John 12:34 “The people answered him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man?”
When unbelieving people respond concerning the Lord, they always have bits and pieces of Scripture that they ardently misapply; they simply have a preconceived notion that they try to forcefully justify. The best advice in dealing with them is to “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.” (Proverbs 26:4); and, that is exactly what our Lord did. It is true that there are several prophecies that indicate that “Christ abideth for ever”; like, “Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” (Psalms 110:4) and “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.” (Psalms 45:6). But, there was also this prophecy that “after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself” (Daniel 9:26); the naysayers conveniently neglected this one. They also overlooked this one, “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” (Psalms 16:10); that is, prophecy that He would die but His body would not decompose before He rose again from the dead. So, “who is this Son of man?”! First of all, He is the “Word” in the Triune Godhead: “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” (I John 5:7). The Gospel of our Lord sweetly declares that He is Jesus Christ; that as our Christian High Priest, He Sacrificed Himself to pay our sin debt, His Body lay in the tomb for three days and three nights, He rose from the dead on the First Day of the Week, appeared alive numerous times over forty days, on the fortieth day He ascended into Heaven where He is forever seated on the right hand of the Throne of God where He sovereignly reigns as “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:16)! Furthermore, when our natural bodies die, He takes our spirit/soul to be with Him (Luke 23:43) and one blessed and holy day he will raise our bodies to life and take us, in our Resurrected Bodies, to be forever with Him in the Heavenly Home He has prepared for us.