- Light and Love
- No comments
This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son (1 John 5:6-8).
We have all heard of tragic crimes that have occurred where it seemed clear who committed the felony, but there was not enough evidence or witnesses to convict. John wants his readers to know that our faith is not built on fairy tale or wishes. Jesus was a real person, that walked this earth. It is a historical fact that He was crucified on a Roman cross about 2,000 years ago and that His cowardly followers overnight became emboldened by the believe that Jesus rose from the grave. The evidence is there.
We also have the witnesses. John presents a profound truth about Jesus Christ in these verses: He came “by water and blood.” This statement reflects both His baptism and His sacrificial death, marking first the beginning and then the culmination of His earthly ministry. These events, along with the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, confirm Jesus as the Son of God. Together, the water, the blood, and the Spirit offer a unified witness to the identity and mission of Jesus. In Deuteronomy 19:15 the writer makes it clear that having two or even three witnesses is the ideal that they should shoot for when deciding whether something happened and was trustworthy. The water, the blood, and the coming of the Holy Spirit are the three witnesses that declare with certainty that Jesus is Lord!
John goes further to remind us of the reliability of God’s testimony. While human testimony can be flawed, God’s testimony about His Son is perfect and trustworthy. To truly believe in Jesus is to accept the divine testimony and then allow it to transform our lives. Rejecting this truth, however, is to call God a liar. The testimony is clear and unchanging: God has given us eternal life, and this life is found only in His Son. Believing in Jesus is not merely intellectual agreement but a wholehearted acceptance of the life God offers through Him and whatever it entails.