Blog

John 3:13 says, “And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.” How can this be true in the light of the fact that the Bible says that Elijah went up by a whirlwind “into heaven” (2 Kings 2:1, 11)? And that “Enoch walked with God: and he was not, for God took him” (Gen. 5:24). Both seemed to be translated to heaven without experiencing death. Jesus, in John 3:13 indicates that no one has “ascended up to heaven,” but God, Himself. Proverbs 30:4, indicates that only the Holy God and His Son are “ascended up into heaven” and then discusses the purity of God’s Word.

Some focus on the meaning of what the KJV translates as “ascended up to,” which is from the Greek word “anabaino,” and literally means “to go up, arise, go up, climb up, go up, grow up, rise up, spring up, or come up.” They argue that Jesus was focusing on the “climb up” or “grow up” meaning, as it is clear that no one can be good enough, by their own efforts, to be able to work their way, climb up by their own bootstraps, or be able in themselves to grow up to be good enough to be in heaven with the only holy and perfect Person (God), due to man’s sinfulness (cf. Mat. 5:48; Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 3:23). This is consistent with the gospel and Jesus’ emphasis in John 3 that you must believe in the only begotten Son of God to be spiritually born again, understand the things of the Spirit, go to heaven, be with God, and live eternally. The Greek strongly substantiates this with the use of the perfect tense, active voice, and indicative mood, which indicates a factual, completed action in the past, with continuing results in the present. Clearly Jesus is the only one that was in heaven, came down from heaven, and is still in heaven bringing these heavenly truths to man. Further uniqueness is seen by only 5 of the 81 times “anabaino” is used in the Bible is it translated “ascended up,” and this is the only place and time that it exists as a perfect active indicative, which only Jesus fulfills.

Many quickly explain this (on the surface seeming) discrepancy due to the figurative or spiritual language used in John 3. They argue since this is a very figurative passage with all kinds of heavenly comparisons, like being “born again,” being “born from above,” and the “Son of man be lifted up,” etc. one must interpret this as a figurative or a general saying. They argue that even the spiritual religious leader of the day did not even understand these heavenly spiritual truths that Jesus was trying to help him see by the Spirit of God. They understand John 3:13 as meaning only Jesus came from and is going back to God’s heavenly dwelling place, which is completely true at this point in time, and only true of Jesus. But this is not necessary or required by the Text.

A simple explanation is that there is more than one heaven, and Jesus went to the ultimate throne-room of God into the “heaven of heavens,” which no one else had at this point. Elijah went up by a whirlwind in a “chariot of fire, and horses of fire” (2 Kings 2:11) into the first heaven or sky before proceeding to *paradise, to which also Enoch was taken. This heaven is talked about frequently in the creation account where God placed the sun, moon, and stars “in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth” (cf. Gen. 1:14-18). So clearly at least one of the heavens includes the sky, the earth’s atmosphere, the air, or space), and ten times Scripture states to “the stars of heaven,” referring to the vast number of these physical entities in this heaven.

*Paradise (without taking the space here for a thorough explanation) is the place that existed as a temporary heaven or “Abraham’s bosom” as it is called in Luke 16:19-31, which was for all who believed in God prior to Christ’s death and burial. It was not the place of God as at this time the price of sin had not yet been paid. It existed before Jesus “ascended up on high” and “ascended up far above all heavens” (Ephesians 4:8-10). This is the place where Jesus led those who had believed in God in the Old Testament (before Christ had died), and then took them directly to heaven (which is what most think of now when they try to grasp what heaven is today). And ultimately there will be a “new heaven” when the current heaven passes away (Rev. 21:1). So as this relates to the question re: that no one had ascended up into heaven (God’s dwelling) yet…when Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, no one had, except Jesus. At least clearly not the heaven Jesus was referring to,  “the heaven of heavens,” in the very presence of God. Jesus came down from that heaven. Since Christ’s resurrection and His leading those from paradise into heaven, now all that die and have put their faith in Jesus go directly to heaven, as Christians are promised and reassured that “to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).

So clearly there are several heavens listed in Scripture, and God does not stop the point He is making to go into a technical description or explanation of each every time He uses the word heaven to make clear which heaven He is discussing. The context tells us that. This is easily seen by Genesis 2:1, “Thus the heavens and earth were finished, and the host of them.” Clearly the plural word for heavens refers to more than one heaven. Also, in 2 Corinthians 12:2, where the Apostle Paul says he was “caught up to the third heaven,” clearly demonstrates that there are at least 3 heavens. Five times in Scripture (Deu. 10:14; 1Ki. 8:27; 2Ch. 2:6; 6:18; Neh. 9:6) “the heaven of heavens” is shown as God’s special dwelling place. So this would clearly permit that Jesus is the only one to be from this heaven and ascending back to it, and can speak heavenly truth directly from it, about it, and regarding God Himself. This is unequivocally what Jesus clearly stated and is consistent with Nicodemus’ statement that only someone who is “a teacher come from God” “can do these miracles” that Jesus did, unless “God be with him” (John 3:2). This clearly showed this religious ruler did not know that Jesus was God, not just that God was “with him.” Jesus further asserted His Deity when He stated in John 3:13 that “the Son of man” “is in heaven.”  This clearly shows an omnipresent ability that this fleshly Man is the only God-man with this God-attribute. All must believe in the Deity of Jesus Christ to be eternally saved. Also, we know clearly that God cannot lie (Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18), the Scripture is the “Word of truth” (Psalms 119:43; 2Co. 6:7; Eph. 1:13; 2Ti. 2:15; James 1:18) so is inerrant, and Jesus, as both (Col. 2:9; John 1:1, 14), is “the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father, but by” Him (John 14:6), so Jesus cannot lie or ever misspeak.

For one of the better and shorter commentaries I’ve seen on this passage, I’ve included The Pulpit Commentary (published in 1880-1887; in public domain) explanation below.

“And. The simple copula is here fuller significance. Olshausen regards it as “adversative,” equivalent to “yet.” Meyer, as a simple continuation of the previous statement. The καὶ has more than a mere conjunctive force. Lance puts it thus: “And yet you must be told heavenly things by him who, being the Heavenly One, is himself the first subject of this revelation.” No one hath ascended into heaven. The past tense must be honestly considered. The word cannot refer to the future ascension of Jesus the Lord of glory to where he was before—to the glory which he had with the Father before the world was (Joh_17:5); nor can it refer, as the Socinian interpreters supposed, to a rapture into heaven of the Divine Man between his baptism and temptation, of which we have not the faintest trace either in Scripture or tradition; nor is it sufficient, with Hengstenberg and others, to regard it as a mere Hebraism for high and exalted intercourse with God and heavenly things. True, there have been many who have sought to climb the steep ascent (Gen_11:4; Isa_14:13); true also that rabbis spoke of Moses having “ascended into the heavens,” by which (says Whitby) they meant “admission to the Divine counsels.” The authority on which he depends is the late ’Targum on Son_1:5, Son_1:11, Son_1:12,’ by which, however, all that is clear is that the Targnmist was referring to the ascent of Moses to the top of Sinai, i.e. above the multitude in the deserts, to the place whither Jehovah came to speak with him. But Exo_20:22, the canonical Scripture, makes it clear that it was “from the heavens” that Jehovah spoke with his servant. There are, however, other passages quoted by Schottgen from Jerusalem Targum on Deu_30:12, and from the ’Mishna,’ in which Moses is said to have “ascended into heaven, and heard the voice of God;” but further inquiry leads us to judge that the Hebrew commentators were thinking of the going up to Sinai for his lofty revelations, and their followers have supposed that this process was a synonym of the revelations themselves. Many have thought to rise above the world to the beatific vision, but Jesus says none have done it in the only sense in which they would have been thereby fitted to discourse on the heavenly things. Two things are needed for this in the main—to be in heaven, and come thence charged with its Divine communications. Enoch, Elijah, may have been translated that they should not see death, but they are not so lifted into the abode of God that they might come thence charged with heavenly truth, and able to explain the “how” of Divine grace. No one hath ascended into heaven except he who has by living there as in his eternal home come down from heaven. Meyer, Luthardt, Westcott, etc., all call attention to other and analogous usage of εἰ μὴ, which fastens upon a part of the previous negative, not the whole assertion, and therefore here upon the idea of living in heaven and coming thence (Mat_12:4; Luk_4:26, Luk_4:27; Gal_1:7). Man, if he should presume to come with a full revelation of Divine and heavenly things, must come down from a height to which he had previously ascended; but no man has thus and for this purpose ascended, except he who has descended from heaven, having been there before his manifestation in the flesh, having been “in God.” “with God,” “in the bosom of the Father,” and having come thence, not losing his essential ego, his Divine personality, even though calling himself the Son of man. For any other to have come down from heaven, it was necessary that he should first have ascended thither; but the Son of man has descended without having ascended. He calls himself “Son of man,” and he claims to have come down from heaven without ceasing to be what he was before. Godet urges that, by the “ascended into heaven,” he meant such lofty communion with God and immediate knowledge of Divine things as to differentiate him from all others, but that the phrase, “come down from heaven,” implies previous existence in his native place, and that the Lord’s filial intimacy with God rests on his essential sonship. Still, he conceives that Jesus asserts his own ascension in the spiritual sense to the heart of God, and his descent with consequent resultant knowledge, and expounds both statements by the explanation that as Son of man he is living the twofold life in heaven and on earth at the same time. By using the term, “Son of man,” Christ emphasized the exalted dignity that is involved in the extent of his self-humiliation,, and complete sympathy with us. He was the second Adam, the Lord from heaven.”£ Who is (not was) in heaven. If this be only an early gloss, it throws light on the two previous clauses. It declares that, though he came down, and though his introduction to this world was an incarnation, yet that he is in the deepest sense still in heaven. Such language is a vindication of his claim to reveal heavenly things. Augustine says, “Ecce hic erat et in coelo erat, hic erat in carne, in coelo erat divinitate, natus de matre, non recedens a Patre.” Again, “Si Paulus ambulabat in carne in terra et conversabatur in coelo, Deus coeli et terrae poterat esse et in coelo et in terra.” Archdeacon Watkins says admirably, “If heaven is a state, a life, in which we are, which is in us, now in part, hereafter in its fulness, then we may understand, and with glad hearts hold to, the vital truth that the Son of man who came down from heaven was ever in heaven.”