“No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. John 3:13
Have you heard the saying, man wants to become God, but there is one true God who became a Man.
When Jesus said, “No one has ascended into heaven,” He was declaring that no human being has gone up into heaven by his own strength. No flesh has made its way into the presence of God by its own authority and power. The word He used, anabainō, means “to go up” or “to went up”. The Word of God record only two men who did not see death, Enoch and Elijah. Yet even of them it cannot be said that they ascended by their own authority. They did not went up to heaven because they possessed divine nature. They did not step into God’s domain by their own will. God took them (Genesis 5:24). It was the LORD who carried them. It was His will that brought them into His presence.
And even when prophets were given visions of heaven, or were caught up in the Spirit, they did not enter by their own choosing. They were carried by the Spirit of God. They were permitted to see only what God allowed them to see. It was by His Spirit that they were brought into His domain, into His Kingdom. Never was it by human effort.
So the words of LORD Jesus is absolute truth. No human being has independently entered heaven without the permission of God. Heaven is the LORD’s domain (Psalm 115:16). It belongs to Him. No one enters without His will, and no one abides there apart from His righteousness. As it is written, “knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (II Peter 1:20-21). All that we know of God has been revealed by Him. None of His prophets climbed into heaven to gather knowledge and then returned to teach it. None brought back truth by their own discovery. What they spoke was given. What they saw was shown. What they declared was revealed.
Heaven is not a place that human hands can reach, nor is it seen by natural eyes. It is not found by exploration, nor measured by science, nor discovered by the wisdom of this world. The natural eye cannot behold it, for it belongs to another realm.
Because it belongs to another realm, the LORD Jesus spoke plainly to Nicodemus. If a man desires to enter the kingdom of God, there is a requirement. The King Himself has declared it. ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” (John 3:3) The LORD Jesus has declared before us a requirement to enter into His Kingdom.
Consider an earthly nation that allows only those who are born within it to dwell there. It would not matter if we took a common name from that nation. It would not matter if we spoke its language fluently. It would not matter if we dressed like its people, observed its customs, practiced its traditions, or even had family born there. None of these things would make us a native citizen. Only one question would matter: Was I born there?
Just as earthly nations have laws concerning citizenship, so the Kingdom of God has its decree. Yet God’s requirement is not language, wealth, culture, outward appearance, nor our own righteousness. It is to be born again, born from above, born of God. As it is written, “For our citizenship is in heaven,… (Philippians 3:20). The moment we are born from above, our identity changes. Our allegiance changes. Our home changes. The moment we receive the Holy Spirit, we are adopted as sons and daughters. The Spirit within us testifies that we belong to God. As it is written, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” (Romans 8:16)
That is why Nicodemus stood astonished and said, “How can these things be?” The words of the LORD Jesus had unsettled him. He was a teacher of Israel, a ruler among the people, a man learned in the Law. And yet before him stood a requirement he could not reason through. He desired to understand the mystery of the Kingdom of God. He desired to enter the Kingdom of God. But how can a man be born again so he can enter into a heavenly Kingdom? How can he be part of that realm? By human reasoning, it is impossible!
And this is where the weight of Jesus words presses upon us, no one has ascended into heaven. The LORD Jesus shuts down every confidence we have in the flesh. Every boast of man falls silent. Nothing in our flesh can lift us into His Kingdom. No strength, no wisdom, no righteousness of our own can raise us to that realm. For it is written, “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 15:50). If flesh and blood cannot inherit it, then surely flesh and blood cannot ascend into it. If we are to enter, it must be by God’s doing and not our own. As it is written, ““For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). It is impossible for us to ascend into God’s domain by our own strength. No man can enter into the Kingdom of God by effort, merit, or religious performance.
And here we can bear to understand the next words of the LORD Jesus,“but He who came down from heaven. The LORD Jesus speaks of His incarnation. Man could not ascend to God, so God descended to man.
In our fallen state, it was impossible for any of us to save ourselves from the wrath that is coming. We were dead in trespasses and sins, blinded and unaware of the judgment ahead, not knowing how to enter His Kingdom, nor did we have the power to do so.. Scripture declares that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). God is righteous and cannot overlook sin. His holiness demands justice.
Therefore God stepped down. The Creator entered His creation. He did not send a mere message. He came Himself. “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4–5). He was declared to be the Son of God for the very purpose of redeeming us and restoring what we had lost, our sonship before Him (John 1:12, Romans 1:4, 1 John 3:8). Because man had sinned, man must bear the punishment. Yet in His great love, God took that condemnation upon Himself. The Son humbled Himself and took on our flesh so that He might bear our sins in His own body. He carried our judgment and made a way for us to be born again and enter His Kingdom (Philippians 2:6–8). “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17).
In His great love toward us, He came down and walked among us. The eternal Word who was in the bosom of the Father entered our world and revealed the way of the Kingdom. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The disciples bore witness that God Himself had dwelt among them. They beheld His glory and received His grace and truth.
When Jesus says, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven, many understand this in light of Daniel’s prophecy, where the Son of Man comes with the clouds of heaven and receives everlasting dominion (Daniel 7:13–14). That vision speaks of glory and kingdom. Yet before we enter into that glorious scene, the matter of sin had to be resolved. Without shedding of love there is no remission of sins. Many in that time stood condemned because they did not believe in the LORD Jesus (John 3:18). Sin separated us from God and forbid us to come into His presence.
When Jesus spoke of the Son of Man, He was pointing to what Isaiah had already foretold, that the Messiah must suffer. He would not first come as the conquering King of glory, but as the Servant who is well pleasing to God. Isaiah says,
““Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked— But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:1-12)
The first coming of the Son of Man was in humility. He came to bear our sins in His own body and to justify many before God. At the cross, what seemed like defeat became our greatest triumph, and the enemy’s greatest loss. While Jesus was hanging on the cross and dying, He was winning the victory. “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15).
That is why, after speaking these words, Jesus said that the Son of Man must be lifted up, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness (John 3:14; Numbers 21:8–9). He was pointing to the cross. For when He was lifted up, the power of the enemy was broken. As it is written, “… Through death He destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). The ancient serpent who poisoned mankind with sin and brought death was stripped of his power. Jesus silenced the accusation of sin, broke the grip of death, and disarmed satan. Most of all, He removed the enmity that separated us from the Father saying, “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.” (Ephesians 2:14-16)
Today, ascending to heaven is no longer impossible. What we could never do on our own has been made possible through our LORD Jesus Christ, who descended for us so that we might one day be with Him. He came down from heaven in order to ascend us to God. Through Him we are born again. As it is written, “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.” (1 John 5:1) And again, ““Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are not made new by our works, but by His grace.
Now we can enter His kingdom not because of what we have done, but because of what Jesus finished on the cross. It is His completed work, His sacrifice, and His righteousness that opens the way for us to be with the Father.
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