Jesus, the One Who is Above All

“He who comes from above is above all; the one who is only from the earth is of the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. What He has seen and heard, of this He testifies; and no one accepts His testimony. The one who has accepted His testimony has certified that God is true. For He whom God sent speaks the words of God; for He does not give the Spirit sparingly. The Father loves the Son and has entrusted all things to His hand.” (John 3:31-25, NASB)

I met Paul Baloche in 2019 with my husband, Sam, during a seminar for songwriters. Paul wrote a lot of worship songs that were sung when I was a kid, like “Open the Eyes of My Heart,” “Hosanna,” and “Above All.”

During his talk, Paul spoke at length about “Above All.” Most of his songs start either as prayers or from little thoughts written down in journals, and in this case, the verse was written out of the titular words jotted down in a notebook. The verses were a meditation on the greatness and wonder of Jesus; about how His Godship is so high and lofty over us and His majesty is awesome. The song originally had a different chorus and it was sung that way for a while but never felt right.

After some time, Baloche came together with Lenny LeBlanc and they decided to tear apart the chorus of that song and the worship ballad we know today was made. 

This song– which juxtaposes the wondrous splendor of our God who is above everything on this earth and in heaven with the rejection, solitude, and crushing of the cross– perfectly encapsulates the gospel and reminds me of our key verse today. These verses, which occur directly after John the Baptist declares those famous words, “I must decrease so that [Jesus] may increase,” introduces Jesus as the One who is above all. It’s not clear whether these verses are a continuation of what John was saying to his disciples or if they are a reiteration of John’s thoughts in light of his recollection of what John the Baptist said, but they are precious all the same.

Jesus, God who became man, is above all. He was sent from heaven to earth in order to testify the Word of the Lord. Jesus is being confirmed again here as not only sent from God, but being God– the One who is from above and above all. He is not an important man of ordinary means. He is not simply an impressive prophet or a famous public figure.

He is God Himself, who came to the earth in order to share Himself with us. We are from the earth, both created from it and residents of it. We know nothing of the heavens or the lofty Kingdom God has created there. We know nothing of His mysteries and have yet to see the fullness of His grandeur. We can only talk about what we know: the earth.

And yet, as a human race, we talk big game. We talk about a lot of things we really don’t know about. We puff ourselves up with self-declared intelligence– and quite frankly, arrogance– and it’s no secret that as fallen people, we have come to assume a lot of things about God and what He aims to do.

Yet we are only from the earth and able to talk about earthly things. Until Jesus.

Jesus came to earth and taught us about the heaven He was sent from and the Father who sent Him. He took the time to be with us, to bear with us, to love us and die for us. Jesus, who is above all people, ideas, and things, came to be with us and share with us the things of a God that was once veiled to us. 

He saw and heard. He came from the right hand of the Father. There is no one else who knows better than Jesus. And even still, there are those who don’t believe. When Jesus walked this earth, there were those who didn’t believe to the point where He was rejected. He was betrayed. He died on a cross for our sins and laid in a tomb, alone. He was crushed, just like the song says, “like a rose trampled on the ground, you took the fall…”

But He had a purpose for this: to make a way for those that do believe to come to the Father. Jesus took on that rejection, that resentment, and He did it for us. He thought of us over everything else. He thought of us over that heavenly throne. 

Not everyone will believe that message. Not everyone will believe that Jesus is God, and that He left His heavenly throne room to give us His Father’s Word, to die for our sins, and to pour out His Holy Spirit. Jesus, as part of the Godhead, is also the Holy Spirit. He came to earth full of that Spirit, and through His death and resurrection, is able to share that Spirit with those that follow Him. Those that do are filled with His Spirit beyond measure as well. 

We get to be with God. We get to linger in His presence. We get to wake up each day and turn to Him without the burden of rituals or sacrifices. It is as easy as waking up to a spouse and it is as consistent as going about your day and laying down to rest in Him at the end of the day. 

To trust in Him and to live your life for Him is to certify that God is true. Everything that Jesus came to earth to teach and to fulfill is truth. His testimony of all those things from above is real and the Word of God is sincere. 

He is above all powers, all kings, all creation. He is over all wisdom and every way of life under the sun. He is more precious than all treasure and He is more awesome than all the wonders of this world. He took that greatness and came down to share Himself with us, telling us about those things from above so that we could know more of the Father. He came to humble Himself and die for us, knowing full well that there would be many who would renounce Him. 

But He went through it all because you were on His mind. Hallelujah! Great is Jesus, our King, who would go to such great lengths for us.