A Different Kind of King

The one was born of earth, the other from above.

One won all this earth to lose all earth and Heaven.

The other gave up all that all to Him be given.

The Greek forever died, the Jew forever lives.

He loses all who gets and wins all things who gives. (Quoted in Hughes, John, 303)

What a unique King is this King of Israel. His kingdom and reign are unlike any earthly kingdom. Not only is it not political, but it was secured when the King died. Most kings enter the city to the cheers of their subjects on their way to take a seat on the throne and to reign. Jesus entered the city to the cheers of the crowd so that he could take his place on a cross and die. The coming of the Greeks to see him signals that the time for Jesus to die is coming soon. The hour appointed for Jesus’s death on the cross is here. Jesus lived to die. His midnight birth in Bethlehem was the first step on the road to Calvary.

The Jews missed this when they read the Old Testament. In Isaiah 52, Isaiah is prophesying about the one who would come to bring salvation to God’s people. He refers to him as the Servant. The Jews read about this Servant and focused on verses like 13. They thought, Great! A king to rule over Israel. A king who is high and exalted. They could picture him, greater than David and Solomon, sitting and ruling from the throne in Jerusalem, all other kings bowing before him and bringing him gifts. What they missed was how this King would achieve victory (Isa 52:14; 53:2-3). They were looking for the highly exalted King to bring salvation from pagan nations, but God promised them a King who would suffer to bring salvation from sin’s penalty. Victory would cost the King his life.

Jesus taught his death in a parable after the Greeks came to him (John 12:24). Jesus’s death will reap a great harvest. Jesus is going to die so that others can live. His death makes it possible for others to experience life. He will achieve victory over the grave by going to the grave himself and then vanquishing its hold through his resurrection. We are the great recipients of Jesus’s death. He died so each one of us could have life. He died in your place. Don’t ever get over that. Don’t let his death become routine to you. We must not minimize the horror of Jesus’s death (v. 27). Though he came into the world to die in our place on the cross, his death was not simple or easy. He took upon himself the curse that our sin demanded. He refers to his death in verse 32 as being “lifted up from the earth,” that is, death by crucifixion. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree” (Gal 3:13). When Jesus hung on that cross, he was cursed in our place. The full fury of God’s wrath toward sin was poured out on him. For the first and only time, the perfect fellowship that existed between Father and Son was torn apart, so that Jesus in deep anguish would cry, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Matt 27:46). R. C. Sproul describes the cry of Jesus:

This cry represents the most agonizing protest ever uttered on this planet. It burst forth in a moment of unparalleled pain. It is the scream of the damned—for us. (Quoted in Mahaney, Living, 89)

This is the kind of King God promised—a King who would lay down his life so we could be rescued. He is a King who would take the punishment we deserve so we could enjoy a life we do not deserve. Like a grain of wheat falling into the dirt and producing a harvest, Jesus refuses to stay in the ground. He crushes death by rising from the grave. He wins. Death is defeated and Jesus reigns over everything.

Jesus then turns and applies the principle of the seed to his disciples. He calls every disciple to follow his example (John 12:25-26). Listen to John Piper’s helpful explanation:

Here the destination is eternal life. And you can miss it by loving your life—that is, by making your goal in life to be safe and secure and comfortable and surrounded only by pleasant things. That is the pathway to perishing. Or, Jesus says, you can take another path and arrive at eternal life. That path is called hating your life in this world. Notice that he adds “in this world.” Hating your life in this world means that you will choose to do things that look foolish to the world. You will deny yourself things, and take risks, and embrace the path of suffering for the sake of love. This, Jesus says, will lead to eternal life, not death. (“Where I Am”)

How is it possible to hate our life in this world? The answer is in verse 26: we follow Jesus. We don’t focus on ourselves and our situations. We pursue Jesus with every fiber of our beings. The way to love your life is to focus exclusively on yourself, and the way to hate your life is to focus exclusively on Christ. Seek him and you will deny yourself. Jesus holds out a great motivation to seek him and hate yourself: we will be where he is, and we will be honored by the Father. Great joy and reward come from moving our attention from our own comfort and well-being and instead living lives of radical commitment to the only one who is worthy of it.

My goal in life is to help people find joy in Jesus; it’s the only kind of joy that lasts. Here’s how you find joy: die to yourself. Die to little dreams. Die to empty routines. Die to playing life safe. Die to protecting your reputation. Die to selfish, small living. Die to stingy self-centeredness. Die. Only then can you live, and only living brings joy.

Jesus is a King who glorifies someone else (v. 28). As Jesus walked the earth, he focused on doing what glorified his Father. In chapter 8 Jesus said he always does the things pleasing to his Father (v. 29) and that he did not come to seek his own glory (v. 50). The ultimate reason Jesus came to earth was for the Father’s glory. Everything that was, is, and will be is working to glorify God. He is worthy of all the praise, honor, and glory that can ever be offered. The universe and every creature in it is designed for the glory of God. That doesn’t change at the cross. The cross is not first about us. We are glad recipients of what was accomplished, but we are not the focus.

Here is an essential difference between genuine Christianity and the empty religion Jesus condemns: genuine Christianity has as its overarching goal the glory of God. Christianity is God centered. Religion is man centered. Religion revolves around man’s position, man’s influence, man’s perspective, and man’s work. Religion is all about me, what I feel I need, and what I do. Christianity is all about God, who he is, and what he says. We learn about true Christianity from Jesus Christ. He shows us what it means to live for the glory of God. What would your life look like if you demonstrated complete commitment to the glory of God like Jesus did? Complete commitment—every single motive, thought, and action of every single minute, hour, and day. The life of Jesus shows the world that God is worthy of our praise and affection. What does your life show?

Jesus glorifies God, especially in the cross (12:31-32). In the cross God demonstrates his justice. God would be a wicked Judge if he excused our wickedness. How could his love for sinners be reconciled with his justice? The answer is the cross. At the cross justice and mercy met in the body of Jesus Christ. In that act God judged our sins by executing justice on Jesus. This is good news for those who will be saved, but it’s bad news for those who reject Jesus. If you reject Jesus, the cross has sealed your fate; your rejection of God’s perfect sacrifice means you’ll have to bear sin’s penalty yourself. Since you have sinned against an infinitely holy God, your penalty will be infinitely terrible.

Jesus’s death glorifies God by demonstrating his holiness and by defeating Satan. Though it appeared to be the opposite, Satan’s ultimate defeat was accomplished on the cross. The cross was his moment of bruising Jesus’s heel, but just as God promised Adam and Eve, the King crushed the serpent’s head. When Jesus rose from the grave, he liberated us from the grip of sin. Sin and condemnation no longer have power over us who have been rescued. The cross assured the victory of Jesus and sealed the defeat of Satan (Col 2:15).

Jesus’s death also brings glory to God by reconciling sinners to God. When Jesus is lifted up, he will draw people to himself. God’s mercy and compassion are seen in saving those who do not deserve it. Sinclair Ferguson writes,

The cross is at the heart of the gospel; it makes the gospel good news. Christ died for us; He has stood in our place before God’s judgment seat; He has borne our sins. God has done something on the cross which we could never do for ourselves. But God does something to us as well as for us through the cross. He persuades us that He loves us. (Grow in Grace, 58; emphasis original)

Are you persuaded God loves you? What more could he do to demonstrate his love for you than offer his Son in your place?

Jesus, our victorious King, offered his life to bring his Father glory, yet in giving his life on the cross, the Father glorified him as well. In verses 16 and 23 we read that in the cross Jesus would be glorified. In the cross God would reveal to the world the matchless worth of his Son.

This section ends with an invitation from King Jesus (vv. 35-36). Our King is not barricaded in the castle, cold and distant from his lowly subjects. He’s not your typical king. As Jesus heads to the cross, on his way to die he turns to invite us to come to him and receive the blessings his death will bring. He begs us to believe in the light, to become sons of the light. Listen to the words of Jesus. He invites you to come out of the darkness of sin and death and come to the light. Jesus offers you a home and an inheritance, a seat at God’s royal table, and entrance into a kingdom of love and grace.