John 3:12Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

For this reason Christ spoke much more about simple matters than lofty ones. But so that this would not cause harm in another respect, that is, so that it would not keep the disciple below, He turns to simple matters only after first stating the reason why He speaks of them.

He did this in the present case. After speaking of baptism and the birth accomplished on earth by grace, He then intended to proceed to speak of His own birth, ineffable and incomprehensible. Yet for the moment He delays and does not proceed. Then He states the reason why He does not proceed.

What reason is this? The coarseness and weakness of His hearers. He was hinting at this when He said, "If I have told you earthly things, and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?"

Thus, wherever He says something simple and humble, it must be referred to the weakness of the hearers.

Some say that the expression "earthly things" here must be understood of the wind, as though He said: I showed you an example from earthly things, but you are not persuaded even by this. How, then, can you understand more exalted matters?

But if He here also calls baptism earthly, do not marvel. He calls it so either because it is accomplished on earth, or in comparison with His dread birth. Our birth in baptism, though heavenly, is earthly in comparison with His true birth from the Essence of the Father.

It is just that He did not say, "You do not understand," but, "You do not believe." Whoever is troubled by something intelligible to the mind and does not readily accept it may rightly be accused of lack of understanding. But whoever does not accept what cannot be grasped by reason, but only by faith, deserves accusation not of lack of understanding, but of unbelief.

Thus, by not allowing Nicodemus to test with his mind what had been said, Christ continues still more strongly to convict him of unbelief. If our spiritual birth must be received by faith, what do those deserve who scrutinize with their mind the birth of the Only-begotten?

But perhaps someone will say: why speak of this if the hearers did not wish to believe? Because although they did not wish to believe, people of later times could receive it and gain benefit from it.

Some, however, have understood "earthly things" to mean the example of the wind. In that case the speech has this sense: if I have set before you an example from earthly things, and you were not persuaded by it, how can you be taught more exalted things?

When some asked what earthly thing the Lord had spoken of, they were at a loss. They said that when He declared, "If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?" He was speaking about the wind.

For what did He call earthly? He spoke of spiritual birth, and then continued: "So it is with everyone born of the Spirit" (Jn 3:8).

Moreover, brethren, who among us does not see, for example, the south wind going from south to north? Or the east wind coming from the east and going toward the west? Do we not know where it comes from and where it goes?

What, then, did He say about earthly things? What did men not believe?

Was it not what He said about the restoration of the temple? For He received His body from the earth. That very earth, received from an earthly body, He was preparing to raise up again.

They did not believe Him that He would raise the earth again. "If I have told you earthly things," He said, "and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?"

That is: if you do not believe that I can raise again the temple destroyed by you, how will you believe that men can be born again through the Spirit?

Some say that "earthly things" here should be referred to the words about the wind. Jesus Christ says: if I have set before you an earthly example, and you do not believe, how will you believe if I speak of something heavenly, that is, more exalted?

Others say that "earthly things" here refers to the words about rebirth. They explain that Jesus Christ called rebirth earthly, though it is heavenly and divine, either because it is accomplished on earth, or by comparison with His own ineffable birth. In relation to the height of that birth, this one is indeed, as it were, earthly and lowly.

But if you do not believe Me in what every man living on earth can experience in his own heart, how will you believe Me when I speak to you of what lies above the sphere of human experience?

How will you believe when I speak of what is beyond the limits of human reason, and when I reveal the hidden counsel of God concerning man's salvation, which human reason cannot comprehend?"

This is already a transition to the subject that chiefly occupied Nicodemus's soul when he came to Jesus. It is the question of the Kingdom of the Messiah, how it must be revealed, and why it is revealed in this way rather than as the Jews expected.

By this the Lord hints at Nicodemus's own desire to learn more closely the circumstances of the Messiah's manifestation and the revelation of His Kingdom. From his external point of view, he did not at all consider these circumstances so incomprehensible, profound, and all-embracing.

If you do not believe Me when I speak of what can be observed and perceived, of divine actions revealed here on earth in men and accessible to their self-observation, how will you believe when I speak of realities and relations that exist only in heaven?

Knowledge of these things is as necessary as birth from above, if one is to be worthy of the Kingdom of God.

No one among men has ascended, nor can ever ascend, into heaven in order afterward to communicate the mysteries of heaven to men. Therefore no one among men can communicate this to them, except the Son of Man, Who came down from heaven and is in heaven.

Yet you do not believe Him.

Here, then, Jesus Christ already communicated to Nicodemus a certain understanding of His own person. Next the Lord reveals His relation to the Messianic Kingdom. At the same time He bears still higher witness concerning Himself, revealing Himself as the Only-begotten Son of God.

"Nicodemus said, 'We know that You are a teacher come from God.' Christ now corrects this very point, as if saying: do not think that I am such a teacher as the many prophets who were from the earth. I have come from heaven. None of the prophets ascended there, but I abide there always" (St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of John, 27).

The expressions ascended into heaven, came down from heaven, and is in heaven cannot be understood literally. The omnipresent God does not exist only in heaven, but everywhere.

Jesus Christ often, especially in parables, took examples from the surrounding world and from daily life in order to instruct His hearers. He used words and expressions in their commonly accepted sense at that time.

So also in His conversation with Nicodemus He spoke of heaven with the common meaning of the word in mind, and therefore one understandable to His hearer. Heaven was considered the dwelling place of God, and earth the dwelling place of men. Thus the heavenly, that is, the divine, was set over against the earthly, the human.

Knowing the meaning of these words, Nicodemus should have understood that the expression no one has ascended into heaven refers to men. It means that no one among men knows the essence of God and His mysteries.

The addition to this saying, except the Son of Man Who came down from heaven, means that only He, Christ the Messiah, the Son of Man, knows these mysteries. He came to men from God Himself, and, as One Who is in heaven, always abides in God.

"The Messiah, Christ, and He alone, possesses full, entire, and perfect knowledge of God and of His highest mysteries concerning Himself. He knows the mysteries of the Kingdom of God on earth in general, and the mysteries of the Kingdom of the Messiah in particular. For even after becoming man He does not cease to be with God, since He Himself is God and unites in Himself the divine and human nature. He, God, came down from heaven and was incarnate in order to communicate the mysteries of God to men. Therefore one must believe Him unconditionally. One must believe in the immutable truth of His teaching concerning God, concerning Himself, concerning the Kingdom of God, and concerning everything. This faith in Him as the Messiah, the Son of God and Son of Man, is the necessary condition on man's part for receiving regeneration and then sharing in His gracious Kingdom" (Bishop Michael, Explanatory Gospel, 3, 100).

No man can reveal these mysteries, because "no one has ever ascended into heaven except the Son of Man, Who came down from heaven and is in heaven." He is the Messiah, Who has now come to earth to preach the truth.

In what sense, then, are both terms applied here? Those who understand the word spirit in Jn 3:8 only as wind apply Christ's expression earthly only to this statement. They paraphrase His speech in this way: if I have shown you an example from earthly things, and you are not persuaded and do not believe, how can you believe things more exalted, heavenly things?

But Nicodemus's perplexity, "How can this be?" did not refer to the words about the wind, but to the teaching on regeneration. Therefore, in the Savior's answer to this perplexity, the earthly must refer not to the words about the wind, but to the teaching on regeneration, or baptism, together with the other truths revealed to Nicodemus.

In what sense, then, does He call regeneration earthly? "He calls it this either because it is accomplished on earth, or in comparison with His own birth. For our birth in baptism, though heavenly, is earthly in comparison with His true birth from the essence of the Father" (Chrysostom).

Such also are the other truths about which Christ has spoken up to this point. The Jews' ideas about the person and Kingdom of the Messiah were perverted, as were their ideas about the right to enter that Kingdom. Participation in the Kingdom of the Messiah is granted only through regeneration. Though incomprehensible to man, it is nevertheless perceptible.

In comparison with this, the truths that the Savior goes on to unfold are heavenly truths. They concern His relation to the Father, the redemption of the human race by the Messiah's death on the Cross, and the character of the new Kingdom of the Messiah.

Still, one may think that here there is not an absolute opposition of truths, but only a comparative determination of their dignity and meaning for human understanding.

Thus Christ speaks to Nicodemus as though saying: until now I have spoken to you of things that are, as it were, earthly and accessible to human understanding, even to human perception. I have spoken of realities accomplished on earth, and you do not believe Me. But now I must speak of heavenly truths, truths concerning the mysteries of the Holy Trinity and the eternal counsel of God for the salvation of men. These truths surpass every earthly and human understanding. They concern matters not subject to human experience. How then will you believe Me when I speak to you of them, if you do not believe Me even in what is still accessible to your understanding?

After this question the Savior proceeds to set forth those truths which He called heavenly. This forms the second part of the Savior's conversation with Nicodemus. The Savior speaks of them also in a veiled manner. Yet after the rebuke given to him, Nicodemus no longer objects or tries to inquire into them, having heard that they are mysteries of heaven.

Yet they do not understand even the first step that leads to man's salvation: the necessity of regeneration and re-creation already in earthly life, by water and the Spirit.

In the Lord's address to Nicodemus and the Pharisees, "if I have told you earthly things and you do not believe," there is another indication. Least of all do the teachers of Israel have ears to hear and eyes to see.

The false direction of their whole teaching prevents them from seeing and understanding the light and the truth. The higher mysteries can be revealed only to those who, with a humble heart and consciousness of human helplessness, receive the teaching on the necessity of new birth by water and the Spirit.

We dare to think that Nicodemus's heart opens and softens at the Lord's grace-filled words. The Lord does not consider him unworthy to hear the further unfolding of the higher mysteries, which are revealed with special clarity in the following verses, Jn 3:13-21.

Yet their full disclosure, and the revelation concerning the Holy Spirit, is left by the Lord until His final discourse with the disciples.