Jesus' teachings in John 12:31-32 are especially significant. In verse 31, Jesus taught that his crucifixion would amount t0 His judgment of the world. Jesus meant every human who would ever live in the world. Every human possesses two aspects of his existence. Every human retains the life and goodness that God put into him when He created him in His own image. In accordance with Ecclesiastes 3:14 and Romans 11:29, as well as many other scriptures, God can never lose anything He has ever created. On the cross, Jesus judged the world in man's place. On the cross, Christ liberated the world by gaining victory over Satan, the prince of this world. By His loving sacrifice, Jesus demonstrated His power to separate total evil from all His creations and cast out only total evil from His world.
The other aspect of human existence consists in original sin within its being inherited from Adam's fall. Every human possesses an inner spiritual death that causes him to commit sins. Satan's goal has always been to use this spiritual deadness to so overpower God's life and goodness within man that Satan will be able to hold man within the regions of death forever and thus destroy a part of God's creations. Should the Devil succeed, he would prove that God's love and creative powers are not almighty. By such a proof, the Devil would succeed in killing God and taking over His universe. Jesus met the Devil's challenge on the cross. Jesus proved that His love for mankind cannot fail when He suffered man's eternal death and separation from God in man's place on the cross and by His descent into hell. Then, by His resurrection, Jesus gained a tremendous victory over the Devil's goal to destroy both God and man when He proved that God's love and life can never be destroyed.
In the second part of verse 31, Jesus prophesied that His victory over the Devil would be absolute and complete. Someday, God will cast Satan alive into the lake of fire to suffer torment there forever. In this way, God will create a good system by which the Devil will be so preoccupied with such terrible pain that he will never be able to infect God's future creations with sin again. Revelation 20:10. In the end of the world, God will also separate from man's life all of the total evil and deadness of mankind and cast it too into the lake of fire. God will recreate the recovered lives of men. Because the deadness of man means the loss of positive consciousness, man's deadness in the lake of fire will not suffer in the same way and to the same extent as the Devil will. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:15; Revelation 21:8.
In verse 32, Jesus prophesied that His crucifixion would cause all men to be drawn to Him. By His prophecy, Jesus did not mention the conviction of the Holy Spirit that happens when a person hears the gospel. John 16:7-11. When under conviction, a person has the right to accept or reject God's salvation by grace. But such a rejection cannot thwart God's will. If God's will could be thwarted, He would not be almighty. In accordance with II Peter 3:9; I Timothy 4;10; I Corinthians 15:22; I John 2:2; Numbers 23:19, and other scriptures, God will provide some level of salvation and recreation for all men. God's goal is to purge His creations of all sin and spiritual death, never to surrender any of His creations to the control of evil. I John 3:8.
Jesus' prophecy in verse 32 p0rtends an actual, future event. Isaiah 45:21-25; Philippians 2:9-11; and Revelation 5:13 records this future event. In this event, all creatures that God ever created, including all humans, will worship Christ as God and Lord. This worship will show that all mankind will recognize that Christ holds all power over sin and death. This worship service will demonstrate that God will liberate the life and goodness that He put into all men from ever being permanently confined within any of the regions of death. In fact, Isaiah 45:22 prophesies that God will save all mankind in this worship service.
However, this worship service will not result in the immediate salvation of all men. The Devil will be so frightened and appalled by this worship service that he will redouble his efforts to permanently ruin the life and goodness that God has put into all men. Satan's redoubled efforts will result in all of the horrors of the Tribulation period. The Devil will know that he has a short time until God casts him alive and fully conscious into the lake of fire. The Devil will become so desperate that he will actually invent an evil system to counter God's salvation plan. The Devil will put his mark in the hands or foreheads of many people to claim them as his own. Revelation 13:16. Those who receive this mark will become totally evil and dead even as they remain active on the earth. By doing this, the Devil will hope to trap the life and goodness that God put into these people so that it will be forever destroyed by the lake of fire when God casts them into it. Revelation 14:9-11. But Revelation 14:12-13 assures mankind that God will recover His life and goodness from all these people who have been so deceived by the Devil.
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