The Christ
Christ, who came “from ABOVE” did a work for us which was outside in its merit and worth.
John 3:31 KJV
He that cometh from ABOVE is ABOVE all:
he that is of the earth is earthly,
and speaketh of the earth:
He that cometh from heaven is ABOVE all.
Other translations
Amplified Bible
“He who comes from [heaven] above is above all others; he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks [about things] of the earth [his viewpoint and experience are earthly]. He who comes from heaven is above all.
Berean Literal Bible
The [One] coming from above is above all. The [one] being from the earth is from the earth, and speaks from the earth. The [One] coming from heaven is above all.
Young’s Literal Translation
he who from above is coming is above all; he who is from the earth, from the earth he is, and from the earth he speaketh; he who from the heaven is coming is above all.
Study
He that is of the earth is earthly,
As ducklings have always their bills in the mud,
as swine are ever recking in the mire;
like that fish in the gospel,
either dumb or with nothing but money in their mouths.
He that cometh from heaven is above all.
Caesar is not Caesar still,
nor Alexander Alexander still:
but Jesus is Jesus still,
and shall be for ever.
Anecdotes
New Testament?
We have seen a copy of the Gospels and Epistles which was warranted free from all trace of the Trinity, but it was not the testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
We beheld it and we received instruction.
It did not want beauty, for the parables, and the Sermon on the Mount, and many a touching passage were still there.
▪︎ It looked like a coronation tapestry with all the golden threads torn out, or an exquisite mosaic from which some unscrupulous finger had abstracted the gems and left only the common stones.
▪︎ It was a casket without the pearl.
▪︎ It was a shrine without the Shekinah.
And yet, after all, it was not sufficiently expurgated; for, after reading it, the thought would recur, How much easier to fabricate a Gnostic testament, exempt from all trace of our Lord’s humanity, than a Trinitarian testament ignoring His Divinity.
Handel
It is said of Handel, the great musician, that while composing the well-known oratorio of “The Messiah,” he was frequently found in tears, and that one day, while sobbing bitterly, it was found that the words which had broken down his spirit were these three words of the prophet Isaiah, “He was despised.”
And yet this short saying wag abundantly fulfilled when Jesus came to show us His great love.
He that is of the earth is earthly
It is said of Henry the Fourth of France, asking the Duke of Alva if he had observed the eclipses happening in that year?
He answered, that he had so much business on earth, that he had no leisure to look up to heaven.
A sad thing it is for men to be so bent,
and their hearts so set on the things of this world,
and not casting up a look to the things that are in heaven.
Not to realize that God brings heaven down to them, in His Word and Sacraments.
Yet, most men are of this Spanish general’s mind;
They witness the oxen, the farms, the pleasures, the profits and preferments that men are so fast glued unto, that they have hardly leisure to entertain a thought of any goodness.
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