Someone please explain...

I believe it all has to do with the fact that Elijah was translated into Heaven, in that he was no longer a man in the temporal sense for he had been changed from this mortal into immortality.

I also believe it has alot to do with the difference between ascending into heaven vs being translated.

A man cannot stand before God in this mortal body, thus the Son of man/Jesus being Emmanuel/ God with us, is depicted by his reference to himself descending from above.

 

Both have gone to heaven, but only Christ came from heaven and has now returned.

In the John 3 passage, Jesus is telling Nicodemus that he cannot understand heavenly things because he has never been to heaven. Christ tells him that only He knows about heavenly things because only He came down from heaven.

 

Jesus is merely saying that no one is qualified to speak of heavenly things who has not ascended to heaven and witnessed heavenly things first-hand. Jesus confirms that He is indeed qualified because He did ascend to heaven.

 

“Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony.
“If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
“No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.
John 3:11-13 NASB95


This is a complex statement.
And who exactly say it? Jesus or John?
Note that the modern texts do not add four words to the end of verse 13, “who is in heaven”.
That addition complicates matters further because if Jesus is speaking, he is there before Nicodemus rather than in heaven.

I would suggest (as Pastor Bob) not taking the quote out of it’s context.
The verse backs up the previous statements.
Jesus asks, “How will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”
Then says the Son of Man has that intimate knowledge because he is the only one who has ascended and descended from heaven.

No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven.
John 3:13 NLT

Rob