Believing God’s witness to His Son gives us a sure foundation for our faith. Believing God’s witness to His Son gives us a sure foundation for our faith. After having received His testimony, what shall we do with it? There are only two choices: Believe it or reject it. If we believe in Jesus as the Son of God, we have the testimony in ourselves, and we have the responsibility to discharge it faithfully. The one who rejects God’s testimony to His Son through unbelief makes God to be a liar, which is a very, very serious issue.
The word witness appears nine times in this brief section, in some form and therefore, is recognizable as the key to this passage. When you believe the testimony about Christ, it is because God has changed your heart by His Holy Spirit. You have become a new creation in Christ. You are now alive to God in Christ. You are obedient to the Word of God, which is the evidence that your heart has been changed. Living things give evidence that they are alive. When you believe in Jesus Christ, you have this inner witness in yourself. You cannot change the condition of your heart on your own.
If you reject His testimony to His Son Jesus Christ, you are then calling the One true living God a liar. Because in His Word, God has given more than sufficient testimony to His Son. If you receive that external testimony, God will give you the inner testimony to witness to other what He has accomplished in your life. If you reject His external testimony, not only will you lack the internal witness, you will judged and condemned by a righteous God Who is just to punish sinners.
Isaiah 43:10 says "You are My witnesses,” declares the Lord, “And My servant whom I have chosen,
So that you may know and believe Me And understand that I am He."
Here, in I John 5, we have the special witness of God to His Son during His earthly life. As I believe you will see, this is important to John. The purpose for him having written this book for us, is to know we have eternal life, to remove doubt, fear, anxiety. Believing God’s witness to His Son gives us eternal life. The Spirit not only bears witness in our hearts that what He is saying
is true, He testifies that we are His. The Spirit Himself bears
witness with our spirit that we are children of God. His witness is our inner confidence that we belong to Christ.
Therefore, it is absolutely foundational to eternal life and to salvation to have the right view of Jesus Christ. We’ve already gone through all those behavioral tests, all the moral tests. But the doctrinal test, the pervasive overarching consummate doctrinal test of true salvation is a right view of Christ. Absolutely no one apart from Christ, no one who denies Jesus as the Christ, as the Son of God is saved. No one!
Over and over again, throughout Scripture, God commands us to believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ. Not to do that is to forfeit salvation, to forfeit eternal life. Apart from Christ there is no redemption, there is no salvation and there is no eternal life. Belonging to God starts with believing in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the King, God in human flesh, and His work. Anything else is antichrist. And that, is a eternally damning perspective.
So, God has given us His testimony all through the Old Testament; and His testimony again, all through the New Testament, that we might believe. The Old Testament is in anticipation of Christ and the New Testament is about His arrival and fulfillment of all of the Old Testament promises. God testified in the Old Testament, you cannot read the Old Testament without seeing Christ. God testifies again in the New Testament, you cannot read the New Testament without seeing Christ.
All of the books of the Bible, then, are about the revelation of Jesus Christ. Even if the testimony is from a person, all testimony to Christ comes from God as the source. All we can do is reiterate the testimony that God Himself has given on the pages of Scripture, it may be the confirming testimony of through Jesus Himself, the Apostles, a disciple or a preacher.
The witness of God is infallible. The witness of God is unarguable. Just to review the witness of God, let's look at verses 6 through 8 again.
"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. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement."
In verse 6 he refers to the testimony from the water and blood, verse 7 testimony from the Holy Spirit. Verse 8 he wraps it all up with a summary, "There are three that bear witness, the Spirit and the water and the blood, and the three are in agreement." And that brings us to our text.
Open with me your Bibles to I John chapter 5. If you’re looking at Jesus Christ and you want to find out whether or not this is the promised King, the promised Savior, the promised Messiah, there are three trusted sources of evidence. And, all three are in perfect agreement, and that is consistent with divine law.
Deuteronomy 19 says "A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed."
God, in His Word, has provided three witnesses, which all agree on Jesus Christ and meet the maximum requirement for evidence to be believed. And, they are water, which refers to His baptism, blood, which refers to His death, and the Holy Spirit, which is referring to the ministry of the Holy Spirit in and through His life.
I invite you to follow along with me, as I read to you verses 9 to 12, to
set the text in our minds, as we prepare our hearts for what the Spirit
is saying to each of us. Listen for the voice of our Lord. I John 5:9-12
"If
we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for
the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son. The
one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the
one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not
believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life."
First, let's look at Matthew 3, where God's testimony at Jesus' baptism occurred. "Then Jesus *arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” But Jesus answering said to him, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he *permitted Him. After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."
At the height of John’s baptizing ministry, he preached "The Messiah’s coming. When Messiah comes, He’ll bring His kingdom. Are you ready?" He was calling people to repent, to confess their sin and to ask God to cleanse them. It is called a baptism of repentance. John was a hard preacher, he preached on sin, he preached repentance and called people to to confess their sin. In order to make a public affirmation of that, he told them they needed to be baptized. Baptism, was an outward cleansing, it was a way to symbolize what they wanted God to do on the inside.
What made that unique, is that Jews didn’t go through a baptism, they were circumcised. Jews were born into Israel, born into the family of Abraham, born into the covenant people. Gentiles were viewed as unclean. If a Gentile wanted to join Judaism and become a proselyte to Judaism, they had to go through a baptism, they had to go through a cleansing.
And, here is John the baptist saying "If you’re going to be ready for the Messiah when He comes, and you’re going to be ready to come into His kingdom when He establishes it, you’re going to have to see yourself as no better than a Gentile. You're going to have to see yourself as unclean, make a public confession of that reality of your uncleanness and be willing to be baptized. " And people did it because they wanted to be a part of Messiah’s kingdom.
It was while John was baptizing them in the Jordan River, that Jesus shows up from Galilee, where He’s been with His disciples and wants to be baptized by John. By this time, John knew of Him and the revelation of God had been given to him that this was the Lamb of God. It was the, John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?" You, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, You the Son of God, You the one born of virgin Mary?
John is saying I’m the sinner, I need to be baptized by you. You’re not, you don’t need to be baptized by me. To which Jesus "said to him, ‘Permit it at this time, for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." In other words, don't argue with John, just do what I ask you. Even though there is no sin for Me to repent of, and there’s no need for Me to be washed on the inside, God requires this of all His people and I will do all that God requires.
Jesus, being fully human ,obeyed God’s Law in full. That was the perfection of His life. That was the perfection of Jesus' life. Jesus fulfilled all righteousness, which by the way, was imputed to our account. We could never obtain it on our own.
After having been baptized, "Jesus went up immediately from the water, and behold the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and coming upon Him." To be clear, the Holy Spirit didn’t come as a dove. We often see the Holy Spirit being represented in that way. The Holy Spirit was descending "as a dove," means simply as a dove might come down and land. It was a visible form that came down from heaven and resting on Jesus. Then, we have the testimony of God in verse 17, "and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."
This is the testimony of God at the baptism of Jesus. I'm sure this was rather shocking to John, if you will remember, he had been saying "When He comes He will baptize you with fire." Then, here comes the Holy Spirit settling on Jesus like a peaceful, gentle, quiet dove. But Jesus, in His first coming was a coming in grace,gentleness, and meekness. And so it was fitting that the Spirit of God comes upon Him, gently, peacefully, quietly as like a dove. God sent His Spirit to descend upon Him to illustrate that He is functioning in full harmony with the Holy Spirit.
Contrary to what some believe, Jesus was not receiving the Holy Spirit. He is God. Never, at any time was He any less than God. The affirmation of the Spirit of God and then the affirmation of God the Father, was for John to see. This is Jesus, who is the Messiah, who is fully qualified, fully affirmed, fully satisfying God the Father and God the Spirit.
In John chapter 1, it's interesting to mention, and make a note, that "John testified saying, "I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him."
So you have God the Father’s testimony to Jesus in the descending of the Spirit. Next, the second to bear witness is the blood. This is God's testimony that occurred at the death of Jesus. When Jesus died on the cross, there were several things which took place that indicated the divine hand of God. Jesus is there, hanging on the cross and the two thieves have been crucified there with Him. They were there, mocking Him and insulting Him.
Matthew 27, "In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him and saying, "He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him. He trusts in God; let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God."
Now look at verse 45, "Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour." This is a divine miracle, because the sixth hour was twelve noon. This is God intervening with supernatural darkness! And Jesus knows it, He understood that the symbolism of the darkness was an indication of the forsaking of God.
And so at that ninth hour when it was still dark, "He cried with a loud voice saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?," which means "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" This was God giving testimony to His Son as a sin bearing sacrifice by creating supernatural darkness at twelve noon.
Verse 51,"And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split." It's important to note, that this happened while Jesus is crying out with a loud voice and yielding up His Spirit. God literally rips the veil of the temple from top to bottom, which open the Holy of Holies. Then God literally shook the earth and the rocks were split. Jesus has provided access to His presence and abolished the priesthood and the separation.
Then look at verses 52 and 53, this is amazing, "The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many."
All of this occurred by the very power of God. This was the perfect fulfillment of Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. One can come to no other conclusion than this is the testimony of the Father, fulfilled
prophecy, physical phenomena. In fact it’s so convincing that a Roman centurion
says, "Truly this was the Son of God."
Then you have the testimony given by the Holy Spirit, in verses 6 -8, which says "It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement."
Now, having been told, you can either accept the testimony of God the Father at Jesus' baptism and the testimony of God the Father at Jesus' death, and testimony of the Holy Spirit or you can reject it! The witness of the water and the witness of the blood and the witness of the Holy Spirit all come together in perfect agreement.
They come together in agreement historically, visibly, and publicly to demonstrate that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the promised seed, the Sovereign, the Anointed One, the eternal King, the Lord of the Old Testament. And since you and I weren't there, the Holy Spirit inspired the writing down of the record of all the Father’s testimony. It is all accurately recorded in the pages of the Bible, so that anyone who wants to know who Jesus Christ. Do you see it?
While the Trinity does not appear in the manuscripts, we clearly have the testimony of three heavenly witnesses, the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit.
Now that we have laid that foundation, back to I John chapter 5, verse 10, "The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son." That is to simply say that the witness is now yours, when you believed, you received the witness of God inside of you and made it your own.
Notice then, John changes from believing to not believing. The only reason people reject Christ is because they don’t believe the testimony of God. And, if you don’t believe God’s testimony, then you are calling Him a liar. You’ve made God a liar. If you deny what God says in His Word, you're saying He is a liar! By the way, it is blasphemous to deny Jesus Christ is not who God said He is. And that is a damnable offense, and that is to be guilty of the greatest blasphemy possible.
You make Him a liar because Numbers 23 says, that "God is not a man that He should lie." I assure you that you do not want to add blasphemy to the list of all your other violations against God’s Law. It is sin that dooms a man's soul to hell, calling God a liar is sin, a sin to be hated.
Verse 11, "And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son."
Notice, there we go again with that eternal life. That's the reason that God gives this witness, if you do not have the witness of God, you don’t have eternal life. It is the witness of God that brings you to believe in His Son. It's all connected.
And, that is John's point in verse 12, "He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life." If you don’t have Christ, you don't have God, and you don’t have life. If you have Christ, you have it all. That's the purpose for God giving us His witness, that we would believe His testimony concerning His Son, that we would have eternal life.
In Closing..
God gave us His testimony all through the Old Testament. He gave it to us throughout the pages of the New Testament. The testimony of God is clear.
It was given at the baptism of Jesus, it was given at the cross, when He was crucified, and then through the Holy Spirit.
And, if you receive it, if you believe what God says about His Son, if you embrace the truth, you are saved and have eternal life. And, if you don’t believe, then you make God a liar. Because if you do not believe the testimony of God, there is nothing else to say to convince you and you are damned. You have rejected God's witness and testimony. If you reject it, you have no eternal life
It's as simple as that!
May it be so..
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen