The twelfth and following chapters of John's Gospel were prophetic when they were written. Not so now. What was then anticipation is now realized. What was then in anticipation was the risen life--the new creation.
Now if we look at John 12 we shall see a fine principle which introduces this thought. In that chapter we get the risen family as a sample of the new creation. The new creation is what we enter into when conducted by the Spirit of God. The same thing is taught doctrinally in 2 Corinthians 5--"Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." If I am in company with God, I am in the new creation. Angels, Adam in innocency, men under law, were never in the new creation; but when a poor sinner is brought into it he is in a new order of things; and this the apostle Paul doctrinally teaches.
Now in chapter 12 we see the Lord Jesus in company with that which is a sample of new creation. He is seated at the table with Lazarus, a type of the risen family, and his sisters, in sacred family enjoyment. In verse 12 we find the people were not prepared; they seek to do Him honour in an earthly way. And in verse 20 the Greeks come up, desiring to see and salute Him. And how did the Lord treat it all? He let it pass, though it was the most palmy and flattering moment in which He was ever greeted and saluted by the world. He passed it all by; it was nothing to Him. How little you and I do that! We love to welcome such scenes; we love the delight of flatteries, of rank, and royalty; we are not dead to the Hosannas of the people, the salutations of the Greeks--they are so attracting. But to Him it was nothing. His heart is full of anguish, and elsewhere, during all this, He pours it out to His Father--"Father, now is My soul troubled." He is passing on to the new creation for us; for your title to the new creation would never have existed without the shedding of His blood. The new creation is the omnipotency of the blood of Christ Jesus for us. No wonder, then, "His soul was troubled" when on His way to such a moment. J. G. B.
