If you read carefully Ezek. 36:24-3524For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. 25Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. 28And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. 30And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen. 31Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. 32Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. 33Thus saith the Lord God; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. 34And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. 35And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited. (Ezekiel 36:24‑35), you will see the Lord was speaking of the kingdom He will yet set up on this earth, with Palestine as its center, And the Jews as its happy subjects. But none will enter or see that kingdom unless they are born from above, with wholly a new nature, as described in Ezekiel. But if that is true of the earthly part of the kingdom of God, how much more so of the heavenly, (that is, the church) of which Jesus says He was not then speaking.
Another question has been a difficulty with many. In John 3:1313And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. (John 3:13), Jesus says, "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven." Some ask, "Did not Enoch and Elijah ascend to heaven?" (See Gen. 5:2424And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. (Genesis 5:24); 2 Kings 2:1111And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. (2 Kings 2:11).)
The answer to this difficulty is in the word ascend. Jesus did not say no man hath been taken to heaven. Enoch had. "Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." This was far from his own act in ascending up to heaven.
This is true also of Elijah and although he is a striking type of Christ, yet how careful the Holy Ghost is to guard this truth. Elijah descended from the highest Gilgal to Bethel. Jesus descended from the highest heaven to Bethlehem and Israel. Then Elijah descended to Jericho, the place of the curse. Jesus descended still lower, to man under the curse.
Elijah must still go lower, to the Jordan. Jesus must needs suffer death, the death of the cross. But mark the contrast, as well as the parallel. The sons of the prophets say, both at Bethel and Jericho, "Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to-day?" And Elijah said also to Elisha, "If thou see me when I am taken from thee." Now the disciples did see Jesus as Messiah taken away from them. (Luke 24:5151And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. (Luke 24:51).) Again in Acts 1:99And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. (Acts 1:9), we read, "He was taken up." So far we have a parallel in all three cases, for He was truly man.
Enoch and Elijah were only men, and had to be taken to heaven. Jesus was Jehovah, human and divine. He could be taken, and He in His own right, title, and power, could ascend. No other ever came down to be man. No other as man could ascend. He could say, "I ascend." John 20:1717Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (John 20:17).
In accomplishing our complete redemption, God "raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places." Eph. 1:20, 2120Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, 21Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: (Ephesians 1:20‑21). But He had this surpassing preeminence. He is the only one who descended, the only one who ascended. It is only written of Him, "When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things.)" Eph. 4:8-108Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. 9(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 10He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) (Ephesians 4:8‑10). This can be said of none other than of Him, who has the preeminence.
Therefore it is absolutely true, and in perfect harmony with all Scripture as Jesus said to Nicodemus, "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.”
Holy, Holy, Lord, Thou alone art worthy of this high preeminence.
Another thought has been suggested. While it is quite true that there is no contradiction in Scripture, as to the bodily ascension of the Lord, He alone having that right and title, yet it is also true in another and most important sense that there was no moral power in man in his natural state to ascend or rise up to heavenly things. Jesus said to Nicodemus, "If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven." In this sense Christ was the only one who came down from heaven and could communicate those heavenly things to others; "He that cometh from above." John 3:31-3331He 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. 32And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth; and no man receiveth his testimony. 33He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. (John 3:31‑33). Man needs to be born from above before he can understand those heavenly things.
Whether, therefore, we look at this as to the title of the blessed Person of Christ to ascend to heaven, or spiritually in connection with the instruction given to Nicodemus, all is in perfect harmony. In all things He has the preeminence. Man in his natural state has no knowledge of heavenly things.
C.H. Mackintosh