The Ruler Of This World

John 14:28–31

28 Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.

29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.

30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

31 But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.

What did Jesus mean when he said, “For the prince of this world is coming”? The prince of this world is the devil (John 12:31; 16:11). Since it says he is coming, Jesus is undoubtedly referring to the activity of the devil in moving Judas to betray him to his enemies, which he was probably doing at that very moment (13:27, 30). In the person of Judas, Satan was literally coming to initiate Christ’s arrest and crucifixion. But this did not trouble Jesus, for he had peace even when confronted by Satan’s activity.
Satan could do nothing to Christ because “he has no hold on me.” This is a hard phrase to render idiomatically in English, but we probably catch the sense of it best if we say that there was no sin in Christ for Satan to latch onto like a handle. He would do his best to destroy Christ. But Jesus would slip through Satan’s grasp just as he had earlier slipped through the most hostile crowds. So shall we if we are in Christ. We cannot say, as he did, “The prince of this world … has no hold on me.” He has plenty in us all. But if we are in Christ, then we may stand with him and achieve the victory over the enemy.

James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005), 1157–1158.