THE KING’S BUSINESS
573
Over against the certainty of that which He taught, our Lord puts the attitude of Nicodemus and his asso ciates toward that which was taught, “Ye receive not our witness.” The emphasis is upon “Our witness.” The thought is, though our witness is absolutely sure, built upon that which we have actually seen, yet “our wit ness ye receive not” (this is the order of the words in the Greek text). At a future day Nicodemus at least did receive this witness but he had not received it as yet. Up to this point, he was still essentially in the condition of those described in chapters 1:10; 7:28; 14:24. He was, however, to pass out of that condition, indeed, was in the process of passing out of it at this time. V. 12. “I f I have (omit, have ) told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you o f (omit, of) heavenly things.’’ The word translated “earthly things” means “things on the earth,” ^ i. e. things which occur or have their sphere and place on earth. Jesus re fers here to what He had been telling Nicodemus about 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 afterward to speak of things which occur in heaven, beyond the range of man’s observation and ex perience, the eternal love of God and the atoning work of the Son, which indeed was to take place upon earth, but had its origin in the heavens. The new birth might be known by per sonal experience, the love of God and the atoning significance of Jesus’ death could only be known by reve lation. As Nicodemus had stumbled over the things he had been told which occurred here on earth and which he could, therefore, observe how could
he be expected to believe the won drous love of God and the other things which belonged to heaven, which our Lord was to reveal. V. 13. “And no man (rather, one) hath ascended up to (rather, into) heaven, but He that came down from (rather, descended out of) heaven, even the Son of man, which (rather, who) is in heaven.” Here our Lord sets forth the rea son 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 which He had actually seen and of which He had experience. Though it might be difficult for men to believe these heav enly 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 them on His all-suffi cient 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 into 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 de claring that He alone of those then teaching on earth or who ever had taught on earth had been in heaven. Enoch and Elijah went to heaven after leaving the 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
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