Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 3:12
If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you [of] heavenly things?
12. earthly things ] Things which take place on earth, even though originating in heaven, e.g. the ‘new birth,’ which though ‘from above,’ must take place in this world. See notes on 1Co 15:40 and Jas 3:15.
heavenly things ] The mysteries which are not of this world, the Divine counsels respecting man’s salvation.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
If I have told you earthly things – Things which occur on earth. Not sensual or worldly things, for Jesus had said nothing of these; but he had told him of operations of the Spirit which had occurred on earth, whose effects were visible, and which might be, therefore, believed. These were the plainest and most obvious of the doctrines of religion.
How shall ye believe – How will you believe. Is there any probability that you will understand them?
Heavenly things – Things pertaining to the government of God and his doings in the heavens; things which are removed from human view, and which cannot be subjected to human sight; the more profound and inscrutable things pertaining to the redemption of men. Hence, learn:
- The height and depth of the doctrines of religion. There is much that we cannot yet understand,
- The feebleness of our understandings and the corruptions of our hearts are the real causes why doctrines of religion are so little understood by us.
- There is before us a vast eternity, and there are profound wonders of Gods government, to be the study of the righteous, and to be seen and admired by them forever and ever.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Joh 3:12
If I have told you of earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
–The question in its bare form is easily grappled with, but in its application to the subjects before us we encounter a great obstacle. Earthly things are the deep things of the new birth; heavenly things are the lifting up of the Son of man, the gift of the Only-Begotten, that the world through Him might be saved. Regeneration and santification are by comparison earthly things; redemption, atonement, justification are by contrast and preeminence heavenly. He who believes not the former, how can he believe the latter We notice
I. AN INVERSION OF OUR COMMON ESTIMATE OF THE MYSTERIES OF CHRISTS KINGDOM.
1. It is usual to speak of the work of Christ as far easier of apprehension than the work of the Spirit. The idea of atonement is treated as self-evident, and theory after theory has been constructed to explain it. But Christ says difficult as it is to understand a Divine influence, it is more difficult to apprehend a Divine sacrifice; that He only who is from heaven can reveal the latter, while a master of Israel is culpably ignorant if he knows not of the former.
2. The same persons exaggerate the mystery of the doctrine of grace, whereas Christ treats it as a plain earthly thing. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews treats it in the same way, bidding us leave the elements, baptism, etc., to go on to perfection–the strong meat, the profounder study of the fulfilment of type and shadow in the atonement and mediation of Jesus Christ.
II. CAN WE EXPLAIN THIS INVERSION?
1. With regard to the new birth.
(1) It is not that it is discoverable by man in its nature, or recognizable in its process, or practicable in its realization, and so an earthly thing. It is as much above reason, as secret, as independent of mans interference as the deepest mystery of redemption. But
(2) The idea of a spiritual influence has obvious illustrations from earthly experience. Life itself is a putting forth and taking in of the authority of mind over mind. Therefore there can be no antecedent improbability of a Divine influence affecting the soul.
(3) When we think of our indebtedness to God as Creator, Preserver, Benefactor, there can be nothing difficult in the thought that the Author of our spirit can quicken and bless it.
(4) Although the work is secret in its processes, it is cognizable in its effects. When you see a proud man humble, the worldly man religious, you have proof which carries the matter into the region of sight.
(5) The doctrine was earthly to Nicodemus because it was in his Old Testament.
2. How different with the topics that follow! At first sight less mysterious, for was not Christ really man, and was not His sacrifice a human death? Yet when we turn to that which the human enshrined, the mystery of Christs Person, we see the appositeness of the term heavenly.
(1) Divine incarnation and Divine suffering are absolutely incomprehensible revelations. The more men argue over them the more danger there is of darkening counsel by words without knowledge.
(2) If the Divine passion is a mystery, how much more the connection between that suffering and mans release!
(3) The individual appropriation of Christs sacrifice is incomprehensible.
(4) The work of grace shows itself by infallible signs, but the absolution is the secret act of God alone.
III. Let us press upon ourselves the thought of THE HEAVENLINESS OF THE ONE ALL-SUFFICIENT SACRIFICE. We have in our Lords question the key to much of modern unbelief. Christ tells us of our need of Divine grace to change us into new men, and we believe not that. Men confess that they must be moral, but contend that they can secure that for themselves, and that it is weakness to look cut of themselves for help. Nature refuses grace. Who, then, can wonder if the same unbelief shall spread into the region of the heavenly, and the scoffer at grace scoff at atonement? (Dean Vaughan.)
The moral and the revealed truths
We may distinguish between these. Christs teaching in its practical applications is its earthly side; His revelation of God, His nature and will its heavenly side.
I. THE MORAL TEACHING OF CHRIST MUST BE ACCEPTED BY EVERY UPRIGHT CONSCIENCE.
1. Where else do you find the idea of the sovereign and eternal value of right more clearly and firmly expressed?
2. The same applies to holiness. He opposes the systems which make it consist in outward performances, and places stress on the intention.
3. None more than Christ have preached the necessity of sacrificing ones self for the sake of truth.
4. Whoever taught as Christ the relations of men with one another and the bonds of justice and mercy which should units them? Christ alone has made love the supreme law of mankind.
5. Not only has He taught all this; He has acted all He has taught.
6. This is why He has a right to the authority He claims over our consciences, and why when He tells us of earthly things He has a right to be believed.
II. CHRIST CLAIMS THE SAME FAITH AS THE REVEALER OF RELIGIOUS TRUTH. He is not merely a teacher of morals; He speaks of the things which are far beyond our human vision: of God, His government, providence, saving purposes, judgment. In the presence of these affirmations our situation changes. So long as His moral teaching was in question we could judge of it by our consciences, but here are declarations we cannot control.
1. Are we justified in putting faith in Christ.? If we set aside this faith, no other means of access to religious truth remains. Science can teach us nothing. Are we then to remain in the dark? Men have tried to do so, but always unsuccessfully.
2. Is Christ to be believed?
(1) The very accent of His affirmations leads us to reflection. No man ever spoke with such authority. We believe the assertions of Christ when He tells us of heavenly things, because lie has always spoken truth when He has told us of earthly things.
(2) If we believe the religious truths revealed by Christ it is because they are the necessary complement of the moral truths our conscience compels us to believe; so that accepting the latter, we are led by an invincible logic to believe the former. There is no moral truth in the gospel that does not expand into a religious truth. (E. Bersier, D. D.)
Earthly and heavenly things
Heavenly things, being represented unto us in an earthly form (Joh 3:8), come clothed to us with our own notions. We can see the sun better when reflected in the water of a vase than in the firmament; and we can interpret heavens language best when it speaks to us in the language of earth. (T. Manton.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 12. If I have told you earthly things] If, after I have illustrated this new birth by a most expressive metaphor taken from earthly things, and after all you believe not; how can you believe, should I tell you of heavenly things, in such language as angels use, where earthly images and illustrations can have no place? Or, if you, a teacher in Israel, do not understand the nature of such an earthly thing, or custom of the kingdom established over the Jewish nation, as being born of baptism, practised every day in the initiation of proselytes, how will you understand such heavenly things as the initiation of my disciples by the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire from heaven, if I should proceed farther on the subject?
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
If I have spoken to you plain things, and in a plain style, humbling my phrase to your apprehensions, and illustrating sublime, spiritual mysteries, which in their own nature are more remote from your apprehensions, by plain and obvious similitudes and parables, and speaking thus, you understand and believe not; what would you do if I should discourse to you sublime and spiritual things, without these advantages for your understandings?
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. earthly thingssuch asregeneration, the gate of entrance to the kingdom of God onearth, and which Nicodemus should have understood better, as atruth even of that more earthly economy to which he belonged.
heavenly thingsthethings of the new and more heavenly evangelical economy, only to befully understood after the effusion of the Spirit from heaven throughthe exalted Saviour.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
If I have told you earthly things,…. Not that the doctrines he delivered were earthly ones; for he was not of the earth, but from heaven, and above all, and so spake not of the earth, but of heaven, Joh 3:31; and this doctrine of regeneration was an heavenly doctrine; and the thing itself required supernatural power, and grace from above: but either they were the more easy doctrines of the Gospel; or were delivered in a plain and easy style, and illustrated by similes taken from earthly things, as from human birth, from the water, and from the wind:
and ye believe not; i.e. those things; ye do not receive them, nor give credit to them; or “me”, as the Ethiopic Version adds, who relate them on the best evidence, having fully known, and clearly seen them:
how shall ye believe; give credit to me, or receive my testimony:
if I tell you of heavenly things? of the more sublime doctrines of the Gospel, such as the descent of the Messiah from heaven; the union of the two natures, human and divine, in him; his being the only begotten Son of God; his crucifixion and death, signified by the lifting up of the serpent on a pole in the wilderness; and the wonderful love of God to the Gentile world in giving Christ to, and for them; and the salvation, and eternal happiness of all that believe in him, whether they be Jews or Gentiles; and these delivered in language suitable to them, without figures, or natural similes, which help the understanding, and convey ideas of things more easily to it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
If I told ( ). Condition of the first class, assumed to be true.
Earthly things ( ). Things upon the earth like (Col 3:2), not things of an earthly nature or worldly or sinful. The work of the kingdom of God including the new birth which Nicodemus did not understand belongs to .
If I tell you heavenly things ( ). Condition of the third class, undetermined. What will Nicodemus do in that case? By Jesus means the things that take place in heaven like the deep secrets of the purpose of God in the matter of redemption such as the necessity of the lifting up of Christ as shown in verse 14. Both Godet and Westcott note that the two types of teaching here pointed out by Jesus (the earthly, the heavenly) correspond in general to the difference between the Synoptics (the earthly) and the Fourth Gospel (the heavenly), a difference noted here in the Fourth Gospel as shown by Jesus himself. Hence the one should not be pitted against the other. There are specimens of the heavenly in the Synoptics as in Matt 11:25; Luke 10:18.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Have told [] . Rendering the aorist more strictly, I told.
Earthly things [ ] . Compounded of ejpi, upon, and gh, earth. In Col 3:2, the adjective appears in its analyzed form, ta ejpi thv ghv, things on the earth. It is in this literal sense it is to be taken here; not things of earthly nature, but things whose proper place is on earth. Not worldly affairs, nor things sinful, but, on the contrary, “those facts and phenomena of the higher life as a class, which have their seat and manifestation on earth; which belong in their realization to our present existence; which are seen in their consequences, like the issues of birth; which are sensible in their effects, like the action of the wind; which are a beginning and a prophecy, and not a fulfillment” (Westcott). The earthly things would therefore include the phenomena of the new birth.
Heavenly things [ ] . Compounded with ejpi, upon or in, and oujranov, heaven. Not holy things as compared with sinful, nor spiritual things as compared with temporal; but things which are in heaven, mysteries of redemption, having their seat in the divine will, realized in the world through the work and death of Jesus Christ and the faith of mankind (v. 14 – 16). Thus it is said (ver. 13) that the Son of man who is in heaven came down out of heaven, and in vv. 31, 32 that He that cometh out of heaven beareth witness (on earth) of what He has seen and heard; and that, being sent from God, He speaketh the words of God (ver. 34).
It has been urged against the genuineness of the fourth Gospel that the lofty and mystical language which is there ascribed to Jesus is inconsistent with the synoptical reports of His words. That if the one represents truthfully His style of speaking, the other must misrepresent it. Godet’s words on this point are worth quoting : “It would be truly curious that the first who should have pointed out that contrast should be the Evangelist himself against whose narrative it has been brought forward as a ground of objection. The author of the fourth Gospel puts these words (iii. 12) into the mouth of Jesus. He there declares that He came down from heaven to bring this divine message to the world. The author of the fourth Gospel was then clearly aware of two ways of teaching adopted by Jesus; the one the usual, in which he explained earthly things, evidently always in their relation to God and His kingdom; the other, which contrasted in many respects with the first, and which Jesus employed only exceptionally, in which He spoke directly, and as a witness, of God and the things of God, always naturally in connection with the fate of mankind. The instructions of the first kind had a more simple, more practical, more varied character. They referred to the different situations of life; it was the exposition of the true moral relations of men to each other, and of men to God…. But in that way Jesus could not attain to the final aim which He sought, the full revelation of the divine mystery, of the plan of salvation. Since His baptism Jesus had heaven constantly open before Him; the decree of salvation was disclosed to Him; He had, in particular, heard these words : ‘Thou art my well beloved Son; ‘ He reposed on the Father ‘s bosom, and He could descend and redescend without ceasing into the depths of the Father ‘s fathomless love, of which He felt the vivifying power; and when He came, at certain exceptional moments, to speak of that divine relationship, and to give scope to that fullness of life with which it supplied Him, His language took a peculiar, solemn, mystical, one might even say a heavenly tone; for they were heavenly things which He then revealed. Now such is precisely the character of His language in the fourth Gospel.” Compare Luk 10:18, sqq., where Jesus ‘ words take on a character similar to that of His utterances in John.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “If I have told you earthly things, (ei ta epigeia eipon humin) “If I told you (about) earthly things,” and He had, in simple language, regarding the natural birth, and the way of the wind, Joh 2:4-9.
2) “And ye believe not,” (kai ou pisteuete) “And you all do not believe,” or do not trust in me, from the things I have said, and the miracles I have performed, to render you “without excuse,” Joh 1:11-12; Joh 2:16; Joh 2:23; Rom 2:1.
3) “How shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?” (pos ean eipo humin ta epourania pisteuete) “How shall you (be any more likely to) believe, if I tell or explain to you heavenly things?” things of heavenly nature, and the “mystery of Godliness,” 1Co 2:9; 2Co 12:1-4; 1Ti 3:16.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
12. If I have told you earthly things. Christ concludes that it ought to be laid to the charge of Nicodemus and others, if they do not make progress in the doctrine of the Gospel; for he shows that the blame does not lie with him, that all are not properly instructed, since he comes down even to the earth, that he may raise us to heaven. It is too common a fault that men desire to be taught in an ingenious and witty style. Hence, the greater part of men are so delighted with lofty and abstruse speculations. Hence, too, many hold the Gospel in less estimation, because they do not find in it high-sounding words to fill their ears, and on this account do not deign to bestow their attention on a doctrine so low and mean. But it shows an extraordinary degree of wickedness, that we yield less reverence to God speaking to us, because he condescends to our ignorance; and, therefore, when God prattles to us in Scripture in a rough and popular style, let us know that this is done on account of the love which he bears to us. (60) Whoever exclaims that he is offended by such meanness of language, or pleads it as an excuse for not subjecting himself to the word of God, speaks falsely; for he who cannot endure to embrace God, when he approaches to him, will still less fly to meet him above the clouds.
Earthly things. Some explain this to mean the elements of spiritual doctrine; for self-denial may be said to be the commencement of piety. But I rather agree with those who refer it to the form of instruction; for, though the whole of Christ’s discourse was heavenly, yet he spoke in a manner so familiar, that the style itself had some appearance of being earthly. Besides, these words must not be viewed as referring exclusively to a single sermon; for Christ’s ordinary method of teaching — that is, a popular simplicity of style — is here contrasted with the pompous and high-sounding phrases to which ambitious men are too strongly addicted.
(60) “ Pour l’amour de nous.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(12) Earthly thingsi.e., things upon earth, having the sphere of their action upon earth. These are not necessarily restricted to the subjects of this interview. The context includes previous witness borne by Him, and there must have been much which is unrecorded. (Comp. Joh. 2:23.) But the new birth is not excluded from earthly things, because it is the entrance to a life which, while it is spiritual, is still a life upon earth.
Heavenly things, in the same way, are things which have the sphere of their action in heaven, the full development of the spiritual life, of which the birth only is on earth; the divine counsels of redemption; the Messianic mysteries, of which this ruler of Israel does not understand even the initiation. Comp. the question in the Wisdom of Solomon, What man is he that can know the counsel of God? or who can think what the will of the Lord is? . . . And hardly do we guess aright at things that are upon earth, and with labour do we find the things that are before us: but the things that are in heaven who hath searched out? (Joh. 9:13; Joh. 9:16).
The earthly things are the elements of spiritual knowledge, having their test in the moral sense and in their fitness to supply the spiritual wants of man. When these elements are learnt, the mind is then, and then only, fitted to receive heavenly things. The teaching can only proceed step by step from the known to the unknown; but if the will refuses or the intellect neglects to know the knowable, the man cuts himself off from the power to receive truth. The message from the spirit-world has come, and others read it; but he has not learnt the alphabet. (Comp. Note on Joh. 16:12.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
12. Earthly things Such as the regeneration which takes place on earth.
Heavenly things Such as God’s requirement, in the counsels of heaven, of the atonement and death of his only begotten Son.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Joh 3:12-13. If I have told you earthly things, “If you believe not these obvious truths concerning the spiritual nature of God’s kingdom, and the qualifications of his subjects, how shall you believe the more sublime doctrines of religion, which I am come to teach you?” OurLord goes on, “In the mean time, you may safely receive my instructions; for I am vested with an authority, and endued with gifts far superior to all prophets that have ever appeared; No man hath ascended up to heaven,” &c. Perhaps Jesus mentioned his coming down from heaven, to put the Jewish doctor in mind of the acknowledgment with which, at the beginning of their interview, he had addressed him, namely, that he was a teacher come from God. This passage is a plain instance of what is usually termed the communicationof properties between the divine and human natures, whereby what is proper to the divine nature is spoken concerning the human, and what is proper to the human, is spoken of thedivine. Thus when it is said (1Co 2:8.) The Lord of glory was crucified, and (Act 20:28.) when he is called God, who purchased the church with his own blood,the meaning is not that he, as the Lord of glory, was crucified, or, as God, shed his blood, as if the Divine nature could be crucified and bleed; but that the person, who was the Lord of glory in one nature, was crucified in the other; and the person, who was God in one nature, purchased the church with his own blood, which belonged to his other nature: so when it is said, The Son of man is in heaven, the meaning is not that he, as the Son of man, was there while he was on earth; but that he, who was here in his human nature, was there in his divine.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 3:12 . How grievous the prospect which your unbelief regarding the instructions I have already given opens up as to the future!
] what is on earth , things which take place on earth (not in heaven). We must strictly adhere to this meaning of the word in this as in all other passages (1Co 15:40 ; 2Co 5:1 ; Phi 2:10 ; Phi 3:19 ; Jas 3:15 . Comp. Wis 9:16 , and Grimm, Handbuch , p. 189). To the category of these earthly things belonged also the birth from above (against Baeumlein), because, though brought about by a power from heaven, it is accomplished on earth; and because, proceeding in repentance and faith, it is a change taking place on earth within the earthly realm of our moral life; and because it is historically certain that Christ everywhere began His work with this very preaching of . The Lord has in His mind not only the doctrine of regeneration just declared to Nicodemus, but, as the plural shows, all which thus far He had taught the Jews ( ); and this had been hitherto only , and not , of which He still designs to speak. [157] It is therefore wrong to refer the expression to the comparison of the wind (Beza) or of corporeal birth (Grotius), as prefiguring higher doctrine; for the relation to the faith spoken of did not lie in these symbols, but in the truths they symbolized. The meaning of the words is quite altered, moreover, if we change the word into “ human and moral ” (B. Crusius), or take it as meaning only what is stated in the immediate context (Lcke), or, with De Wette, make the point of difference to be nothing more than the antithesis between man’s susceptibility of regeneration as a work within him and his susceptibility of merely believing .
The counterpart of the are the , of which Jesus intends to speak to them in future, things which are in heaven (so in all places, Mat 18:35 ; 1Co 15:40 ; 1Co 15:48-49 ; Eph 1:3 ; Phi 2:10 , etc.). To this category belong especially the Messianic mysteries, i.e . the divine decrees for man’s redemption and final blessedness . These are , because they have their foundation ( Wis 9:16-17 ) in the divine will , though their realization commences in the present , through the entire work, and in particular through the death of Jesus and the faith of mankind; but while still unaccomplished, belongs to the divine counsel, and shall be first consummated and fully revealed in the kingdom of the Messiah by the exalted Christ, when the will reveal itself at the goal of perfection (Col 3:4 ), and “it will appear what we shall be.” To the , therefore, does not first belong what is to be said of His exaltation, Mat 26:64 (Steinfass); but that very statement, and indeed as the first and main thing, which Jesus immediately after delivers in Joh 3:14 ff., where the heavenly element, i.e. what is in the counsels of God (Joh 3:15-16 ), is clearly contained. According to the connection, it is to be inferred that what is heavenly is difficult to be understood; but this difficulty has nothing to do with the word itself , as Lcke holds.
[157] is dixi , not dixerunt , as Ewald thinks, who regards the ancients in the O. T. as the subject, and upon too feeble evidence reads instead of . This new subject must have been expressed, and an should have stood over against it in the apodosis. Comp. Mat 5:21-22 . The earthly might be appropriate to the law (following Col 2:17 ; Heb 9:5 ; Heb 10:1 ), but not to the prophets.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
Ver. 12. If I have told you earthly things ] That is, spiritual things under earthly gross similitudes, of wind, water, &c. In the mystery of Christ, the best of us are acute obtusi. But for the natural man, that cannot tell the nature of the wind, or enter into the depth of the flower or the grass, &c., how should he possibly have the wit to enter into the deep things of God, especially if darkly delivered?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
12. ] The words prepared the way for the new idea which is brought forward in this verse . Faith is, in the most pregnant sense, ‘the receiving of testimony;’ because it is the making subjectively real the contents of that testimony. So the [see Joh 3:15 ] is, the full reception of the Lord’s testimony; because the burden of that testimony is, grace and truth and salvation by Himself . This faith is neither reasoning, nor knowledge, but a reception of divine Truth declared by One who came from God; and so it is far above reasoning and knowledge: above .
But what are the ? The matters relating to the new birth which have hitherto been spoken of; called so because that side of them has been exhibited which is upon earth , and happens among men; , Origen. That the parable about the wind is not intended, is evident from . , which in that case would be ‘do not understand .’ And the are the things of which the discourse goes on to treat from this point: viz. the heavenly side of the new birth and salvation of man, in the eternal counsels of God regarding His only-begotten Son.
Stier supposes a reference in this verse to Wis 9:16 , , , ;
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 3:12 . ; The reference of is fixed by the . They are such things as Jesus had been speaking of: things verified in human, earthly experience, the necessity of a spiritual birth and the results of it. Regeneration was a change made in this earthly life. The kingdom of regenerate men was to be established on earth, as apprehensible in certain of its aspects as the kingdom Nicodemus was proposing to found. The are matters not open to human observation, matters wholly in the unseen, the nature and purposes of God. Cf. the remarkable parallel in Wis 9:16 .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
If Ihave. Assuming it as a fact. App-118.
earthly things. Eze 36:25-27. 1Co 15:40. Col 3:2. 2Co 5:1. Php 1:2, Php 1:10; Php 3:19.
believe. App-150. i. See note on Joh 1:7.
if I tell. Supposing I tell. App-118.
heavenly = Plural of epouranios. Occurs only here and Mat 18:35 in the Gospels. See Eph 1:3, Eph 1:20; Eph 2:6; Eph 3:10; Eph 6:12. Php 2:10, &c.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
12.] The words prepared the way for the new idea which is brought forward in this verse-. Faith is, in the most pregnant sense, the receiving of testimony; because it is the making subjectively real the contents of that testimony. So the [see Joh 3:15] is, the full reception of the Lords testimony; because the burden of that testimony is, grace and truth and salvation by Himself. This faith is neither reasoning, nor knowledge, but a reception of divine Truth declared by One who came from God; and so it is far above reasoning and knowledge:- above .
But what are the ? The matters relating to the new birth which have hitherto been spoken of;-called so because that side of them has been exhibited which is upon earth, and happens among men;- , Origen. That the parable about the wind is not intended, is evident from . , which in that case would be do not understand. And the are the things of which the discourse goes on to treat from this point: viz. the heavenly side of the new birth and salvation of man, in the eternal counsels of God regarding His only-begotten Son.
Stier supposes a reference in this verse to Wis 9:16, , , ;
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 3:12. , earthly things) To the heavenly sense of Jesus Christ there are earthly things, , which, having to be accomplished on the regions of earth by us who creep on the ground, appear in the highest degree heavenly. The whole style of Scripture is full of [condescension]. Regeneration is from heaven, not however in heaven: it is indeed [a process] on the margin of heaven.-, how) The cause why Scripture is silent about many things.- ) heavenly things, the inner principles of the kingdom of God, Joh 3:3; Wis 9:16, – ; He does not, at Joh 3:13, so much speak out, as hint at.-, will ye believe) The less anything seems credible to reason, often the more heavenly it is.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 3:12
Joh 3:12
If I told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you heavenly things?-What he tells them pertains to the kingdom of God here on earth and their relation to it. If ye do not receive this how shall ye believe when I unfold to you the eternal things of the heavenly land?
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
earthly: Joh 3:3, Joh 3:5, Joh 3:8, 1Co 3:1, 1Co 3:2, Heb 5:11, 1Pe 2:1-3
heavenly: Joh 3:13-17, Joh 3:31-36, Joh 1:1-14, 1Co 2:7-9, 1Ti 3:16, 1Jo 4:10
Reciprocal: Gen 37:20 – and let Joh 3:7 – Marvel Rom 10:6 – to bring 1Co 15:47 – the Lord
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2
The only verse that has any earthly things in it as far as this conversation is concerned, is verse 8, the one about the wind. This again shows that passage refers to the literal wind,. and is used to illustrate the point stated in verse 10.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 3:12. If I told you the earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you the heavenly things? Here our Lord returns to the singular, I told; for He is not now speaking of the witness of experience, but of instruction which He Himself had personally given. It seems hardly possible, however, that our Lord simply refers to words just spoken. In saying If I told you the earthly things, and ye believe not, He plainly refers to unbelief after instruction,-unbelief which instruction failed to remove. But if Nicodemus came alone (and there is no doubt that he did), he alone had received this last instruction. Others might be described as unbelievers, but not as remaining in unbelief after having heard the teaching concerning the new birth. We are compelled, therefore, to suppose that our Lord spoke generally of previous discourses to the Jews, and not specifically of these His latest words. But what are the earthly and the heavenly things? Many answers have been given which are Tittle more than arbitrary conjectures. Again the Evangelist must be his own interpreter. As in the next verse heaven is not used figuratively, it cannot be maintained that heavenly is figurative here. The words earthly and heavenly must have their simple meaning, what is upon earth, what is in heaven. The things that are in heaven can only be made known by Him who has been in heaven; this is suggested by the connection between this verse and the next. When we come to the last section of the chapter, we shall find that it contains (in some degree) a comment upon these verses. Now there (in Joh 3:32) we read of Him that cometh out of heaven, who bears witness of what He has seen and heard, who being sent from God speaketh the words of God (Joh 3:34). But this same comment takes note of the converse also. Contrasted with Him who comes from heaven is he that is out of the earth and speaketh out of the earth (Joh 3:31). Combining these explanatory words, we may surely say that the heavenly things are those truths which He who cometh from heaven, and He alone, can reveal, which are the words of God revealing His counsels by the Divine Son now come. The things on earth, in like manner, are the truths whose home is earth, so to speak, which were known before God revealed Himself by Him who is in the bosom of the Father (chap. Joh 1:18). They are earthly, not as belonging to the world of sin or the world of sense, but as being things which the prophet or teacher who has never ascended into heaven, but whose origin and home are the earth, can reach, though not necessarily by his own unaided powers. In His former discourses to the Jews, Jesus would seem not to have gone beyond the circle of truth already revealed. Even in His words to Nicodemus He mainly dwells on that which the Scriptures of the Old Testament had taught; and He reproves the teacher of Israel who did not at once recognise His words, thus founded on the Old Testament, as truth. The kingdom of God, the necessity of repentance and faith, the new heart, the holy life, the need at once of cleansing and of quickening-these and other truths, once indeed inhabitants of heaven, had long been naturalised on earth. Having been revealed, they belonged to men, whereas the secret things belong unto the Lord (Deu 29:29). Those of whom our Lord spoke had yielded a partial belief, but the believing of which He here speaks is a perfect faith. Nicodemus was a believer, and yet not a believer. If some of the truths hitherto declared had been so imperfectly received, though those who were mighty in the Scriptures ought to have recognised them as already taught, almost as part of the law that was given through Moses (chap. Joh 1:17), how would it be when He spoke of the things hitherto secret, coming directly out of the heaven which He opens (comp. Joh 1:51), and for the first time revealed in Him,-part of the truth that came through Jesus Christ? (chap. Joh 1:17).
It will be seen, then, that the truth of Joh 3:5 would seem to be placed by Jesus rather amongst the earthly than amongst the heavenly things. Of some of the heavenly things He proceeds to speak (Joh 3:14-15).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Joh 3:12-13. If I have told you earthly things As the truths which I have taught you concerning the spiritual nature of Gods kingdom, and the qualifications of his subjects, may properly be termed, because they are capable of being represented to you in a familiar way, and of being illustrated by such obvious and well-known similitudes as to be rendered thereby perfectly plain and easy to be understood. Or, by earthly things, he might mean things to be experienced and enjoyed on earth, such as the new birth and the present privileges of the children of God. And ye believe not Even these; how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things If I should go on to teach you other doctrines, much more mysterious and sublime, and not capable of being thus illustrated and explained? Our Lord has been thought by some to refer here to those sublime and heavenly doctrines which were afterward revealed, such as the eternity of the Son, the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily, the unity of the Father, Son, and Spirit, and those other mysteries of godliness that are above the reach of human reason, and cannot be illustrated by earthly things. It is more probable, however, as Dr. Doddridge observes, that he more immediately refers to the doctrines which he mentions in the remaining part of his discourse to Nicodemus of his descent from heaven to instruct us in the things of God, and be united to the human nature here below, while, by his divine nature, he still continued to be present above, of the design for which he came into the world, to be lifted up upon the cross, that he might save us from our sins, of everlasting life, and happiness to be obtained by faith in his death, and of the condemnation of all those that should reject him; which may be counted as the deep things of God, which he reveals unto us by his Spirit, and which the natural man, who disregards that Spirit, receiveth not, for they are foolishness unto him, 1Co 2:10; 1Co 2:14. And no man, &c. As if he had said, For here you must rely on my single testimony, whereas in the other points, termed earthly things, you have a cloud of witnesses. Or the connection and sense may be, Yet the truth of my doctrine concerning these heavenly things you will have no just reason to suspect, considering whence it comes, and who it is that reveals it. For no man hath ascended up to heaven To search into the secret counsels of God, and to obtain an intimate and perfect knowledge of his mind and will; but he that came down from heaven Qualified and commissioned in the most extraordinary manner to reveal them, as far as is proper, to mankind; even the Son of man which is in heaven Is present there by his divine nature, which fills both heaven and earth, even while he is here on earth as to his human nature. This is a plain instance of what is usually termed the communication of properties between Christs 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 spoken of the divine. Beza, and some others, suppose that the present tense, (, who is,) is here put for the past, (, who was,) of which construction we have some examples, particularly Joh 9:25. Accordingly they translate the clause, The Son of man, who was in heaven: but the common translation may be retained, [and interpreted,] thus: Moses, your lawgiver, did not ascend into heaven; he only went up to mount Sinai, and that but for a few days, that he might receive the law from God. Whereas, the Son of man, (this was one of the Messiahs titles,) who is come down from heaven, ( ,) who is commissioned by God in an extraordinary manner, to reveal his will to men, and in respect of whose commission, all the other messengers of God may be said to have been of the earth: (see Joh 3:31; Heb 12:25 🙂 he hath ascended up to heaven Hath received the clearest and most extensive views of spiritual things; hath penetrated into the recesses of the divine counsels; (see Pro 30:3-4;) nay, is, at present, in heaven, is with God, is conscious of all his gracious purposes toward men, consequently must be a messenger of much higher dignity than Moses, or Elijah, or any of the prophets, for whom you entertain so great a regard. Macknight.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ver. 12. If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?
When a teacher says to his pupil: If you do not understand me on this point, how will you understand me on that? we must suppose that the disciple expects to be instructed respecting this latter point. We must, therefore, conclude from this word of Jesus, that the heavenly things are to Jesus’ view those which preoccupy Nicodemus, and with reference to which he had come to interrogate Him: the person of the Messiah, the nature of His kingdom, the way in which He will lay the foundation of, and complete this great work, both in Israel and in the Gentile world. And, indeed, these are precisely the questions which Jesus answers in the second part of the conversation, which is to follow.
The contrast between the past, if I have told you and the present if I tell you proves that Jesus had not yet set forth publicly what He calls the heavenly things. This conversation was the first communication of Jesus concerning the nature of the Messianic kingdom and the mode of salvation, outside of the innermost circle of His own friends. The public teaching of Jesus had, therefore, up to that time related to what He calls the earthly things.This expression cannot denote things which appertain to earthly interests: for Jesus did not occupy Himself with these things before this, any more than He did afterwards. If by the heavenly things we must of course understand the designs of God, inaccessible to the human mind, for the establishment of His kingdom, we must include in the domain of earthly things all that which appertains to the moral nature of man; outside of the region of redemption and regeneration; thus, everything which Jesus comes to declare respecting the carnal state of the natural man and the necessity of a radical transformation. Jesus is thinking, no doubt, of the contents of His first preachings, analogous to those of John the Baptist, and which Mark sums up (Joh 1:15) in these words: Repent ye, and believe the Gospel: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand; those preachings of which we possess the most remarkable example in the Sermon on the Mount. What a difference as compared with the revelations which Jesus makes to Nicodemus! The conversation with him is the first step in a region infinitely elevated above that elementary preaching. We understand now why it has been preserved to us by John; it had been of marked importance in the development of his own faith.
According to Lucke and Reuss the earthly things are the things easy to be understood, and the heavenly the most elevated ideas of the Gospel, less accessible to an intelligence which was not yet enlightened by it. This sense is true from the standpoint of consequences, but not from that of explanation strictly so-called. There is no example to prove that heavenly can signify difficult, and earthly, easy. Ewald makes of a third person plural: If they (the prophets) have spoken to you of earthly things and you have not believed (the reading: ).
But a subject of this sort could not be understood, and an could not be omitted in the following clause (Meyer, Baumlein). In this remarkable saying, Jesus contrasts the facts which pertain to the domain of the human consciousness, and which man can verify by observation of himself, with the divine decrees which cannot be known except by means of a revelation. This is the reasoning: If, when I have declared to you the things whose reality you can, by consulting your own consciousness, discover, you have not believed, how will you believe when I shall reveal to you the secrets of heaven, which must be received solely on the foundation of a word? There, the testimony of the inner sense facilitates faith; here, on the contrary, everything rests upon confidence in the testimony of the revealer. This testimony being rejected, the ladder, on which man may raise himself to the knowledge of heavenly things, is broken, and the access to the divine secrets remain, closed.
This saying of Jesus should teach apologetics to place the supporting point of faith in the declarations of the Gospel which are most immediately connected with the facts of consciousness and the moral needs of the soul. Its truth being once recognized in this domain where it can be verified by every one, it is already half-demonstrated in relation to those declarations which are connected with the purely divine domain. It will be completely so, as soon as it shall be established that these two parts, divine and human, of the Gospel, are adapted to one another as the two parts of one whole; that the moral needs of man which are proved by the one find their full satisfaction in the divine plans revealed in the other. The moral truth of the Gospel is the first guarantee of its religious truth.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
The "earthly things" that Jesus had told Nicodemus involved the new birth. The new birth is earthly in that it occurs on the earth. This teaching had been elementary. However, Nicodemus had not believed it. Therefore he could not begin to believe things that Jesus might have told him about "heavenly things." These things might have included such revelations as life beyond the grave, life in the kingdom, and the new heavens and new earth (Isa 65:17).
If Jesus responded to everyone as He did to Nicodemus, it would mean that when a person rejects revelation he or she thereby limits the revelation that comes to that one from then on. This is really what usually happens.