13. — [And no man hath ascended, (£c.] This verse, according to my view, contains the first " heavenly thing " which our Lord dis- plays to Nicodemus. But the sentence is undeniably a difficult one, and commentators differ widely as to its meaning.
Some think, as Calvin. Masculus, Bullinger, Hutcheson, Poole, Quesnel, Schottgen, Dyke, Lightfoot, Leigh, Doddridge. A. Clarke, and Stier, that our Lord here shows to Nicodemus, ir highly figurative language, the necessity of divine teaching, in order to understand spiritual truth. — " No child of Adam has ever reached the lofty mysteries of heaven, and made himself acquainted with its high and holy truths, by his own natural understanding. Such knowledge is only possessed by the in- carnate Saviour, the Son of man, who has come down from heaven. If you would know spiritual truth, you must sit at His feet, ami learn of Him." This view of the text is supported by Prov. XXX. 34. According to this view, the verse must be taken in close connection with the preceding one, where the ignorance of Nicodemus is exposed.
Some think, as Zwingle, Melancthon, Brentius, Aretius, Fla- cius, and Ft-rus, that our Lord here shows to Nicodemus, (and again in highly figurative language,) the impossibility of human merit, and the utter inabihty of man justifying himself, and ob- taining an entrance into heaven by his own righteousness. — " No one can possibly ascend into Grod's presence in heaven, and stand perfect and complete before Him, except the incarnate Sa- viour, who has come down from heaven to fultil .all righteous- ness. I am the way to heaven. If you would enter heaven, you must believe on the Son of man, and become a member of His body by faith." — This view of the text appeals for support to Rom. X. 6 — 9. According to this view, the verse must be taken in close connection with the following verse^ in which the way of justification is explained.
The true view of the text, I venture to think, is as follows. The words of the text are to be taken literally. Our Lord be- gins His list of "heavenly things" by declaring to Nicodemus His own divine nature and dignity. He reminds him that no one has ever ascended literally into that heaven where God dwells. Enoch, and Elijah, and David, for iristance, were doubt- less in a place of bliss, when they left this world, but they had not " ascended into heaven." (Acts ii. 34.) But that which no man, not even the hoUest saint, had attained, was the right and pierogative of Him in whose company Nicodemus was. The Son of man had dwelt from all eternity in heaven, had come down from lieaven, would one day ascend again into heaven, and in His <livine nature was actually in heaven, one with God the Father, at that very moment. — " Know who it is to whom
. JOHN, CHAP. HI. Vj\
you are speaking. I am not merely a teacher come from God, as you say. I am the Messiah, the Son of man, foretold b^ Daniel. I have come down from heaven, according to prom so, to save sinners. I shall one day ascend again mto heaven, as the victorious forerunner of a saved people. Above all, I am as God in heaven at this moment. I am He who fills heaven and earth," — I prefer this view of the verse to any other, for two reasons. For one thing, it gives a literal meaning to every word in the text. For another, it seems a fitting answer to the first idea which Nicodemus had put forward in the conversation, viz., that our Lord was only " a teacher come from God." It is the view Tvhich is in the main held by Rollock, Calovius, and Goma- rus, and expounded by them with much ability.
The Greek word which we render " but," I am inclined to think, ought to be taken in an adversative rather than in an ex- ceptive sense. Instances of this usage will be found in Matt. xii. 4 ; Mark xiii. 32 ; Luke iv. 26, 27 ; John xvii. 12 ; Rev. ix. 4 ; xxi. 27. The thought appears to be, " Man has not, and cannot ascend into heaven. But that which man cannot do, I the Son of man can do."
" Heaven," throughout this verse, must be taken in jae sense of that immediate and pecuhar presence of God, which we can conceive of and express in no other form than by the word " heaven."
The expression "which is in heaven," deserves particular notice. It is one of those many expressions in the New Testa- ment which can be explained in no other way tiian by the doc- trine of Christ's divinity. It would be utterly absurd and un- true to say of any mere man, that at the very time he was speaking to another on earth he was in heaven ! But it can be said of Christ with perfect truth and propriety. He never ceased to be very God, when He became incarnate. He was ^'' with God and was God." As God He was in heaven while He was speaking lo Nicodemus.
The expression is one which no Socinian can explain away. If Christ was only a very holy man and nothing more, He could not have used the^a words. The Socinian explanation of the for- mer part of the verse, viz., that Christ was caught up into heaven after His baptism, and there instructed about the Gospel He was to teach, would be of itself utterly absurd, and a mere theory invented to get over a difficulty. But the conclusion of the verse is a blow at the very root of the Socinian system. It is written not only that Christ " came down from heaven," but. that " he is in heaven."
It admits of a question whether the Greek words which we