John 12:33

"And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me." That is, "even those of the Gentiles." And that no one may ask, "How shall he be cast down, if he is stronger even than Thou art?" He saith, "He is not stronger; how can he be stronger than One who draweth others to Him?" And He speaketh not of the Resurrection, but of what is more than the Resurrection, "I will draw all men to Myself." For had He said, "I shall rise again," it was not yet clear that they would believe; but by His saying, "they shall believe," both are proved at once, both this, and also that He must rise again. For had He continued dead, and been a mere man, no one would have believed.

"I will draw all men to Myself." How then said He that the Father draweth? Because when the Son draweth, the Father draweth also. He saith, "I will draw them," as though they were detained by a tyrant, and unable of themselves alone to approach Him, and to escape the hands of him who keepeth hold of them. In another place He calleth this "spoiling; no man can spoil a strong man's goods, except he first bind the strong man, and then spoil his goods." (Matt. xii. 29.) This He said to prove His strength, and what there He calleth "spoiling," He hath here called "drawing."

(Tr. lii. 11) What is this all that He draweth, but that from which the devil is cast out? He does not say, All men, but, All things; for all men have not faith. He does not mean then all mankind, but the whole of a man, i. e. spirit, soul, and body; by which respectively we understand, and live, and are visible. Or, if all means all men, it means those who are predestined to salvation: or all kinds of men, all varieties of character, excepting in the article of sin. (Tr. lii. 11) If I be lifted up from the earth, He says, i. e. when I shall be lifted up. He does not doubt that the work will be accomplished which He came to do. By His being lifted up, He means His passion on the cross, as the Evangelist adds: This He said, signifying by what death He should die.

Accordingly, after saying, "Now shall the prince of this world be cast out," He added, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things after me." And what "all" is that, but those out of which the other is ejected? But He did not say, All men, but "all things;" for all men have not faith. And, therefore, He did not allude to the totality of men, but to the creature in its personal integrity, that is, to spirit, and soul, and body; or all that which makes us the intelligent, living, visible, and palpable beings we are. For He who said, "Not a hair of your head shall perish," is He who draweth all things after Him. Or if by "all things" it is men that are to be understood, we can speak of all things that are foreordained to salvation: of all which He declared, when previously speaking of His sheep, that not one of them would be lost. And of a certainty all classes of men, both of every language and every age, and all grades of rank, and all diversities of talents, and all the professions of lawful and useful arts, and all else that can be named in accordance with the innumerable differences by which men, save in sin alone, are mutually separated, from the highest to the lowest, and from the king to the beggar, "all," He says, "will I draw after me;" that He may be their head, and they His members. But this will be, He adds, "if I be lifted up from the earth," that is, when I am lifted up; for He has no doubt of the future accomplishment of that which He came to fulfill. He here alludes to what He said before: "But if the corn of wheat die, it bringeth forth much fruit." For what else did He signify by His lifting up, than His suffering on the cross, an explanation which the evangelist himself has not omitted; for he has appended the words, "And this He said signifying what death He should die."