No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.
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Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things? Most certainly I tell you, we speak that which we know, and testify of that which we have seen, and you don’t receive our witness. If I told you earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God.”
Parallel Translations
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No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.
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And no man ascendeth vp to heaven but he that came doune from heaven that is to saye the sonne of man which is in heaven.
And as Moses lifte vp the serpent in the wyldernes even so must the sonne of man be lifte vp,
that none that beleveth in him perisshe: but have eternall lyfe.
For God so loveth the worlde that he hath geven his only sonne that none that beleve in him shuld perisshe: but shuld have everlastinge lyfe.
For God sent not his sonne into the worlde to condempne the worlde: but that the worlde through him might be saved.
Show all 3 translations
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For no man ascendeth vp to heauen, but he that hath descended from heauen, that Sonne of man which is in heauen.
And as Moses lift vp the serpent in the wildernesse, so must that Sonne of man be lift vp,
That whosoeuer beleeueth in him, shoulde not perish, but haue eternall life.
For God so loued the worlde, that hee hath giuen his onely begotten Sonne, that whosoeuer beleeueth in him, should not perish, but haue euerlasting life.
For God sent not his Sonne into the world, that he should condemne the world, but that the world through him might be saued.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (2)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (118)
- Romans 5:8 (v16) But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
- 1 John 4:9-10 (v16) By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. In this is…
- Romans 8:32 (v16) He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?
- John 3:15 (v16) that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
- John 11:25-26 (vv15–16) Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. Whoever lives and believes…
Show all 100 cross-references
- John 6:40 (vv15–17) This is the will of the one who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son, and believes in him, should have eternal life; and I will raise…
- John 3:36 (vv15–16) One who believes in the Son has eternal life, but one who disobeys the Son won’t see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
- 1 John 4:19 (v16) We love him, because he first loved us.
- John 10:28 (v16) I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
- 1 Timothy 1:15-16 (v16) The saying is faithful and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However,…
- Romans 5:10 (v16) For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his…
- John 1:29 (vv16–17) The next day, he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
- 2 Thessalonians 2:16 (v16) Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,
- 2 Corinthians 5:19-21 (v16) namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the…
- Ephesians 2:4 (v16) But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,
- Matthew 9:13 (v16) But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
- Revelation 1:5 (v16) and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us, and…
- John 1:14 (v16) The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
- Genesis 22:12 (v16) He said, “Don’t lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son,…
- Titus 3:4 (v16) But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward mankind appeared,
- John 1:18 (vv13, 16) No one has seen God at any time. The one and only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared him.
- Mark 12:6 (v16) Therefore still having one, his beloved son, he sent him last to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
- Luke 2:14 (v16) “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men.”
- Numbers 21:7-9 (v14) The people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against Yahweh and against you. Pray to Yahweh, that he take…
- 1 John 4:14 (v17) We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world.
- Luke 19:10 (vv15, 17) For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.”
- John 12:47-48 (v17) If anyone listens to my sayings, and doesn’t believe, I don’t judge him. For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He who…
- Proverbs 30:4 (v13) Who has ascended up into heaven, and descended? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has bound the waters in his garment? Who has…
- John 6:57 (v17) As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father; so he who feeds on me, he will also live because of me.
- John 8:28 (v14) Jesus therefore said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing of myself, but as…
- John 6:29 (v17) Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
- 1 Timothy 2:5-6 (v17) For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony in…
- John 12:32-34 (v14) And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” But he said this, signifying by what kind of death he should die.…
- John 20:21 (v17) Jesus therefore said to them again, “Peace be to you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.”
- 1 John 2:2 (v17) And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
- John 6:38 (v13) For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
- Acts 2:34 (v13) For David didn’t ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit by my right hand
- John 17:3 (v17) This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
- John 3:16 (v15) For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
- John 11:42 (v17) I know that you always listen to me, but because of the multitude standing around I said this, that they may believe that you sent me.”
- Luke 24:26-27 (v14) Didn’t the Christ have to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?” Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to…
- John 13:3 (v13) Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he came from God, and was going to God,
- 1 Corinthians 15:47 (v13) The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven.
- John 8:42 (vv13, 17) Therefore Jesus said to them, “If God were your father, you would love me, for I came out and have come from God. For I haven’t come of…
- Zechariah 9:9 (v17) Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you! He is righteous, and having salvation;…
- John 5:45 (v17) “Don’t think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, even Moses, on whom you have set your hope.
- John 7:29 (v17) I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”
- Matthew 1:23 (v17) “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall give birth to a son. They shall call his name Immanuel;” which is, being interpreted,…
- Luke 24:44-46 (v14) He said to them, “This is what I told you, while I was still with you, that all things which are written in the law of Moses, the prophets,…
- John 8:15-16 (v17) You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one. Even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who…
- John 12:44-46 (v15) Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me. He who sees me sees him who sent me. I have…
- 2 Kings 18:4 (v14) He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had…
- Psalms 22:16 (v14) For dogs have surrounded me. A company of evildoers have enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and feet.
- Isaiah 53:10-12 (v17) Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He…
- Ephesians 4:9-10 (v13) Now this, “He ascended”, what is it but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the one who…
- 1 John 5:11-13 (v15) The testimony is this, that God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has the life. He who doesn’t have…
- Isaiah 45:21-23 (v17) Declare and present it. Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has shown this from ancient time? Who has declared it of old? Haven’t I,…
- Matthew 26:54 (v14) How then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so?”
- Luke 2:10-11 (v17) The angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all the people. For there is born…
- John 5:36 (v17) But the testimony which I have is greater than that of John, for the works which the Father gave me to accomplish, the very works that I…
- John 6:62 (v13) Then what if you would see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
- John 10:36 (v17) do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God?’
- John 17:8 (v17) for the words which you have given me I have given to them, and they received them, and knew for sure that I came from you. They have…
- Acts 2:23 (v14) him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed;
- Romans 10:6 (v13) But the righteousness which is of faith says this, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down);
- Luke 18:31-33 (v14) He took the twelve aside, and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all the things that are written through the prophets…
- John 3:31 (v13) He who comes from above is above all. He who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is…
- Acts 4:27-28 (v14) “For truly, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together against your holy servant,…
- Isaiah 49:6-7 (v17) Indeed, he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of…
- John 5:38 (v17) You don’t have his word living in you, because you don’t believe him whom he sent.
- John 10:28-30 (v15) I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is…
- John 17:21 (v17) that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that…
- John 20:31 (v15) but these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
- Romans 10:9-14 (v15) that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be…
- Hebrews 7:25 (v15) Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make…
- 1 John 5:1 (v15) Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Whoever loves the Father also loves the child who is born of him.
- 1 John 5:20 (v15) We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, that we know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in…
- Isaiah 45:22 (v15) “Look to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.
- John 6:46 (v13) Not that anyone has seen the Father, except he who is from God. He has seen the Father.
- Mark 16:19-20 (v13) So then the Lord, after he had spoken to them, was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. They went out, and…
- John 1:12 (v15) But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name:
- John 6:42 (v13) They said, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then does he say, ‘I have come down out of heaven?’ ”
- John 6:47 (v15) Most certainly, I tell you, he who believes in me has eternal life.
- John 17:5 (v13) Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed.
- Acts 16:30-31 (v15) brought them out, and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you…
- Deuteronomy 30:12 (v13) It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up for us to heaven, bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?”
- John 5:24 (v15) “Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgment, but has…
- John 6:33 (v13) For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.”
- John 6:51 (v13) I am the living bread which came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. Yes, the bread which I will give…
- John 16:28-30 (v13) I came from the Father, and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.” His disciples said to him, “Behold,…
- Matthew 18:10 (vv15, 17) See that you don’t despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in…
- Luke 24:20 (v14) and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him.
- John 17:2-3 (v15) even as you gave him authority over all flesh, so he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him. This is eternal life, that they…
- Romans 6:22-23 (v15) But now, being made free from sin and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification and the result of eternal life.…
- Galatians 2:16 (v15) yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that…
- Matthew 28:20 (v13) teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
- Mark 16:16 (v15) He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who disbelieves will be condemned.
- Acts 8:36 (v15) As they went on the way, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Behold, here is water. What is keeping me from being baptized?”
- Acts 20:28 (v13) Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the…
- Hebrews 10:39 (v15) But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul.
100 distinct cross-references across this passage (118 total citations).
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Explain this passage (24 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv13, 14, 16, 17 13. No one hath ascended to heaven. He again…
13. No one hath ascended to heaven. He again exhorts Nicodemus not to trust to himself and his own sagacity, because no mortal man can, by his own unaided powers, enter into heaven, but only he who goes thither under the guidance of the Son of God. For to ascend to heaven means here, “to have a pure knowledge of the mysteries of God, and the light of spiritual understanding.” For Christ gives here the same instruction which is given by Paul, when he declares that
the sensual man does not comprehend the things which are of God, (1 Corinthians 2:14;)
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and, therefore, he excludes from divine things all the acuteness of the human understanding, for it is far below God.
But we must attend to the words, that Christ alone, who is heavenly, ascends to heaven, but that the entrance is closed against all others. For, in the former clause, he humbles us, when he excludes the whole world from heaven. Paul enjoins
those who are desirous to be wise with God to be fools with themselves, (1 Corinthians 3:18.)
There is nothing which we do with greater reluctance. For this purpose we ought to remember, that all our senses fail and give way when we come to God; but, after having shut us out from heaven, Christ quickly proposes a remedy, when he adds, that what was denied to all others is granted to the Son of God. And this too is the reason why he calls himself the Son of man, that we may not doubt that we have an entrance into heaven in common with him who clothed himself with our flesh, that he might make us partakers of all blessings. Since, therefore, he is the Father’s only Counselor, (Isaiah 9:6,) he admits us into those secrets which otherwise would have remained in concealment.
Who is in heaven. It may be thought absurd to say that he is in heaven, while he still dwells on the earth. If it be replied, that this is true in regard to his Divine nature, the mode of expression means something else, namely, that while he was man, he was in heaven. It might be said that no mention is here made of any place, but that Christ is only distinguished from others, in regard to his condition, because he is the heir of the kingdom of God, from which the whole human race is banished; but, as it very frequently happens, on account of the unity of the Person of Christ, that what properly belongs to one nature is applied to another, we ought not to seek any other solution. Christ, therefore, who is in heaven, hath clothed himself with our flesh, that, by stretching out his brotherly hand to us, he may raise us to heaven along with him.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv13, 16, 17 That is, hath any spiritual light and understanding, or…
That is, hath any spiritual light and understanding, or ever had, but only that Son of God, which came down to us.
That which is proper to the divinity of Christ, is here spoken of whole Christ, to give us to understand that he is but one person, wherein two natures are united, and this kind of speech men call, the communicating of proprieties.
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Only Christ can teach us heavenly things for no man ascendeth, etc.
Whereas he is said to have come down from heaven, that must be understood of his Godhead, and of the manner of his conception: for Christ’s birth upon the earth was heavenly, and not earthly, for he was conceived by the holy Ghost.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv13–17 13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven,…
13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
Ver. 13. And no man hath ascended, &c.] Objection. Therefore all but Christ are shut out of heaven. Solution. The Church and Jesus make but one Christ, caput et corpus unus Christus, 1Co 12:12. He counts not himself full without his members, who are called the "fulness of him that filleth all," Eph 1:23.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv13–17 No man hath so ascended up to heaven, as…
No man hath so ascended up to heaven, as to know the secret will and counsels of God, for of such an ascending it must be meant; otherwise, Elijah ascended up to heaven before our Saviour ascended. Thus the phrase is supposed to be used, Pro 30:4. None but Christ (who as to his Divine nature came down from heaven) hath ever so ascended thither;
even the Son of man, who was in heaven; we translate it is, but the participle ων is of the preter imperfect tense, as well as the present tense: or, who is in heaven, by virtue of the personal union of the two natures in the Redeemer; as we read. Act 20:28, the church, which he hath purchased with his own blood. By reason of the personal union of the two natures in Christ, though the properties of each nature remain distinct, yet the properties of each nature are sometimes attributed to the whole person. The Lutherans have another notion, ascribing an omnipresence even to the human nature of Christ, because of its personal union with the Divine nature; and so affirm that Christ’s human nature, while it was on earth, was also substantially in heaven; as, on the other side, they are as stiff in maintaining that, although Christ’s human nature be now in heaven, yet it is also on earth, really and essentially present wherever the sacrament of the Lord’s supper is administered; but this is to ascribe a body unto Christ which is indeed no body, according to any notion we have of a body.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv13, 14, 16, 17 Here our Saviour declares to Nicodemus, That none ever…
Here our Saviour declares to Nicodemus, That none ever ascended up into heaven, to fetch down from thence the knowledge of divine mysteries, and to reveal the way of life and salvation to mankind by a Mediator, but only Christ himself; who, though he took upon him the human nature, and was then man upon earth yet was he at the same time in his divine nature actually in heaven as God. This text evidently proves two distinct natures in Christ; namely, a divine nature as he was God, and an human nature as man. In his human nature, he was then upon earth, when he spake these words; in his divine nature, he was at that instant in heaven.
Here observe, That the Son of God hath taken the human nature, into so close and intimate a union with his God-head, and what is proper to either nature is ascribed unto the person of our Saviour. The same person who was on earth as the Son of man, who was then in heaven as God, and yet but one person still.
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Lord! what love hast thou shown to our human nature, that under that name thou ascribest to thyself what is proper to thy Godhead!
The Son of man which is in heaven. The Socinians produce this text, to prove that Christ after his baptism was taken up into heaven, there to be made acquainted with the will of God, to fit him for the execution of his prophetical office here on earth, and that for this reason he was said to be in the beginning with God, as Moses before him was taken up into the mount, and taught by God.
But, 1. We have not the least word of any such thing in Scripture, though we have a particular account of our Saviour’s birth, circumcision, baptism, doctrine, miracles, death resurrection, ascension, yea, of small things compared with this; as his flight into Egypt, his sitting on a pinnacle of the temple; yet not a word of his assumption into heaven.
2. There was no need of it, because Almighty God could reveal himself to Christ, as well as to other prophets, out of heaven as well as in it: besides, Christ was fitted for his prophetic office by the unction of the spirit he received here on earth; and therefore this ascent was altogether needless.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv13–17 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the…
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,.... The history referred to is in Num 21:8. There is, in many things, an agreement between this serpent, and Jesus Christ: as in the matter of it, it was a brazen serpent; it was made not of gold, nor of silver, but of brass, the meaner metal, and was a very unlikely means, of itself, to heal the Israelites; and might be despised by many: this may denote the meanness of Christ in his human nature, in his birth and parentage, and place of education and converse; and especially in his crucifixion and death; and which, to an eye of carnal sense and reason, seemed a very improbable means of saving sinners; and therefore were to some a stumbling block, and to others foolishness: though on the other hand, as brass is a shining metal, and might be chose for the serpent in the wilderness to be made of, that by the lustre of it the eyes of the Israelites might be attracted and directed to it, who were at the greatest distance in the camp; so it may be expressive of the glory of Christ, as the only begotten of the Father, and who is the brightness of his Father's glory; and which is the great attractive, motive, and inducement to engage souls to look unto him, and believe in him, Isa 45:22; and whereas brass is both a strong and durable metal, it may signify the strength of Christ, who is the mighty God, and mighty to save; and his duration, as a Saviour, being the same today, yesterday, and for ever: likewise, the comparison between the serpent Moses lifted up, and Christ, may be observed in the form of it. The brazen serpent had the form of a serpent, but not the poison and venomous nature of one; so Christ was sent, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and was found in fashion as a man, as a sinful man, but was without sin, and was perfectly holy; and yet being in this form, was made both sin and a curse, that he might redeem his people both from sin, and from the curse of the law, by dying a death which denominated him accursed, of which the serpent was, an emblem: besides, this serpent was a fiery one; at least it looked like one of the fiery serpents, being of brass, which shone as though it burned in a furnace; and may be an emblem both of Christ's Father's wrath, which was poured out like fire upon him, and of his love to his people, which was like burning fire, the coals whereof gave a most vehement flame. Moreover, this serpent Moses made, and was ordered to make, was but "one", though the fiery serpents, with which the Israelites were bitten, were many; so there is but one Mediator between God and man; but one Saviour, in whom alone is salvation, and in no other, even Jesus Christ. To which may be added the "situation" in which this serpent was put: it was set by Moses on a pole; it was lifted up on high, that every one in the camp of Israel might see it; and may point out the ascension of Christ into heaven, and his exaltation at God's right hand there, as some think; or his being set up in the ministry of the word, and held forth and exalted there as the only Saviour of lost sinners; or rather his crucifixion, which is sometimes expressed by a lifting up, Joh 8:28. Once more, there is an agreement in the effect that followed upon the lifting up of the serpent; and which was the design of it, viz. the healing of such Israelites as were bitten by the fiery serpents, who looked to this: for as the Israelites were bitten by fiery serpents, with the poison of which they were infected, and were in danger of death, and to many of them their bitings were mortal; so men are poisoned with the venom of the old serpent the devil, by which they are subjected to a corporeal death, and are brought under a spiritual, or moral death, and are liable to an eternal one: and as these bitings were such as Moses could not cure; so the wounds of sin, through the old serpent, are such as cannot be healed by the law, moral or ceremonial, or by obedience to either; and as they were the Israelites who were convinced of their sin, and acknowledged it, and had a cure by looking to the brazen serpent; so such whom the Spirit of God convinces of sin, and to whom he gives the seeing eye of faith, these, through seeing, the Son, and looking to Jesus, as crucified and slain, receive healing by his stripes and wounds: and as those, who were ever so much bit and poisoned by the fiery serpents, or were at ever so great a distance from the pole, or had the weakest eye, yet if they could but discern the serpent on the pole, though it only appeared as a shining piece of brass, had a cure; so the greatest of sinners, and who are afar off from God, and all that is good, and who have faith but as a grain of mustard seed, or but glimmering view of Christ, of his glory, fulness, and suitableness, shall be saved by him. To add no more, this was done "in the wilderness": which may signify this world, Christ's coming into it, his crucifixion in it, and his going without the camp, bearing our reproach, or suffering without the gates of Jerusalem. It is certain, that the Jews had a notion that the brazen serpent was symbolical and figurative: Philo the Jew makes it to be a symbol of fortitude and temperance (t); and the author of the apocryphal book of Wisdom (u), calls it "a sign of salvation". They thought there was something mysterious in it: hence they say (w),
"in four places it is said, "make thee", &c. In three places it is explained, viz. Gen 6:14, and one is not explained, Num 21:8, "make thee a fiery serpent", , is not explained.''
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And elsewhere (x) they ask,
"and could the serpent kill, or make alive? But at the time that Israel looked up, and served with their hearts their Father which is in heaven, they were healed; but if not, they were brought low.''
So that the look was not merely to the brazen serpent, but to God in heaven; yea, to the word of God, his essential Logos, as say the Targumists on Num 21:9. The Jerusalem Targum paraphrases the words thus:
"and Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a high place, and whoever was bitten by the serpents, and lift up his face, in prayer, to his Father which is in heaven, and looked upon the serpent of brass, lived.''
And Jonathan ben Uzziel paraphrases them thus:
"and Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a high place; and it was, when a serpent had bitten any man, and he looked to the serpent of brass, "and directed his heart", , "to the name of the word of the Lord", he lived.''
And this healing they understand not only of bodily healing, but of the healing of the soul: for they observe (y), that
"as soon as they said, "we have sinned", immediately their iniquity was expiated; and they had the good news brought them "of the healing of the soul", as it is written, "make thee a seraph"; and he does not say a serpent; and this is it: "and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live", , "through the healing of the soul":''
yea, they compare the Messiah to a serpent; for so the Targum on Isa 14:29 paraphrases that passage:
"the Messiah shall come forth from Jesse's children's children; and his works shall be among you as a "flying serpent".''
And who else can be designed by the "other serpent of life" (z), and the "holy serpent" (a) they speak of, in opposition to the evil serpent that seduced Eve? And it is well known, that "a serpent", and "Messiah", are numerically, or by gematry, the same; a way of interpretation, and explanation, often in use with the Jews. Now, as this serpent was lifted up on a pole on high, that every one that was bitten with the fiery serpent might look to it, and be healed;
even so must the son of man be lifted up; upon the cross, and die: the crucifixion and death of Christ were necessary, and must be, because of the decrees and purposes of God, by which he was foreordained thereunto, and by which determinate counsel he was delivered, taken, crucified, and slain; and because of his own engagements as a surety, laying himself under obligations in the council and covenant of peace, to suffer, and die, in the room of his people; and because of the prophecies in the Old Testament, and his own predictions, that so it should be; as also, that the antitype might answer the type; and particularly, that he might be a suitable object of faith for wounded sinners, sensible of sin, to look unto.
(t) De Agricult. p. 202. & Allegor. l. 3. p. 1101, 1102, 1103, 1104. (u) C. 16. v. 6. (w) T. Hieros. Roshhashanah, fol. 59. 1. (x) Misn. Roshhashanah, c. 3. sect. 3. (y) Tzeror Hammor, fol. 123. 2. (z) Zohar in Gen fol. 36. 2. (a) Tikkune Zohar in Jetzira, p. 134.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv13–17 For no one - For here you must rely…
For no one - For here you must rely on my single testimony, whereas there you have a cloud of witnesses: Hath gone up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven. Who is in heaven - Therefore he is omnipresent; else he could not be in heaven and on earth at once. This is a plain instance of what is usually termed the communication of properties between the Divine and human nature; whereby what is proper to the Divine nature is spoken concerning the human, and what is proper to the human is, as here, spoken of the Divine.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv13–17 Verse 13. No man hath ascended] This seems a…
Verse 13. No man hath ascended] This seems a figurative expression for, No man hath known the mysteries of the kingdom of God; as in De 30:12; Ps 73:17; Pr 30:4; Ro 11:34. And the expression is founded upon this generally received maxim: That to be perfectly acquainted with the concerns of a place, it is necessary for a person to be on the spot. But our Lord probably spoke to correct a false notion among the Jews, viz. that Moses had ascended to heaven, in order to get the law. It is not Moses who is to be heard now, but Jesus: Moses did not ascend to heaven; but the Son of man is come down from heaven to reveal the Divine will.
That came down] The incarnation of Christ is represented under the notion of his coming down from heaven, to dwell upon earth.
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Which is in heaven.] Lest a wrong meaning should be taken from the foregoing expression, and it should be imagined that, in order to manifest himself upon earth he must necessarily leave heaven; our blessed Lord qualifies it by adding, the Son of man who is in heaven; pointing out, by this, the ubiquity or omnipresence of his nature: a character essentially belonging to God; for no being can possibly exist in more places than one at a time, but HE who fills the heavens and the earth.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv14, 16 Joh 3:14-15. As Moses lifted up the serpent —…
Joh 3:14-15. As Moses lifted up the serpent — As if he had said, And even this single witness, bearing testimony of heavenly things, will soon be taken from you; yea, and in a most ignominious manner. Or, as Dr. Doddridge connects the words with what precedes, “And now I mention the Son of man, let me rectify that grand mistake of yours concerning his kingdom, which otherwise may be attended with fatal consequences. You expect to see him raised on a magnificent throne; and not only breaking off the yoke from the Jewish nation, but leading them on to conquer and destroy the Gentiles; but I must assure you that, as Moses lifted up, [Greek, υψωσε, raised on high, namely, on a pole,] the serpent in the wilderness — To heal those that were dying by the venom of the fiery serpents there; even so must the Son of man be lifted up — On a cross, (see the margin,) and then publicly exhibited in the preaching of the gospel, that sinners may by him receive a far more noble and important cure; even that whosoever believeth in him should not perish — As all in their natural state otherwise would; but may obtain so perfect a recovery as certainly to have eternal life” — For all those who look to him, and rely on him by faith, recover spiritual life and health. The reader will observe, 1st, That the grand point of similitude here is, in the manner of performing the cure, that is, by believing regards to what was lifted up, or raised on high, for that purpose, by a divine appointment. 2d, That the passage strongly implies, that as the wounded Israelites would have died if they had not looked to the brazen serpent for a cure, so will men, wounded by sin, original and actual, assuredly perish, and that eternally, if they do not look to, and believe on Christ, delivered unto death for their offences, and raised from the dead for their justification; which great truth is still more strongly expressed, Joh 3:18. 3d, That our Lord, by telling Nicodemus, that the death of the Messiah was prefigured by types in the law, showed him, that it was agreeable both to the doctrine of Moses, and to the counsels of heaven, that the Messiah should be in a suffering state; and consequently he intimated that the meanness of his present appearance on earth was no reason why any should doubt of his having been, and still being in heaven.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv13–17 And no man hath ascended into heavens - No…
And no man hath ascended into heavens - No man, therefore, is qualified to speak of heavenly things, Joh 3:12. To speak of those things requires intimate acquaintance with them - demands that we have seen them; and as no one has ascended into heaven and returned, so no one is qualified to speak of them but He who came down from heaven. This does not mean that no one had Gone to heaven or had been saved, for Enoch and Elijah had been borne there (Gen 5:24; compare Heb 11:5; 2Ki 2:11); and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and others were there: but it means that no one had ascended and “returned,” so as to be qualified to speak of the things there.
But he that came down ... - The Lord Jesus. He is represented as coming down, because, being equal with God, he took upon himself our nature, Joh 1:14; Phi 2:6-7. He is represented as “sent” by the Father, Joh 3:17, Joh 3:34; Gal 4:4; 1Jo 4:9-10.
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The Son of man - Called thus from his being “a man;” from his interest in man; and as expressive of his regard for man. It is a favorite title which the Lord Jesus gives to himself.
Which is in Heaven - This is a very remarkable expression. Jesus, the Son of man, was then bodily on earth conversing with Nicodemus; yet he declares that he is “at the same time” in heaven. This can be understood only as referring to the fact that he had two natures that his “divine nature” was in heaven, and his “human nature” on earth. Our Saviour is frequently spoken of in this manner. Compare Joh 6:62; Joh 17:5; 2Co 8:9. Since Jesus was “in” heaven - as his proper abode was there - he was fitted to speak of heavenly things, and to declare the will of God to man And we may learn:
1.That the truth about the deep things of God is not to be learned from “men.” No one has ascended to heaven and returned to tell us what is there; and no infidel, no mere man, no prophet, is qualified of himself to speak of them.
2.That all the light which we are to expect on those subjects is to be sought in the Scriptures. It is only Jesus and his inspired apostles and evangelists that can speak of those things.
It is not wonderful that some things in the Scriptures are mysterious. They are about things which we have not seen, and we must receive them on the “testimony” of one who has seen them. The Lord Jesus is divine. He was in heaven while on earth. He had, therefore, a nature far above the human, and is equal with the Father, Joh 1:1.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv13, 14, 16 No man hath ascended --- but he that descended…
No man hath ascended --- but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man, who is in heaven. These words, divers times repeated by our Saviour, in their literal and obvious sense, shew that Christ was in heaven, and had a being before he was born of the Virgin Mary, against the Cerinthians, &c. That he descended from heaven: that when he was made man, and conversed with men on earth, hew was at the same time in heaven. Some Socinians give us here their groundless fancy, that Jesus after his baptism took a journey to heaven, and returned again before his death. Nor yet would this make him in heaven, when he spoke this to his disciples. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv13, 14, 16, 17 no man hath ascended, &c.--There is something paradoxical in…
no man hath ascended, &c.--There is something paradoxical in this language--"No one has gone up but He that came down, even He who is at once both up and down." Doubtless it was intended to startle and constrain His auditor to think that there must be mysterious elements in His Person. The old Socinians, to subvert the doctrine of the pre-existence of Christ, seized upon this passage as teaching that the man Jesus was secretly caught up to heaven to receive His instructions, and then "came down from heaven" to deliver them. But the sense manifestly is this: "The perfect knowledge of God is not obtained by any man's going up from earth to heaven to receive it--no man hath so ascended--but He whose proper habitation, in His essential and eternal nature, is heaven, hath, by taking human flesh, descended as the Son of man to disclose the Father, whom He knows by immediate gaze alike in the flesh as before He assumed it, being essentially and unchangeably 'in the bosom of the Father'" (Joh 1:18).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv13–17 13. Ascended… came down.—After the words ascended up to…
13. Ascended… came down.—After the words ascended up to heaven, there is implied the clause, and so no man is able to testify. The words do not mean that the Son of man had then ascended. They deny that any man had. And so the Son of man, which came down from heaven, is the sole authoritative testifier. He alone is the sure witness.
Which is in heaven— The Son of man needed not to ascend; for though on earth he is ever in heaven. See note on John 2:51. The person of the Son of man is again a Jacob’s ladder; though its feet are on earth its head is in heaven. The angels of God, that is, the revelations of God’s truth, can thus descend. And they descend with the absolute certainty of truth, because it is a living ladder, and its head has eyes that see things in heaven just as they are. The incarnate Son of man is the conductor from heaven to earth of all those divine facts and truths which the eternal Logos hath seen and known, and evermore will see and know, in his infallible unity with God. Now Nicodemus has first admitted, on the faith of miracles, that Jesus is sent from God; he is bound then to credit his declaration of his insight of heaven, and accept the highest mysteries, even of regeneration, etc.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv13–17 13. no man hath ascended up to heaven] No…
13. no man hath ascended up to heaven] No man has been in heaven, so as to see and know these heavenly things, excepting Christ.
came down from heaven] Literally, out of heaven; at the Incarnation. On ‘the Son of Man’ see on Joh_1:51.
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which is in heaven] These words are omitted in the best MSS. If they are retained, the meaning is ‘Whose proper home is heaven.’ Or the Greek participle may be the imperfect tense (comp. Joh_6:62, Joh_9:25, Joh_17:5), which was in heaven before the Incarnation. It is doubtful whether in this verse we have any direct allusion to the Ascension, though this is sometimes assumed.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv13–17 (13) And no man hath ascended up.—There can be…
(13) And no man hath ascended up.—There can be no other means of receiving heavenly truth. No man hath learnt it, and is able to teach it, except the Son of Man, who ever was, and is, in heaven. The thought has met us before (Joh_1:18). To Nicodemus it must have come as an answer to the words of Agur, which had passed into a proverb to express the vanity of human effort to know God. “Who hath ascended up into heaven or descended?. . . . What is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?” (Pro_30:4). No man had so passed to heaven and returned again to earth; but there was One then speaking with him who had been in heaven with God, and could tell him its eternal truths. He had that knowledge which a man could obtain only by ascending to heaven, and He came down from heaven with it. From the human point of view He was as one who had already ascended and descended. (Comp. Note on Joh_1:51.) This is the evident meaning of the sentence, and the form is quite consistent with it. To explain the perfect tense of the future ascension, or to introduce the idea of the “hypostatic union,” by virtue of which the human nature may be said to have ascended into heaven with the divine, is, to give an explanation, not of the text, but of a misunderstanding of it. (But comp. Joh_6:62.)
Which is in heaven.—These words are omitted in some MSS., including the Sinaitic and the Vatican. The judgment of most modern editors (not including Westcott and Hort) retains them. It is an instance where it is hard to account for the insertion by a copyist, but where the omission is not unlikely, owing to their seeming difficulty. And yet the difficulty is one which vanishes before the true idea of heaven. If heaven is thought of as a place infinitely distant beyond clouds and sky, or as a time in the far future when this world’s life shall end, then it is indeed hard to understand what is here meant by “the Son of Man which is in heaven;” and a copyist may well have found in omission the easiest solution of the difficulty. But if heaven is something wholly different from this coldness of distance in space or time; if it is a state, a life, in which we are, which is in us—now in part, hereafter in its fulness—then may we understand and with glad hearts hold to the vital truth that the Son of Man, who came down from heaven, was ever in heaven; and that every son of man who is born of water and of the Spirit is “made a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor (in the present, κληρονόμος) of the kingdom of heaven.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv13, 14, 16, 17 Vers. 13-15. (2) The truth concerning the Son of…
Vers. 13-15. (2) The truth concerning the Son of man and his sacrifice.
And. The simple copula is here fuller significance. Olshausen regards it as "adversative," equivalent to "yet." Meyer, as a simple continuation of the previous statement. The kai has more than a mere conjunctive force. Lance puts it thus: "And yet you must be told heavenly things by him who, being the Heavenly One, is himself the first subject of this revelation." No one hath ascended into heaven. The past tense must be honestly considered. The word cannot refer to the future ascension of Jesus the Lord of glory to where he was before to the glory which he had with the Father before the world was; (Joh_17:5) nor can it refer, as the Socinian interpreters supposed, to a rapture into heaven of the Divine Man between his baptism and temptation (Socini "Opera," 2:511, 610, quoted by J.P. Smith, "Scripture Testimony to the Messiah," 2, pp. 103-117), of which we have not the faintest trace either in Scripture or tradition; nor is it sufficient, with Hengstenberg and others, to regard it as a mere Hebraism for high and exalted intercourse with God and heavenly things. True, there have been many who have sought to climb the steep ascent; (Gen_11:4 Isa_14:13) true also that rabbis spoke of Moses having "ascended into the heavens," by which (says Whitby) they meant "admission to the Divine counsels." The authority on which he depends is the late "Targum on Cantic. 1:5, 11, 12," by which, however, all that is clear is that the Targnmist was referring to the ascent of Moses to the top of Sinai, i.e. above the multitude in the deserts, to the place whither Jehovah came to speak with him. But Exo_20:22, the canonical Scripture, makes it clear that it was "from the heavens" that Jehovah spoke with his servant. There are, however, other passages quoted by Schottgen from Jerusalem Targum on Deu_30:12, and from the "Mishna," in which Moses is said to have "ascended into heaven, and heard the voice of God;" but further inquiry leads us to judge that the Hebrew commentators were thinking of the going up to Sinai for his lofty revelations, and their followers have supposed that this process was a synonym of the revelations themselves. Many have thought to rise above the world to the beatific vision, but Jesus says none have done it in the only sense in which they would have been thereby fitted to discourse on the heavenly things. Two things are needed for this in the main to be in heaven, and come thence charged with its Divine communications. Enoch, Elijah, may have been translated that they should not see death, but they are not so lifted into the abode of God that they might come thence charged with heavenly truth, and able to explain the "how" of Divine grace. No one hath ascended into heaven except he who has by living there as in his eternal home come down from heaven. Meyer, Luthardt, Westcott, etc., all call attention to other and analogous usage of ei mh , which fastens upon a part of the previous negative, not the whole assertion, and therefore here upon the idea of living in heaven and coming thence. (Luk_4:26, 27 Gal_1:7) Man, if he should presume to come with a full revelation of Divine and heavenly things, must come down from a height to which he had previously ascended; but no man has thus and for this purpose ascended, except he who has descended from heaven, having been there before his manifestation in the flesh, having been "in God." "with God," "in the bosom of the Father," and having come thence, not losing his essential ego, his Divine personality, even though calling himself the Son of man. For any other to have come down from heaven, it was necessary that he should first have ascended thither; but the Son of man has descended without having ascended. He calls himself "Son of man," and he claims to have come down from heaven without ceasing to be what he was before. Godet urges that, by the "ascended into heaven," he meant such lofty communion with God and immediate knowledge of Divine things as to differentiate him from all others, but that the phrase, "come down from heaven," implies previous existence in his native place, and that the Lord"s filial intimacy with God rests on his essential sonship. Still, he conceives that Jesus asserts his own ascension in the spiritual sense to the heart of God, and his descent with consequent resultant knowledge, and expounds both statements by the explanation that as Son of man he is living the twofold life in heaven and on earth at the same time. By using the term, "Son of man," Christ emphasized the exalted dignity that is involved in the extent of his self-humiliation, and complete sympathy with us. He was the second Adam, the Lord from heaven. Who is (not was) in heaven. If this be only an early gloss, it throws light on the two previous clauses. It declares that, though he came down, and though his introduction to this world was an incarnation, yet that he is in the deepest sense still in heaven. Such language is a vindication of his claim to reveal heavenly things. Augustine says, "Ecce hic erat et in coelo erat, hic erat in carne, in coelo erat divinitate, natus de matre, non recedens a Patre." Again, "Si Paulus ambulabat in carne in terra et conversabatur in coelo, Deus coeli et terrae poterat esse et in coelo et in terra." Archdeacon Watkins says admirably, "If heaven is a state, a life, in which we are, which is in us, now in part, hereafter in its fulness, then we may understand, and with glad hearts hold to, the vital truth that the Son of man who came down from heaven was ever in heaven."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv13, 14, 16, 17 No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He…
Joh_3:13
No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven
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Christ comforting Nicodemus
Christ having reproved Nicodemus for his ignorance, now shows the remedy thereof in Himself.
1. Christs sharp word is not His last. Having inflicted a wound He offers Himself, the only remedy, to cure it.
2. It is alike impossible for men, by their own parts and natural endowments, to comprehend spiritual mysteries and enter into Gods counsels, here called an ascending up to heaven.
3. In so far as sinners come to a true and saving knowledge of heavenly mysteries, they are in a sort transported up to heaven. If Capernaum were exalted to heaven by the offer of these things, what are they who embrace them?
4. It is proper in Christ only, in some sense, to ascend to heaven, both for the measure and degree of knowledge which, as God, is infinite, and, as man, is large as human nature is capable of, and for the kind of knowledge which, as God, is of Himself, and can only be mans by communication from Him who came down from heaven.
5. The Son of God in the boson of the Father manifested Himself in our nature, that He might in our nature understand and communicate the heavenly mysteries; therefore it is marked as the ground of His ascending or comprehending these things that He came down, hereby showing that His abasing of Himself did exalt Him as Mediator to that dignity, to be the storehouse of wisdom to His people.
6. Christ, by His Incarnation, did not cease to be God, for He is still in heaven.
7. The Son of God has assumed the human nature into so strict a personal union that what is proper to either nature is ascribed unto the Person under whatsoever name. And hereby Christ shows His love to our nature that under that name, Son of Man, He ascribes what is proper to His Godhead to Himself. (G. Hutcheson.)
The text in relation to error
Three distinct heresies are overthrown by these words.
I. That of the NESTORIANS, who affirm a duality of persons as well as of natures in Christ; for unless our Blessed Lord were one Person, it could not in truth be affirmed that the Son of Man, even whilst on earth, was in heaven.
II. That of the CERINTHIANS and all others who deny the pre-existence and Divinity of Christ; for unless He had been God, it could not have been said that He came down from heaven even whilst still in heaven.
III. That of the MANICHAEANS, who deny the proper humanity of our Blessed Lord; for unless He had been really man, of the substance of His mother, it could not be said that He was the Son of Man. (Toletus.)
The Son of Man
The name is used
I. Not only because of His Incarnation, but also because of the manner of that Incarnation. When He came into this world and manifested Himself, so that we were able to see Him who by nature is invisible, He might have taken new flesh and a body created especially for Him, other than that of man. He, however, took mans flesh, and calls Himself here the Son of Man, and so assures us that He was really born of woman; otherwise He would not be really the Son of Man. These words also declare, not only that He took our flesh, for this alone would not have made Him the Son of Man, but that He took it by being born.
II. These words remind us for our comfort that He is truly our Brother, and that we are all brethren of Christ by virtue of His birth as the Son of Man.
III. He uses these words to certify us of the fulfilment of those promises which declared that He should take our flesh and be the seed of man, the Son of David and of Abraham.
IV. Again, He uses these words in confirmation of our being made the sons of God; for if Christ for our sake became the Son of Man, we through His humiliation and Incarnation were therefore made the sons of God.
V. By using the name, Son of Man, the mark of His humiliation, He would teach us humility. (Toletus.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv13, 14, 16 13. And no man hath ascended up to heaven,…
13. And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down … the Son of man which is in heaven. This implies: (1) That he existed before he appeared on earth. (2) That heaven was his true abode. (3) That, on earth, his spirit was in communication with heaven.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v16 Joh_3:16-21. These verses are confidently held by many to…
EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES
Joh_3:16-21. These verses are confidently held by many to contain the reflections of the Evangelist, and not to be a continuation of our Lord’s discourse. But
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(1) there is not the slightest indication of a transition from Christ’s words to a disciple’s comments on them; and
(2) we cannot think that our Lord would have let Nicodemus depart without a distinct assertion that the Son of man was none other than the Son of God, as the Baptist declared Him to be; and without further instruction in the mystery of redemption. Nicodemus was, we may believe, now a humble learner, and that now our Lord’s discourse flowed on uninterruptedly. The discourse is not, we may affirm, reported in full. The Evangelist, directed by the Spirit, recorded what was of universal interest and importance; and perhaps also we have at the close a condensation of our Lord’s utterance. St. John did not profess to have recorded every word spoken by the Saviour, any more than all His actions (Joh_20:30; Joh_21:25; Act_20:35). God so loved, etc.—The love, and not the wrath of God, is the source of redemption for mankind. Gave His only begotten Son (2Co_9:15).—It was during this conversation most likely that John first heard this striking title (1Jn_4:9). Believeth upon (εἰς).—Implying the idea of assured trust in the Son as the all-merciful and almighty.
Joh_3:17. Condemn.—Better judge (κρίνειν). “It means originally to separate, and in the moral sense to separate good from evil. Passing from the act to the effect, it may mean to absolve; but as the usual effect of separation is to exclude the evil, the word has attached to itself frequently the idea of condemnation” (Watkins). Judgment is not the end of Christ’s coming, but salvation. That the world, etc.—How condemnatory of sectarian limitations of the power of Christ’s saving work!
Joh_3:18-19. But though Christ did not come to judge, the effect of His coming is judgment. And this judgment is not an arbitrary act. It is the result of men’s own choice. Those who remain in the bondage of sin shall taste the penalty of sin (Rom_6:23). This is their judgment. This judgment is made imperative by the entrance of light into the world. It was then evident that men loved darkness rather than light—darkness absolutely (σκότος) in contradistinction to light.
Joh_3:20-21. Here the explanation of this awful choice made by unrenewed humanity is given. He that doeth evil, etc.—Doeth (πράσσων), or practiseth, evil (φαῦλα), or bad actions. To see such actions for a moment in the light of eternal truth is to condemn them. Those who find pleasure in them therefore avoid the light. But he that doeth (ποιῶν) truth, etc.—ποιῶν “implies effective realisation—in good-doing the product remains” (Godet). “Right action is true thought realised” (Westcott). “Among mankind before Christ there mingle two kinds of men. With the appearance of Jesus their separation begins” (Lücke). And with this word of hope to Nicodemus—hope that he was of the number of those doing truth—the interview with him ends.
Joh_3:22. After, etc.—I.e. after the occurrences related from Joh_3:13 in the previous chapter. The land of Judæa means the country districts of Judæa. No further record of this work, in which our Lord must have increased the number of His followers, is given, as Jesus did not baptise personally, but through His disciples (Joh_4:2).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Joh_3:16-21
The blessedness to which the Spirit leads us through regeneration.—Faith in Christ, as St. John points out, is the means through which men attain to the new life (Joh_3:15). We must surrender ourselves and trust in Him for all. But faith also is “the gift of God.” Of ourselves alone we cannot attain it; for sin has darkened our spiritual vision and weakened our spiritual power. But faith is given by the Spirit (1Co_12:9). He transforms our nature—through Him it is born anew. The darkness is cleared away from our spiritual vision, and spiritual strength is given to those who have no might. And thus the spiritually renewed are led to rejoice in—
I. The unchanging divine love, which is revealed as the eternal spring of redemption.—
1. It was not from an unwilling God that mercy was won for perishing men. God Himself is fons et origo of all the mercy and goodness and love which have been showered on men, sinful as they were, through the long course of history.
2. Nay, more: when no man could “redeem his brother, or bring to God a ransom for him,” God sent His only-begotten Son, gave Him up to live and die for man’s salvation.
3. And the reception of and participation in this heavenly gift is assured to those who believe. And those who thus receive Christ and His salvation are led ever more joyfully to understand the mystery of the divine love—to realise “that God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (Joh_3:17).
II. Those who are spiritually renewed rejoice in having escaped from the terrible judgment of unbelievers.—“He that believeth not is condemned already,” etc. (Joh_3:18-20)
1. Those who turn away in unbelief from God’s dear Son bring judgment upon themselves, and shut themselves out from the divine mercy in Christ. They reject Christ’s expiation of the offended divine law, and the means by which the new spiritual life is alone begotten in men; thus the final judgment will simply be a declaration of their self-condemnation. They will stand self-condemned before the Judge (Rev_6:16).
2. And, as a result of this rejection of Christ, the light of men, the unbelieving sink into ever deeper darkness, the heart becomes hardened, the dominion of evil is ever more firmly established. Evil becomes their good—they devour iniquity (Pro_19:28), wickedness is sweet in their mouths (Job_20:12). And because of this they hate the light, for it intrudes on their peace, and threatens to snatch their pleasure from them. But the end is certain; it is condemnation—eternal loss. Thus the Spirit brings before believers this terrible result of unbelief as a warning; and they are led thereby more fully and even tremblingly to rejoice in their salvation.
III. And, last, the blessedness of the new life is a cause of rejoicing.—
1. It is free from the fear of judgment; for over the believer the Eternal Judge Himself has cast the shield of His grace. “There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus,” etc. (Rom_8:1). The eternal judgment will be but the open manifestation of God’s love to His people; and in the judgments and trials that overtake them here they realise “not tokens of wrath, but of gracious chastisement.”
2. And in the life of faith men ever seek the light—desire ever more fully to know themselves, their weaknesses, their follies, their sinfulness; and to know Christ and the gospel of His grace, that those evils may, through the grace of His indwelling Spirit, be ever more eliminated. By the truth enlightened, they order their way and work to the honour of God, in all things seeking to adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour, and to demonstrate that the life they now live in the flesh they live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved them and gave Himself for them; they work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing and acknowledging that it is God who works in them, etc. (Php_2:13), so that their “deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God.”
Joh_3:16-21. The office of the Holy Ghost.—This office has two sides: the Holy Ghost gathers together and separates—unites and divides.
I. He reveals the love of God.—
1. The object of this love: God loved the world.
2. The manner and kind of this love: God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Song of Solomon 3. The condition of this love: whosoever believeth in Him.
4. The purpose of this love: God gives His Son that we may not perish, but that we may have eternal life. Not that He might judge the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.
II. He executes judgment.—
1. Through His continued pentecostal activity, in that He reveals the love of God in Christ to us poor sinful men, and to a lost world, and in that He shows the mighty so (οὕτω) of this love. He not only gathers the Church, but in so doing carries out a solemn judgment. It is a momentous fact that those who believe are not judged, whilst the unbelieving are judged already.
2. How is this judgment, this separation, effected? Attend first to the effect which the heart experiences in which the Holy Spirit witnesses to the love of God. Christ is the light which penetrates into the heart of man, and reveals the existing darkness. The man is dismayed, but he fears the struggle. He resolves to remain as he is. Thus arises the opposition to this apprehension by the Spirit. But because the Holy Spirit does not leave hold of the man who has been convicted, the opposition may gradually become hatred of the light that shines in on his darkness. The man then enters on the way of darkness, in which his deeds are evil, and does not come to the light, so that his works may not be detected, and lose their delight, etc.—Appuhn in J. L. Sommer’s “Evang. Per.”
Joh_3:16-21. The double office of the Holy Spirit.—He is:
I. A guide to the way of salvation, Joh_3:16-18; Joh_3:21.—
1. He holds up to our view the love of God in Christ.
2. He leads us to regard the Saviour as dear and beloved.
3. He enkindles faith in us.
4. He gives us assurance of life eternal.
5. He sanctifies and renews us.
He is further—
II. A judge of those who contemn the great salvation.—
1. He condemns the darkness of unbelief and those who love it.
2. He separates the unbelieving and carnally minded from the community of the faithful.
3. He represents to them their unbelief as the sole cause of their condemnation.—Dr. v. Biarowsky.
Joh_3:16. The love of God.—John is veritably the apostle of love. He alone of all the apostolic band seems to have been chosen to understand somewhat the deeps of this divine love, so that he might tell it to men. The spirit of inspiration chooses fitting instruments; and we must assume that by nature and grace St. John was best fitted to make known the gospel of eternal love. Here, for the first time, he opens for us in his Gospel this eternal spring. Its presence had been implied before, when the revelation of Christ was spoken of; but now it is clearly made known. Notice:—
I. The eternal spring of love.—
1. It is God Himself. He is the fountain of love. Many glorious things are spoken of God. His eternity, “the same yesterday,” etc.; His almighty power, so that He speaks and it is done, etc.; His omniscience, His wisdom, are all brought before us, and evoke our adoration and praise.
2. But this feature of His nature is pre-eminent. It is said God is the righteous One, holy One, etc. But it is not said, He is righteousness, etc. It is said He is love. This is the attribute that runs through and dominates all the others.
3. How comforting is this revelation of the divine love. How it has altered men’s ideas of God, and changed to them the face of the universe! How dark and terrible were men’s thoughts of the heavenly Father in times of old, when they offered children in sacrifice, etc.
4. Now how changed is the face of the universe! Jesus has told us of the Father’s care and love for the fowls of the air, the lilies of the field. And nature now is to the Christian everywhere vocal of love divine. History we read with new light in view of this glorious revelation. And especially in the history of His dealings with men it shines conspicuous; throwing its golden light over all. But further—
II. God first loved the world.—
1. It would have been long ere the world would have come to love Him. But “He first loved us,” and our love would never have blossomed in response to His had He not loved us.
2. And first, what does this imply in its fulness? It implies an eternity of love. In the Son whom He loved from eternity He loved His people. Thus all through the course of the world’s history, even when He seemed to be coming only in wrath, God has been coming in love to men.
3. And we live in times when the most amazing proof of that love has been bestowed. “He gave His only begotten Son,” etc. And in all the Church and history of the Church that divine love speaks in convincing tones—in that word of salvation preached, in those ordinances, the observance of which tends to the soul’s spiritual health, in those gifts of the Spirit given freely to them who believe, in those promises that draw us near to the throne of grace,—in all these the love of God is proclaimed to our wondering eyes.
4. How has that love cared for us and watched over us from infancy until now—not turned aside through waywardness, etc.! God first loved us!
III. Walk in the belief of His love and thus taste its joy.—I. Believe on Him who is the gift and revealer of God’s love. Then love will cast out fear.
2. Love will also strengthen to labour. When the sun rises man goes forth to his work, and when the sun of love in Christ shines on a man he becomes diligent for God. Fear for eternity has vanished, and he labours joyously in time.
3. He who believes in God’s love fears not the storms of temptation or trial. Are they not in God’s hands? Shall they not work together for good?
4. Those who abide in love abide in God and God in them. Thus they can “never perish.” Abiding in God’s love through Christ they are eternally safe—safe amid all the turmoil of time until the rest of the Father’s house is reached. This is heaven on earth, and therefore no condemnation.
Joh_3:17. No condemnation.—How great the truth revealed in those simple words—God sent His Son. Jesus Christ His Son came to earth sent by the Father in love to men. The end of His mission was salvation to our perishing race. This great truth is brought before us in two aspects.
I. No condemnation.—
1. His Son was sent not to condemn. Nay, His very name was a sign and symbol of safety, He was called Jesus—a Saviour.
2. The world lay justly under condemnation. It would have sufficiently vindicated the divine justice to have carried out a sentence of condemnation. And the history of all races and religions shows how conscious men were of being under condemnation,—how they feared that it would be carried into effect.
3. But God’s ways are not man’s ways. His love and pity for men found a way by which this condemnation might be averted.
4. “His tender mercies are over all His works.” This has been shown all down the history of the past. It is seen in His providential dealings with man. He has so ordered the course of nature that “seedtime and harvest, summer and winter,” etc. (Gen_8:22), have visited the earth, made it fruitful. He has sent men rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, etc. (Act_14:17). All this showed His loving care, and might have led men to expect that some further loving purpose lay behind.
5. This gracious purpose is seen in redemption, in His sending the Son—not to condemn the world. But there is a further side of this purpose of God, and that is—
II. Salvation.—
1. No condemnation might still have left us far from God. There was an actual purpose of blessing beyond and above this, in God sending His Son. It was, “that the world through Him might be saved.” God could have destroyed, condemned the world without sending the Son. But it was necessary in order to the world’s salvation that He should come.
2. He came to save His people from their sins. It was sin that lay at the basis of alienation and condemnation; and Jesus came not in wrath but in love, to save men from it, by taking away, in His own sufferings and death, the sins of the world.
3. How great was this salvation which He brought. Moses was privileged to lead Israel out of Egyptian bondage, and Joshua to lead the ransomed people into the Land of Promise. But the Son was sent to deliver the world from the bondage of sin, and bring unto all believers the promise of a heavenly inheritance.
4. God sent the Son for this great end. “He is the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him” (Heb_5:9).
5. And He alone could undertake this office; for He is Emmanuel, “God with us.” He is God with men—in all the fulness of the divine power. The Creator, the Preserver, etc., who took upon Him the form of a servant, but whose glory was manifest in the flesh. He is God for men. He was sent and came to stand in man’s room. He has authority and power to do so. Men died in Him unto sin. Through faith in Him they live. And He is God in men—in those who believe. “Christ in us the hope of glory.” Here is salvation. With Him in us and we in Him, how can we perish? Nay, a world shall be saved! The last shall not outnumber the saved. The purpose of God towards the world shall not fail (Act_3:20-21).
Lessons.—
1. Consider the greatness of God’s love in Christ! He might have destroyed the world, as at the flood, etc. But He chose the way of love, which meant the way of self-sacrifice and humiliation for the Song of Solomon 2. How shall they escape who neglect so great salvation? (Heb_2:3).
3. Let the divine love constrain us to faith and willing submission. Thus shall we best glorify His name by believing in Jesus.
Joh_3:20. Love not the darkness.—Sin is darkness. It leads to men turning away from the light, i.e. from God, as Adam and Eve hid themselves from God when they had fallen.
I. Sin in its nature is darkness.—
1. It is a denial of man’s dependence on God, and an attempt to cut the life loose from Him—“to be as gods.”
2. This ends in disobedience to the divine law, which is man’s light; and in turning away from the source of that light.
3. All ways that lead from God lead to darkness and death.
II. The results of sin lead to ever-increasing alienation and darkness.—
1. How terribly this has been brought out in the world’s history! “Darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people.” And men became so accustomed to this state that they loved darkness rather than light.
2. Indeed the entrance of light became a pain. There were still ways in which it could make itself felt, through conscience, through the shame which men often felt at sin; for God’s image, though broken, was not entirely destroyed. But this entrance of the light brought pain. It brought restriction to the lower nature, which had now gained the ascendency, and it showed how far men had fallen, to what height they must attain.
3. Thus they came to love darkness rather than light, and this was their condemnation. Not that they were sinful and in darkness, but because they clung to it even after the light had come. And thus Christ, who came to save, becomes in the nature of things their Judge (Joh_15:22-24).
III. The way of escape from the darkness of sin.—
1. “Awake, thou that sleepest,” etc. (Eph_5:14). The light has come.
2. Christ brings the true knowledge of God, of ourselves, and of the way of salvation.
3. The sun of righteousness has arisen, and with that rising the hope and promise of escape from the darkness of self and sin, to those who believe.
Joh_3:22-24. Our Lord’s ministry in rural Judea.—In Jerusalem our Lord came unto His own—the very centre of the Theocracy—and His own received Him not. He therefore turned His face again toward Galilee. But on the way He lingered in the rural parts of Judea with His disciples, attracting men to Him, and baptising, not personally, but through His disciples, those who believed on Him (Joh_4:1). Who those disciples were we cannot well determine. Peter was not there, it would seem; for although a disciple, he had in the meantime returned to his avocation (Mar_1:16-18). John the Evangelist was with Him, and perhaps one or two of the others already called. Probably, also, some who attached themselves to Him on this ministry. We notice:
I. The initiation of Christian baptism.—
1. By the command, in Mat_28:19, baptism was ordained as an universal possession for all people—a means of grace designed for all ages.
2. In reply to the question why Christ Himself did not baptise but through His disciples, the answer which seems most conclusive is that He desired that all His people should have the assurance that baptism by the hands of His disciples is to be accounted as His baptism.
II. The earnest activity of the Saviour.—
1. “Work while it is called to-day” was a prominent characteristic of His activity;
2. And in every place, at all times, He must needs be about His Father’s business—a happy example for all His true disciples never to neglect opportunities of proclaiming the truth of God.
III. The result of this activity.—
1. It seems to have been phenomenal—“the same baptiseth, and all men come to Him” (Joh_3:26). Disciples were gathered.
2. Here again to the babes—simple countryfolk—were revealed the things which were hid from the wise and prudent in Jerusalem.
HOMILETIC NOTES
Joh_3:16. The greatness of the divine love.—A well-known proverb is, Like draws to like. But here there is an immense dissimilarity.
1. Who is God? The Being of beings, the Almighty, the Light of lights.
2. What are you?—a shadow, a vapour. The greatness of faith.—
1. In faith God has chosen His people to blessedness from the beginning (2Th_2:13);
2. Through faith they can come by Christ’s blood to a throne of grace (Rom_3:25);
3. Through faith they come to God (Heb_11:7);
4. Through faith they have peace with God (Rom_5:1);
5. Through faith they receive forgiveness of sin (Act_10:43);
6. Through faith they are accounted righteous (Rom_4:5);
7. Through faith they overcome the world (1Jn_5:4);
8. The end of faith is the salvation of the soul (1Pe_1:9). Happy and blest are they who have believed. The greatness of this word.—Frederick of Denmark chose this verse as his “sleeping cup.” Receiving this great saying in faith he fell asleep in the Lord gently and blessedly. Monica, the mother of Augustine, used it as a heavenly pinion. Hearing it in the course of a sermon, she was so entranced that she began to cry out, “Avolemus, Avolemus!” (Let us soar upward). Abraham Buchholzer, a noted chronologist, held it before him as a shield against the temptations of the enemy. When, on a bed of sickness, he was oppressed with temptation he cried out without ceasing, Not lost, not lost! referring to this verse, “Whosoever believeth shall not perish.” Luther called this verse parva biblia (little Bible), because it contained in it the kernel of the whole of Scripture. And when it was repeated to him on his death-bed he said: “It is my favourite cordial.” Luther also wrote of this verse as follows: “This is one of the best and most glorious of evangels, and were well worth being written in golden letters, not on paper, but where it may be, on the heart; and well would it be if it were the subject of daily meditation in every Christian’s prayer, to strengthen faith, to awake the heart to supplication; for these are words that can turn sorrow into joy, and make the (spiritually) dead alive, if only the heart would steadfastly believe them.” We behold here the contents of evangelical doctrine and the paragon of consolation. If this saying alone is laid hold of truly by faith, it will enable a man in utmost peril to withstand all fiery darts, to be victorious in all temptations, and lay hold of life eternal. Do not shut yourself out; God does not desire that you should be shut out.—From J. J. Weigel.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Joh_3:16. The eternal love of God.—God has not waited for us to love Him; before all time, before we were endowed with life, He thought of us, and thought of doing us good. What He meditated in eternity He has performed in time. His beneficent hand has bestowed every variety of blessings upon us; neither our unfaithfulness nor our ingratitude has dried up the fountain of His goodness to us, or arrested the stream of His bounty. O thou eternal Love, that hast loved me when I could neither know nor acknowledge Thee! immeasurable love! that has made me what I am, that has given me all I possess, and that has yet promised me infinitely more! O love without interruption, without change, that all the bitter waters of my iniquities could not extinguish! Have I any heart, O my God, if I am not penetrated with gratitude and love for Thee?—Fenelon.
Joh_3:16. Shall not the love of God constrain us to love Him?—Are there yet amongst us those who have never felt the love of God as shown in the gift of His Son? Are there hearts which can warm to every benefactor but the greatest, throb kindly towards every friend but that One who died in man’s stead, and give their quick sensibilities to every tale of heroism and philanthropy but that which describes how “the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost”? Indeed we must fear that there are yet many whose affections are in full play towards all but God; many who, in the domestic circle and the intercourse of life, show themselves possessed of fervent affections and acute sensibilities, but who are yet utterly indifferent in regard to the things done “for us men and for our salvation.” What shall we say to such? You have not, but surely you must wish to have, a lively sense of the love shown towards you in redemption. Then, when you go hence, read, in one of the Gospels, the account of Jesus Christ’s sufferings and death; read it with prayer that God would take away the heart of stone and give the heart of flesh; and we shall still hope for you that you will know the gushings of a thankful spirit, and feel a thrill of gratitude at the announcement that God so loved you as to give His own Son to die in your stead.—Henry Melvill.
Joh_3:17. The victory of eternal love.—The result of all this is, that the suffering is efficacious—“He taketh away the sin of the world.” The blood of bulls and of goats could never take away sin, but this Man has offered up one sacrifice for sins for ever. “He taketh away;” it is not merely, “He bears the sin of the world.” He takes it away by taking it upon Him. Many an unconscious victim had shed its blood for the sin of the world, and yet the sin remained. Many a great heart had borne the sin of the world, and had broken under the weight, and still the sin remained. There had been many that palliated the sin of the world, and yet it remained. It is possible to disguise the sin of the world, to drive it under the surface, to cover it with a fair exterior, to make excuse for it, but that is not to take it away. It is possible to fight with separate sins of the world, and in some measure to master them, but as long as any sin remains the sin of the world has not been taken away. But Jesus came not to deal with the sins of the world, but with the sin of the world. In human nature strictness in one direction often compensates itself by laxity in another, and men dream that they have overcome sin when they have gained a victory in some isolated fragment of the world of moral duty. But to exchange one sin for another, as Samson the Nazarite did, is not redemption. Nor is the mere escaping from the penalty of sin redemption. Redemption means the removal of sin, not merely of the punishment of sin; and He who dealt with sin effectually by taking it away was Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ alone. The sin of the world, not the sins. The victory of Christ was over sin as a unity, the whole corruption of human nature which finds expression in separate sins. The sin of the world is regarded as heaped up in one tremendous pile, and that pile laid upon the head of Christ. That was the load which He staggered under. Think of the sin of one life—the sin with which it is born, the sins of childhood, youth, manhood, age; the sins of broken vows, broken oaths, unfulfilled duties; and then multiply that one life by the numbers of all the world, and consider what a foe it was Christ came to reckon with, what a foe it was that He overcame in the body of His flesh through death.—Dr. W. Robertson Nicoll.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv14, 16
John
THE BRAZEN SERPENT
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Joh 3:14.
This is the second of the instances in this Gospel in which our Lord lays His hand upon an institution or incident of the Old Testament, as shadowing forth some aspect of His work. In the first of these instances, under the image of the ladder that Jacob saw, our Lord presented Himself as the sole medium of communication between heaven and earth; here He goes a step further into the heart of His work, and under the image, very eloquent to the Pharisee to whom He was speaking, of the brazen serpent lifted up on the pole in the desert, proclaims Himself as the medium of healing and of life to a poisoned world.
Now, Nicodemus has a great many followers to-day. He took up a position which many take up. He recognised Christ as a Teacher, and was willing to accord to the almost unknown young man from Galilee the coveted title of ‘Rabbi.’ He came to Him with a little touch of condescension, and evidently thought that for him, a ruler of the Jews, a member of the upper and educated classes, to be willing to speak of Jesus as a Teacher, was an endorsement that the young aspirant might be gratified to receive. ‘Rabbi, we know that Thou art a Teacher sent from God’-but he stopped there. He is not the only one who compliments Jesus Christ, while he degrades Him from His unique position. Now, to this inadequate conception of our Lord’s Person and work, Christ opposed the solemn insistence on the incapacity of human nature as it is, to enter into communion with, and submission to, God. And then He passes on to speak-in precise parallelism with the position that He took up when He likened Himself to the Ladder of Jacob’s vision-of Himself as being the Son of Man that came down from Heaven, and therefore is able to reveal heavenly things. In my text He further unveils in symbol the mystery and dignity of His Person and of His work, whilst He speaks of a mysterious lifting up of this Son of Man who came down from heaven. These are the truths that the conception of Christ as a great Teacher needs for its completion; the contrariety of human nature with the divine will, the Incarnation of the Son of God, the Crucifixion of the Incarnate Son. And so we have here three points, to which I desire to turn, as setting forth the conception of His own work which Jesus Christ presented as completing the conception of it, to which Nicodemus had attained.
I. There is, first, the lifting up of the Son of Man.
Now, of course, the sole purpose of setting that brazen serpent on the pole was to render it conspicuous, and all that Nicodemus could then understand by the symbol was that, in some unknown way, this heaven-descended Son of Man should be set forth before Israel and the world as being the Healer of all their diseases. But we are wiser, after the event, than the ruler of the Jews could be at the threshold of Christ’s ministry. We have also to remember that this is not the only occasion, though it is the first, on which our Lord used this very significant expression. For twice over in this Gospel we find it upon His lips-once when, addressing the unbelieving multitude, He says ‘When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am He’; and once when in soliloquy, close on Calvary, He says, as the vision of a world flocking to Him rises before Him on occasion of the wish of a few Greek proselytes to see Him, ‘I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.’ We do not need, though we have, the Evangelist’s commentary, ‘this He spake signifying what death He should die.’
So, if we accept the historical veracity of this Gospel, we here perceive Jesus Christ, at the very beginning of His career, and before the dispositions of the nation towards Him had developed themselves in action, discerning its end, and seeing, gaunt and grim before Him, the Cross that was lifted up on Calvary. Enthusiasts and philanthropists and apostles of all sorts, in the regions of science and beneficence and morals and religion, begin their career with trusting that their ‘brethren should have understood’ that God was speaking through them. But no illusion of that sort, according to these Evangelists, drew Jesus Christ out of His seclusion at Nazareth and impelled Him on His career. From the beginning He knew that the Cross was to be the end. That Cross was not to Him a necessity, accepted as the price of faithfulness in doing His work, so that His attitude was, ‘I will speak what is in Me, though I die for it,’ but it was to Him the very heart of the work which He came to do. Therefore, after He had said to the ruler of the Jews that the Son of Man, as descended from Heaven, was able to speak of heavenly things, He added the deeper necessity, He ‘must be lifted up.’ Where lay the ‘must’? In the requirement of the work which He had set Himself to do. Beneath this great saying there lies a pathetic, stern, true conception of the condition of human nature. That desert encampment, with the poisoned men dying on every hand, is the emblem under which Jesus Christ, the gentlest and the sweetest soul that ever lived, looked out upon humanity. And it was because the facts of human nature called for something far more than a teacher that He said ‘the Son of Man must be lifted up.’ For what they needed, and what He had set Himself to bring, could only be brought by One who yielded Himself up for the sins of the whole world.
But that ‘must,’ which thus arose from the requirements of the task that He had set before Him, had its source in His own heart; it was no necessity imposed upon Him from without. True, it was a necessity laid on Him by filial obedience, but also true, it was the necessity accepted by Him in pursuance of the impulse of His own heart. He must die because He must save, and He must save because He loved. So He was not nailed to the Cross by the nails and hammers of the Roman soldiers, and the taunt that was flung at Him as He hung there had a deeper meaning, as scoffs thrown at Him and His cause ordinarily have, than the scoffers understood: ‘He saved others,’ and therefore ‘Himself He cannot save.’
So here we have Christ accepting, as well as discerning, the Cross. And we have more than that. We have Christ looking at the Cross as being, not humiliation, but exaltation. ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up.’ And what does that mean? It means the same thing that He said when, near the end, He declared, ‘The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified.’ We are accustomed to speak-and we speak rightly-of His death as being the lowest point of the humiliation which was inherent in the very fact of His humanity. He condescended to be born; He stooped yet more to die. But whilst that is true, the other side is also true-that in the Cross Christ is lifted up, and that it is His Throne. For what see we there? The highest exhibition, the tenderest revelation, of His perfect love. And what see we there besides? The supreme manifestation of the highest power.
‘‘Twas great to speak a world from nought,
‘Tis greater to redeem.’
To save humanity, to make it possible that men should receive that second birth, and should enter into the Kingdom of God-that was a greater work, because a work not only of creation, but of restoration, than it was to send forth the stars on their courses and to ‘preserve’ the ancient heavens ‘from wrong.’ There is a revelation of divine might when we ‘lift up our eyes on high,’ and see how, ‘because He is great in power, not one faileth.’ But there is a mightier revelation of divine power when we see how, from amidst the ruins of humanity, He can restore the divine image, and piece together, as it were, without sign of flaw or crack or one fragment wanting, the fair image that was shattered into fragments by the blow of Sin’s heavy mace. Power in its highest operation, power in its tenderest efficacy, power in its widest sweep, are set forth on the Cross of Christ, and that weak Man hanging there, dying in the dark, is ‘the power of God’ as well as ‘the wisdom of God.’ The Cross is Christ’s Throne, but it is His sovereign manifestation of love and power only if it is what, as I believe He told us it was, and what His servants from His lips caught the interpretation of it as being, the death for the sins of the sin-stricken world. Unless we can believe that, when He died, He died for us, I know not why Christ’s death should appeal to our love. But if we recognise-as I pray that we all may recognise-that our deep need for something far more than Teacher or Pattern has been met in that great ‘one Sacrifice for sins for ever,’ then the magnetism of the Cross begins to tell, and we understand what He meant when He said, ‘I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.’ Brethren, the Cross is His Throne, from which He rules the world, and if you strike His sacrifice for sins out of your conception of His work, you have robbed Him of sovereignty, and taken out of His hand the sceptre by which He governs the hearts and wills of rebellious and restored men.
II. Notice, again, how we have here the look at the uplifted Son of Man.
I do not need to paint for you what your own imaginations can sufficiently paint for yourselves-the scene in the wilderness where the dying men from the very outskirts of the camp could turn a filmy eye to the brazen serpent hanging in their midst. That look is the symbol of what we need, in order that the life-giving power of Christ should enter into our death. There is no better description of the act of Christian faith than that picture of the dying Israelite turning his languid eye to the symbol of healing and life. That trust which Jesus emphasises here in ‘whosoever believeth on Him,’ He opposes very emphatically to Nicodemus’s confession, ‘We know that Thou art a Teacher.’ We know-you have to go a step further, Nicodemus! ‘We know’; well and good, but are you included in ‘whosoever believeth’? Faith is an advance on credence. There is an intellectual side to it, but its essence is what is the essence of trust always, the act of the will throwing itself on that which is discerned to be trustworthy. You know that a given man is reliable-that is not relying on him. You have to go a step further. And so, dear brethren, you may believe thirty-nine or thirty-nine thousand Articles with an unfaltering credence, and you may be as far away from faith as if you did not believe one of them. There may be a perfect belief and an absolute want of faith. And on the other hand, blessed be God! there may be a real and an operative trust with a very imperfect or mistaken creed. The wild flowers on the rock bloom fair and bright, though they have scarcely any soil in which to strike their roots, and the plants in the most fertile garden may fail to produce flowers and seed. So trust and credence are not always of the same magnitude.
This trust is no arbitrary condition. The Israelite was bid to turn to the brazen serpent. There was no connection between his look and his healing, except in so far as the symbol was a help to, and looking at it was a test of, his faith in the healing power of God. But it is no arbitrary appointment, as many people often think it is, which connects inseparably together the look of faith and the eternal life that Christ gives. For seeing that salvation is no mere external gift of shutting up some outward Hell and opening the door to some outward Heaven, but is a state of heart and mind, of relation to God, the only way by which that salvation can come into a man’s heart is that he, knowing his need of it, shall trust Christ, and through Him the new life will flow into his heart. Faith is trust, and trust is the stretching out of the hand to take the precious gift, the opening of the heart for the influx of the grace, the eating of the bread, the drinking of the water, of life.
It is the only possible condition. God forbid that I should even seem to depreciate other forms of healing men’s evils and redressing men’s wrongs, and diminishing the sorrows of humanity! We welcome them all; but education, art, culture, refinement, improved environment, bettered social and political conditions, whilst they do a great deal, do not go down to the bottom of the necessity. And after you have built your colleges and art museums and stately pleasure-houses, and set every man in an environment that is suited to develop him, you will find out what surely the world might have found out already, that, as in some stately palace built in the Campagna, the malaria is in the air, and steals in at the windows, and infects all the inhabitants. Thank God for all these other things! but you cannot heal a man who has poison in his veins by administering cosmetics, and you cannot put out Vesuvius with a jugful of water. If the camp is to be healed, the Christ must be lifted up.
III. And now, lastly, here we have the life that comes with a look at the lifted-up Son of Man.
Those of you who are using the Revised Version will see that there is a little change made here, partly by the exclusion of a clause and partly by changing the order of the words. The alteration is not only nearer the original text, but brings out a striking thought. It reads that ‘whosoever believeth may in Him have eternal life.’ Now, it is far too late a period of my discourse to enlarge upon all that these great words would suggest to us, but let me just, in a sentence or two, mark the salient points.
‘Eternal life’; do not bring that down to the narrow and inadequate conception of unending existence. It involves that, but it means a great deal more. It means a life of such a sort as is worth calling life, which is a life in union with God, and therefore full of blessedness, full of purity, full of satisfaction, full of desire and aspiration, and all these with the stamp of unendingness deeply impressed upon them. And that is what comes to us through the look. Not only is the process of dying arrested, but there is substituted for it a new process of growing possession of a new life. You ‘must be born again,’ Christ had been saying to Nicodemus. The change that passes upon a man when once he has anchored his trust on Jesus Christ, the uplifted Son of Man, is so profound that it is nothing else than a new birth, and a new life comes into his veins untainted by the poison, and with no proclivity to death.
‘May have eternal life’-now, here, on the instant. That eternal life is no future gift to be bestowed upon mortal men when they have passed through the agony of death, but it is a gift which comes to us here, and may come to any man on the instant of his looking to Jesus Christ.
‘May in Him have eternal life’-union with Christ by faith, that profound incorporation-if I may use the word-into Him, which the New Testament sets forth in all sorts of aspects as the very foundation of the blessings of Christianity; that union is the condition of eternal life. So, dear brethren, we all need that the poison shall be cast out of our veins. We all need that the tendency downwards to a condition which can only be described as death may be arrested, and the motion reversed. We all need that our knowledge shall be vitalised into faith. We all need that the past shall be forgiven, and the power of sin upon us in the present shall be cancelled. ‘The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin,’ because it was shed for the remission of the sins of the many, and is transfused, an untainted principle of life, into our veins. What Jesus said to Nicodemus by night in that quiet chamber in Jerusalem, what He said in effect and act upon the Cross, when uplifted there, is what He says to each of us from the Throne where He is now lifted up: ‘Whosoever believeth shall in Me have eternal life.’ Take Him at His word, and you will find that it is true.
John
CHRIST’S MUSTS
Joh 3:14.
I have chosen this text for the sake of one word in it, that solemn ‘must’ which was so often on our Lord’s lips. I have no purpose of dealing with the remainder of this clause, nor indeed with it at all, except as one instance of His use of the expression. But I have felt it might he interesting, and might set old truths in a brighter light, if we gather together the instances in which Christ speaks of the great necessity which dominated His life, and shaped even small acts.
The expression is most frequently used in reference to the Passion and Resurrection. There are many instances in the Gospels, in which He speaks of that must. The first of these is that of my text. Then there is another class, of which His word to His mother when a twelve-year-old child may be taken as a type: ‘Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?’ where the mysterious consciousness of a special relation to God in the child’s heart drew Him to the Temple and to His Father’s work. Other similar instances are those in which He responded to the multitude when they wanted to keep Him to themselves: ‘I must preach in other cities also’; or as when He said, ‘I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day.’
Yet another aspect of the same necessity is presented when, looking far beyond the earthly work and suffering, He discerned the future triumph which was to be the issue of these, and said, ‘Other sheep I have . . . them also I must bring.’
And yet another is in reference to a very small matter: His selection of a place for a few hours’ rest on His last fateful journey to Jerusalem, when He said, ‘Zaccheus, . . . to-day I must abide at thy house.’
Now, if we put these instances together, we shall get some precious glimpses into our Lord’s heart, and His view of life.
I. Here we see Christ recognising and accepting the necessity for His death.
My text, if we accept John’s Gospel, contributes an altogether new element to our conception of our Lord as announcing His death. For the other three Gospels lay emphasis on it as being part of His teaching, especially during the later stage of His ministry. But it does not follow that He began to think about it or to see it, when He began to speak about it. There are reasons for the earlier comparative reticence, and there is no ground for the conclusion that then first began to dawn upon a disappointed enthusiast the grim reality that His work was not going to prosper, and that martyrdom was necessary. That is a notion that has been frequently upheld of late years, but to me it seems altogether incongruous with the facts of the case. And, if John’s Gospel is a true record, that theory is shivered against this text, which represents Him at the very beginning of His career-the time when, according to that other theory, He was full of the usual buoyant and baseless anticipations of a reformer commencing His course-as telling Nicodemus, ‘Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.’ In like manner, in the previous chapter of this same Gospel, we have the significant though enigmatical utterance: ‘Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up’; with the Evangelist’s authoritative comment: ‘He spake of the Temple of His body.’ So, from the beginning of His career, the end was clear before Him.
And why must He go to the Cross? Not merely, as the other Evangelists put it, in order that ‘it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the prophets.’ It was not that Jesus must die because the prophets had said that Messiah should, but that the prophets had said that Messiah should because Jesus must. There was a far deeper necessity than the fulfilment of any prophetic utterance, even the necessity which shaped that utterance. The work of Jesus Christ could not be done unless He died. He could not be the Saviour of the world unless He was the sacrifice for the sins of the world.
We cannot see all the grounds of that solemn imperative, but this we can see, that it was because of the requirements of the divine righteousness, and because of the necessities of sinful men. And so Christ’s was no martyr’s death, who had to die as the penalty of the faithful discharge of His duty. It was not the penalty that He paid for doing His work, but it was the work itself. Not that gracious life, nor ‘the loveliness of perfect deeds,’ nor His words of sweet wisdom, nor His acts of transcendent power, equalled only by the pity that moved the power, completed His task, but He ‘came to give His life a ransom for many.’
‘Must’ is a hard word. It may express an unwelcome necessity. Was this necessity unwelcome? When He said, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up,’ was He shrinking, or reluctantly submitting? Ah, no! He must die because He would save, and He would save because He did love. His filial obedience to God coincided with His pity for men: and not merely in obedience to the requirements of the divine righteousness, but in compassion for the necessities of sinners, necessity was laid upon Him.
Oh, brethren! nothing held Christ to the Cross but His own desire to save us. Neither priests nor Romans carried Him thither. What fastened Him to it was not the nails driven by rude hands. And the reason why He did not, as the taunters bade Him do, come down from it, was neither a physical nor a moral necessity unwelcome to Himself, but the yielding of His own will to do all which was needed for man’s salvation.
This sacrifice was bound to the altar by the cords of love. We have heard of martyrs who have refused to be tied to the stake, and have kept themselves motionless in the centre of the fierce flames by the force of their wills. Jesus Christ fastened Himself to the Cross and died because He would.
And, oh! if we think of that sweet, serene life as having clear before it from the very first steps that grim end, how infinitely it gains in pathetic beauty and in heart-touchingness! What wonderful self-abnegation! How he was at leisure from Himself, with a heart of pity for every sorrow, and loins girt for all service, though during all His life the Cross closed the vista! Think that human shrinking was felt by Him, think that it was so held back that His purpose never faltered, think that each of us may say, ‘He must die because He would save me’; and then ask, ‘What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me?’
II. In a second class of these utterances, we see Christ impelled by filial obedience and the consciousness of His mission.
‘Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?’ That was a strange utterance for a boy of twelve. It seems to negative the supposition that what is called the ‘Messianic consciousness’ dawned upon Jesus Christ first after His baptism and the descent of the Spirit. But however that may be, it and the similar passages to which I have already referred, bearing upon His discharge of His work prior to His death, teach that the necessity was an inward necessity springing from His consciousness of Sonship, and His recognition of the work that He had to do. And so He is our great Example of spontaneous obedience, which does violence to itself if it does not obey. It was instinct that sent the boy into the Temple. Where should a Son be but in His Father’s house? How could He not be doing His Father’s business?
Thus He stands before us, the pattern for the only obedience that is worth calling so, the obedience which would be pained and ill at ease unless it were doing the work of God. Religion is meant to make it a second nature, or, as I have ventured to call it, an instinct-a spontaneous, uncalculating, irrepressible desire-to be in fellowship with God, and to be doing His will. That is the meaning of our Christianity. There is no obedience in reluctant obedience; forced service is slavery, not service. Christianity is given for the specific purpose that it may bring us so into touch with Jesus Christ as that the mind which was in Him may be in us; and that we too may be able to say, with a kind of wonder that people should have expected to find us in any other place, or doing anything else, ‘Wist ye not that because I am a Son, I must be about my Father’s business?’ As certainly as the sunflower follows the sun, so certainly will a man animated by the mind that was in Jesus Christ, like Him find his very life’s breath in doing the Father’s will.
So then, brethren, what about our grudging service? What about our reluctant obedience? What about the widespread mistake that religion prohibits wished-for things and enforces unwelcome duties? If my Christianity does not make me recoil from what it forbids, and spring eagerly to what it commends, my Christianity is of very little use. If when in the Temple we are like idle boys in school, always casting glances at the clock and the door, and wishing ourselves outside, we may just as well be out as in. Glad obedience is true obedience. Only he who can say, ‘Thy law is within my heart, and I do Thy will because I love Thee, and cannot but do as Thou desirest,’ has found the joy possible to a Christian life. It is not ‘harsh and crabbed,’ as those that look upon it from the outside may ‘suppose,’ but musical and full of sweetness. There is nothing more blessed than when ‘I choose’ covers exactly the same ground as ‘I ought.’ And when duty is delight, delight will never become disgust, nor joy pass away.
III. We see, in yet another use of this great ‘must,’ Christ anticipating His future triumph.
‘Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd.’ Striking as these words are in themselves, they are still more striking when we notice their connection; for they follow immediately upon His utterance about laying down His life for the sheep. So, then, this was a work beyond the Cross, and whatever it was, it was to be done after He had died.
I need not point out to you how far afield Christ’s vision goes out into the dim, waste places, where on the dark mountains the straying sheep are torn and frightened and starving. I need not dwell upon how far ahead in the future His glance travels, or how magnificent and how rebuking to our petty narrowness this great word is. ‘There shall be one flock’ {not fold}; and they shall be one, not because they are within the bounds of any visible ‘fold,’ but because they are gathered round the one Shepherd, and in their common relation to Him are knit together in unity.
But what sort of a Man is this who considers that His widest work is to be done by Him after He is dead? ‘Them also I must bring.’ Thou? how? when? Surely such words as these, side by side with a clear prevision of the death that was so soon to come, are either meaningless or the utterance of an arrogance bordering on insanity, or they anticipate what an Evangelist declares did take place-that the Lord was ‘taken up into heaven and sat at the right hand of God,’ whilst His servants ‘went everywhere preaching the Word, the Lord also working with them and confirming the Word’ with the signs He wrought.
‘Them also I must bring.’ That is not merely a necessity rooted in the nature of God and the wants of men. It is not merely a necessity springing from Christ’s filial obedience and sense of a mission; but it is a ‘must’ of destiny, a ‘must’ which recognises the sure results of His passion; a ‘must’ which implies the power of the Cross to be the reconciliation of the world. And so for all pessimistic thoughts to-day, or at any time, and when Christian men’s hearts may be trembling for the Ark of God-although, perhaps, there may be little reason for the tremor-and in the face of all blatant antagonisms and of proud Goliaths despising the ‘foolishness of preaching,’ we fall back upon Christ’s great ‘must.’ It is written in the councils of Heaven more unchangeably than the heavens; it is guaranteed by the power of the Cross; it is certain, by the eternal life of the crucified Saviour, that He will one day be the King of humanity, and must bring His wandering sheep to couch in peace, one flock round one Shepherd.
IV. Lastly, we have Christ applying the greatest principle to the smallest duty.
‘Zaccheus! make haste and come down; to-day I must abide in thy house.’ Why must He? Because Zaccheus was to be saved, and was worth saving. What was the ‘must’? To stop for an hour or two on His road to the Cross. So He teaches us that in a life penetrated by the thought of the divine will, which we gladly obey, there are no things too great, and none too trivial, to be brought under the dominion of that law, and to be regulated by that divine necessity. Obedience is obedience, whether in large things or in small. There is no scale of magnitude applicable to the distinction between God’s will and that which is not God’s will. Gravitation rules the motes that dance in the sunshine as well as the mass of Jupiter. A triangle with its apex in the sun, and its base beyond the solar system, has the same properties and comes under the same laws as one that a schoolboy scrawls upon his slate. God’s truth is not too great to rule the smallest duties. The star in the East was a guide to the humble house at Bethlehem, and there are starry truths high in the heavens that avail for our guidance in the smallest acts of life.
So, brethren, bring your doings under that all-embracing law of duty-duty, which is the heathen expression for the will of God. There are great regions of life in which lower necessities have play. Circumstances, our past, bias and temper, relationship, friendship, civic duty, and the like-all these bring their necessities; but let us think of them all as being, what indeed they are, manifestations to us of the will of our Father. There are great tracts of life in which either of two courses may be right, and we are left to the decision of choice rather than of duty; but high above all these, let us see towering that divine necessity. It is a daily struggle to bring ‘I will’ to coincide with ‘I ought’; and there is only one adequate and always powerful way of securing that coincidence, and that is to keep close to Jesus Christ and to drink in His spirit. Then, when duty and delight are conterminous, ‘the rough places will be plain, and the crooked things straight, and every mountain shall be brought low, and every valley shall be exalted,’ and life will be blessed, and service will be freedom. Joy and liberty and power and peace will fill our hearts when this is the law of our being; ‘All that the Lord hath spoken, that must I do.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv13, 16, 17 Son of man
Son of man
(See Scofield "Mat 8:20")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v14 The purpose of Christ’s coming:
The purpose of Christ’s coming:
v. 14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
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v. 15. that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
v. 16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
v. 17. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
The act of Moses in the wilderness, in erecting the brazen serpent before the eyes of the stricken people, was typical, symbolical, Num 21:1-9. The people that had been bitten by the fiery serpents and then looked upon this symbol in faith were healed, and the poison had no effect upon them, Jesus is the antitype of the brazen serpent. In accordance with the divine counsel of love, in which He Himself had taken part, the Lord took upon Himself the obligation that He also should be elevated upon a tree before the eyes of the whole world. There are three points of similarity between type and antitype in this story. The brazen serpent of Moses had the form and appearance of the poisonous reptiles after which it was modeled, just as Jesus was revealed in the form of our sinful flesh, had the needs and ways of an ordinary human being, was finally punished as a criminal, Just as the brazen serpent, however, had no poison, was altogether harmless, so Jesus, though in appearance like unto sinful men, was without sin, holy, harmless, undefiled. A strange curse was resting upon Him, and for the sins of others, imputed to Him, He hung upon the cross. And finally, just as he that looked at the brazen serpent in faith remained alive, so also every sinner that has been poisoned by sin in its various forms, but now looks up to Jesus, the Savior, in simple, trusting faith, shall not perish, shall not be punished with everlasting destruction, but have eternal life. For in Christ all sin has been conquered, all guilt has been taken away: there is complete redemption in Him. This thought Jesus now repeats in a burst of Gospel-preaching which is without equal in the world’s literature, which, in fact, summarizes the entire Gospel in one short sentence. With the full emphasis of adoring wonder Jesus exclaims: For so God loved the world, so much, so greatly, so beyond all human understanding. The greatness of God’s love is such as to call forth this cry of astonishment even from the Son of God, the Savior Himself. God loved the world, God is the Author of salvation, 1Ti 2:3. He loved the world, all the people living in the world, all that make up the human element in the world; there is none excepted. He proved this love with a deed so wonderful, so surpassingly beautiful, that it cannot be brought out strongly enough in words of human speech, God gave His only-begotten Son as a free gift and present for the whole world. And such is His will and intention that He makes no exception: Everyone that believes in Him shall not perish, shall not see destruction, but have everlasting life, the life in and with Jesus that shall have no end, but consists of bliss and joy through countless ages. What a contrast: the holy, eternal God and His equally holy and eternal Son giving the highest and best for the world, for the fallen, corrupt humanity, for the bitter enemy of God! The death of the Son of God is the punishment for the sins of the world; the Son of God dies that the world, all the people in the world, might live in all eternity. God’s death, God’s blood, was thrown into the scales in payment for the sins of the world. And there is nothing to be done on the part of sinners but to accept this atonement in faith; for faith accepts and appropriates the redemption of Christ. And the believer has eternal life even now, even here in time. He is sure of his salvation, because it is based upon the work of Jesus the Savior. "What shall, what can He do and give more? For since He gives His Son, what does He hold back that He does not give? Yea, He gives Himself altogether, as Paul says Rom 8:32: Who spared not His own Son, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things? Surely all must be given with Him who is an only-begotten, dearest Son, the Heir and Lord of all creatures; and all creatures must be made subject to us, angels, devils, death, life, heaven and earth, sin, righteousness, things present and things to come, as St. Paul again says, 1Co 3:22-23: All things are yours; and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. " Jesus emphasizes the glorious fact of salvation also by bringing out the same truth in a negative statement. The mission of Jesus as the gift of God to the world was not to condemn the world, though the latter had richly deserved such condemnation. Though He Himself is the Holy One of God, yet He would not, in His capacity as Savior of sinners, judge and condemn them; The sole purpose of His coming was the salvation of the world. Thus Nicodemus heard from the mouth of Jesus the complete account of the way of salvation, a salvation which is absolutely all-encompassing.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv14, 16 Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the…
Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up
This figure of speech is called a simile. Some people will "lift up" Jesus just as Moses "lifted up" the bronze serpent in the wilderness. (See: Simile)
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in the wilderness
The wilderness is a dry, desert place, but here it refers specifically to the place where Moses and the Israelites walked around for forty years.
translationWords
Moses
serpent
desert
Son of Man
eternity
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv13, 14, 16 3:13 There is great distance between this world and…
3:13 There is great distance between this world and heaven (see 1:51; 3:31; 6:38, 42). Jesus bridged that distance, validating his divine status by defeating death and returning to heaven (16:5-11).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.