1 JOHN 5: 6-10
BELIEVE THE WITNESS
[John 5:31-40 / 16:13-14]
An AGNOSTIC professor condescendingly confronted a little girl who believed in Jesus. “There are many throughout history who have claimed they were God. How can you be sure who told the truth? Which one of these men can you believe”
The girl responded without hesitation: “I’d believe the One who rose from the dead!”
The emphasis in the first half of First John chapter five is in trusting Jesus. A person who trusts Jesus Christ with a trust [that moves him into Jesus Christ,] that causes him to follow Jesus Christ, is born of God and is able to overcome the world. Continuous believing in Jesus is basic to the Christian’s overcoming walk. We can live victoriously because within us is the Living Witness.
The key word in verses 6-10 is witness or testimony. God gave and gives witness to His Son. This witness is of the highest, the most important, and the most extraordinary kind. God bears witness through the Spirit, the water, and the blood. These witnesses sustain our faith and prove that Jesus is God to all who honestly listen (CIT).
I. THREE WITNESSES, 6-8.
II. THE WITNESS OF GOD, 9-10.
Verse 6 points us to Jesus as the object of our faith. “This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood.”
The one who gives those who believe in Him the enabling to overcome the world is the one who came by water and blood. The word came is pointing out the One who came to fulfill the messianic hope as the Messiah "the Coming One" (Mal. 3:1). He came by or through (dia) water and blood. This is a perplexing and difficult statement.
Most scholars see it as meaning the water of baptism which inaugurated Jesus’ earthly ministry (Mk. 1:9-11; Mt. 3:13ff) and the blood refers to the close of Jesus’ earthly life when He died by crucifixion. Others see it as the water and blood which flowed from Jesus' pierced side.
Through His water baptism Jesus consecrated Himself to His mission. During His baptism the Spirit descended upon Him visually and the Father bore witness as He spoke out of heaven saying, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Mt. 3:17). The witness of the Spirit and the Father to the messiahship of Jesus was given publicly at His baptism. The water of baptism refers to our faith, repentance, purification and readiness for ministry.
As the water came at the beginning of His earthly ministry in the flesh, the cross came at the close. The blood refers to the death of Jesus on the cross. He gave His life, when He shed His blood for "the life is in the blood" (Duet. 12:23; Lev. 14:7). The doctrine of atoning blood means that God Himself bore our sins and demonstrates sin-bearing, pardoning love. On the cross He died for the sins of man to redeem mankind out of slavery to sin, Satan, and the way of the world.
His own statement that “It is finished” speaks of the finished work of redemption through His substitution and atonement on the cross. Jesus overcame the flesh by beginning His ministry of redemption and He overcame sin, Satan, and the world as He finished His redemptive ministry. Christ not only came to teach repentance and purification by His baptism but to give new life by His blood.
The last part of verse 6 seems better connect to verse 7 because the Spirit of Truth must bear witness to this truth. “And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is the truth.”
John and the brethren witness to what they have seen and heard, but the Witness supporting their witness is the Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God is the pre-eminent and principle Witness. He was the witness to Christ's baptism when He bore witness by descending upon Him and even at the cross from the centurion's statement, "Truly this was the Son of God," He was the witness bearer. The Holy Spirit bore witness and caused the writing of the Divine Text, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit bears witness of its truth in the hearts of those who read, hear, and study it today.
The Spirit not only bears witness in our hearts that what He is saying is true, He also testifies that we are His. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Rom. 8:15f). His witness is our inner confidence that we belong to Christ.
The Spirit bears witness in the community of believers through worship, fellowship, work, and witness. The Spirit witnesses in the believer’s heart and in the believing community and their experience of His power and guidance confirm the truth of the Gospel to which we have committed ourselves. Out of this inner witness He empowers us to become witnesses to a lost and blind world.
You can trust the witness of the Spirit because He is the Spirit of Truth (Jn. 14:17, 15:26, 16:13). The Spirit will not manipulate you, for He can only speak truth. The Spirit cannot lie or bear false witness. When the Spirit of God convicts and moves your soul it is a true witness to your need.
Verse 8 tells us that the three witnesses are in agreement. “For there are three that bear witness, the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in (eis) agreement.”
These three separate witnesses converge into harmony. The three point and move together in unity, in agreement. They join so as to become one witness. They cooperate to produce the same testimony.
The water of repentance and purification, the atoning blood are attested to by the Spirit to send forth oneness in message. The joint witness commends to us Jesus Christ; the One who triumphed over sin’s penalty, guilt, and power, over all that makes God's service and His commandments grievous, over the powers of this world so that we too overcome by faith in Him.
II. THE WITNESS OF GOD, 9-10.
Verse 9 verifies that God has borne great witness concerning His Son. “If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for the witness of God is this, that He has borne witness concerning His Son.”
This Greek if clause assumes that the statement is true. If we receive such testimony and it is quite certain we do is the fuller meaning. If we receive men's witness surely then we should accept God's testimony. If we are satisfied with men's testimony, accept their evidence, then we are far more bound to accept the witness God has born concerning His Son. One therefore has no reason for not accepting God’s testimony to the person of Christ. For God’s testimony is greater than that of men and it concerns the most important occurrence in the world. To deny the eternal Christ and His offered salvation is to deny the witness of Almighty God.
The word receive is “to take, appropriate, make it your own.” So many want to seemly acknowledge the testimony of God but intellectual acknowledgment or agreement cannot save. You must accept it and believe by committing yourself to follow the Lord Jesus. How could you not take hold of the superior greatness of God's testimony, especially since we are in the habit of receiving men's testimony. We ought to receive God’s witness precisely because it is God’s witness.
[God stated out loud His witness concerning Jesus at His baptism and at His transformation. “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,” (Matthew 3:17; 17:5; ). The Father verbally responded to His Son’s prayer in John 12:28.]
God’s testimony has been adequately attested (Deut. 19:15). Through His Word, through the circumstances of life, through the conviction of the Spirit, through creation and in the inner being of man, God has borne witness concerning His Son. [See John 5:31-40 & Romans 1:18-21]. Men ought to receive and act on it.
Prince Albert of England once visited the laboratory of a scientist named LYON PLAYFAIR. According to Playfair's biographer Sir Wemyss Reid, as the prince and the scientist stood near a caldron of boiling lead, Playfair asked, "Has your royal highness any faith in science?"
"Certainly," answered Prince Albert. Playfair washed the prince's hand in a special solution and then told him to use his hand to ladle out some of the hot metal. The prince plunged his hand into the caldron and scooped up some in his palm--and he wasn't injured.
If Prince Albert could place that kind of faith in a respected scientist, how much more may we trust God's Word which the Spirit bears witness of and through! Abraham trusted God's promise to make of him a great nation even though he and his wife were very old (Gen. 15:5-6; Heb. 11:8-12). He set an example we would be wise to follow. "He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God" (Rom. 4:20).
It is not always wise to trust in the assurances made by fallible human beings. But most certainly we can put our confidence in the teachings, promises, and warnings of the One who is truly dependable.
Before specifying the content of God’s testimony (1 John 5:11-12), John clarifies in verse 10 that true belief or acceptance of this testimony internalizes it in the person who believes it. “The one who is believing in the Son of God has the Witness in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the Witness that God has borne concerning His Son.”
The present participle, the one who is believing, indicates a habitual or a permanent attitude of faith and not a passing orientation or attraction. The word in is literally into (eis) and indicates a faith that moves one into the body of Christ. This moving into the is accomplished by receiving Jesus into our soul or life. The Witness within oneself is the indwelling witness of the Holy Spirit. The external witness of God fully committed to becomes internal by the believer being born again by the Spirit of God. Paul put it this way: “His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God” (Romans 8:16). The Spirit bears witness that Jesus Christ is in us. The Holy Spirit endows the believer with a new sense of purpose in life, an abiding assurance for time and eternity, and peace which surpasses human understanding.
The internal witness of the Witness is received by believing. Believing means more than agreeing with certain facts. Believing denotes faith, trust, and commitment of life to the redemptive will and work of God through His Son Jesus Christ.
The witness God bears to His Son Jesus Christ, and the Gospel is far more powerful and convincing than any other witness borne or given to man. So John places a very emphatic contrast to believing so that we can understand the exceeding wickedness of the sin of unbelief. Failure to believe the faithful, powerful, clear and true testimony of God concerning Jesus Christ is calling God a liar. There are only two ways of dealing with the testimony and they are sharply distinguished. Receiving the testimony and the Living Witness into your life or not believing and not receiving the Living Witness into your life. The refusal to accept the Witness of God is tantamount to calling Him a liar (1:10).
When you believe the Witness and honor God and God’s Spirit gives you internal confirmation or witness of it, you taste and see that God is good. You prove Him and He opens the windows of Heaven and pours down blessings upon you. He gives you peace of conscience, purity of heart, faithfulness in action, liberty from sin, growth, assurance, love and so much more. Or else you not only hinder His testimony to you, but you dishonor Him and by your rejection call Him a liar and His testimony a lie. There is no middle ground or other option. One either believes or he impugns God’s faithful, truthful powerful witness.
CONCLUSION
You have heard God’s witness first of the cleansing water of baptism referring to faith and repentance. Then the testimony of the blood referring to the Cross and Jesus death for the forgiveness of sin. Third, the witness of the Spirit referring to God’s own validation of His Son, and His assurance of salvation in believer’s in Jesus’ lives.
One has no reason for not accepting God’s testimony to the person of Christ. If man’s testimony is acceptable, God’s witness being greater ought be accepted. Do not commit the great sin of unbelief in God’s witness by your doubt, hesitancy, and delay. It is most insulting to God, for in reality, you are calling Him a liar. Do not commit the wicked, rebellious sin of unbelief. Do not shut your heart to His greatness. Alleged facts you might question, books of evidence you might criticize. But this witness in Word, Spirit and blood is from God, the God of Truth. He is graciously offering you His only begotten Son, bidding you, based on His truthful, powerful, loving witness, to believe in His Son.
Will you do so today? Will you trust Jesus and surrender your life to Him, right now at this moment? Come in simple belief and follow Jesus and you will overcome the world.
Maybe you already have the Witness of God in your life. God wants you to join a local community of faith that bears witness of Jesus’ life, death, & resurrection to the world. This Body of believers is just such a church. Come! Join with us as God bears witness to the world through our life & witness to the love He has for them. Come right now, as the Spirit bears witness to you.
