Jesus Discourses on His Coming Death

John 12:26; 27. See Matthew 26:36-46. For this cause came I unto this hour] Jesus came to die; his mission was to give his life for the world. Miraculous as was his birth; incomparable as were his teachings; inspiring as were his miracles; and perfect as was his life—yet, with it all, he came into the world to die, to atone, to redeem, to save, to bring to pass the immortality and possible eternal life of man.

John 12:28-30; 28-30. Suppose the voice of God should speak from heaven today; suppose that voice should say in the ears of all living: 'I have restored my gospel through Joseph Smith. I command all men everywhere to repent and join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.' How would men respond? Would they differ from those who heard the Almighty proclaim the divine Son—ship of Jesus? Would some say it was a new type of radio broadcast? Or would they say it thundered, or an angel spoke? Whatever their response, we may rest assured that people are now as they were then, and that the voice of God himself, thundered from the heavens, would no more convince them of divine truth now than that very voice did then.

John 12:31; 31. Now is the judgment of this world] 'Now is the world to be judged by its acceptance or rejection of me.' Now shall the prince of this world be cast out] Satan shall be doomed. It is his world which is judged and found wanting. Because of the atonement a better world awaits.

John 12:32; 32. To the Nephites, Jesus gave utterance to this same thought in these words: "My Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil—And for this cause have I been lifted up; therefore, according to the power of the Father I will draw all men unto me, that they may be judged according to their works." (3 Nephi 27:14-15.)

John 12:33; 33. Prophets in Israel foretold in plainness of the death of the Messiah. "The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, yieldeth himself, according to the words of the angel, as a man, into the hands of wicked men, to be lifted up, according to the words of Zenock, and to be crucified, according to the words of Neum, and to be buried in a sepulchre, according to the words of Zenos." (1 Nephi 19:10.)

John 12:34; 34. Of course the scriptures said Christ and his kingdom should abide forever (Isaiah 9:7; Ezekiel 37:25; and Daniel 7:14, among many others); and so shall it be commencing in the millennial day when "the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." (Revelation 11:15.)

John 12:34; But the scriptures also said that King-Messiah "was wounded for our transgressions, . . . bruised for our iniquities," "brought as a lamb to the slaughter," and "cut off out of the land of the living." They said, "he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death" (Isa. 53); that he, "the Lord Jehovah" would "swallow up death in victory," and bring to pass the resurrection of all men. Indeed, it was the great Jehovah himself who had said to their fathers: "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise." (Isaiah 25:8; 26:4, 19.)

John 12:34; There was no occasion for Jesus' captious critics either to have or to feign ignorance of the true mortal ministry of their Messiah.

John 12:35-36; 35-36. See John 8:12-20.