saying that He and the two other Persons in the Trinity " speak what they have seen."
The meaning of the sentence appears to be this, *' I declare with authority, and bear witness to truths, which from all eternity I have known and seen, as God in union with the Father and the Holy Ghost. I do not speak (as all merely human ministers must) what I have been taugb.t by others. I do not testify things whiai I have received as God's servant,, as ordinary prophets have, and which I should not have known wi^^hout God's inspiration, I testify what I have seen with my Father, and knew before the world began." It is like the ex- pression, "I speak that which I have seen with my Father." (John viii. 38.)
Melancthon thinks that our Lord, in this verse, contrasts the uncertain traditions and human inventions which the Pharisees taught, with the sure, certain, and irrefragable truths of God, which he came to preach.
Bacer remarks that the verse contains a practical lesson for all religious teachers. No man has a right to teach, unless he is thoroughly persuaded of the truth of what he teaches.
[Ye receive not our witness.] This sentence corresponds so exactly with John the Baptist's words, at verse 32, that it con- firms me in the opinion that our Lord, in this verse, only speaks of Himself. The words before us, as well as those of John the Baptist, must be taken with some qualification : "The greater part of you receive not our testimony." — The object of the verse is to rebuke the unbelief of Nicodemus and all who were like- minded with him among the Jews. The use of the plural num- ber " ye," makes it probable that our Lord in this verse refers not merely to what He had just been saying to Nicodemus, but to all His pubUc teaching at Jerusalem, from the time of His casting out the buyers and sellers in the temple. If we do not adopt this theory, we must suppose Him to mean, '• What I have spoken and testified to you about regeneration, is what I continually say to all who come, like you, to inquire of me; and yet neither you nor they believe what I say. You all alike stumble at this stumbling-stone, the new birth."
Calvin remarks on this expression, that we ought never to be ourprised at unbehef. If men would not receive Christ's testi- mony, it is no wonder if they will not receive ours.
[2. [If I have told... earthly., heavenly things?] To see the full force
of this verse, we should paraphrase it thus. " If ye do not be- lieve what I say when I tell you, as I have done, things that are earthly, how will you beheve if I go on, as I shall do, to tell you of things that are heavenly? If you will not believe when
JOHN, CHAP. lU. 149
ye hear my first lesson, what will ye do when ye hear my second? If ye are stumbled at the very alphabet of my Q-ospel, what will ye do when I proceed to show you higher and deeper truths?"
The difi&culty of the verse lies in the two expressions, •' earth- ly things " and " heavenly things." Our Lord does not explain them, and we are therefore left to conjecture their true meaning, — I offer the following explanation with some diffidence, as the most satisfactory one.
By " t artlily things " I believe our Lord means the doctrine of the "new birth," which He had just been expounding to Nico- demus. By " heavenly things " I believe He means the great and solemn truths which he was about immediately to declare, and which he does declare in rapid succession from this verse down to the end of the conversation. — These truths were His own divinity, — the plan of redemption by His own death on the cross, — the love of God to the whole world, and His consequent provision of salvation, —faith in the Son of God as the only way to escape hell, — and man's wilful rejection of light, the only cause of man's condemnation.
But why does our Lord call the new birth an " earthly thing ?" I reply that He does so, because it is an " earthly " thing com- pared with His own divinity and atonement. Regeneration is a thing that takes place in man, here upon earth. The atonement is a transaction that was done for man, and of which the special effect is on man's position before God in heaven. In regenera- tion God comes down to man, and dwells in him upon earth. In the atonement Christ takes up man's nature as man's repre- sentative, and as man's forerunner goes up into heaven. — Re- generation is a change of which even the men of this world have pome faint inkling, and which can be illustrated by such earthly figures as water and wind. Almost every one allows, as Bucer remarks, that he is not so good as he should be, and that he heeds some change to fit him for heaven. Christ's di- vinity, and the incarnation,, and the atonement, and justification by faith, are such high and heavenly things that man has no natural conception of them. — Regeneration is so far an " earth- ly " idea that even irreligious men borrow the word, and talk of regenerating nations, and society. Salvation by faith in Christ's blood is so entir^-ly a " heavenly thing," that it is constantly mis- understood, hated, and sneered at by unconverted men. — When therefore our Lord calls the new birth an '■ earthly thing," we must understand that he does so comparatively. In itself the new bu-th is a high, holy, and " heavenly thing." But compared with the doctrine of the incarnation and the atonement, it is m " earthly thing."