John 3:31-36
"He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.
And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony.
He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true.
For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure.
The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand.
He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
Message:
As we have noted before, one of the difficulties in the Fourth Gospel is to know when the characters are speaking and when john is adding his own commentary. These verses may be the words of John the Baptist; or they may be the witness and the comment of John the evangelist.
If the closing portions of this narrative were spoken by John the Baptist, then evidence is supplied that his spiritual education was still continuing. This type of testimony was something in advance of the sermons preached in the Jordan Valley. There, the preacher stressed the need for repentance; here he emphasizes the need for personal faith in Christ. There he spoke of God; but now he testifies of the Father. At first he announced Christ as the Lamb of God; now, Jesus is called the Son of God. These features suggest that after so many years, the apostle John might have been interpreting John the Baptist's message; that he might have been amplifying the preacher's utterance in order to give a better understanding, a clearer picture of what was in the Baptist's mind.
If these are the words of John, the author of this Gospel, we note that he begins by asserting the supremacy of Jesus. If we want information, we have to go to the person who possesses that information. If we want information about God, we will get it only from the Son of God; and if we want information about heaven and heaven's life, we will get it only from Him who comes from heaven. When Jesus speaks about God and about the heavenly things, says John, it is no carried story, no second-hand tale, no information from a secondary source; He tells us that which He Himself has seen and heard.
TO PUT IT VERY SIMPLY, BECAUSE JESUS ALONE KNOWS GOD, HE ALONE CAN GIVE US THE FACTS ABOUT GOD, AND THESE FACTS ARE THE GOSPEL.

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"He who comes from above is above all..." Of course, the subject is Jesus Christ, and John is declaring the origin of Christ. It was with this declaration that he commenced this wonderful Gospel...
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through Him and without Him nothing was made that was made.
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." (John 1:1-3)
AND THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US, AND WE BE HELD HIS GLORY, THE GLORY AS OF THE ONLY BEGOTTEN OF THE FATHER, FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH."
The...He who came...from above...was none other than God Himself. Paul writes these words to the Philippians (2:5-8)
"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant, and coming in the likeness of men.
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." The really staggering Christian claim is that Jesus of Nazareth was God made man--that the second person of the Godhead became the "second man" (1 Cor. 15:47), determining human destiny, the second representative head of the race, and that he took humanity without loss of deity, so that Jesus of Nazareth was as truly and fully divine as he was human.
Here are two mysteries for the price of one--the plurality of persons within the unity of God, and the union of Godhead and manhood in the person of Jesus Christ! It is here, in the thing that happened at the first Christmas, that the profoundest and most unfathomable depths of the Christian revelation are foundationed. "The Word became flesh"; God became a man; the divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than a lie and stare and wiggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed (God in diapers!) and taught to talk like any other child. And there is no illusion or deception in this; the babyhood of the Son of God was a reality. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the Incarnation!
"He who comes from above..."
It is from misbelief, or at least inadequate belief, about the Incarnation that difficulties at other points in the gospel story usually spring.

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But once the Incarnation is grasped as a reality, these other difficulties dissolve. If Jesus had been no more than a very remarkable, godly man, the difficulties in believing what the New Testament tells us about his life and work would be truly mountainous. But if Jesus was the same person as the eternal Word, the Father's agent in creation, "through whom also he made the worlds" (Heb. 1:2), it is no wonder if fresh acts of creative power marked his coming into this world, and his life in it, and his exit from it. It is not strange that he, the Author of life, should rise from the dead. If he was truly God the Son, it is much more startling that he should die than he should rise again!
"He who came from above..." The announcement of His coming was from above!
"Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name of Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
And having come in, the angel said to her, "Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you: blessed are you among women!"
But when she saw him she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.
Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
And behold you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.
He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.
And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end."
Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?"
And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:26-35)
"He who came from above..." The confirmation of His identity was from above!
"When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened.
And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, ‘You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.’ (Luke 3:21-22)
"He who came from above..." the Divine approval of ministry came from above!
"But Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.

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Verse 27...
"Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? But for this purpose I came to this hour.
"Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came from heaven, saying, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again."
Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, "An angel has spoken to Him."
Jesus answered and said, "This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake.
"Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.
And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself." (John 12:23,27-32)
"He who came from above..." Heaven and earth gave witness to the completion of the redemption He came to this earth to accomplish.
"Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land.
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?"
Some of those who stood there, when they heard that said, "This Man is calling for Elijah!"
Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink.
The rest said, Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him."
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.
Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;
and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many." (Matthew 27:45-53)
"He who came from above..." The Christ who came from heaven returned to heaven after His resurrection!
"Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven." (Acts 1:9-11)

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"He who came from above..." The Christ who ascended into heaven will also come again from heaven for His saints!
"But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep and Jesus.
For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
Therefore comfort one another with these words." (1 Thess. 4:13-17)
AH! HE WHO CAME FROM ABOVE IS ABOVE ALL!
"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things
were created through Him and for Him.
And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
And He is the head of the body the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence."
For it please the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell." (Colossians 1:15-19)
Paul says that Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God. Here he uses a word and a picture which would awaken all kinds of memories in the minds of those who heard it. Now, as Lightfoot points out, an image can be two things which merge into each other. It can be a representation: BUT a representation, if it is perfect enough, can become a manifestation! When Paul uses this word, he lays it down that Jesus is the perfect manifestation of God. To see what God is like, we must look at Jesus. He perfectly represents God to men in a form which they can see and know and understand.
In our text, John says... "He who came from above...has come as a testimony. "And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies."
What is it that makes a person a good witness? We know something of the answer to this question because of our knowledge of the procedures in courts of law. The first thing that is required if a man is to be a good witness is that he must have first hand information. He must have seen or heard that about which he is testifying. No judge or court will accept hearsay evidence.

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Second, a good witness must be willing to testify. He must be willing to speak up, to get involved.
Third, a good witness must be reliable. That is, his witness must be substantial and possess enough self-consistency to be believed. These three requirements make for a perfect witness.
By this standard--and this is John's point--Jesus Christ is the perfect witness concerning God. Thus, in verse 31 John stresses the fact that Jesus has firsthand information concerning God because of His origins. In verse 32 he points out that Jesus did bear witness to this knowledge. Finally, in verse 34 he shows that the witness is reliable "for God give the Spirit without limit."
The first point is that Jesus Christ possessed accurate knowledge of God the Father. This is linked to his supremacy over all other teachers and prophets. These may have possessed part of the truth, but even at the best their insights were secondary.
The writer to the Hebrews makes this point:
"God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world." (Hebrews 1:1-2)
These prophets reported only what God had revealed to them, Jesus was God Incarnate. His origins were heavenly. Consequently, He has revealed the truth perfectly out of the fullness of His knowledge. In his Gospel, John has a special way of emphasizing the fact that Jesus alone possesses such knowledge. It is not present, or at least is not present in the same degree, in the other Gospels. John stresses the fact that Jesus is the perfect witness because He alone has been sent into the world by God.
Here a few statistics will be helpful. In John's Gospel the phrase "he (or ‘the Father’) who sent me" is found on the lips of Jesus twenty-three times. The Greek verb in that phrase (apostellein) occurs seventeen times in phrases that speak of God's commissioning of the Son, and there are other phrases that speak from a man's perspective of the fact that Jesus Christ has "come."
Jesus is the One who "came down from heaven." He "has come into the world." He "came from the Father," or God.
In the final discourses, as the time of Jesus’ death draws near, the emphasis shifts quite naturally from the fact that Jesus came into the world to the fact that he is now to return to the Father.
In John 16:28, the themes of the coming and the return are bound together. "I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father."
Jesus is the perfect witness because He is able perfectly to reveal God. "No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known" (John 1:18).

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There is also, as I have mentioned, a second requirement for a perfect witness. Not only must a witness have firsthand information about that which is to be testified; the witness must also be willing to testify. John writes: "He testifies to what He has seen and heard."
It is interesting to me that John puts the verb "testify" in the present tense here, as indeed he does with all the other birds that speak of Christ's witness. We would tend to use the past tense, for we would reason that Jesus came, bore his testimony, and then returned to heaven. This is not what John does.
For John, Jesus is still testifying. Well then, we ask, where do we hear his testimony? The answer is: in the Bible. Is the Bible something that is dead, irrelevant, or dated, then? Not for John! And not for any who has come to know Christ and who have experienced the living power of the Bible to speak on his behalf. The Bible is living! "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intense of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)
Christ is living. Moreover, it is through the Bible that he continues to speak and bear his witness to heavenly things in our days. Jesus also fulfilled the third requirement for the perfect witness. His witness was consistent. It was complete and therefore totally reliable. John indicates this when he writes, "For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit." The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in His hands" (vv. 34-35). These verses make it very clear that the Father has not withheld any measure of the Spirit from the Son. This is John's way of saying that there is perfect communion and communication between the Son and the Father, with a result that the Father guarantees the truth and total reliability in Christ's words. This is not true of any other religious teachers; in fact, no other teacher (except a madman) would make such a claim. In all the teaching of all the other religious teachers of the world, truth is always mixed with falsehood. Therefore, those who teach, if they are wise, always point beyond themselves to that which is higher. This was never done by Jesus. Others taught that they had aspects of the truth. Jesus said that He was Truth! Others offered to show the way to God. Jesus said that he is the Way to God! "I am the way, the truth and life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6) The mutual love of the Father and the Son means much in this Gospel. John pictures for us a perfect unity in love. Here the point is that the love of the Father for the Son guarantees the Son's plenipotentiary powers men may trust the Son in all things, for the Father has given all things into His hand.

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In these last few verses of this third chapter of John, the final testimony of the Baptist to the Lord Jesus Christ is presented. In it the Savior and His servant are sharply contrasted. In witnessing to the manifold glories of his Master, John the Baptist draws a seven-fold contrast.
First, John has one who could receive nothing, except it were given him from heaven (v. 27); where as Christ was the One to whom the Father "hath given all things" (v. 35). Specifically the Father gave Christ the Spirit (v. 34), the work He accomplished (17:4), and the Works He did (5:36), His message (12:49);(17:8), His authority (17:2), His name (17:11), His glory (17:22-24), His disciples (6:37-39), the Cup He must drink (18:11), "all judgment" (5:22), "to have life in Himself (5:26), and power overall flesh (17:2).
Second, Jesus was the Christ, whereas John was only one sent before Him (v. 28).
Third, Christ was the "bridegroom," whereas John was but the FRIEND of the bridegroom. (v. 29).
Fourth, Christ must "increase" whereas John himself must "decrease."
Fifth, John was "of the earth," whereas the Lord Jesus Christ had come from above, and "is above all."
Sixth, John had only a measure of the Spirit, but of Christ it is witnessed, "God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him."
Seventh, John was but a servant, whereas the Savior was none less than the Son of the Father (v. 35).
WHAT A BLESSED AND COMPLETE TESTIMONY WAS THIS TO THE IMMEASURABLE SUPERIORITY OF THE LORD OF GLORY!
And now...
we come to the closing verse of the wonderful third chapter of John. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him."
Here is the inevitable alternative. Salvation comes through believing, believing on the Son. How Divinely simple! Those who believe on the Son have "everlasting life" as a present possession and as a future hope. The full enjoyment as well as the full manifestation of this everlasting life will be experienced throughout all eternity in the presence of our wonderful Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! But those who believe not the Son "shall not see life," neither enter into it, nor enjoy it; instead, the wrath of God abideth on them. It is upon them even now, and if they believe not, it shall abide on them for ever and ever. The wrath of God, the divine judgment, immediately and relentlessly rests on the unrepentant sinner who stubbornly rejects the offer of grace and life. THERE IS NO PLACE FOR NEUTRALITY.

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