No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven
Christ comforting Nicodemus
Christ having reproved Nicodemus for his ignorance, now shows the remedy thereof in Himself.
1. Christ’s sharp word is not His last. Having inflicted a wound He offers Himself, the only remedy, to cure it.
2. It is alike impossible for men, by their own parts and natural endowments, to comprehend spiritual mysteries and enter into God’s counsels, here called an ascending up to heaven.
3. In so far as sinners come to a true and saving knowledge of heavenly mysteries, they are in a sort transported up to heaven. If Capernaum were exalted to heaven by the offer of these things, what are they who embrace them?
4. It is proper in Christ only, in some sense, to ascend to heaven, both for the measure and degree of knowledge which, as God, is infinite, and, as man, is large as human nature is capable of, and for the kind of knowledge which, as God, is of Himself, and can only be man’s by communication from Him who came down from heaven.
5. The Son of God in the boson of the Father manifested Himself in our nature, that He might in our nature understand and communicate the heavenly mysteries; therefore it is marked as the ground of His ascending or comprehending these things that He came down, hereby showing that His abasing of Himself did exalt Him as Mediator to that dignity, to be the storehouse of wisdom to His people.
6. Christ, by His Incarnation, did not cease to be God, for He is still in heaven.
7. The Son of God has assumed the human nature into so strict a personal union that what is proper to either nature is ascribed unto the Person under whatsoever name. And hereby Christ shows His love to our nature that under that name, “Son of Man,” He ascribes what is proper to His Godhead to Himself. (G. Hutcheson.)
The text in relation to error
Three distinct heresies are overthrown by these words.
I. That of the NESTORIANS, who affirm a duality of persons as well as of natures in Christ; for unless our Blessed Lord were one Person, it could not in truth be affirmed that the Son of Man, even whilst on earth, was in heaven.
II. That of the CERINTHIANS and all others who deny the pre-existence and Divinity of Christ; for unless He had been God, it could not have been said that He came down from heaven even whilst still in heaven.
III. That of the MANICHAEANS, who deny the proper humanity of our Blessed Lord; for unless He had been really man, of the substance of His mother, it could not be said that He was the Son of Man. (Toletus.)
The Son of Man
The name is used
I. Not only because of His Incarnation, but also because of the manner of that Incarnation. When He came into this world and manifested Himself, so that we were able to see Him who by nature is invisible, He might have taken new flesh and a body created especially for Him, other than that of man. He, however, took man’s flesh, and calls Himself here the Son of Man, and so assures us that He was really born of woman; otherwise He would not be really the Son of Man. These words also declare, not only that He took our flesh, for this alone would not have made Him the Son of Man, but that He took it by being born.
II. These words remind us for our comfort that He is truly our Brother, and that we are all brethren of Christ by virtue of His birth as the Son of Man.
III. He uses these words to certify us of the fulfilment of those promises which declared that He should take our flesh and be the seed of man, the Son of David and of Abraham.
IV. Again, He uses these words in confirmation of our being made the sons of God; for if Christ for our sake became the Son of Man, we through His humiliation and Incarnation were therefore made the sons of God.
V. By using the name, Son of Man, the mark of His humiliation, He would teach us humility. (Toletus.)