“The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and 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 Whoever 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 them.”  John 3:31-36

One of the earmarks of the Book of John is that he often stops to commentate on the event that he just wrote about. Remember, the Gospel of John is written from the prescriptive of an old man who had followed Jesus since he was a teen and who has had lots of time to reflect on the events of his life and on what Jesus taught. So in this passage, he’s thought through what Jesus said to Nicodemus, in the light of the totality of Who Jesus is and was.

Remember Jesus talking to Nicodemus in verse 6? He said, “Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit”? I believe that John is unpacking this idea for us. “The One–Jesus–Who comes from above is above all” while “the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth. (vs. 31) SPIRIT IS SPIRIT while FLESH IS FLESH!

He further explains . . . The One from Above–Jesus– “testifies to what He has seen and heard, but no one accepts His testimony” (vs. 7) Remember John 1:10-11? John had noted, “He–Jesus was in the world, and the world was created through Him, yet the world did not recognize Him. ¹¹ He came to His own, and His own people  did not receive Him”? John again, in chapter 3, reiterates that though Jesus–God Who had came as a man–showed the world what God is like, shined the light of God on us and in every way, illuminated the way back to the Father, in general, the world ignored Him. 

Verse 33, however, goes on to say that though most ignored Him, those who did recognize and accept Him has certified that God is truthful and that the One Who speaks God’s words