Comming from above (John 3:31-36)

Scripture reading:
(31) The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all.

(32) He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no-one accepts his testimony. (33) The man who has accepted it has certified that god is truthful. (34) For the one whom god has sent speaks the words of god, for God gives the spirit without limit. (35) The father loves the son, and has placed everything in his hands. (36) Whoever believes in the son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.


Observations:
(1) Jesus is not like us.

It is helpful in understanding the above passage to remember from the previous passage that it is John the Baptist who is speaking. In the previous passage, we saw how John saw Jesus as far above himself. John had to remind his own disciples that he was not the main event of the Christian message – that honor belonged to Jesus.

In this passage, John explains a little about why Jesus is so special, and why he himself was incomparable to Jesus.

Simply put, Jesus is from heaven, whereas John (like us) was from earth. As god’s son, Jesus had been given God’s holy spirit in full. God had given Jesus everything he had – completely divine power, divine character – everything.

John the Baptist was a man from earth. God gave John some spiritual strength and insight – enough to fulfill his mission on earth.

But John did was not given everything that god has and is – Jesus was.

In a similar manner, whilst I believe that we are given sufficient spiritual strength and insight to fulfill our mission as god has allocated for us, we are not given all of god’s power and strength.

Jesus, and only Jesus, is given the holy spirit in full, and that is because he and only he came down from heaven.


(2) God has love within himself.

“The father loves the son.” (v35)

Consider this sentence for a moment.

Here, we see a critical aspect of the nature of our god - he has love within himself.

In order to understand this, it is helpful to understand the trinity concept. The trinity concept is one which is not always easy to understand or explain, and I will freely concede that it is not a topic which I understand particularly well myself.

But what it boils down to is this – our god is a multi-faceted and multi-dimensional god.

Our god operates as one full and complete unit, but there are three different dimensions to this unit – God the father, Jesus the son and the holy spirit.

Now each different dimension serves its own distinct purpose and function within the unit of god. But none operates in isolation. Instead, all three operate together as one unit in absolutely perfect and complete harmony and congruency.

Now then, when we see that god ‘loves’ Jesus, we see that one part of the trilogy of god loves another.

What this means is that god, by his nature, has perfect and complete love within himself. Unlike us, he does not need to receive love from external sources. No, rather, he has love fully contained within him. It’s inbuilt into him, it’s who he is.



Prayer:
Lord Jesus,

Thank you, that you are not like us.

We come from the earth, we were born in earthly bodies and are of this world. But you did not come from earth, you came from the riches and glory and splendor of heaven. We, with our earthly bodies, heart and mindset, simply cannot comprehend or put into words the extent of your greatness and love. Nor can we contemplate just what it would have taken for you to leave heaven for awhile and take the form of a lowly man on earth.

But we must be ever thankful for what you did, and the great sacrifice you made because of your love for us.

And lord, in love, we worship your character. As we have seen, you are the source of love and you have love within yourself, by your nature. We can only look at your nature and praise your wondrous glory.

In your great name we pray and worship.

Amen.