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: 8 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. 13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. — 1 John 5:6-13 (NIV)
Most of us know that we are alive. Although there may be some exceptions, generally it is pretty obvious that a person is living. Even if they are sleeping soundly, you can generally tell that they are breathing. From a distance, they may not appear to be breathing, although for some of us, you can definitely hear us breathing when we are asleep. We breathe loudly. We call that snoring, and snoring in an indication of life. So most of us can stand this morning and say with absolute certainty that we are alive.
But spiritual life is not like that. You see, you can be physically alive and spiritually dead. Spiritual life is not as easily discernible as physical life. There are some people who do not know whether they are spiritually alive or not. Some do not know what it means to be spiritually alive. Some hope they are, but really can’t say for sure. Others do not believe that anyone can really know for sure.
I remember visiting a gentleman in the community near my former church in Virginia. He used to be a member of that church, but had left several years before I arrived. He was now a member of the Methodist Church in town. I thought I would at least pay him a courtesy call to introduce myself, especially since he lived on the same street as our home. During that conversation with this man who had been a Deacon in our church I discovered that he did not know for certain that he was a Christian. I found that to be rather amazing. Here was a man who had held many offices in our church, including the Office of Deacon, and he did not know that he had been born again and would go to Heaven when he died. I shared with him 1 John 5:13, the last verse in our text today. He didn’t seem fazed by that verse at all, but continued to make the point that a person could not know for certain whether he or she was saved. He said that the best that could be expected was to hope so. For him salvation was a hope so proposition. Even though I shared the Gospel with him, I found that he was unresponsive. I concluded that it was probably best to leave him with the Methodists.
Is it possible to know that you are spiritually alive? Not only do I believe that it is possible to know, I also believe that every Christian can know for certain. Now, some things can’t be known for sure. But there are other things that can be. Salvation is one of those things that can be known for certain. While we might not be able to predict the exact time of Christ’s Second Coming, we can know that when He does come we will be received into His Heaven. While we might not be able to ascertain the exact identity of the Antichrist, though some have recently made some efforts along these lines, we can know that we belong to Christ.
Ray Stedman tells the story of a prominent Bible teacher named Dr. Joseph Conrad, who came to Mount Herman Christian Conference Center to speak. He amazed and startled the audience by saying something like this: "Dear friends, I want you to know at the very beginning of my ministry with you that I am not dogmatic about the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. I am not dogmatic about the bodily resurrection of Christ, nor am I at all dogmatic about the substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ." Stedman comments that "At this point an unbelieving gasp went up from that conservative audience. But then, marshaling all his force, with great intensity, he said, ‘No, I am not dogmatic; I am bulldogmatic!’"
There are indeed some things about which we can be bulldogmatic. And the reason we can be so confident in our salvation is that God has given us sufficient evidence upon which we build that confidence.
One of the first things we need to understand about our Christian faith is this – faith rests on facts. God has given us certain facts concerning our faith. We call them evidences. As a matter of fact, there is an entire discipline in the area of Christian Theology that is based on making an argument for the faith based on Christian evidences. This area of study is known as apologetics. Apologetics is the discipline of making a rational argument in favor of Christianity based on evidences that God has provided, not only in the Bible, but also in the created order. God has made a case for Himself. And God has given us certain evidences that confirm our own salvation.
We are going to look at three evidences which produce faith. Our text speaks of these three evidences in 1 John 5:6-8: 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.
Many people, when they read this passage, have a great deal of difficulty even understanding what it means. To them it does not seem like a passage that is easy to understand. So we want to look at the meaning of this passage and unpack its truth.
The first evidence the passage speaks of is the water. What can this mean? Well, some refer to the water as pointing us to the moment of Christ’s birth. When we are born, we come out of the water. That is where we have been living for the first nine months of our existence. This is one argument. And I can understand how this argument appeals to some. After all, this would point us to the reality of Christ’s virgin birth. In the virgin birth we see the divinity of Christ. And without the virgin birth, we would only have a mere mortal man. Certainly Christ divinity is essential to our salvation. That is one argument.
Others see the water referring to the time of Christ’s baptism. This is perhaps the best explanation. You see, John has been referring to Christ as our Messiah. His ministry as the Messiah began at His baptism. It would culminate with His death on the Cross. So when John says that Jesus did not come by water only, but by water and blood, he is referring to both the beginning and end of Christ’s ministry on earth as the sacrificial Lamb of God.
In Christ’s baptism we see the beginning of His ministry. And we also see something very significant about His life. We also see His sinless life. Remember that Jesus went down to be baptized in the Jordan River by John. Let’s pick up the account in Matthew 3:13:
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" 15 Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented. 16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."
John was baptizing based upon repentance. When Jesus came to him, John immediately saw that Jesus did not need to be baptized because He had no sins to repent of! John even tried to make Jesus change His mind. But Jesus would not be deterred. I like the way the Good News Bible translates His reply to John in verse 15: But Jesus answered Him, ‘Let it be so for now. For in this way we shall do all that God requires.’ So John agreed." Jesus was perfectly righteous and He was committed to doing all that God required. So He was baptized even though He did not need to be. He was baptized to be an example to us that we should do all that God requires of us.
We see in Christ’s baptism the evidence of His sinless life. You see, the only way that Christ could make an atonement for us was to live a sinless life. Only a sinless sacrifice could make atonement. But merely a sinless life would not be enough in itself. You see, there are some who claim to believe that Jesus was merely an example to us. They say that we should follow the example He set in living a sinless life. They believe that through our goodness we can earn a place in Heaven. But this is not good news to me. I find it impossible to live up to my own standards, much less the standard of Christ. No, if all I have is the example of His sinless life, I am utterly condemned. But there is a second evidence.
The second evidence is the blood. The blood obviously refers to Christ’s death on the Cross. His sinless life led Him to His sacrificial death. On the Cross, Christ became the sacrificial Lamb of God. On the Cross He paid the penalty for our sin debt. On the Cross He took upon Himself our sins and satisfied the divine judgement of God. On the Cross, He shed His blood. On the Cross He paid for our sins. The Cross stands as evidence of the love of God. The Cross stand as evidence that our sins are borne by Christ Himself. We should not be able to look at the Cross without seeing tremendous evidence to believe.
The third evidence which produces faith is the Spirit. The Spirit here refers to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives testimony to the reality of the Gospel message. When we hear the Gospel, the Holy Spirit speaks within our hearts that the Gospel message is true. He makes the message real to our hearts. He applies that truth to our lives. Through the Holy Spirit, God lets us know that Christ not only died for the world, but Christ died for me. The Spirit draws me to Christ. The Spirit enables me to trust Christ. The Spirit gives me the new birth. The Spirit makes me a part of the family of God. In the book of Romans, Paul writes: "His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God."
John goes on to say that God’s testimony is entirely trustworthy. In 1 John 5:9-10 we 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. 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.
In other words, we are quite willing to believe people. As a matter of fact, you believe people every day. You believe people you have never even met. John is saying that if we are willing to believe people, we should also be willing to believe God. God is certainly not a man that he should lie. In fact, God cannot lie. God’s testimony is trustworthy. If we refuse to believe God’s testimony, then we are calling God a liar. God has given us sufficient evidence to believe. Jesus lived a sinless life, died a sacrificial death, and His Spirit testifies to our hearts that this is true. How can we not believe?
These three evidences are strong evidence indeed. And they point us in a specific direction. They do not point us to a religious system or a philosophy for living. They point us instead to a person. You see, being spiritually alive is totally dependent upon our relationship to a person.
It is not enough to know about Christ. In order to truly be spiritually alive, one must come to personally know Christ. We must enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ as our Savior. John goes on to say in 1 John 5:11-12: 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.
It’s really rather simple. If you have Jesus, you have life. If you do not have Jesus, you do not have life. This means that our eternal life is dependent upon a personal relationship with a living Savior. Jesus Christ is alive today and He desires to live His life in us and through us. When you surrender to God, you yield to Christ for Him to come and live within. And by His Spirit, that is precisely what He does. He comes to live within each believer. His abiding life within us is what makes us spiritually alive.
And then John comes to what is one of the most important verses of Scripture in the Bible. In 1 John 5:13 we read these words: I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
The whole reason John has been writing is so we may know that we have eternal life. Notice that John did not say that he was writing so that we may hope we have eternal life. He said that he was writing so that we could know so. In other words, we can know with absolute certainty that we have eternal life. It is not a hope so endeavor. It is a know so certainty. That poor ex-deacon in Virginia could have known for sure that he had eternal life. But he did not believe. The reason why he did not know he had eternal life was because he did not know Christ. He did not have the Son of God living within him. He had doubts because he had never met Jesus.
Now the real question to us is: Do we know? And the way to answer that question is to answer another question: Do you have the Son? If you have the Son of God living within, you have the life of God. You can know that you are spiritually alive by your personal relationship to Jesus Christ.
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