John 12:23-24 reveals that Christ is a grain of wheat for His divine multiplication. In verse 24, Jesus likened Himself to a grain of wheat: “Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” As such a grain of wheat, Christ is the divine seed to produce many grains (the people who receive Him) to become His many members who constitute His organic Body which consummates in the New Jerusalem.
In this chapter, according to the worldly view, Jesus was in His golden time. A great crowd of Jews esteemed Him highly and welcomed Him warmly (vv. 12-19), and even the Greeks were seeking after Him (vv. 20-22). However, the Lord neither accepted this kind of exaltation, nor took this opportunity to get a name for Himself; nor did He seize the golden opportunity as the means to have His increase. Rather, knowing that the way for a grain of wheat to multiply is not by being welcomed and honored, but by falling into the ground and dying, the Lord preferred to fall as a grain of wheat into the ground and die that He might produce many grains for the church.
The Lord Jesus was the unique grain that contained His divine life with the divine glory, and His humanity through His incarnation became a shell to conceal the glory of His divinity. Christ’s all-inclusive death released the divine life and glory that were within the shell of His humanity. Just as a grain of wheat releases its life by falling into the ground, so Christ released the divine life within Him through death. Through His death on the cross, the shell of His flesh was broken, and the divine life contained and concealed within it was released. If Christ had not fallen into the earth to die, He would have remained one grain. But He fell into the earth and died, and He brought forth many grains as His multiplication.
Christ, who as a grain of wheat fell into the ground and died, grew out of death to produce many grains, which are the believers. The Lord Jesus fell into the ground and died that His divine element, His divine life, might be released from within the shell of His humanity to produce many believers in resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3), just as a grain of wheat has its life element released by falling into the ground and growing up out of the ground to bear much fruit, that is, to bring forth many grains.
After unveiling Himself as a grain of wheat falling into the ground to produce the many grains, in John 12:32 Christ goes on to reveal Himself as one being lifted up from the earth to draw all men to Himself. “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all man to Myself.” In one respect, the Lord’s death was His falling into the ground, as revealed in verse 24; in another respect, it was His being lifted up on the tree (1 Pet. 2:24). His falling into the ground was to produce the many grains; His being lifted up was to draw all men to Himself. The many grains produced by His falling into the ground are the believers, the “all men” drawn by His being lifted up on the tree. On the one hand, we the believers are grains produced by the death and resurrection of Christ. On the other hand, we are those who have been drawn to the Lord. We are the grains, and we are the drawn ones. All those who are drawn to Him eventually become the many grains, the fruits produced by His death and resurrection. This indicates that the church life has been multiplied! In fact, this multiplication is still taking place today, for many are still being drawn to Christ.
Christ is the grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died, that grew out of death to produce many grains for His multiplication, His glorification. According to John 12:23-24, the Lord’s glorification is a matter of His multiplication. Verse 23 indicates clearly that the Lord was concerned for His glorification, and verse 24 explains what this glorification is. In verse 23 He said to the disciples, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” In verse 24 He went on to say, “Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” This indicates that glorification is a matter of dying and rising so that many grains may be brought forth. This means that the Lord’s glorification was His multiplication, and His multiplication was His glorification. Since a field of ripe wheat has a certain kind of glory and all the ripe ears of wheat are the glory of the grains of wheat that have been sown into the ground, the multiplication of a grain of wheat is its glorification. Likewise, as a grain of wheat, the Lord Jesus died on the cross to bring forth the multiplication of Himself, and He is glorified in the producing of many grains, which are for the building up of His Body. As a grain of wheat, a container of the divine life, Christ was sown into the earth through death in order that He might be multiplied and thereby glorified.