THE KING’S BUSINESS
202
fies to that, which He has actually seen and heard and which He copse* quently absolutely .knows. Through out all our Lord’s, teachings He speaks of things irt heaven with the confidence and certainty and freedom of one who has actually been there and therefore knows whereof He speaks. ' And now appears ,the ,wonder, though Jesus, only bore witness to what He IJnnself hap seen and heard in that heavenly -world from which He came, nevertheless such is the blindness and perVersity of man that “no man receiveth His witness.” John’s disciples had come to him say ing that “all men come to Him,” i. e. to Jesus. “No,” said John, Would that it were so, but in point of fact “no man receiveth His witness.” That this is intended as a general state ment and not as absolutely universal statement appears from the next verse ; for there John tells us of the few who really did receive 11is wit ness (see v. 33). The statement is true of all ages, the vast multitude reject Christ’s testimony: only a “lit tle flock” really receives it (cf. Luke 12:32). “He.came to His own, and His: own (as a body) received Him not” (ch. 1:11). But here and there one did receive Him, and to those who did. receive Him He gave the right to become the children to God (ch. 1:12). The most amazing thing irt all the. history of the human race, and the thing that most clearly reveals the blindness and desperate depravity of the human heart, is the way in which the human race as a whole have - treated the witness of Him that came from ,heaven and who gave such un- . mistakable proofs that He was from heaven, V. 33. “He that hath received His testimony, (rather1!1witness)' hath 'set' to his seal ( rather, hath set his seal to this ) , that God is. true.” I
was a heavenly quality in the teaching of the Lord JesUs that there was not in his own. In the last clause of the verse, John defines more explicitly what he: means by "from above” by changing to the words “from heaven.” Hé tells us that our Lord not merely carrie from the higher sphere thaii earth but that he came from the high est sphere, “from heaven” (or, “out of heaven”), from the very presence of ' God Himself and from fellowship with Him (cf. ch. 1:1, 2). Since Hfe came “out of heaven,” He is “above all.” Heaven was not only the sourcè of His being but also the source of His authority. f John would have hiS disciples know that their jealousy fot him as compared with Jesus was ab solutely without reason. He wak nothing but “out of the earth” and “out of the earth” he would continué to be, but the One to whom they said that all men were now coming was “out of heaven” and therefore justly and inevitably above him and all others. It was right and inevitable that in all things He should have the pre-eminence (cf. Col. 1:17, 18). V. 32. “And (omit, and) what He has seen and heard, that He testiüeth (rather, of this He beareth witness) ; and no man receivéth His testimony (rather, witness).” As our Lord came “from heaven,” His testimony regarding things in heaven was testimony regarding things that He had seen and heard there. What our Lord says about heavenly things is not speculation, it is testimony of the things actually ob served. We have here the same: thought as that to which Jesus gave- utterance in His' conversation with Nicodemus (Vs. 11, 12). It is a great and precious thought that' we are not left to our own speculations regard ing heavenly things but that One who has been there and lived there testi
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online