God's Testimony

1 John 5:6 - 12

6 This is the One who came by water and blood - Jesus Christ.

He did not come by water only, but by water and blood.

And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

7 For there are three that testify * the Spirit, the water and the blood; 

and the three are in agreement.

9 We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater 

because it is the testimony of God,which He has given about His Son.

10 Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. 

Anyone who does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, 

because he has not believed the testimony God has given about His Son.

11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, 

and this life is in His Son.

12 He who has the Son has life; 

he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

*[in Heaven: the Father, the Word 

and the Holy Spirit, and these three are One. 8 And there are

three that testify on Earth:]

May the Lord bless the reading of this blog entry, and may He bless me as I write the blog that focuses on the most challenging piece of Scripture that I have encountered while doing my study on 1 John. Though it has been nearly a year since I started to write this, it has been on my mind consistently, and I have often prayed for wisdom, guidance, and have been reminded of the contents of this passage often when reading Scripture between then and now - it has become a precious piece of Scripture, and I take joy in learning to understand it just a little bit more fully! 

First things first... regarding the 'missing piece' of text (the last part of verse 7, and the first part of verse 8): although I will ponder the content of this portion as well in my blog entry, I want to clarify why this part is not included in my actual Scripture at the top, but IS inserted underneath. To my understanding, this 'added' part was not found in any Greek manuscripts of the earlier centuries, appearing only in Greek manuscripts after around the tenth, or even the fourteenth, century. One commentary I read said that only eight very late Greek manuscripts contain this part, and of these eight, four contain this piece as a variant reading, written in the margin as a later addition to the manuscript. The earlier, older Latin manuscripts also don't have this piece, except for later manuscripts of the Latin Vulgate (not the earlier ones). The commentator (taken from The MacArthur Bible Commentary) suggests that the external manuscript evidence and the internal evidence taken from the somewhat disrupted flow of the writer's thoughts show that most likely, these words were indeed added to the text at a much later date. Many versions of our English Bibles have this portion added right into the Bible text, and many more versions have not placed this in, except as an insert underneath. Some examples of versions that have included this portion into its text are the King James Version, the New King James Version, the Jubilee Bible, the Geneva Bible, and some examples of the versions that contain this portion marked only as an insert at the bottom of the page are the English Standard Version, the New American Standard Bible, the New International Version, and the New Living Translation. All versions/translations I just listed above are ones that I myself personally enjoy reading from, and I'm so often thankful for the broader perspective I'm given when I look at a passage from the perspective of multiple versions. I'm also thankful for the careful work that the scribes and translators throughout the centuries have done to further the preservation of God's Holy Word. The Lord shows us in His Word, both in the Old Testament, and repeated in the New Testament, that "the Word of our God stands forever" (Isaiah 40:8 and 1 Peter 1:25). He has used the hands of people, the parchment and the ink of our world, to make known to mankind through all generations what His message is to us! 

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In the previous section of Scripture, we learned that faith is the victory that overcomes the world, and that faith is properly placed by trusting in Jesus as the Son of God (ch. 5:5). Therefore, an 'overcomer' is a person who believes (has faith) that Jesus is the Son of God. John started this book, or letter, saying that he, as well as others, had seen, heard, and touched this Jesus, who had been with the Father, and had come down to mankind in order to offer eternal life to all who believe. He also starts his Gospel (the book of John) with words that speak of the deity of Jesus Christ, calling Him the Word, and then going on to show that the Word was the One who came from Heaven to Earth to show the way to the Father that would come through Him and the revelation that He gave:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God..."

"The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. 

We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, 

who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

"No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, 

who is at the Father's side, has made Him known."

         John 1:1, 14, 15            

John (and many others) testified to and spoke of, promoted and proclaimed Jesus, who is life eternal:

"The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us."

1 John 1:2                     

Jesus came by water and by blood. When I first read this, I thought of physical birth - a baby coming from his mother's womb - the breaking of the water by which he is surrounded while in the womb, and then also the blood that is part of a natural birth. Jesus was born physically just like all the rest of us. I'm not sure what John was thinking of when he penned these words, but I read a little bit of commentary on this verse, and realized that it is widely understood that the water signifies Jesus' baptism, which marked the beginning of His official ministry. 

When Jesus was baptized, there was a wonderful display of the Trinity marking this significant event (you can read about it in Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:21,22, and, I believe, in John 1:32-34). When Jesus came up out of the water after John the Baptist was honoured to baptize Him, Heaven was opened up, and the Spirit descended on the Son in the likeness, or form, of a dove, while the Father's voice was heard saying, "You are My Son, whom I love; with You I am well pleased." (Mark 1:11, Luke 3:22). Here is God's testimony about Jesus being His Son. John the Baptist also bore witness to this event, and it has been recorded in John 1:32-34, where he says:

"I saw the Spirit come down from Heaven as a dove and remain on Him. 

I would not have known Him, except that the One who sent me to baptize with water 

told me, 'The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain 

is He who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.' 

I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God." 
               

This is the clear testimony of God, and the clear testimony of a man who was sent by God for the purpose of proclaiming the Messiah, or the Christ.

The blood signifies Jesus' death, which marked the fulfillment of the purpose for which He came to Earth. 

When Jesus died, He cried, "It is finished" (John 19:30), because He had now accomplished exactly that for which He came. His death was a sufficient payment to satisfy God's wrath against sin - a perfect sacrifice had been made in order to redeem fallen mankind, which was God's loving plan from the beginning. Jesus' sinless perfection had made atonement for all sin, and mankind was now offered life and redemption through faith in Him and His blood shed. Romans 3:25a says it so well:

"God presented [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood."

So as I wrap my head around this, the water and the blood kind of act as a beginning and end mark of Jesus' public ministry, and point to the gift that He offered to all mankind in His death. Physically, His human birthing process included water and blood, as mentioned above, and at His death, there was the sudden flow of blood and water that exited His body when His side was pierced (John 19:34). This piercing was yet another fulfillment of prophecy pointing to the Christ (see Zechariah 12:10), and it also marked Jesus as "unquestionably dead" (quoted phrase from The MacArthur Bible Commentary), showing us clearly:

"that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures."

1 Corinthians 15:3b                  

So we see Jesus, the Man Who came and lived and died, and has been talked about ever since. We see people proclaiming Him as God, and we see God Himself testifying to this as well. Why all this 'testifying'?! Well, we all kind of need someone to 'testify' in order for us to come to a point where we want to believe that something is true. Think of it - a person can knock on our door and offer us the best vacuum cleaner ever (or the best set of cookware); or maybe someone calls and tells us we've won a free vacation or a brand new car. It's all fine and good to hear what they are offering, but think of how much better it would be if our neighbour down the street (whom we trust) came and told us that truly, what was being offered was the real deal, and it was as good as the salesman said it was. Think also of the credibility the potential product (or the potential win) would gain in our minds if we saw the president of the company pull up in his car, prove he was who he said he was, and carefully show us that there really was no falsehood to anything that was being said or offered. Think of more and more people coming out and truly showing us that what was offered was legitimate, and wonderfully good. We might hear of the trip our brother or sister and family had taken; we might look through their photos and see the smiles on their faces as they recalled highlights of their time spent on the trip they had won. 

This is exactly what has been happening up to this point in the New Testament, and this is what people are still talking about today. People have been testifying to the truth of who Jesus Christ was and is, and about how faith in Him changes a life. In verse 6 of the text, John says that the Spirit of God - the Spirit of Truth - Himself testifies that Jesus is the 'real deal'. John 14:17 calls the Holy Spirit the "Spirit of Truth". The work of the Spirit is to be our Counselor. His job is to live with us - inside of us! He is God's promise of His continued presence with us. The Holy Spirit is also our Teacher. These are a few parts of His 'job description', found in John 14. If the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth that testifies as to who Jesus is, it is important to note that He testifies that truth right into a believer's heart, as He makes His home with each believer, and guides the believer into all truth (see John 17:13, where Jesus says that that when He, the Holy Spirit comes, this Spirit of Truth will guide them into all truth). Not only do we have externals like the Bible and God and other people testifying to us about the truth of Who Jesus is, but we have the Spirit of God Himself making His home with us, and testifying that truth to us in our own hearts and minds! Verse 10 of the main text says,

"Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart."

(emphasis mine)           

Going back to verses 7 and 8, there are three that testify. This was really important in the Hebrew world, or in the time and the culture that this was written in (but actually, it is still really important to us today - we like to hear something from more than one person; as more people's stories and testimonies about something match, we usually become more convinced of the truth of it). I have been taking notes as I've been reading the Bible, because even when I don't blog for months and months, I always have that next portion of Scripture from 1 John simmering in my mind. I've realized that there's really a lot of places that talk about the testimony of multiple witnesses. I'm not going to use all of the Scriptures I found, but will quickly go over a few, both from the Old and New Testament:
First, back in Numbers and Deuteronomy, when God gave the children of Israel all their laws, we read:

"Anyone who kills a person is to be put to death as a murderer

only on the testimony of witnesses. But no one is to be put to death 
on the testimony of only one witness."

Numbers 35:30              

"On the testimony of two or three witnesses a man shall be put to death,

but no one shall be put to death on the testimony of only one witness."

Deuteronomy 17:6         

          

This practice of presenting multiple witnesses was a legal requirement, and needed to be  followed. In 1 Kings 21, King Ahab of Israel wanted ownership of a certain man's vineyard. In being unable to obtain it, he went home "sullen and angry" because he couldn't get what he wanted. His wicked wife, Jezebel, decided to help him. She knew the procedure, and produced two false witnesses to bring false charges against the man owning the vineyard; upon their false testimony, the man was stoned and king Ahab got what he wanted. I was teaching this story as a part of a Sunday school lesson, and the part about the two witnesses jumped out at me. 

In Matthew 18:16, when Jesus gave the biblical procedure for dealing with a brother who sinned against another brother, He used this testimony of multiple witnesses as a step in dealing with someone who refused to listen. He said,

"But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' "

The Jews practiced this testimony of multiple witnesses even in how they dealt with Jesus on the night of His death. Mark 14:55 and 56 say.

"The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus

so that they could put Him to death, but they did not find any.

Many testified falsely against Him, but their statements did not agree."

This was not acceptable according to Law, where "no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness"! As they were intently looking for any kind of evidence against Jesus, so that they would be able to put Him to death, Matthew 26:60 and 61 say,

"...they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward. 

Finally two came forward and declared, "This fellow said, 

'I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.' "

(emphasis mine)          

  
Later on, in Acts 6 and 7, in the stoning of Stephen, a man of God, the Jewish people again produced false witnesses (note again, multiple witnesses - more than just one), in order to justify their accusations against him.
*the thing that really gets me is the injustice of these examples! The people obeyed the written letter of the Law by producing multiple witnesses to testify, no matter that they were deceptive in producing false witnesses!! There are SO many Scriptures that talk about the sin of giving false testimony (like commandment # 9, in Exodus 20:16 - "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour", or multiple verses in Proverbs, for example, point this out). It is interesting to me how with the wicked, a lying spirit is overlooked, as long as there is outward adherence to the correct procedure to make something appear acceptable. There is a great lesson/warning just in that thought...! 

Verse 9 of the text in 1 John says, 

"We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater 

because it is the testimony of God, which He has given about His Son."

Reading back in John 8, in verse 13, the Pharisees challenged Jesus' message based on His sole testimony. They wanted to reject His message and everything He was telling them and to reject His teaching, and they thought they might have grounds to reject it based on the fact that He didn't have multiple witnesses coming to support Him and to testify that what He said was true. They said to Him:

"Here You are, appearing as Your own witness; Your testimony is not  valid."

But Jesus knew that He was not alone! In verse 16-18 He said,

"...My decisions are right, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, Who sent Me.

In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two men is valid. 

I am One who testifies for Myself; My other witness is the Father, Who sent Me."

Though the Jews, especially the religious Jews who so carefully 'followed' the Scriptures, should have recognized the Father that Jesus spoke of, they were really lost in ignorance, spiritually blinded, and unable and unwilling to accept or even understand Jesus' teaching at all because of that blindness. Though they claimed that God Himself was their only Father (John 8:41), yet, quoting from John 8:42-47, Jesus told them otherwise, and He showed that their spiritual eyes and ears were closed to the truth that He revealed:

"If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I came from God... He sent Me."

"Why is My language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say." 

"You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. 

He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, 
for there is no truth in him... he is a liar and the father of lies..." 

"If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe Me?" 

"The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God."

The Jews did not recognize the other witnesses that spoke for Him, though they should have, because, as Luke 24:44 points out, the very Scriptures they held to so confidently testify to Jesus being the Son of God:

"He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you. 

Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, 

the Prophets and the Psalms."

(emphasis mine)          

I love verse 7 in the 1 John passage! It says that there are three that testify - the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and that these three are one. Yes! - the Trinity is One! Totally unified, with one unified mission... and from all the studying and writing I've done even just for this blog post, I've seen it! The Father testified (John 8) that Jesus was who He said He was - the Son of God (Luke 22:70). The Word testifies to this, as we can see from the verses quoted just above. The whole Old Testament points to Jesus being the Christ, the Messiah. He fulfilled all the prophecies made that pointed to the Messiah, Redeemer. The Spirit testifies to this truth, and He testifies it right into our very hearts to show us truth! *this is the 'missing piece', but even the 'missing piece', whether it needs to be a part of Scripture or whether it was never meant to be added, is TRUE! This gives me great comfort in accepting a solid Bible version/translation either way - whether they add that piece or not.

Also, the Spirit and the water and the blood (what actually happened) - are in agreement as well. There are multiple witnesses, they are in agreement, and they are the Godhead!, so we can rest peacefully in believing their solid testimony. 

The second part of verse 10 has a warning for those, who, after all this, still do not believe. You know, like the spiritually blinded Jews, whose behaviours and accusing questions pointed at Jesus made it clear that they belonged to another - not God, but the father of lies - the devil. Not believing the testimony of God makes the unbeliever out to be the knowledgeable, enlightened one, and makes Him - God - out to be a liar, but Romans 3:4 says, 

"Let God be true, and every man a liar."

God does not lie. The Bible is clear to show us who lies, and it is not God, for He cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18 says "it is impossible for God to lie"). The only way that a person can refuse to believe God's testimony about His Son, Jesus Christ, is if that person is still blinded to the truth, blinded by the great Deceiver, the devil. 

God's testimony is so simple. So clear:

"And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life in in His Son.

He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life."

1 John 5:11,12           

I could end it right there, because those last verses have nothing in them that is hard to understand. But there is a great desire in my heart to call out to those who have the Son to REJOICE at the life that they have been GIVEN!! This 'forever' life is a free gift that is simply accepted in faith! If we believe, eternal life is ours for the taking - God offers it to us all through precious Jesus!

There is also a great burden in my heart to call out to those who don't have the Son, because whether they know it or not, they do not have life. My question for these people is, "What's stopping you?" Do you want to die? Don't you want to live forever? Don't you want to experience eternal joys? Don't you want to be free? Jesus said. 

"If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. 

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

John 8:31 and 32           

Jesus is the truth (John 14:6). He will set you free. He will help you overcome the world with all its trials and difficulties. He will lead you down a path that leads to ever-increasing LIFE! Do you want to know the truth?!

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I woke up with a jolt in the middle of the night last week with this verse in my head:

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus..."

Romans 8:1                  

It's a great verse of comfort, but only to those who are in Christ Jesus. That same verse is also a great verse of warning to those who are not in Christ! For such as those, there is condemnation! Unbelievers face God's wrath! They are not safe! Only Jesus saves us!! That is the Truth!! 

These are the thoughts that came to me as that verse played inside my head. It gave me a very prayerful heart for those who yet need to come to faith in Christ. It's so simple. So clear:

"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved"

Acts 16:31                   

For those who are not yet believing, there are many people praying for you! I am! And there are others. God is trustworthy, and He will not mislead you - believe His testimony - He wants to give you a good gift - eternal life in His Son! Receive it today!