“These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as He taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on Him; for His hour was not yet come” (John 8:20).
This is the last of seven times in the gospel of John that the phrase “not yet” is used in reference to the forthcoming death of Christ. Although this was the very reason He came into the world, the event itself could not be hurried.
When His mother wanted Him to provide wine for the wedding, He said: “Mine hour is not yet come” (John 2:4). When His brothers urged Him to show His mighty works in Jerusalem, His answer was: “My time is not yet come” (John 7:6,8). When His enemies tried to take Him at the feast of tabernacles, “no man laid hands on Him, because His hour was not yet come” (John 7:30). Even when He preached His great promise of living water, John noted parenthetically that “the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:39).
But His hour did come, and they did lay hands on Him, and put Him to death. Then He was glorified, and the Holy Spirit was given. And now we await another great time that has not yet come. John speaks of this also: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but . . . we shall be like Him” (I John 3:2).
In that great time to come, all things will be made subject to Christ. “But now we see not yet all things put under Him” (Hebrews 2:8). These great promises and others associated with them have not yet been accomplished—the world is far from being in subjection to Him, and we are far from being like Him. But the hour will come, just as the first one did, and it will be glorious. For “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him” (I Corinthians 2:9). HMM
