken (Gen 3:15); it shall see hell’s towers dismantled and its castle fallen. Mine eye shall see My seed eternally saved; I shall behold the ransomed coming from their prison houses. In that last moment of My doom, when My mouth is just preparing for its last cry of ‘It is finished,’ I shall behold the year of My redeemed come, I shall shout My triumph in the delivery of all My beloved! Ay, and I shall see then the world, Mine own earth conquered, and usurpers all dethroned, and I shall behold in vision the glories of the latter days, when I shall sit upon the throne of My father David and judge the earth, attended with the pomp of angels and the shouts of My beloved!”

Yes, Christ saw in His cross the victories of it, and therefore did He pant and long for it as being the place of victory and the means of conquest. “I,” said Jesus, “if I be lifted up, if I be exalted.” He puts His crucifixion as being His glory…

And now I close by noticing the last sweet thought: “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.” Then Christ Jesus will draw all His people to heaven. He says He will draw them unto Himself. He is in heaven; then Christ is the chariot in which souls are drawn to heaven. The people of the Lord are on their way to heaven; they are carried in everlasting arms, and those arms are the arms of Christ. Christ is carrying them up to His own house, to His own throne. By-and-by His prayer—“Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am” (Joh 17:24)—shall be wholly fulfilled. And it is fulfilling now, for He is like a strong courser84 drawing His children in the chariot of the covenant of grace85 unto Himself. Oh! Blessed be God, the cross is the plank on which we swim to heaven; the cross is the great covenant transport that will weather out the storms and reach its desired heaven. This is the chariot, the pillars wherewith are of gold and the bottom thereof silver; it is lined with the purple of the atonement86 of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And now, poor sinner, I would to God [that] Christ would pardon thee. Remember His death on Calvary; remember His agonies and bloody sweat—all this He did for thee, if thou [knowest] thyself to be a sinner. Does not this draw thee to Him?

Though thou art guilty He is good,
He’ll wash thy soul in Jesus’ blood.

Thou hast rebelled against Him and revolted; but He says, “Return, ye backsliding87 children” (Jer 3:22). Will not His love draw thee? I pray that both may have their power and influence, that thou mayest be drawn to Christ now, and at last be drawn to heaven. May God give a blessing for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

From a sermon delivered on July 5, 1857, at the Music Hall, 
Royal Surrey Gardens.

At this time, there is a coal of burning love in the breast of Christ. This fire was indeed from everlasting, but the flames are as hot this day as ever. Now it is that Christ loves and lives, and [why does He live] but only to love us and to intercede for us? Christ makes our salvation His constant calling; He is ever at His work: “Yesterday, and to day, and for ever’’ (Heb 13:8). There is not one hour in the day, nor one day in a year, nor one year in an age, in which Christ is not busy with His Father in this heavenly employment of interceding for us. He loved us before He died for us, His love being the cause why He died for us; and He loves us still in that now He intercedes for us. It is as much as to say, “Christ hath loved us, and He repents not of His love.” Love made Him die for us; and if it were to do again, He would die over again. Yes, if our sins had so required that for every elect person Christ must die several deaths, love, love would have put Him willingly upon all these deaths. Oh, the love of Christ towards our poor souls…He carries us on His shoulders, as a man found his sheep, and “layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing” (Luk 15:5). Nay, I must yet come nearer; for Christ by His intercession sets us nearer yet: “his left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me” (Song 2:6). He wears us in heaven as a bracelet about His arms, which made the spouse cry out, “Set me as a seal…upon thine arm” (Song 8:6). He stamps and prints us on the palms of His hands, “Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands” (Isa 49:16), as if our names were written in letters of blood upon Christ’s flesh. He sets us as a seal upon His heart; that is the expression of the spouse too, “Set me as a seal upon thine heart” (Song 8:6). Nay, so precious are the saints to Jesus Christ that they lodge in heaven in His bowels and in His heart, for they dwell in Christ: “Hereby know we that we dwell in him” (1Jo 4:13). And they dwell in God, and dwell in love: “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God” (1Jo 4:16). I know not what more to say. You know, the manner of the high priests was to carry the names of the children of Israel into the holy of holies on their shoulders and on their breasts; but was it ever heard that any high priest—besides the great “High Priest of our profession” (Heb 3:1)—should carry the names of thousands and millions on his shoulders, on his arms, on his hands, on His bosom, and on his heart…as a memorial before the Lord? Oh, unmatchable love!—Isaac Ambrose.

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