Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
is.
John 5:22-27 For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: …
John 16:8-10 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: …
now.
John 14:30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.
John 16:11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
now the prince of this world will be cast out.
The "prince of this world" is a reference to Satan, who is seen as having temporary dominion over the earth due to humanity's sin. This phrase signifies a turning point where Satan's power is decisively broken through Jesus' death and resurrection. The casting out of the prince is a fulfillment of the protoevangelium in Genesis 3:15, where the seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head. This also connects to Revelation 12:9-11, where Satan is depicted as being thrown down from heaven. The casting out is both a present reality and a future promise, as the ultimate defeat of evil will be realized in the eschaton. Jesus' victory over Satan is a central theme in the New Testament, emphasizing the triumph of God's kingdom over the forces of darkness.
• Jesus speaks these words immediately after predicting His crucifixion (John 12:27-30). The “now” signals that the decisive moment has arrived.
• At the cross, God renders a verdict on fallen humanity. As Jesus earlier declared, “Whoever does not believe has already been condemned” (John 3:18). That condemnation moves from future to present in Christ’s hour.
• Light exposes darkness. Because “men loved darkness rather than light” (John 3:19), their rejection of Jesus confirms the world’s guilt.
• The judgment is also a dividing line:
‑ Those who trust Christ “do not come into judgment” (John 5:24).
‑ Those who persist in unbelief remain under wrath (Romans 1:18; 3:19).
• Crucifixion looks like defeat, yet it is God’s courtroom, pronouncing both guilt and the offer of pardon (2 Corinthians 5:19).
• “Prince of this world” points to Satan, the personal adversary whom Jesus mentions again in John 14:30 and 16:11.
• “Will be cast out” is certain. The cross disarms and expels the devil’s authority over those who believe (Colossians 2:15; Hebrews 2:14).
• The victory unfolds in stages:
‑ At Calvary, Satan’s claim on condemned sinners is broken (1 John 3:8).
‑ In every conversion, people are “rescued from the dominion of darkness” (Colossians 1:13).
‑ Ultimately, Satan is hurled into the lake of fire (Revelation 12:9-10; 20:10).
• For the believer, this means:
‑ Freedom from accusation—“the accuser…has been thrown down” (Revelation 12:10).
‑ Authority to resist—“Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee” (James 4:7).
‑ Confidence that the final outcome is already secured by Christ’s finished work.
John 12:31 announces a double triumph fulfilled at the cross. First, God’s just verdict falls on a rebellious world, exposing sin and offering grace to all who receive the Light. Second, Satan’s power is decisively broken; the ruler of this age is driven out, guaranteeing ultimate victory for Christ and His people.
(31) Now is the judgment of this world.--For the word "judgment" comp. Notes on John 3:17-19; John 16:11. There is here, following on the coming of the Greeks, which He reads as a sign, and upon the voice from heaven, which was a sign for the multitude, the thought of the Messianic kingdom, of which the first members were then present, and which was to comprehend all men. This thought includes--(1) the judgment (condemnatory) of this world; (2) the casting out of the prince of this world; (3) the establishment of His spiritual kingdom (John 12:32).Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.--The title "prince of this world" was the regular Rabbinic title for Satan, whom they regarded as the ruler of the Gentiles, the Jews not being included in his kingdom. The reign of the true Messiah is over the Gentile and Jewish world alike; Gentiles as well as Jews are at this moment in the temple listening to Him; Jews as well as Gentiles have been subjects of the prince of this world (John 8:44; Romans 2). The world itself, as opposed to Christ, is condemned, for its unbelief crucifies Jesus Christ; but the Resurrection and Ascension are Heaven's witness that He is the Son of God. The world's condemnation is followed by the casting out of its ruler.
The whole future is present to the mind of Christ, and in the confidence of victory He uses the emphatic "now" of both the judgment of the world and the dethronement of its prince. It should be noted, however, that the tenses differ. The one is thought of as the immediate result of His death; the other is the gradual victory of truth, and is spoken of in the same future as the drawing all men of the following verse.
Verses 31-36. - 5. The judgment of this world. Verse 31. - Still more emphatically does Christ expound the heavenly voice, and vindicate for himself the most solemn position with reference to the world and its prince. The" world," or humanity evolving itself to the highest form of a complicated civilization, was present to him far more vividly than when the tempter showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. Instead of holding them in royal fee of the devil, and of compelling them to do his bidding, he declares that his hour, which had come, was an hour of judicial condemnation for the world. The corruption of the world, the radical injury done to human nature, starts out on its beautiful and decorated front like the leprosy did on the face of Naaman. Now is a judgment of the world. Observe, not κρίσις. This is compatible with the statements of John 3:17-19, and not inconsistent with the frequent references in John 5. to the "last day." Because John gives prominence to the great principles of judgment, and implies that the books of remembrance and condemnation are written all over indelibly by the hand of the world itself, there is no proof that the Lord (in John) says nothing of the great catastrophic judgments of which the synoptic Gospels preserve the prophecy. Our Lord has rather revealed (according to John) the principles which make the judgment of the great day credible. What a man has become at any epoch of his existence, what a nation is about at any crisis of its history, whatsoever act represents the spirit of the whole world, is in each case the judgment which God, by his providence, passes upon him or it. Still more impressively with a second, Now, he adds, shall the prince of this world be cast out. The phrase, "archon of this world," is a well-known later Hebraic phrase for "the ruler of the darkness of this world," the shir-olam of the rabbinical books, the angel of death, to whom was entrusted the rulership of the world outside of the sacred family. Christ declares that his own hour, in which the world and its prince would seem to be triumphant, would be the hour when he should be cast out of earth as he had been already cast out of heaven. This expulsion and destruction of the power and works of the devil was one great end assigned to the manifestation of the Son of God (1 John 3:8). It is important, however, to notice the difference of tenses. "Now is the judgment of this world," - this is the immediate result of his death; "Now shall the prince of this world be east out" describes the gradual victory of truth, which is pursued more explicitly in the next verse.