NO MAN HATH ASCENDED UP.

Continuing his argument, that Nicodemus must receive by faith whatever he would know about heavenly things and that he would be entirely dependent upon Jesus’ word, our Lord remarked that no man ever ascended up to heaven, and that himself, the Son of man, who alone had come down from heaven, was alone able to speak with knowledge and authority respecting heavenly matters. This is still the case. There is but one testimony respecting these heavenly things – our Lord’s own words while in the flesh and his subsequent revelations through the holy Spirit by the apostles. We must accept this testimony, for there is no other.

Here we note the peculiar and unsatisfactory condition of the world in general – not only of the heathen but also of the learned professors of Christendom, who deny our Lord’s prehuman existence and deny the revelations he has since made through his apostles. (John 16:13,14; Rev 1:1.) The heathen believes things pertaining to an invisible realm, a spiritual or heavenly state, but without evidence except such as comes to them through the fallen spirits. In civilized lands those who reject our Lord’s revelation on the subject have nothing whatever to base their faith upon, except such unsatisfactory evidences as they obtain through Spiritualists – whose knowledge and manifestations we hold, according to the Scriptures, are from the same evil origin as those of the heathen – the fallen angels who personate the human dead. Respecting the latter our Lord in this verse distinctly tells us that they have not ascended to heaven: elsewhere (John 5:29) he tells us that they are in their graves – that they are dead, and will so remain until his power and authority shall call them forth again to being. The Apostle Peter’s testimony respecting the Prophet, David, one of the ancient worthies, is along the same line. He declares, “David is not ascended into the heavens.” – Acts 2:34.

The last three words of John 3:13 are spurious.

“No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.”

They were not in the original manuscript, and are not found in the oldest Greek manuscript discovered about half a century ago, the Sinaitic. These words were doubtless added by some well-meaning person who wished to express his faith that the Lord had risen and ascended on high; he did not notice that the addition of these words makes nonsense as they are placed – they would make Jesus say that he was in heaven at the time he was talking to Nicodemus. How important it is that we have a knowledge of the unadulterated Word of God. We must neither add to nor take from it; and when we find, as in this case, that someone either intentionally or unintentionally added these words to the original text, we should cancel them and thus free ourselves from the confusion they would otherwise create. A similar instance of an improper addition to the Lord’s Word is found in the last verse of John’s Gospel (John 20:25), which is a most palpable untruth, and is omitted from the oldest Greek manuscript, the Sinaitic.

“And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.”

Another similar case is the first sentence of Revelation 20:5.

“But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.”

UPLIFTED LIKE MOSES’ SERPENT.

Our Lord did not stop with a mere answer to his visitor’s questions about the Kingdom being heavenly (that is, the ruling or governing phase), but proceeded to give him in brief form an outline of the entire plan of salvation. He reminded him of the Israelites bitten by the fiery serpents in the wilderness, and that God had directed Moses to lift on a pole a copper serpent, to which the Israelites who would exercise faith might look and receive healing. Our Lord announced that he was to be the antitype of this; that he would be lifted up on the cross and thus made to appear as the sinner – to take the place of the sinner – so that the whole world of mankind, bitten by sin and dying as a result, might look unto him by faith and be healed.

What a wonderful condensation of a great truth the Lord here expressed! It was the typical lesson of his own substitution as man’s Redeemer and sin bearer, and clearly taught that faith in him as such is essential to a recovery from the fall and its results. This blessed privilege of looking to the Lord and being healed is already accorded to such as hear the message and accept it – “Look and live!”

Believers who now by faith can realize their sins forgiven are thrice blessed. But we thank God that his provision is not merely for those who now have the hearing ear and the eye of faith, but that eventually all the blind eyes shall be opened and all the deaf ears unstopped, and the message, “Look and live!” and again, “Partake of the water of life freely,” will be heard by every member of Adam’s race, that each may have a full and fair opportunity of acquiring his share of the blessings secured for Adam and all his race by Christ’s death.

Thus, eventually it will be not only whosoever believeth, but all who will have the necessary conditions to permit them to believe, to permit them to enjoy their share of the gift of God, eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

THE GOLDEN TEXT.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

Our Golden Text is a wonderful verse, and all the more wonderful the more we understand of the lengths and breadths and heights and depths of the divine plan of salvation. Luther, who grasped the Gospel message more fully than many of his day, and yet less fully than we see the reality to be, called this verse the “little Bible.” We would express the same in the words, “the Gospel in a nut shell.” The whole message of God is contained in a condensed form in these words:

(1) Man’s need is shown – his perishing condition, his need of divine help.

(2) God’s love is declared, and the proof of it is pointed out to be the gift of his Son.

(3) Our Lord’s willing cooperation in the Father’s plan is evidenced.

(4) The lengths and breadths of this love and redemption are declared to embrace the whole world, and not merely a section, a family or class.

(5) The limitations of divine grace are plainly stated: only through a true acceptance of Christ can any obtain this great blessing – release from the perishing conditions of the curse and full reinstatement in the divine favor and its blessed reward of life everlasting. Thus, this Gospel statement assures us that there is no hope for the heathen in their ignorance, and points us, as do other Scriptures, for all hope respecting them to the future, when the voice of the Son of man who redeemed them shall call all from the grave, to the intent that all may attain to resurrection perfection under the judgments of the Millennial age. “When the judgments of the Lord are abroad in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness;” and many who have gone down into the tomb under the curse, and in ignorance of the only name given under heaven and amongst men, shall ultimately be blessed as they shall hear of the great salvation God has provided, and if they shall accept it upon God’s terms.” (R3486)