THE KING’S BUSINESS
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in the Greek text). The word translated “earthly things” means “things on the earth,” i.e., things which occur, or have their sphere, or place, on earth. Jesus refers here to what He has been telling Nicodemus about i the new birth, which, though wrought from above by the power of the Holy Spirit, occurs here on this earth, and therefore might be believed with comparative ease. He was afterwards to speak of things which occurred in heaven (John 3:16), beyond the range of man’s observation and experience, the eternal love of God and the atoning work of the Son which was indeed to take place upon earth, but had its origin in the heavens. The new birth might be known by personal experience; the love of God and the aton ing sacrifice of Jesus’ death could only be known by revelation. v. 13. “And no man hath ascended up to (into) heaven, but He that came down from (descended out of) heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven’’ Here our Lord sets forth the reason why He, and He alone, could teach the heavenly things with absolute authority. He had been in heaven and when'. He' spoke of heavenly things He spoke of things He had actually seen, and of which He had had experience. Though it might be difficult for men to believe these heavenly things, as they had no personal experience of them, yet it was His mission to declare them and as He had had experience of them, others should accept theni on His all-sufficient ■testimony. There was no other channel through which they could be revealed, as no other being on earth at that time, or who had been on earth at any other time, had ever been in heaven. There is no declaration intended here that no one who had been on earth had afterwards gone to heaven . (as for example, Elijah and Enoch) ; for our Lord is simply declaring that He alone1of those then teaching on eatth, or who ever had taught on earth, had been in heaven. Elijah and Enoch went to heaven after living on earth and did not come back, and so of course could
not teach here.( In the whole context the thought before us is that of the authority of the teacher, and, of course, with this the ones going to heaven after He had left the earth as a teacher had nothing to do. Of all the teachers on earth at that time, or any previous time, Jesus was the only one who had descended out of heaven, and the only one who had been in heaven and so was the only one who was competent to teach heavenly things at first hand as things which He Himself had seen and knew experimentally. Our. Lord in this verse proclaims His pre-existence in .the most emphatic terms. He declares that He had “descended out of heaven” (ci. ch. 6:38; Phil. 2:6-8, R. V.). It is a very sig nificant fact that this same phrase, “descended,” or “came down,” is used in. the Old Testament of various manifesta tions of God here on earth (Ex. 19:11, 20; Num. 11:1/?,, 25; 12:5). The form of expression “descended o u t. of heaven” is most suggestive,: it sets forth the continu ity of our Lord’s personal existence: the person who was now seen in Jesus was the same person who had existed personally in heaven with the Father. Though He had come down out of heaven, now He was the “Son of man:”" Here our Lord sets His real humanity in closest juxtaposition with His Deity. He became the “Son of man” without ceasing to be' what He had been through all eternity, the, Son of God “out of heaven!” The words “which is in heaven” though found in both the A. V. and R. V. are omitted in most of the ancient MSS. They are, however, found in a large tnajority of the ancient versions. The best textual critics are pretty evenly divided as to whether they Should be retained or rejected. If retained the thought is that while the Son of man descended out of heaven and was now here in the person of Christ on earth, neverthe less, ,He was still in heaven. Whether we retain them here or not; essentially the same thought is found in ch. 1:18. vs. 14, 15. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness: ( , ) even so
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