John 3:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Do you see how even what seems lofty is still far beneath His greatness? He does not exist only in heaven, but everywhere, and He fills all things.

Yet He speaks while still condescending to the weakness of His hearer, in order little by little to lead him up to higher things.

Here He calls Himself the Son of Man not by His flesh alone, but, so to speak, by His whole Self according to the lower nature, that is, according to His humanity. He commonly named His whole Self sometimes according to the Godhead, and sometimes according to the humanity.

But since Christ, consisting of two natures, was one Hypostasis or one Person, the names of the Man are applied to the Word. Again, the names of the Word are applied to the Man.

So here it is said that the "Son of Man" came down from heaven, because He is one Person and one Hypostasis.

Then, lest you hear "came down" and think that the One Who came down is no longer in heaven, He says: "Who is in heaven."

Therefore, when you hear that I came down, do not think that I am not there. I am present here bodily, and there I sit with the Father according to the Godhead.

Otherwise, how does He ascribe to the temple from the Virgin those properties that properly belong to the Word alone? And conversely, how does He appropriate to Himself what belongs only to the flesh?

Here also He now says that the Son of Man came down from heaven. He feels fear, is troubled, and grows weak at the time of the Passion. The sufferings proper only to humanity are attributed to Him, as though He Himself suffered.

According to His human nature He was on earth, not in heaven, where He now abides.

Yet according to the fact that He was the Son of God, He was in heaven.

And according to the fact that He was the Son of Man, He was on earth until He ascended into heaven.

In the same way, insofar as He is the Son of God, He is also the Lord of glory.

And insofar as He is the Son of Man, He was crucified.

"Let spiritual birth," He says, "be such that men become heavenly from earthly.

"This could not be attained unless they became parts of My Body, so that He who descended might ascend.

"For no one ascends except Him who descends."

Therefore, there is no other way than for all to be gathered into the unity of Christ, so as to be changed and cast off their burden.

He who descended must ascend, counting His Body, that is, His Church, as nothing other than Himself.

Then He continues: "No one has ascended into heaven except the Son of Man who descended from heaven and is in heaven" (Jn 3:13).

See, He was here on earth and He was in heaven.

Here He was in the flesh. In heaven He was in His Godhead.

Rather, He was everywhere in His Godhead.

Born of His Mother, He was not separated from the Father.

Two births of Christ must be understood: one divine, the other human.

By one we were born. By the other we must be born again.

Both are wondrous. One is without a mother, the other without a father.

But since He received a body from Adam, for Mary was from Adam, and since He was going to raise this very body, He spoke of something earthly.

"Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (Jn 2:19).

But of the heavenly He spoke as follows: "Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot see the Kingdom of God" (Jn 3:5).

Come now, brothers. God willed to become the Son of Man, and He willed that men become sons of God.

He came down from heaven for our sake. Let us ascend there for His sake.

But only He who said, "No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven" (Jn 3:13), both came down from heaven and ascended there.

Then will those whom He made sons of God not ascend into heaven?

Certainly they will ascend. This has been promised to us: "They will be like the Angels of God" (cf. Mt 22:30).

How then is it said, "No one has ascended except He who descended"?

For He alone descended, and He alone ascended.

What then of the others? How should this be understood, except that they will become His members, so that they may ascend into heaven as one?

Therefore He continued: "No one has ascended into heaven except the Son of Man who descended from heaven and is in heaven" (Jn 3:13).

Do you marvel that He was both here and in heaven?

He made His disciples the same. Hear the Apostle Paul: "Our citizenship is in heaven" (Phil 3:20).

If the man, the Apostle Paul, was bodily on earth and yet dwelt in heaven, could not the God of earth and heaven be in heaven and on earth?

If no one except Him descends from heaven and ascends to it, what is the hope of the rest?

The hope of the rest is that He descended from heaven so that in Him and with Him they might become one whole.

Through Him they are to ascend to heaven.

The Apostle says, "It does not say, 'and to seeds,' as of many, but as of one: 'and to your seed,' which is Christ" (Gal 3:16).

And he says to believers: "But you are all in Christ. If you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed" (Gal 3:29).

What he spoke of one, he spoke of us all.

Therefore, when psalms are performed, many sometimes sing, to show that many have become one.

Sometimes one sings, to show that he has embraced many in himself.

For this reason only one was healed in that well-known pool, and no one else was healed when descending into it (Jn 5:4).

This one represents the unity of the Church.

Woe to those who do not endure unity and divide men into parties.

Let them hear the Apostle, who wished to make them one in one for One.

Let them hear him saying, "Do not divide yourselves into many. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.

"So then neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but God who gives the growth" (1 Cor 3:6-7).

They were saying, "I am of Paul," "I am of Apollos," "I am of Cephas" (1 Cor 1:12).

But he said to them: "Is Christ divided?" (1 Cor 1:13).

Be in one. Be one. Be one man.

"No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven" (Jn 3:13).

See, "We want to be yours," they were saying to Paul.

But he said: "I do not want you to be Paul's. Belong to Him to whom Paul belongs together with you."

For He came down and died, and by death itself He freed us from death.

Trampled by death, He trampled down death.

And you know, brothers, that death itself entered the world through the envy of the devil.

"God did not make death," says Scripture, "nor does He delight in the destruction of the living, for He created all things that they might exist" (Wis 1:13-14).

But what does it say further? "By the envy of the devil death entered the world" (Wis 2:24).

Man would not have come to the death introduced by the devil by being compelled by force.

For the devil had no power to compel, but he had craft for persuasion.

If you had not agreed with him, the devil would have done nothing to you.

Your consent, O man, brought you to death.

From the mortal, mortals were born, having become mortal from immortal.

All men from Adam are mortal.

But Jesus, the Son of God, through whom all things were made, the only One equal to the Father, became mortal.

For "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14).

"The Son of Man." The Son of God is so called according to His humanity. One must know that sometimes He names Himself according to the Godhead, and sometimes according to His humanity.

"Who is in heaven": present in heaven according to His Godhead, or heavenly.

Notice how these words, although they seem lofty, still do not express the whole greatness of Jesus Christ. For while being in heaven, He did not leave the earth. When He came down to earth, He was not absent from heaven, but was everywhere, since the Godhead is without limit.

Yet Jesus Christ says this in condescension to the weakness of His hearer, wishing little by little to raise his mind.

Therefore He both came down from heaven and became the Son of Man, and He also remained in heaven. For the Word, having become flesh, did not lose His property of remaining the Word.

Being the Word, He also abode in heaven. Being flesh, He was also the Son of Man. When the Word became flesh, He was both from heaven, and Son of Man, and in heaven.

For the dignity of the Word, which cannot be contained within bodily limits, was certainly present where it had come down from. And the flesh received its beginning in no other way than from the Word.

The Word became flesh, and, being flesh, nevertheless did not cease also to be the Word.

According to bodily arguments, to come down and to abide are not the same. In one there is change in descent, and in the other the unchangeableness of abiding.

The infant cries, yet God abides in heaven. The boy grows, yet the fullness of God remains unchanged.

And when He ascends to where He was before, and descends while abiding, how can this be contained by human understanding?

For the Lord says, "What if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?" Where was He before? The Son of Man ascends to where He was before. Who can comprehend this?

The Son of Man descends from heaven, He Who is in heaven. What mind can bear this? The Word became flesh. What words can express this?

The Word becomes flesh; that is, God becomes man. He Who is man is in heaven, and He Who is God is from heaven.

He ascends by descending, yet descends without descending. He is what He was, but as what He is, He was not.

We rush about in search of reasons, and our reason grows weak. We see the meaning, but we do not understand the causes. Yet we shall know Christ Jesus by understanding even in this way. If we think we know more, we shall not know Him.

Therefore He says that no one has ascended into heaven except He Who came down from heaven. He means Himself both in the ascent and in the descent, since God the Word cannot be separated from the humanity He assumed, and it is He Who, as He says, descended.

Here by ascent He means not what happened with the flesh, but the various acts of divine economy in ancient times. Scripture says of these: "God went up from Abraham when He had finished speaking with him" (cf. Gen 17:22), and similar passages of Scripture.

If God the Word, after the Incarnation, is called the Son of Man, this is not astonishing. In the same way, if a man bought an estate or entered marriage before becoming king or general, people afterward say that the king acquired the estate or the general entered marriage.

That is, before the descent of the Word from heaven at the Incarnation.

The citation in Hesychius differs from the LXX.

All the actions which God the Word performed before the Incarnation are now, after the Incarnation, referred to the Son of Man, since the hypostasis of God the Word received this new name.

See how by these words He revealed that He is both God and man. To ascend into heaven, to come down from heaven, and at the same time to be in heaven is the property of God alone, Who is everywhere present and fills all things.

By coming down and ascending, and also by abiding in heaven, He showed Himself to be equal to God. By saying "the Son of Man," He showed Himself also to be equal to men.

He came down from heaven when He was incarnate. He ascended into heaven when, after the resurrection from the dead, He was taken up into the heavens.

Although He came down to earth, He was not separated from the bosom of the Father. He always abides together with Him, in heaven and in every place.

That He is God and at the same time man He confirms also by the following words:

What, then, is the meaning of this saying? First of all, what does it mean to ascend into heaven? In the usage of the biblical books, heaven has many meanings. Its highest meaning is this: heaven is the purely spiritual realm in which God, the most pure Spirit, manifests Himself in the most perfect way. In its mysteries it is wholly inaccessible to men, Jn 1:18; 1 Jn 4:12; 1 Tim 6:16; Ex 33:20.

The holy Angels and men are vouchsafed divine revelations, but the essence of God is inaccessible even to them. The mysteries and depths of God, the heavenly things, are accessible to them only insofar as God Himself reveals them, according to their capacity to receive them. In their essence, however, they are hidden. To know these mysteries of God in their essence, that is, to know the very essence of God, is sometimes called in sacred language ascending into heaven. This is presented as wholly impossible for men, Deut 30:11-12; Bar 3:29-30; Prov 30:4.

Thus to ascend into heaven is not a literal expression, but a figurative one. Its meaning is to have perfect knowledge of truths inaccessible to human reason, of the mysteries of God in their essence. The saying, "No one has ascended into heaven," means that no one knows the mysteries of God which surpass human understanding. They are inaccessible to every man, for they are hidden in God.

It is clear that by this saying the Savior sets Himself and His knowledge of God over against all who had previously received revelations. This points to the immediacy, fullness, and perfection of His knowledge of God. Before it, the knowledge of others is infinitely small, for no one has ascended into heaven. Moreover, all who received revelation accepted the truths only by faith. Christ Himself knows these truths, these mysteries and depths of God, and knows them in the most perfect way, Jn 3:11.

Therefore the expression "No one has ascended into heaven" is equivalent to another expression, and is fully explained by it: "No one has ever seen God. The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him," Jn 1:18. And again: "No one knows the Father except the Son," Mt 11:27.

Therefore the words, "No one has ascended into heaven except the Son of Man," that is, the Messiah, mean this. No one has such full and perfect knowledge of the mysteries of God concerning Himself, and of His eternal counsel concerning the salvation of the world, except the Messiah. He has brought the full revelation of the Godhead into the world. Compared with His revelation, all former revelations are incomplete. What is inaccessible to all and hidden in God is accessible to Him, because He Himself is God, and in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead, Col 2:9-10; cf. Col 1:19.

"Who came down from heaven" means the One who was in the beginning with God, Jn 1:2, and came down to earth to proclaim the mysteries of God to men. These mysteries are fully accessible to Him alone, as one who shares in them, Jn 6:38. "Son of Man" is the beloved name for Himself which the Lord so often uses when speaking of Himself. By it He indicates His human nature and His unity with men, whom for this reason He is not ashamed to call brethren, Heb 2:11. He is "Son of Man both through Adam and through the Virgin, from whom He was born, both according to the law and beyond the laws of birth," Gregory the Theologian.

The expression "who is in heaven," when set beside the words "who came down from heaven," clearly indicates that despite the God-man's dwelling on earth among men as the Son of Man, He at the same time abides in heaven, with God the Father, as the Son of God. Equivalent to the other expression, "who is in the bosom of the Father," Jn 1:18, this expression denotes the inseparable union of the Son of God with God the Father according to nature. It indicates that Christ, while being true and perfect man, is at the same time true God.

Thus, in the light of the full New Testament revelation, in the few words of the verse under consideration we may discern the following teaching about the person of the Messiah. The Messiah, Christ, and He alone, has full, complete, and perfect knowledge of God and of His highest mysteries concerning Himself. These include the mysteries of the Kingdom of God on earth in general, and the mysteries of the Kingdom of the Messiah in particular. For He Himself, even after becoming man, does not cease to be with God, since He Himself is God and unites in Himself the divine and human natures. He, God, came down from heaven and was incarnate in order to communicate the mysteries of God to men.

Consequently, one may continue this thought: He must be believed unconditionally. One must believe in the immutable truth of His teaching about God, about Himself, about the Kingdom of God, and about everything. This faith in Him as the Messiah, the Son of God and the Son of Man, is the necessary condition on man's part for receiving regeneration and then sharing in His gracious Kingdom.

By this teaching, on the one hand, Nicodemus was given, though veiledly, the true concept of the person of Jesus Christ Himself. He was also allowed to notice the error of the view he had previously expressed about Him. From these words he should have concluded that Jesus is not an ordinary prophet, teacher, and wonderworker like the prophets who had been before. Rather, He is a unique, divine person, manifested in the flesh as the Son of Man.

On the other hand, by this Christ revealed to Nicodemus the true teaching about the Messiah. This was a teaching not revealed so clearly in the Old Testament. Without any doubt, it surpassed Nicodemus' notions of the Messiah, and even contradicted them. The Jews expected in the person of the Messiah an extraordinary messenger of God, who, when He came, would proclaim all things to them, Jn 4:25, and who would abide forever, Jn 12:34. Yet they thought that He would be a man, or at least not God. Later, Christ's teaching about His consubstantiality with the Father, when He began to speak of it directly, proved unbearable to them and was counted as blasphemy, Jn 10:30-33, 38-39.

But this was still one of those heavenly mysteries of which Christ began to speak with Nicodemus. It was one aspect of the concept of the person and work of the Messiah. Another mystery is that the Messiah must suffer and die, in order to reconcile men with God and save them through faith in Him.

The One Who is both on earth and in heaven is certainly omnipresent, which cannot be attributed to an angel. Thus Jesus revealed to Nicodemus concerning Himself that He is man and at the same time God.

The Son of God said the same about Himself on other occasions: Jn 17:5; Jn 16:28.