When was Jesus exalted?

Recently, I was privileged to give a Bible study in Alblasserdam on ‘the lifted-up serpent’. In it, I argued from John 3:13 and 14 that the bronze serpent lifted up by Moses is a type of the Ben-Adam (the Son of Man; Ps.8:5) who is exalted by God and has ascended to heaven. In doing so, I explicitly distanced myself from the (rather common) interpretation that Jesus’ exaltation refers to His crucifixion. After all, is “the death of the cross” not Jesus’ ultimate humiliation which precedes His exaltation? As Paul explains in Philippians 2:

8 And in fashion having been found as a man, He HUMBLED Himself, becoming obedient unto death—even the death of a cross,
9 wherefore, also, God did highly EXALT Him, and gave to Him a name that is above every name…

As evident as this may be, there is one Scripture passage that appears to say otherwise. In the Gospel of John, besides in 3:14, Jesus’ exaltation is also mentioned in two other passages: in chapter 8:28 and especially in 12:32–34:

31 Now is a judgment of this world; now shall the Ruler of this world be cast forth;
32 and I, if I may be lifted up out of the earth, will draw all men unto Myself.
33 And this He said signifying by what death He was about to die.

In verse 31, Jesus indicates that “the Ruler of this world” (= He Himself!) would be judged and cast out by the world. In other words, the Messiah who will one day reign over all the world from Jerusalem (Isa.2:3), would soon be literally condemned “outside the camp” and be put to death there. But when He would then be exalted, He would draw all to Himself. From His heavenly position, He would gather a people to Himself. As clarification, John then adds: “this He said signifying by what death He was about to die”.

Does John, with this clarification, mean to say that Jesus’ exaltation refers to the cross on which He would be nailed? The crucifixion may indeed be His ultimate humiliation in moral terms, but in physical terms it is an elevation. By hanging the condemned on a tree, he is in fact lifted above the surface of the earth. In 8:28 this is even clearly the idea. Jesus’ exaltation is there attributed to man: “when you shall have lifted up the Son of Man…”

from the earth or out of the earth?

Yet from the passage in John 12:22–24, there are two compelling arguments which, in my view, show that Jesus is primarily referring to His exaltation by God. The first argument is unfortunately not apparent in the common translations, but must certainly not be overlooked. Both the Statenvertaling and the NBG51 translate John 12:32 as “if I be lifted up from the earth…”. However, John does not use the preposition APO (= from/off; as in 21:8) here, but EK (= out of). So: “out of the earth”. It is precisely this phrase that is used three times in John 3:31, and there it is indeed translated literally as “out of the earth” (see also Rev.13:11).

This difference in preposition is by no means insignificant in John 12. The idea here is not that Jesus was lifted up from the earth. In that case, as in 8:28, one might think of exaltation as a human act. But here it is about an exaltation out of the earth. After all, He was first to fall “into the earth” as a grain of wheat and die, as He had just said (12:24). His exaltation begins from that point—and thus “out of the earth”, that is, out of death and the grave.

When John clarifies that Jesus spoke of what kind of death He was about to die, he is thereby saying that He would be exalted out of the death He would die. Jesus’ death on the cross is therefore without doubt His ultimate humiliation, yet it is also the starting point of His exaltation!

to remain or to be exalted?

There is yet a second reason from the context of John 12 why Jesus’ exaltation unmistakably refers to His resurrection and ascension. This becomes clear from the response of His listeners in 12:34:

The crowd then answered Him: we have heard out of the law that the Christ remains to the age, how do You say that the Son of Man must be exalted? Who is this Son of man?

The crowd listening to Jesus is surprised and concludes that if the Christ must be exalted, then apparently He would not remain with them. And although this reveals their lack of understanding, they have nevertheless correctly understood from Jesus’ words that He would (for the time being) indeed not remain, but be exalted. Jesus affirms the crowd’s conclusion by saying that He would in fact only be with them a little while longer (12:35).

In other words, once Jesus would be exalted, He would no longer dwell among His people. Exactly as David once wrote about the Ben-Adam in Psalm 8:4,5. God would crown Him, who was made a little lower than the messengers (because of the suffering of death), with glory and honour (Heb.2:6–9). God would raise Him up and exalt Him to His right hand (Ps.110:1).

Delen: