While the perfect tense-form of ἀναβέβηκεν has been presented as the solution to this cryptic verse by adherents of Verbal Aspect Theory (Pierce and Reynolds 2014; Porter and Pitts 2017), no fully satisfactory explanation of the perfect tense-form in this verse has yet been given. It remains “the hard example for everyone” in explaining the perfect (Aubrey 2021). However, the reason for its continued elusiveness is that a significant category of Greek perfect usage has gone largely unrecognized, a category of perfect known cross-linguistically called a ‘universal perfect’ (McCawley 1971; Mittwoch 1988; Kiparsky 2002; Rathert 2004). This presentation will document and explain the use of the universal perfect within New Testament Greek, and then show why ἀναβέβηκεν in John 3:13 must be a universal perfect. This will demonstrate the perfect tense-form provides no grammatical explanation for this verse that would keep Jesus from saying that he had previously made an ascent into heaven. Instead, a better solution for this verse is provided from a relevance-theory approach (Sperber and Wilson 1995; 2002). Together it will be shown that John 3:13 does not present Jesus as saying that he has already ascended to heaven but instead as pointing in verse 14 to his subsequent exaltation which would occur in his death, resurrection, and ascension.