Joh 3:13-16 | KingComments | STEP | No one can speak of the heavenly things better than the Son. As He speaks here, no prophet has ever been able to speak of himself. Prophets were mediators used by God to speak to people. The Son is not a mediator through Whom God speaks, but He is God Himself ( ). As He speaks with Nicodemus on earth, He is present in heaven. Therefore, He speaks on earth about things He sees in heaven simultaneously. People can ascend into heaven, angels can descend from heaven, but they change places. Only the Son of Man remains where He was before because He is also the only begotten Son of God. He is the answer to the challenging questions of Agur in Proverbs 30 ( ). The Lord Jesus never ceases to be God. Therefore, while He is on earth talking to Nicodemus, He can say that He is in heaven at the same time. We have also read of Him that He declares the Father on earth as the Son Who is in the bosom of the Father ( ). However, He says that as the Son of Man! This means that we cannot separate His being God from His being Man. He is one Person. As the Son of Man, He is therefore the perfectly reliable Proclaimer of heavenly things. Only He Who is in heaven can communicate heavenly things to us. The question is whether my heart is ready to accept these heavenly things.

‏ John 3:13-16

The Son of Man Who Is in heaven

No one can speak of the heavenly things better than the Son. As He speaks here, no prophet has ever been able to speak of himself. Prophets were mediators used by God to speak to people. The Son is not a mediator through Whom God speaks, but He is God Himself (Heb 1:1). As He speaks with Nicodemus on earth, He is present in heaven. Therefore, He speaks on earth about things He sees in heaven simultaneously. People can ascend into heaven, angels can descend from heaven, but they change places. Only the Son of Man remains where He was before because He is also the only begotten Son of God. He is the answer to the challenging questions of Agur in Proverbs 30 (Pro 30:4).

The Lord Jesus never ceases to be God. Therefore, while He is on earth talking to Nicodemus, He can say that He is in heaven at the same time. We have also read of Him that He declares the Father on earth as the Son Who is in the bosom of the Father (Jn 1:18). However, He says that as the Son of Man! This means that we cannot separate His being God from His being Man. He is one Person. As the Son of Man, He is therefore the perfectly reliable Proclaimer of heavenly things. Only He Who is in heaven can communicate heavenly things to us. The question is whether my heart is ready to accept these heavenly things.

God So Loved the World

Once the Lord has mentioned the heavenly things, He gives additional teaching. In order to understand the heavenly things, the new birth is in fact not enough. The new birth is necessary, but it is connected to earthly things. The new birth enables to know things on earth in the way that God looks at and judges them. To know and enjoy the heavenly things more is needed. For this we need to know the meaning of the cross.

To illustrate His teaching about the cross the Lord Jesus refers to what Moses did with the serpent in the wilderness. This is an example of what will happen to Him as the Son of Man. Lifting up the serpent in the wilderness looked forward to lifting up the Son of Man on the cross.

Moses made the bronze serpent in the image of the fiery serpents (Num 21:9). These fiery serpents were the plague from which the people died. Moses lifted up the image of the serpent he made of bronze so that everyone could look at it wherever he was in the camp. Whoever did was healed. This required the acknowledgment of being bitten and being certain of dying, and the faith that only one look at the lifted-up serpent would give life. Nothing else would free them from the effects of the plague, however cleverly conceived. Moses thus made the plague a symbol of salvation, and that salvation was obtained only by simply looking at that symbol. Looking at it meant the acknowledgment of being bitten by the serpent, resulting in death.

This is an example of what God did to His Son, the Son of Man. In Him God has sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to condemn sin in the flesh (Rom 8:3). When the Son of Man was lifted up on the cross, He was made sin by God. The Son of God was rejected by His people and lifted up on the cross (Jn 8:28).

God, in His unfathomable wisdom, used man’s greatest crime, the culmination of his sins, to fulfill His plans by making His Son sin. Sin could not be removed in any other way. Sin could only be removed through God’s judgment of Him Who alone was able to bear the judgment on sin. And it had to be a Man, the Son of Man, so that it could be satisfactory for men.

This work had to be done for or on behalf of us, for the purpose of the gift of eternal life, while the new birth, of which the Lord spoke to Nicodemus, is a work that is happening within us. Both for the work within us and for the work for us, He used the word “must” (Jn 3:7 ; 14), for both were necessary if we were to enter into a blessed connection with God.

The glorious result is for everyone who believes. It is about faith in Him. The believer looks away from himself and looks at the Lord Jesus. Just as the Israelite bitten by the fiery serpent only had to look at the lifted up serpent to be saved, now a person only has to look at the Christ lifted up on the cross in order not to perish. On the cross God made Christ to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2Cor 5:21).

Through faith in the Crucified we acknowledge the rightness and righteousness of God’s judgment for us, but also that this judgment has already been exercised. As a result, we no longer look at ourselves, but at Him Who bore the judgment on our behalf. We shall not perish because He, when made sin, bore the judgment. That is the parallel with the bronze serpent.

The Lord goes beyond this comparison with the bronze serpent. It is not only that we shall not perish and do not come into judgment, but there is also a tremendous positive result of Christ’s work on the cross. We see that positive result in what we have received as a result of that work which is “eternal life “.

Eternal life is not life that lasts forever, because then the unbelievers would have that too. Eternal life is life that is eternal in itself, it is life without beginning and without end. Eternal life has been revealed to us in the Lord Jesus. He Himself is eternal life (1Jn 5:20). However, it is not only revealed in Him, but it is given to us.

It is a gift beyond our comprehension that comes from the love of God. The giving of eternal life is directly connected to the love of God through the word “for” in Jn 3:16. Christ’s work on the cross originated in the love of God. And when God reveals His love, He withholds nothing.

He gave His Son to save the lost who were in the power of sin (Rom 8:3). They were bitten by the serpent, which is the devil (Rev 12:9). The Lord Jesus, the only begotten Son, was made sin and punished with God’s righteous judgment. As a result, the ruling power that worked in our old life has been condemned.

However, a believer may look at the lifted up Son of Man and be relieved as to the problem of sin, but may not be at peace with God. This is the case if he continues to see God as a Judge Whom he fears, but Who fortunately can no longer harm him because Christ stands between him and God. To take that fear away, the Lord Jesus now reveals that it all comes from the love of God. God is not Someone to be afraid of, but Someone Who has shown all His love for the world by surrendering the Dearest He had.

When it comes to the love of God, it cannot be limited to Israel, but goes out to the entire world. Everything in this Gospel crosses the borders of Israel. God’s love cannot be limited. The greatness of God’s love is seen in the giving of His “only begotten Son”. That Name indicates the highest and unique place the Son has in the love of God Who gave the Son.

Anyone who accepts this gift of God in faith knowing that he shall otherwise perish, receives eternal life as a special gift. This eternal life includes two great things: it is the Lord Jesus Himself (1Jn 5:20) and it is knowing the Father and the Son of the Father, Jesus Christ (Jn 17:3).

Faith in the Lord Jesus opens a glory to everyone who believes that no believer in the Old Testament has ever heard of. This couldn’t be, because then the Son was not yet given by God. Now that He has given His only begotten Son and His Son has glorified Him in His way and work on earth, it is God’s joy to let all who believe in His only begotten Son share in all that is of the Son in the most glorious way imaginable.

When God has thus revealed His love, the objects of His grace through the work of His Son are no longer limited to the borders of Israel. If God reveals Himself in His Son as a Savior-God, it befits His love that the good news is sent to the world as a whole. He did not send His Son as a Judge, but as a Savior.