Scripture: John 3:31-36
Date: November 13, 2011
Speaker: Sean Higgins
An essential tenet of unbelief is believing that people can believe whatever they want to believe. In terms of what’s possible, this is true, because many people believe many different things. However, in terms of what’s proper, people cannot believe whatever they want to believe and all be right. I can believe that my cat is an elephant, but I am wrong. It’s more than merely an issue of effectiveness, but an issue of reality. My believing engine is making noise, like it’s idling at a red light, but the car is without wheels, without a frame, without windows and seats. That means it isn’t really a car.
As Christ’s disciples we believe that certain realities exist that pay no mind to whether or not we believe them. Truth is objective, outside of us, unmoved by us. We can receive the truth or reject it, but we cannot change it.
The darkness of unbelief wants to argue. Unbelief argues that all beliefs are personal, all persons are equal protoplasm, so all beliefs must be equal. But equal in what way? They may be equal in terms of the vigor with which they’re held, but they cannot be equal in terms of the validity. Right and wrong cannot be the same.
This relates to Jesus. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Triune God, the eternal Logos who created all things, and the only Savior of the world. In Him was life and the life was the light of men. Jesus is Lord, and He is Lord over all things.
If we believe that Jesus is Lord of our hearts, we do well. If we believe that He is Lord of our families, acknowledged at least before we gobble down our meals together, we are correct. If we believe that He is head of the church, worthy to be worshipped once a week, it’s a good thing that we believe. But if that’s as far as our understanding of His lordship goes, much unbelief remains and darkness creeps in.
John the Baptist addressed a petty manifestation of dark unbelief among his disciples. They were concerned that Jesus was taking attention away from their master, their Rabbi. Jesus’ ministry gathered a steam of disciples after He cleared the Temple and worked signs in Jerusalem. Now there were two baptizers, and the Judean countryside wasn’t big enough for the both of them.
John the Baptist’s disciples point out the problem and the Baptist answers that it was not only not a problem, it was his life to send attention elsewhere. He had been given a task from heaven, sent by God not as the light, but to bear witness to the light. He was the friend of the Bridegroom, rejoicing greatly at the Bridegroom’s voice. His joy was made complete in this. His final application: “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
Anything less than this is unbelief. If we seek to increase, then we move further away from reality. Just because I don’t run off the cliff immediately doesn’t mean that I can see. If John the Baptist agreed with his disciples and began to fight for his own spot, his own lordship over anything, he would have made himself an unfaithful witness, a liar, and ripped the rug of joy out from underneath himself.
John the apostle summarizes this for all of us in 3:31-36. The paragraph summarizes not only verses 22-30 but also all of chapter three. The entire chapter has been an argument for how to see life, how to have eternal lire. Nicodemus came and Jesus told him that he couldn’t see the kingdom, couldn’t enter the kingdom, couldn’t escape perishing and condemnation and darkness and wrath without being born again and believing in the Son.
If we miss the Son, if we miss His preeminence, His authority, His revelation, His sacrifice, and His fellowship, we do not see life. This paragraph urges us to see life and that can’t happen apart from seeing Christ.
Last we heard, John the Baptist was telling his disciples that he was not the Christ, he was only a friend of the Bridegroom who was happy to give way to Christ. The apostle John provides another reason why that fits.
He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. (John 3:31–32)
He who comes from above is Jesus. Jesus Himself told Nicodemus that He had descended from heaven (3:13) and the apostle John reiterated that God sent the Son (3:17). Jesus is contrasted with he who is of the earth . This probably refers to any earthly person, with an immediate view to John the Baptist and then even to Nicodemus (cf. 3:6) but again, in broadest terms, to anyone not from heaven. One’s descent demonstrates one’s kind; someone of the earth belongs to the earth (or “from the earth” NAS, is “earthly” KJV) and he speaks in an earthly way . He can’t help it. The earth is all he knows.
Note the repetition regarding the One coming from above: He is above all . He has preeminence. He is supreme. No one and no thing stands higher than He does. Of course, He made all things, so what is created cannot claim superiority over its Creator.
It should amaze us again that the Word became flesh. That He came from above in the first place is monumental, and then He bears witness to what he has seen and heard . His is an eye-witness testimony. His testimony comes with divine authority. He spread no opinion, guesswork, or second-hand rumor. Yet no one receives his testimony . We learned this sad problem in chapter one (John 1:11). Nicodemus illustrates that the Jews, Jesus’ own people, the religious should-have-known-betters, didn’t accept Jesus’ witness.
This is the first instruction of the paragraph regarding how to see life: see Christ as the heavenly witness. Receive Him for who He is, one sent from God. He is not just a “Rabbi” who did some good, even miraculous works while teaching some good things (3:2). He is above all. That’s true no matter what.
He Himself is above all and He utters the words of God through the Spirit of God.
Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. (John 3:33–34)
As in John 1:11-12, the statement that no one receives his testimony is followed by a statement that some did receive. We learned in chapter one that receivers become receivers by the will of God. In chapter three we’ve seen that a life-seer becomes a life-seer by being born from above by God’s Spirit. God takes a man out of darkness and brings him into light. What he previously could not understand didn’t change what was true. Now that he’s born again he sees the truth.
John describes it as sets his seal to this, that God is true . When a man believes, he doesn’t make something true. When a man comes to believe a true thing, his belief stamps the truth.
This is not saying that man evaluates the evidence, follows the chain of reasoning, sees the evidence, and then makes his judgment on what is true. Man doesn’t stand at the conveyor belt of ideas and set his seal of approval on what he deems to be genuine. The true, the genuine, the authentic, the real exists whether or not he realizes it or receives it.
To say that a man’s belief stamps the truth is saying that the fact that he’s standing at the conveyor belt proves that the defibrillator worked. The fact that a man believes is proof that God’s Spirit gave him life.
Someone might say, what about those who really believe false things? Doesn’t my argument make their beliefs true, too, since believing corroborates truth?
No. Believing true things corroborates truth. It’s why I began the sermon the way I did. Unbelief is so down deep in our hearts that we forget about it and just go about our work a couple levels up. If I say, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion,” you should say, “Says who? Who is the authority that grants opinion entitlement?”
Entitlement to opinion or personal beliefs is an American, though not limited to America, foundation and, as Christians, we just build our beliefs on the west side and hope to invite people over. But this is not true. Opinion entitlement is unbelief. Jesus doesn’t say you can believe whatever you want to. He didn’t say that things were better on His side, so judge if that will work well for you. Without eternal life, we won’t see the truth.
Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. (1 John 5:10–11 ESV)
The testimony is “that God gave us eternal life.” The proof of truth is in the life. The point here is, receiving the truth corroborates the truth like landing on your rear corroborates gravity; your fall seals the reality, not because you decided for yourself, but because it shows the power of gravity. Those who have eternal life seal God’s true testimony, not because they judged for themselves, but because it shows the power of the gospel.
Receiving the true witness of Christ is a receiving of the true God because Christ utters the words of God . The two are saying the same thing. Jesus speaks for His Father. His words are “spirit and life” (6:63), they are “eternal life” (John 6:68).
Jesus is the ultimate prophet, the promised Messiah who fulfills the OT prophets, in particular Isaiah (see Isaiah 11:2, 42:1; 61:1) who said multiple times that the Lord would pour out His Spirit on His anointed. John the Baptist saw it happen and the present tense gives stresses the ongoing nature of the fellowship the Son has with the Father through the Spirit.
One cannot see life unless one receives the words of Jesus as true, as true words of God. All who have eternal life see the reality.
Here is more of the actual foundation upon which we must build our worldview.
The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. (John 3:35)
The Father gave His Son, sent His Son, spoke through His Son. The Son obeyed the Father, did the Father’s will, followed the Father’s commission. But all of this was driven by love. It wasn’t a business deal. It wasn’t power-proving or power-hungry. It was love.
That love caused the Father to give all things into his hand . To put it in his hand meant to give it to Him for Him to rule, for Him to command. And He rules all things . This broad statement is made in multiple places that presumably the apostle John knew, in particular, from the First Gospel.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. (Matthew 11:27)
How does this fit in chapter three? It means that what the Son says, goes, including the ones believing in him. He says, you must be born again. He says being a Jew isn’t enough, or seeing some impressive works, or being a Pharisee, or knowing and teaching Scripture. He says following any other earthly man, including yourself, instead of Him won’t work. He says He is the foundation, and those who build on any other are in darkness and under condemnation.
True life, eternal life, can’t be separated from truth and truth can’t be separated from Christ’s lordship over everything. Abraham Kuyper wrote:
There is not one square inch over the whole domain of human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not say, “Mine!”
You can’t see life without submitting to His lordship. That’s exactly the reason why the Baptist rejoiced to hear the Bridegroom’s voice! The Bridegroom was in charge. He has all the resources. This is His party. We can cry in the corner or we can join in joyfully under His lordship. Seeing life requires seeing Christ as Lord.
Two ways to go, and only one includes life.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:36)
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life . This is the same as it’s been all chapter, “the one believing in the Son,” stressing the definitive action not the indefinite subject. We saw it in 3:15, 3:16, and 3:17. Each of those verses connects with the Son of Man being lifted up—a reference to His death—in 3:14. The “gave” in 3:16 seems to reference His sacrifice not only His incarnation. The alternatives to not believing include perishing, condemnation, and wrath. These are what the Son bore on the cross for all who believe.
Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life . This is an interesting change of words. The easy contrast would be believing and unbelieving, but instead, it’s disobedience. Why? Because Christ is so true that not to believe Him is to disobey Him. That’s another reason why opinion entitlement is a myth. Sincere believing in anything other than Christ is disobedience.
The wrath of God remains on him . Man comes out condemned in Adam, under the laws of sin and death and darkness. The only way out is in Christ. Apart form Christ, the wrath of having no foundation now will turn into the wrath of eternal separation and suffering later and forever.
Life, true life, abundant life, eternal life, is only in Christ. We must look to Him as the Son of God, sent from heaven to reveal the Father. We must look to Him as the Son of Man, given by the Father to take away the sin of the world. We must live under His lordship, acknowledging His right to rule over all things, including how we pay our taxes and parent our kids and remodel our homes and exercise our bodies and govern our country and manage our investments and barbecue our meat and gather for worship. He is Lord. We can submit and serve Him, in fellowship like a friend to the Bridegroom, or we can rebel to our own hurt, under wrath now and forever, and not see life.