Do you believe Jesus’ words of conversation in John 3:13?

“And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.”

If Nicodemus had a hard time believing the fact that he needed to be born of the Spirit, I wonder how he initially took those words that Jesus came down from heaven.

Quite frankly, the nonbelieving Jews despised this truth. Turn a few pages ahead in the Scriptures to John 6:38. Jesus said, “For I came down from heaven . . . ” In verse 51, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven.”

But notice the Jews’ response. “The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?” (John 6:41-42, emphasis mine).

The Jews just didn’t want to believe that Jesus preexisted. But people today just don’t want to believe that He was the only Man who preexisted. The contention is that we all did. But that would mean we all had access to heaven besides Jesus. Yet isn’t that contra to Jesus’ words in John 3:13?

Nicodemus didn’t believe the theologically shattering words of John 3:13 at first. But I believe those statements later on ripened in his heart toward a full, warm faith in the Son of Man. For a thinking man, deep faith is neither sudden nor superficial like what we see among the crowds in John 2:23.

For another angle view of the text, read here.