Three Tests, Three Testimonies
Introduction: Those of you who are avid basketball fans know what a triple double is. It occurs when a player gets ten or more points, ten or more rebounds, and ten or more assists in the same game. Some great basketball players never get even one triple double in their entire careers, but Larry Bird just got his 57th last Tuesday.
The Apostle John doesn’t score a triple double in our text today, but he does employ a double triple. He focuses our attention upon the three tests of the believer’s profession and upon three testimonies to the believer’s possession. Just as the triple double is the hallmark of a balanced, well-rounded superstar who belongs in the Hall of Fame, this double triple is the hallmark of a balanced, well-rounded believer. If we pass the three tests and if we heed the three witnesses, there is no question about whether we belong in God’s family. John’s concern here, as throughout this great epistle is with what it means to be a true believer—one who not only professes Christ but also possesses Him.
There are three tests of the believer’s profession of saving faith.
This should be no surprise if you have been with us during our exposition of 1 John these past three months. We have come across these tests again and again, each time from a new vantage point and with new insight. It is obvious to me that John considers these tests determinative of who is and who is not a Christian.
The three tests are each determinative. The three tests are the doctrinal, the social, and the moral, and I have noted for you the places in which each is expounded in this Epistle.
1. The doctrinal test (2:18-27; 4:1-6; 5:1,4-5) asks the question, “Do we believe the truth, particularly the truth concerning who Jesus is?” Without going into any great detail here, I would like to review what we have learned about this test. In chapter 2 we are told that the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ is a liar and antichrist. Further, the one who denies the Son denies the Father also. In chapter 4 John asserts that Satan and his demons are behind the denial of the full humanity and full deity of Christ. However, according to 4:4, “greater is He who is in us (i.e., the Spirit of God) than he who is in the world” (i.e., Satan); therefore, we continue to overcome.
In today’s text the doctrinal test is once again applied. Verse 1 says, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” Then in verse 5 the question is asked, “Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” It is obvious to even a casual reader that believing in Jesus is absolutely determinative of saving faith. One cannot have a personal relationship with God unless he accepts what God has said about His Son.
2. The social test (2:7-11; 3:11-18; 4:7-21; 5:1-3) asks whether we love God and one another. This test receives even more attention from John. In chapter 2 he claims that anyone who hates his brother is in spiritual darkness, no matter how much he protests that he is in the light. In chapter 3 he indicates that assurance of salvation is actually tied to love for our brothers and then reiterates his warning about hate. He calls the one who hates his brother a murderer and denies that he can have eternal life. Back on the positive side Jesus is offered as the great definer of love in that He voluntarily laid down his life for us.
It is easy for us to make phony claims, of course, both regarding our love for one another and our love for God. John deals with the former in chapter 3 by demanding that love for our brothers not be demonstrated only with words or tongue but also with actions and in truth. He deals with the latter in chapter 4 by observing that if we do not love our visible brother, we cannot love an invisible God.
In today’s text, too, the social test appears again. Look at verse 1: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves his child as well.” Even though I taught logic for 5 years I sweated to sort out John’s argument here. I decided that it is really a complex enthymatic syllogism with some of its premises missing and its conclusion implied. The best way to understand it is to treat it as two arguments, the first as follows:
Everyone who believes in Jesus is a child of God.
Every child of God loves his Father.
Therefore, everyone who believes in Jesus loves his Father.
That is a simple categorical syllogism, Form AAA.
Then, using the conclusion of that argument as the major premise of his next one we have the following:
Everyone who believes in Jesus loves his Father.
Everyone who loves a parent loves the parent’s children.
Therefore, everyone who believes in Jesus loves the Father’s children.
Now if I lost you somewhere there, don’t worry about it. The important thing is that we understand that the one who does not love God or love his brothers cannot be a child of God. Therefore, the social argument is also absolutely determinative of saving faith. No love implies no relationship.
3. The moral test (2:3-6; 2:28-3:10; 5:2-4) is the third one. It asks, “Are we obedient?” Once again let me take you on a brief review. In chapter 2 we are informed that the one who says he knows God but does not do what he commands is a liar and the truth is not in him. Later in the same chapter John says that everyone who does what is right has been born of God. (That, of course, is the same thing said about everyone who believes in Jesus and everyone who loves his brother). In chapter 3 the opposite point is made, namely that no one who continues to sin has either seen God or known Him; in fact, he who does what is sinful is of the devil.
Then in today’s text we get a further application of the moral test. Let’s start in verse 2: “This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.” We should not be surprised that love for God can actually be defined by obedience, in view of John’s earlier statements. In fact, there’s not a parent here who has not used the same argument with his children. “Daddy, what can I get you for Christmas that will show you how much I love you.” “Son, the best way to show that is to be obedient.” Sound familiar?
But then John adds something new that is very important: “And his commands are not burdensome.” Why is that important? Simply because most of us excuse our disobedience on the basis that God’s commands are just too difficult and too demanding. John says it isn’t so. The numerous and nit-picking regulations of the scribes and Pharisees were “heavy burdens, hard to bear” (Matt. 23:4), but Jesus said that “my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). That speaks of the long run, of course, for obedience does indeed demand self-discipline, self-sacrifice, and just plain hard work. But in the long run, obedience to God’s will is not burdensome but freeing.
I have seen an example of that in the past two weeks. Jerry Rich, our new Associate Pastor, is here with us again today. He has been trying to buy a house over near the church property. But he hadn’t sold his house in Oklahoma City yet, so the bank wanted the church to guarantee his house payments in Oklahoma City. Jerry said he could make the double payments for a while, if necessary, but the bank wouldn’t take a chance—they wanted a guarantee. The Elders discussed it and determined that co-signing his mortgage would be contrary to biblical principles and Jerry completely concurred.
Now that wasn’t an easy decision in the short term for either him or us. We want him here to start work on January 1, he didn’t want to move twice or be separated from his family, and the house he was trying to buy was an excellent deal that might not be available if he waited until the Oklahoma City house sold. But the Elders committed to pray that Jerry’s house would sell soon, and we asked you to pray last Sunday that his house would sell this week. Friday Jerry called me and said he had a firm contract on his house and closing will be this week. While he won’t get any equity out of the house, despite owning in it for 8 years, it is a virtual miracle in that terribly depressed market to be able to walk away without any cash outlay. Further, the house here is still available, and a closing is now scheduled for the Friday before Christmas. Both the Elders and Jerry were confirmed in their decision—the commands of God are not burdensome.
There are, of course, countless other examples of this truth. Every single commandment God has given is for our benefit. The negative restrictions are to prevent chaos, disease, emotional stress, and mental anguish. The positive commandments are to promote health and happiness in body, soul, and spirit. Of course, unbelievers refuse to acknowledge this. They view God’s commandments against excessive drinking, premarital sex, adultery, abortion, orgies, selfish ambition, and the like as severe hindrances to their pursuit of fun and fulfillment. But the believer knows that such so-called freedoms are in reality a terrible bondage that will eventually destroy a person.
Please note that the reason why we do not find the commands of God burdensome lies not only in the character of those commands. It lies also in the fact that we have been given the power to keep them. That seems to be the point of verse 4: “And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.” For the true believer the spell of the old life has been broken, and the fascination of the world has lost its appeal. We have victory over the world available to us. Once again, we see that the moral test is absolutely determinative of saving faith. No obedience implies no salvation.
But one other thing is apparent from our text today concerning the three tests—they are inextricably interwoven.
The three tests are inextricably interwoven. (1-5). I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this, but I want you to see that in the first five verses of chapter 5 the words “believe”, “love,” and“obedience” occur at least ten times. As John Stott expresses it, the Apostle “has not chosen three tests arbitrarily or at random and stuck them together artificially. On the contrary, he shows that they are so closely woven together into a single, coherent fabric that it is difficult to unpick and disentangle the threads.”[i]
I have restated John’s points for you in such a way that we can see how the tests are all related to one another.
1. Faith in Jesus produces love for God’s children. (1)
2. Love for God’s children is proven by love for God. (2)
3. Love for God equals obedience to God. (3)
4. Obedience to God results in victory over the world. (3,4)
5. Victory over the world is possible only to the one who has faith in Jesus.
And now we’re back where we started.
The three tests of the believer’s profession are each determinative of saving faith, but they are also inextricably interwoven. It will do us no good in respect to eternal salvation to believe in Jesus if we fail to demonstrate love for our fellow believers or obedience to the commands of God. It will do us no good to show love to our fellow man if we do not believe the truth about Jesus or if we fail to walk as He walked. It will do us no good to be scrupulous in our obedience to God’s commands if we fail to believe that Jesus is God’s unique Son or allow our obedience to generate a legalistic spirit of judgment toward our brothers.
So much for the three tests. The second half of our double triple is this:
There are three testimonies to the believer’s possession of saving faith.
Let’s read again verses 6-8: “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. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.” Before we attempt to interpret this passage, which some have called the most perplexing in the entire Epistle, I would like to draw attention to a major textual problem in verse 7. If you have a KJV, you will note that verse 7 & 8 read quite differently. Verse 7 speaks of 3 that bear witness in heaven—the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, while verse 8 speaks of 3 that bear witness on earth—the Spirit, the water, and the blood. Virtually every modern version of the Bible disagrees with the KJV at this point. Let me briefly tell you why.
Erasmus of Rotterdam was a 16th century scholar who edited the Greek text upon which the KJV was based. When he produced his first edition of the Greek NT he omitted the words in question in I John 5:7-8 because he couldn’t find them in any ancient Greek manuscript. But they were in the Latin Vulgate, the official Bible of the Catholic Church, so he was criticized by church authorities for omitting them. Somewhat rashly, he promised that if anyone could find even one Greek manuscript containing the passage he would include it. Unfortunately, one showed up, almost certainly written for the express purpose of embarrassing Erasmus, but he kept his promise and included the words in his next edition, published in 1522. Unfortunately, the King James Version was based upon that edition.
Interestingly, Brad is going to point out tonight that when Joseph Smith translated his golden tablets, allegedly written by the angel Moroni over 1000 years before Erasmus, the resultant text of his inspired Book of Mormon agrees verbatim with Erasmus’ third edition. That is virtual proof that Smith’s prophetic ministry was nothing more than a sloppy job of plagiarism from the KJV. It even includes obvious errors in the KJV text that any biblical scholar would have known.
Now, with the textual problem behind us, the first point I would like for us to note is that …
The three testimonies are in agreement and thus really constitute one testimony. (6-8). While the shorter version found in most of our Bibles is undoubtedly correct, there are still some significant difficulties in determining the meaning of the terms, “water” and “blood.” Scholars have been divided, with some suggesting that the water and blood refer to the elements that flowed from Christ’s side after it was pierced with a spear by a soldier at the Crucifixion. Others see water and blood as referring to the two sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Probably the most common view among conservative scholars is that the water is a reference to the baptism of Jesus and blood a reference to his death. James Boice offers the unusual view that water here is a symbol for the Word of God, so that the three witnesses involve the three members of the Trinity: water refers to the Word of God, blood refers to the death of Christ, and the Spirit is, of course, the Holy Spirit.[ii]
I would suggest to you a different possibility, based upon a very similar passage in the Gospel of John, chapter 3. Hold your finger here and turn back to John 3:3ff:
“Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’ ‘How can a man be born when he is old?’ Nicodemus asked. ‘Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”
Many have assumed that “water” here means baptism, so that baptism and the Holy Spirit become necessary before one can enter the kingdom of God. But look again at verse 6: “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” The parallelism suggests that the two things John is talking about are physical birth and spiritual birth. To enter the Kingdom of God one must be born physically and spiritually. The physical can only produce the physical. The Spirit must produce the spiritual. Thus the “water” of John 3:5 may refer to the water of physical birth, especially since Nicodemus has just asked about whether he needs to enter his mother’s womb a second time in order to be born again. “No,” says Jesus. “One birth by water is enough. Now you need to be born of the Spirit.”
Now I would suggest to you that back in I John 5, written by the same human author, the reference to “water” is also a reference to physical birth. Jesus Christ came to be our Savior by physical birth, i.e., he became one of us, but he also came by blood, i.e., He was born to die. Just as the water stands for his humanity, the blood stands for his deity and perfect sacrifice. The Spirit, of course, stands for the Holy Spirit who always testifies of the Son and glorifies Him.
Water, Blood, Spirit—the three are in agreement in their testimony concerning Jesus. This is important because in Jewish law it was necessary to have two or three witnesses in order for evidence to be established. These witnesses constitute one unified testimony.
Next John advances his argument in verses 9-10 by stressing the nature of this testimony.
This testimony comes from God, is totally reliable, and must be accepted. (9,10). Let’s read. “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.” His point is well taken. We accept human testimony all the time. In fact, we couldn’t survive for one day if we didn’t accept the word of other people. We get on planes, trusting people we have never met. We buy food, trusting labels without any way of checking out the contents. We read a map and trust the directions though the mapmaker is a stranger. If we accept human testimony without question, how can we refuse to accept God’s testimony? It is God who bore witness to His Son in history, in the water and the blood, i.e., in His life and in His death, and it is God who bears witness to Him today through His Spirit in our hearts. Because the witness is divine, we ought to receive it.
Finally, John has one more very important thing to say about the threefold testimony that is really one testimony:
This testimony is in the true believer’s heart and guarantees eternal life. (10-12) “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.” As I see it, John is here speaking of the purpose of testimony to Christ—It is to evoke faith in Christ. Many times in the history of the church the question has been asked, “Which comes first, faith or evidence? Do we believe in Christ because the evidence is clear or is the evidence clear because we believe in Christ?”
Well, John seems to be saying it is both. The one who responds in faith to what he hears has the testimony planted in his heart. That is, he is given a deeper assurance that he was right to trust in Christ. Testimony is thus both the cause and the consequence of belief, and belief is a stepping-stone between God’s first and further testimony.
The unbeliever, on the other hand, the one who according to verse 10 “does not believe,” perhaps better translated, “refuses to believe,” forfeits the possibility of receiving any further testimony from God because he has rejected what God has already given him. In effect, that person has and called God a liar! As John Stott says, “Unbelief is not a misfortune to be pitied; it is a sin to be deplored.”[iii]
In the final two verses of our passage John focuses upon the believer and indicates that the testimony of which he has been speaking has a still further purpose—to give assurance to the believer. In fact, it guarantees him eternal life. “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” The verb “has given” is past tense and may speak of the historical event of Christ’s death on the Cross or it may refer to our conversion, the time at which the death of Christ was applied to our lives, resulting in forgiveness of our sins. Whichever way one views it, the emphasis is upon the fact that eternal life is in the Son. If you have the Son, you have life; you don’t have to wait until you die or wait until the Second Coming—you have life now. But if you do not have the Son you do not have life. In fact, as John puts it in his Gospel, “Whoever rejects the Son will not even see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Well, if eternal life depends on whether or not we have the Son, I’d say it’s very important to know how to get the Son. What does it mean to “have Jesus”? Perhaps the best way to answer that question is by reference to a verse in Rev. 3:20: Jesus pictures himself as standing at the door of the Church. “Here I am!,” He says. “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” I suggest that you think of Jesus standing at the door of your life, knocking, asking to come in to reorder your priorities, heal your relationships, give you new motivation, and offer you the power to obey God and love others. If you answer His knock and invite Him in, He will come in. In an ancient near-Eastern home the clearest evidence of acceptance was sitting down and having a meal with someone, and that is what Jesus says He will do with you. He will abide in your life and you will “have” Him.
Conclusion: Nowhere in the Bible is the bottom line in one’s spiritual destiny made clearer than in these last two verses. Do you right now have eternal life? Jesus is knocking. Have you answered? You can do so by means of a simple prayer. Please bow your head with me and if you wish to have the Son and thereby have life, speak these words to God. “Father, I know I have sinned and do not deserve a gift from You, but I thank you for sending your Son to be my Savior. I believe He died for me and I invite Him right now to come into my life and abide with me. Thank you for the promise of eternal life with you. Amen.” If you prayed that prayer for the first time, I hope you’ll let me know. I want to pray for you and provide some materials so you can grow in your new faith.
DATE: December 10, 1989
Tags:
Testimony
Water
Blood
[i] John R. W. Stott, The Epistles of John, 172.
[ii] James Montgomery Boice, The Epistles of John, 162-164.
[iii] Stott, 182.