John 3:27

That we must boast in nothing, since nothing is our own. In the Gospel according to John: "No one can receive anything, except it were given him from heaven."387 Also in the first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: "For what hast thou that thou hast not received? But if thou hast received it, why boastest thou, as if thou hadst not received it? "388 Also in the first of Kings: "Boast not, neither speak lofty things, and let not great speeches proceed out of your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge."389 Also in the same place: "The bow of the mighty men has been made weak, and the weak are girt about with strength."390 Of this same thing in the Maccabees: "It is just to be subjected to God, and that a mortal should not think things equal to God."391 Also in the same place: "And fear not the words of a man that is a sinner, because his glory shall be filth and worms. Today he shall be lifted up, and to-morrow he shall not be found; because he is turned into his earth, and his thought has perished."392

Julianus of Telepte said: It is written, "No man can receive anything unless it have been given him from heaven." If heresy is from heaven, it can also give baptism.

"A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from above."

Marvel not, if he speak of Christ in a lowly strain; it was impossible to teach all at once, and from the very beginning, men so pre-occupied by passion. But he desires to strike them for a while with awe and terror, and to show them that they warred against none other than God Himself, when they warred against Christ. And here he secretly establishes that truth, which Gamaliel asserted, "Ye cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found even to fight against God." For to say, "None can receive anything, except it be given him from heaven," was nothing else than declaring that they were attempting impossibilities, and so would be found to fight against God. "Well, but did not Theudas and his followers 'receive' from themselves?" They did, but they straightway were scattered and destroyed, not so what belonged to Christ.

By this also he gently consoles them, showing them that it was not a man, but God, who surpassed them in honor; and that therefore they must not wonder if what belonged to Him was glorious, and if "all men came unto Him": for that this was the nature of divine things, and that it was God who brought them to pass, because no man ever yet had power to do such deeds. All human things are easily seen through, and rotten, and quickly melt away and perish; these were not such, therefore not human. Observe too how when they said, "to whom thou barest witness," he turned against themselves that which they thought they had put forward to lower Christ, and silences them after showing that Jesus' glory came not from his testimony; "A man cannot," he saith, "receive anything of himself, except it be given him from heaven." "If ye hold at all to my testimony, and believe it to be true, know that by that testimony ye ought to prefer not me to Him, but Him to me. For what was it that I testified? I call you yourselves to witness."

(Tr. xiii. c. 9) Or perhaps John is speaking here of himself: I am a mere man, and have received all from heaven, and therefore think not that, because it has been given me to be somewhat, I am so foolish as to speak against the truth.

John confessed Him: as you have heard that when Jesus was making many disciples, and they reported to John as if to excite him to jealousy,-for they told the matter as if moved by envy, "Lo, he is making more disciples than thou,"-John confessed what he was, and thereby merited to belong to Him, because he dared not affirm himself to be that which Jesus is. Now this is what John said: "A man cannot receive anything, except it be given him from heaven." Therefore Christ gives, man receives.

"He answered and said, A man cannot receive anything, except it be given him from heaven." Of whom, think you, had John said this? Of himself. "As a man, I received," saith he, "from heaven." Note, my beloved: "A man cannot receive anything, except it be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ." As much as to say, "Why do ye deceive yourselves? See how you have put this question before me. What have you said to me? 'Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness.' Then you know what sort of witness I bare to Him. Am I now to say that He is not the same whom I declared Him to be? And because I received somewhat from heaven, in order to be something, do you wish me to be empty of it, so as to speak against the truth? 'A man cannot receive anything, except it be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said I am not the Christ.'" Thou art not the Christ; but what if thou art greater than He since thou didst baptize Him? "I am sent:" I am the herald, He is the Judge.

A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.

He says that there is nothing good in man, but must needs be wholly the gift of God, For it befits the creation to hear, What hast thou that thou didst not receive? I think then that we ought to be content with the measures allotted to us, and to rejoice in the honours apportioned to us from heaven, but by no means to stretch out beyond, nor in desire ever of what is greater unthankfully to despise the decree from above, and fight against the judgment of the Lord, in shame that one should appear to receive what is less than the more perfect: but with whatsoever God shall please to honour us, to value that highly. Let not my disciple therefore, saith he, be ashamed, if I do not overleap the measure given me, if I do not contemplate the greater, and am contracted to the glory befitting a man.

John, wishing to frighten them and show that by hindering Christ and pushing Him away from glory they are warring against God, says: "A man can receive nothing of himself"; and further: "If," he says, "it had not been given from heaven, then He Whom you envy would not have increased. Therefore you sin twice at once: once in that you oppose the decree of God, and again in that you undertake the impossible."
Along with this he also somewhat reassures them by the fact that the one overcoming them is not a man, but God. "And we too," he says, "what we had, we had not from ourselves, but from heaven. If the works of Christ are more glorious, then one should not be surprised, for such is the will of God."

John humbles himself and places himself after Christ through consideration of human frailty against his disciples who wished him to magnify himself and his own baptism. On account of which he says: "A man cannot receive anything unless it has been given him from heaven"; James 1: "Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, descending from the Father of lights." And so, since I am a mere man, I cannot attribute to myself anything except what has been given to me; and therefore I do not attribute to myself the office of Christ, but that of a herald; 1 Corinthians 4: "What do you have that you have not received?"

Here we have John's answer to the question presented to him by his disciples. Their question contained two points: a complaint about the office Christ took on, and so they said, he is here baptizing; and about Christ's increasing fame and reputation among the people, and so they said, all the people are flocking to him. Accordingly, John directs his answer to these two complaints. First he answers the complaint about the office Christ took on. Secondly, the complaint about Christ's increasing reputation (v 30). As to the first he does two things. First, he shows the source of Christ's office and of his own. Secondly, their difference (v 28). Thirdly, how Christ and he are related to these offices.

As to the first, note that although John's disciples broach their question maliciously, and so deserve to be rebuked, John nevertheless does not sharply reprove them; and this because of their imperfection. For he feared that they might be provoked by a rebuke, leave him, and, joining forces with the Pharisees, publicly harass Christ. In acting this way he was putting into practice what is said of the Lord: "The bruised reed he will not break" (Is 42:3). Again, we should also note that he begins his answer not by telling them what is great and wonderful about Christ, but what is common and obvious; and he did this on account of their envy. For since the excellence of a person provokes others to envy, if John had stressed Christ's excellence at once, he would have fed the fire of their envy.

Thus he states something unpretentious, and says, No one can lay hold of anything unless it is given to him from heaven; and he said this to them in order to inspire them with reverence. As if to say: If all men are going to him, it is God's doing, because no one can lay hold of anything, in the order of perfection and goodness, unless it is given to him from heaven. Therefore, if you oppose him, you oppose God. "If this plan or work is from men, it will fail," as is said in Acts (5:38). This is the way Chrysostom explains it, applying these words to Christ.

Augustine, on the other hand, does much better when he refers them to John. No one can lay hold of anything unless it is given to him from heaven: as if to say: You are zealous on my behalf and you want me to be greater than Christ; but that has not been given to me, and I do not wish to usurp it: "No one takes this honor on himself" (Heb 5:4). This is the origin of their offices.