Who Do You
Believe?
1 John
5:6-13
This week I read a story
from Tonight Show host Jay Leno about
his immigrant mother. It seems that she lived in constant fear of deportation.
On the citizenship test, you can miss up to four questions. She missed five. The
question she missed was "What is the Constitution of the
Many Christians struggle
with their salvation in the same way Jay Leno’s mother struggled with her
citizenship: they never feel secure. Some Christians doubt their salvation and
are never really sure that God has made them “accepted in the beloved.”
Now as you know, the
philosophy of our modern (or some say post-modern) world is that nothing is
certain, everything is relative. We are told we cannot know anything for sure.
The world tells us, “What might be true for you might not be true for me.”
Yet strangely enough,
often very same people who promote this kind of philosophy turn around and
accuse Christians of exercising what they call "blind faith," that is, faith
without any basis in fact. They say that we simply choose to believe in God
without any reasonable evidence for it. They say to us, rather condescendingly
at times, "I would love to believe like you do, but I simply cannot."
I hope you recognize that
all of this argument is so much hogwash. The whole genius of the Christian faith
is that it rests upon facts. These facts are imbedded in the record of the human
race and spelled out in the pages of scripture. John, as he comes now to the
close of this letter, quickly surveys for us the evidence for our faith. He
declares why it is that we believe in whom we believe.
This passage is written
to dispel our doubts and give us assurance. In fact, in v.13 John says you can
"know that you have eternal life."
We can be sure of our salvation.
How Can We know
our Salvation is Certain (vv.6-13)?
Regarding salvation and
assurance, someone has pointed out that there are three groups of people: (1) those who are secure but not sure; (2)
those who are "sure" but not secure;
and (3) those who are secure and
sure. John want us to be in the last group.
John declares in this
text, there are three witnesses. Two of them are external and historical, and
one of them is internal and personal; but all three are intricately related
together, forming a marvelous fabric of testimony that is extremely
powerful.
A. The Testimony of the Three Witnesses
(vv.6-8).
John says that "He," that is, Jesus "came by water and blood… not only by water,
but by water and blood." He adds "And it is the Spirit who bears
witness." We have three that testify of Jesus, the WATER, the BLOOD and the
SPIRIT.
The symbolism of the
water and blood and the fact that much of v.7 doesn’t appear in any of the
ancient manuscripts makes this difficult, but not impossible to interpret
correctly.
1. The Testimony of the
Water (v. 6)
Let’s begin with "the water." What water? I read a lot of
commentaries from many Bible scholars this week as I studied this text. There
were various ideas about the meaning water in this verse, because John does not
spell it out directly for us. Here are a couple of those ideas:
-
The water is the Word of
God, as Paul uses the term in Ephesians 5:26 where he writes about Jesus
cleansing His church “with the washing
of water by the word.”
-
The water is that which
John saw and recorded in his gospel at the death of Jesus when, “one of the soldiers pierced His side with a
spear, and immediately blood and water came out” (John
19:34).
I believe the "water" of which John speaks of is the
water at the baptism of Jesus. It is the water of the
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at
the
14 And John tried to prevent Him, saying,
"I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to
me?"
15 But Jesus answered and said to him,
"Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all
righteousness." Then he allowed Him.
16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up
immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He
saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon
Him.
17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven,
saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased."
Two extraordinary things
happened at Jesus’ baptism. First, the Spirit of God came upon Christ in the
form of a dove. And second, the voice of the Father spoke from heaven, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased."
Baptism was a picture of
repentance. John baptized people who had turned from their sins and turned to
God. Jesus didn’t have any sin, but He was baptized because it was "fitting… to fulfill all righteousness"
(3:15). It was good to do all that God required. Jesus was baptized even when He
did not need to be as an example to us to do all God requires.
"The water" then is a symbol of Jesus
sinlessness. The only way Jesus could pay the price for our sins was if He had
no sin. Jesus was not baptized because He needed it to be made righteous; He was
baptized because He was already righteous.
2. The Testimony of the
Blood.
"The blood" represents the Jesus’ death
on the cross. Jesus’ sinlessness in itself could not save us. A sinless life is
insufficient to save us. We cannot simply follow Jesus’ example of a sinless
life. To look at the spotless, stainless life of the Son of God is the most
condemning thing I know. It shames me, it discourages me. I could never approach
that kind of living, and I do not know anyone else who can. No, faith requires
something else. It requires an atoning death, it requires
blood.
Jesus’ sinless life led
Him to a sacrificial death. On the cross, the Sinless One bore the sins of all
humanity. John has already told us Jesus is "the propitiation for our sins." (1 John
2:2).
1 Pet.1:19 says we were
redeemed "with the precious blood of
Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without
spot."
The "water" represents the baptism, the
sinless life of Christ. The "blood"
represents the cross, the sacrificial death of Christ. These two events mark the
beginning and end of our Lord's public ministry on earth: the water of baptism
at the beginning, the blood of the cross at the end. Christ, himself, is the
centering ground of Christian faith. This is always true. It is Jesus Christ
himself who is the supreme fact upon which our Christian faith
rests.
The third testimony is
"the Spirit who bears
witness."
3. The Testimony of the
Spirit.
The water and the blood
are historical, objective and intellectual evidences. But beyond these two
historical evidences, John says, there lies yet a third: that mysterious,
subjective, yet powerfully compelling evidence of the witness of the Spirit
within.
Wherever the gospel is
preached, be it with great eloquence to a stadium with thousands of people or
across the table at Burger King, the Spirit of God works in the heart. The
Spirit helps us realize not only did Jesus die for the world but He died for
me!
We know the gospel is
true objectively because of the objective historical accuracy of the Word of
God, but also because of the subjective personal activity of the Spirit of God.
He CONVICTS us of our sin. He CONVINCES us of the truth of Christ. When we do
receive Jesus, He COMFORTS us with assurance. John says "the Spirit is truth" (v.6). Rom.8:16
says, "The Spirit Himself bears witness
with our spirit that we are children of God."
I know I am secure in my
salvation because of the "water and
blood." I am convinced that Jesus lived a sinless life and died a
sacrificial death. Furthermore, I am even more convinced because I know "the Spirit" of God has come into my
life. In v.8 John says "these three
agree as one."
John
Newton, who wrote so many of our hymns, the most famous of which is Amazing
Grace, was for many years of his life a reckless, degenerate reprobate, living
the wildest sort of life as he worked in the slave trade. With his health
ruined, he was on a voyage back to
In evil
long I took delight
Unawed by shame or fear
Until a new object met my
sight
And stopped my wild career.
I saw One hanging on a tree
In
agony and blood
Who fixed his languid eyes on me
As near His cross I
stood.
Sure, never till my latest breath
Will I forget that look
It seemed to charge me with His death
Though not a word He spoke.
My conscience owned and felt my guilt
And plunged me in despair
I saw my sins His blood had spilt
And served to nail Him there.
A second look He gave
Which said, "I freely all forgive.
My
blood was for thy ransom paid
I died that thou may'st live."
That is it,
you see. That is the witness of the Spirit, that personalizing of the work of
the cross that makes it come home to the individual in power. When the word of
pardon is believed, the Spirit also gives a wonderful sense of forgiveness, a
lifting of the burden of guilt, the sense of washing away of sins, and the peace
of God is spoken to a guilty heart.
B. The Testimony of the Father
(vv.9-12).
1. John says, "If we receive the witness of men, the
witness of God is greater." We all rely on the word or testimony of other
people, even total strangers. How many of you trust a pharmacist that you don’t
know from Adam to give you the right prescription? How many trust an unknown
mechanic to make your car safe?
2. How would you feel if
someone said, "I’m trying to believe
you" or "I wish I could trust
you?" You’d be angry because in effect to question your reliability means he
believes you are a liar.
3. In v.10, John says "He who does not believe God has made Him a
liar." God has given "the
testimony" of His Son and if we do not believe, we insult God and call Him
"a liar."
4. John says that the
person who "believes in the Son has the
witness in himself." When we believe the truth and apply the truth we will
experience the truth. Until I believe what the salesman tells me about a new car
and apply what he said by buying it, I don’t get to experience the pleasure of
owning it.
5. When I believe the
Scripture and try to practically apply that truth to my everyday experience, the
Holy Spirit lifts the words from the pages of the Bible and helps me see them
fleshed out in my own life. The process is always BELIEVE, APPLY, EXPERIENCE.
6. What is the Father’s
"testimony?" V.11 says, "And this is the testimony that God has
given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." God has not merely
given us life in quantity but in quality, not merely life eternal but life
abundant!
7. If I asked you, "What is eternal life?" many would say,
"I will go to heaven when I die."
That’s only part of it.
8. Jesus said in Jn.17:3,
"And this is eternal life, that they may
know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." Eternal
life is the knowledge of and fellowship with Almighty God through His Son Jesus
Christ. Eternal life is not just a fact to be believed, but a person to be
known! Eternal life is not something you will get then, it is something you have
now.
9. Note v.12, "He who has the Son HAS [not
‘will have someday’] life." If you
are saved, you ALREADY have eternal life.
This is the testimony.
God has given us something, and it is wrapped up in a person, the Son of God. If
you have received the Son, you have his life -- manifested, of course, by the
things John has been talking about in this letter: righteousness, truth, and
love. If you have not received the Son of God, no matter how earnest you are, no
matter how devoted you have been, no matter how religiously intent you have
been, seeking to do everything you could think of to please God, if you do not
have the Son, you do not have life. That is the issue, is it not? Either you
have him, or you do not have him; either you know Jesus Christ, or you do not
know him. There is no middle ground, it is one or the
other.
I love the dairy
producers’ commercial of the guy in the body cast whose hospital roommate gives
him a hot chocolate chip cookie. He sees the pitcher of ice cold milk but is in
terrible torment because he can’t get to it. Talk about hell! The slogan simply
says, "Got milk?" V.12 can be summed
up with the question, "Got Jesus?"
10. My wife and I were
married over 25 years ago in
C. The Testimony of the Word
(v.13).
1. John says that he has
"written to you who believe" that is he has
written to Christians so that "you may
know that you have eternal life.".
2. If you have believed
on Jesus and are applying eternal life in your fellowship with Him, you will "know that you have eternal life" and
you will "continue to believe." The
old hymn says, "You ask me how I know He
lives, He lives within my heart!"
Would you now believe the
witness of the Spirit, the water and the blood? Would you right now search your
heart and listen to the Voice of His calling...He is calling you right now. If
you simply call out to the Father in the Name of His Son and admit that you have
first and foremost sinned against God, and that you desire not to continue in
that rebellious and disobedient direction anymore, if you call out and ask the
Father for the gift of faith and the power to repent, He will draw you into His
heart and come to live within you. Dear friend you will be changed forever more.
You will have His presence, power and peace, along with a new heart full of new
desires, passions and choices. Your mind will be renewed, not by some self help
book, but by the indwelling Spirit of God. You will indeed be thinking upon new
things as you now begin to walk in a new direction, hand in hand and heart in
heart with Him who has loved you from the
beginning.