Six Superlative Witnesses That Jesus
Is the Son of God
1 JOHN 5:6-12
Main Idea: Christians can be certain that Jesus is God’s Son because God has provided several witnesses that testify to His divine nature, giving hope and assurance to God’s children.
I. We Have the Witness of His Baptism (5:6-8).
II. We Have the Witness of His Crucifixion (5:6-8).
III. We Have the Witness of the Holy Spirit (5:6-8).
IV. We Have the Witness of the Father (5:9-10).
V. We Have the Witness of Our Conversion (5:10).
VI. We Have the Witness of Eternal Life (5:11-12).
Bertrand Russell lived from 1872–1970. He was a well-known atheistic philosopher who authored more than 100 books, wrote a three-volume autobiography, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950. One of his best-known books is Why I Am Not a Christian (1927). In it he argued that all organized religions are the residue of the barbaric past, and they dwindle to mere hypocritical superstitions and have no basis in reality. On one occasion Russell was asked what he would say to God if he found himself standing before Him. Russell’s answer: “I probably would ask, ‘Sir, why did you not give me better evidence?’” (Rosten, “Bertrand Russell and God,” 26).
The apostle John would disagree with Russell when it comes to the issue of evidence. As an eyewitness of the life, passion, and resurrection of Jesus, the last living apostle would testify that there is abundant and overwhelming evidence that Jesus is the Son of God, and therefore God exists. The problem is not with the evidence. The problem is with the sinful and unbelieving heart. Charles Spurgeon says it well:
Christianity puts forth very lofty claims. She claims to be the true faith and the only true one. She avows her teachings to be Divine and therefore Infallible, while for her great Teacher, the Son of God, she demands Divine worship and the unreserved confidence and obedience of men. Her commands are issued to every creature and though, at present, her authority is rejected by millions of mankind, she confidently looks forward to a time when the Truth of God shall obtain universal dominion and Jesus the Lord shall take unto Himself His great power and reign. Now, to justify such high claims, the Gospel ought to produce strong evidence, and it does. It does not lack for external evidences, these are abundant. (“The Three Witnesses”)
In these verses a courtroom setting is easily imagined. Some form of the Greek word martus, translated “testify,” “testimony,” or “give testimony,” occurs no less than ten times. John places in the dock six witnesses who will testify to the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God who gives the gift of eternal life to all who trust in Him. These six witnesses have different but complementary perspectives. And their witness is comprehensive, building a powerful case. John makes his argument by drawing attention to the career of Jesus, from His baptism to His crucifixion. He invites the other persons of the triune God to give their testimony. He even extends an invitation to those of us who have been converted through faith in Jesus (v. 5) to tell our story as well. Open-minded, free-thinking people should at least examine the evidence. They may be surprised just how strong the case is for the verdict that Jesus is God in the flesh (John 1:14,18).
We Have the Witness of His Baptism
The first witness that John calls to the stand is the witness of Jesus’ baptism. The word “water” occurs four times in verses 6-8. Some see this as a reference to the water of physical birth, the water that flowed from our Lord’s side when He was pierced on the cross (John 19:34-35), or even the two sacraments or ordinances of baptism (water) and the Lord’s Supper (blood). This last perspective was held by both Martin Luther and John Calvin. However, the historical context of refuting the false teachings of Cerinthus, who said the Christ-spirit descended on the man Jesus at His baptism but abandoned Him on the cross, points strongly in the direction that John had the baptism of Jesus in mind.
The baptism of Jesus is so important it is found in all four Gospels (Matt 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-23; John 1:29-34). Here the triune God is revealed and Jesus is anointed for His public ministry. Matthew 3:16-17 records it this way:
After Jesus was baptized, He went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on Him. And there came a voice from heaven: “This is My beloved Son. I take delight in Him.”
The Father’s declaration combines words from Psalm 2:7, a messianic psalm, with Isaiah 42:1, the first of the Servant Songs. Jesus is indeed the anointed Son who will be a King. However, He will be a suffering King, a Servant King. This is the witness of His Father at His baptism.
Some have pointed out that, being sinless, Jesus had no need of being baptized. He does not belong there. And that is true. He no more belongs at a baptism for repentance than He does on a cross for sinners. In both events He identifies Himself with the sinners He came to save. Our Lord’s baptism says, “Look at the Holy Spirit of God descending on Him and anointing Him.” It says, “Listen to the voice of the Father and His announcement concerning Him.” Jesus was not a mere man. He is the Son of God who is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
We Have the Witness of His Crucifixion
The second witness that the apostle calls to the stand is the crucifixion of Christ. This is represented by the word “blood,” which occurs three times in verses 6-8. The work of our Savior was initiated at His baptism and it was finished by His bloody death on the cross. Jesus, Himself, said from the cross in John 19:30, “It is finished!”
When Jesus Christ died on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world, His Father again provided significant witnesses concerning the event. There was darkness across the land from noon until three o’clock (Matt 27:45), and “the curtain of the sanctuary was split in two from top to bottom” (Matt 27:51). There was an earthquake (Matt 27:51). A number of Old Testament saints were raised and appeared to many as the first fruits of resurrection life for all who trust in Jesus (Matt 27:52-53). And these events led a hardened Roman centurion to exclaim, “This man really was God’s Son!” (Matt 27:54; Mark 15:39). Jesus of Nazareth was not God’s special agent who was adopted at His baptism but abandoned at the cross. He was and is the eternal Son of God who entered this world in time and space and died as our propitiation (1 John 2:2; 4:10). His death was not an accident. It was not an act of martyrdom. It was a divine, saving substitution for sinners with redeeming value and worth.
Though modern persons might articulate their rejection of Christ and His atoning death on the cross differently than those in the first century, the bottom line is the same. They say that Jesus of Nazareth suffering a brutal bloody death has no redemptive value and bears no significance for my salvation. Delores Williams represents this perspective when she says, “There is nothing divine in the blood of the cross” (Sisters in the Wilderness, 176). Others will even charge that the biblical portrayal of our Lord’s death is better viewed as “cosmic child abuse” (Chalke and Mann, The Lost Message of Jesus, 182). And still others believe we pursue a wiser course of theological discourse by offering to modern persons what David Powlison calls the “therapeutic gospel,” a gospel that gives people what they want and promotes their welfare and temporal happiness. As Powlison says, “It does not want the King of Heaven to come down. It does not attempt to change people into lovers of God, given the truth of who Jesus is, what he is like, what he does” (“The Therapeutic Gospel,” 5).
But the cross says the King of Heaven has come down, and that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself (2 Cor 5:21). This is the true and biblical witness of our Lord’s crucifixion. Praise His name, He did come to die for us, and He did come to change us!
We Have the Witness of the Holy Spirit
The third witness invited to testify to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God is the Holy Spirit of God. He is referenced three times in verses 6-8. In verse 6 the Bible says the Spirit provides a consistent and continuous witness that Jesus is the Messiah, and He does so because “the Spirit is the truth.” Jesus said the exact same thing about the Holy Spirit in John 15:26: “When the Counselor comes, the One I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—He will testify about Me.” John MacArthur points out,
The Father also testified to the Son through the ministry of the Spirit, who is the truth (cf. John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13). The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth in that He is true and, therefore, the source and revealer of divine truth (1 Peter 1:12; cf. Acts 1:16; 28:25; Heb. 3:7; 10:15-17), particularly about Jesus Christ (John 15:26). The Spirit was involved at Jesus’ conception (Matt. 1:18,20; Luke 1:35), baptism (Matt. 3:16), temptation (Mark 1:12, Luke 4:1), and throughout His ministry. Peter said to those gathered in Cornelius’s house, “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38; cf. Matt. 12:28; Luke 4:14; John 3:34). Because the Holy Spirit empowered Jesus for ministry, to attribute Christ’s miraculous works to Satan was to blaspheme the Holy Spirit (Mark 3:28-30). Jesus always did the will of the Father in the power of the Spirit. (1–3 John, 195)
The threefold witness of the water (baptism), blood (cross), and Spirit agree (1 John 5:8). This reflects the Old Testament expectation in Deuteronomy 19:15 where the Bible says, “One witness cannot establish any wrongdoing or sin against a person, whatever that person has done. A fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” In verse 8 the Spirit is mentioned first because it is He who testifies to us through the water and the blood. But all three are in agreement: Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. Pastor James Merritt addresses well this ministry of the Holy Spirit as He testifies to the Son: “The witness of the Spirit is God’s witness to us, in us, and through us. Just as the arrow of a compass always points towards the North, the Spirit of God always points to Jesus” (“Do You Know for Sure”). Jesus summarized the Spirit’s work in John 16:14: “He will glorify Me.”
We Have the Witness of the Father
John continues his parade of witnesses, calling to the stand at this point the strongest witness of all: God the Father. The “testimony” of the Father resounds again and again in verses 9-10 as the apostle employs what we call a “lesser to greater” argument. In the everyday affairs of life, “we accept the testimony of men.” In the Jewish context, as we have noted, the testimony of two or three witnesses was necessary and sufficient to confirm something as true (Deut 17:6; 19:15). If that is so, how much more should we believe God Himself, especially when He has just supplied His own threefold witness of the Spirit, water, and blood (v. 8)? The testimony of God is indeed greater—superior in source, status, and significance—than the testimony of any human persons. It is more reliable and trustworthy because it comes from the God, who cannot lie (Heb 6:18).
The testimony given by God is a testimony “He has given about His Son” (v. 9). I think John is saying that the abiding testimony of Jesus’ baptism, His crucifixion, and that of the Holy Spirit is God’s historical witness that Jesus is His Son. Never did God give such a witness concerning anyone else in all of history. The Father’s witness concerning His Son is singular and unique. Therefore, it demands a response from each and every one of us. Neutrality and indecision is not an option. In fact, to not believe that Jesus is the Son of God is to not believe God and to make Him “a liar, because [you have] not believed in the testimony God has given about His Son” (v. 10). John says that believing in Jesus as the Son of God is equivalent to accepting God the Father’s testimony about His Son. To reject Jesus as God’s Son is equivalent to charging God with perjury. It is that simple, and John is that straightforward. Again, Spurgeon is our helper:
God is to be believed if all men contradict him. “Let God be true, and every man a liar.” One word of God ought to sweep away ten thousand words of men, whether they be philosophers of today or sages of antiquity. God’s word is against them all, for he knows infallibly. Of his own Son he knows as none else can; of our condition before him he knows; of the way to pardon us he knows. There is nothing in God that could lead him to err or make a mistake—and it were blasphemy to suppose that he would mislead us. It were an insult to him, such as we may not venture to perpetrate for a moment, to suppose that he would willfully mislead his poor creatures by a proclamation of mercy which meant nothing, or by presenting to them a Christ who could not redeem them. The gospel with God for its witness cannot be false. Whatever may be the witness against it, the witness of God is greater! We must believe the witness of God. (“Faith, and the Witness Upon Which It Is Founded”)
Jesus said in John 5:37, “The Father who sent Me has Himself testified about Me.” I believe the words of Jesus. I believe the witness of the Father.
We Have the Witness of Our Conversion
John now does a very interesting and strategic thing. He ties together our outward confession of Jesus as the Son of God to the inner witness we now have within ourselves. What we confess with our mouth, God makes real in our hearts. Paul said this as well in Romans 10:9-10:
If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.
And in Romans 8:16 he adds, “The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children.”
The internal witness of God’s Spirit in the heart confirms to the child of God that he or she was right to believe that Jesus is the Son of God who alone gives the gift of eternal life (1 John 5:11-12). This internal testimony or witness is the personal presence of God in us, and it beautifully balances and complements the external and historical witness of the baptism and crucifixion of Jesus, all witnessed by the Holy Spirit. Plummer well says, “The external witness faithfully accepted becomes internal certitude” (The Epistles of John, 162).
In the context of pastoral theology and practical application, this verse is of great value. John does not point us back to a prior experience. He leads us to look now, today, to a present testimony and witness. Whom are you trusting today? Whom are you believing in today? Where is your hope and confidence today? Is it Christ? If so, then rest assured that you have the Son and His gift of eternal life. Not knowing the exact moment you were converted does not mean you are not saved. A past experience can be helpful, but it is present-day testimony that provides the confirmation and assurance that God wants you to enjoy and that your soul longs to have. “I am believing in Christ and only in Christ.” You will find that confession to be a blessed avenue of assurance that will cause you to proclaim with passion and conviction, “Jesus is the Son of God.”
We Have the Witness of Eternal Life
John calls his final witness to the stand to testify to the truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. This is a fascinating witness. It is the witness of “eternal life.” The connection between having the Son and having life is so essential that John will mention “the Son” seven times in verses 9-13 and “life” five times in verses 11-13.
Eternal life is a God-quality, God-kind of life. It has a particular character or essence as well as a never-ending duration. Having Jesus, the Son of God, equals having eternal life. This is God’s testimony. This is God’s gift (“God has given us eternal life”; 5:11). This life is in His Son, and again it is found in no one else (cf. John 14:6). In fact, to have the Son is to have life. To not have the Son of God means you do not have life. Having the Son of God equals life. Not having the Son of God equals spiritual death. To not have the Son means you are a walking, talking dead man. You are a spiritual corpse in a physical body. James Boice notes:
John’s reference to “eternal life” as the essence of salvation carries us back to the opening verses of the letter, in which he wrote that this life was revealed in Jesus, who is Himself the life. Eternal life is not merely unending life, therefore. It is the very life of God. What we are promised in Christ is a participation in the life of the One who bears this testimony. This life is not to be enjoyed by everyone, however. This life is in Christ. Consequently, it is as impossible to have life without having Christ as it is impossible to have Christ without at the same time possessing eternal life. (The Epistles of John, 166)
The Bible teaches that you do not have to hope you have eternal life or even think you have eternal life. It says you can know you have eternal life when you know you have the Son of God, Jesus Christ, as your Savior. This witness, this gift of eternal life, testifies to the eternal Son, for only He who is eternal can give you what is eternal.
Conclusion
I began this study with a quote from my hero from the past, Charles Spurgeon. Let me end with one as well. What is at stake in all of this? If our six superlative witnesses have testified to the truth, then what does all of this mean for you, for me, and for the world? Here it is in sum:
Let me, first of all, say a word or two about the way in which we are saved, the modus operandi of salvation, as we find it described in the Scriptures. Here it is in a nutshell. We have all broken God’s Law and we are justly condemned on account of it. God, in infinite mercy, desiring to save the sons of men, has given His Son, Jesus, to stand in the place of as many as believe in Him. Jesus became the Substitute of His people and suffered in their stead, and for them the debt of punishment due to God was paid by Jesus Christ upon the Cross of Calvary. All who believe in Him are, thereby, cleared before the bar of Divine Justice.
Now, the Lord, having given His Son, has revealed this great fact in His Word. Here it is in this Inspired Book—the full statement of it—to this effect, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and that whoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ has everlasting life. This is God’s testimony! . . . [A]ll we have to do in order to realize the result of Christ’s passion is simply to believe the testimony of God concerning it and rest upon it!
The argument runs thus—Christ saves those who trust Him. I trust Him and, therefore, I am saved. Jesus Christ suffered for the sins of His people. His people are known by their believing in Him. I believe in Him and, therefore, He died for my sins, and my sins are blotted out. This is the summary of the transaction. God’s testimony concerning His Son is at first believed, simply because God says so and for no other reason. And then there grows up in the soul other evidence not necessary to faith, but very strengthening to it—evidence which springs up in the soul as the result of faith, and is the witness referred to in our text—“He that believes has the witness in himself.” (“The Priest Dispensed With”; emphasis in original)
So I ask, do you believe the testimony of these six superlative witnesses? Do you have this testimony in yourself? “The one who has the Son has life. The one who doesn’t have the Son of God does not have life.” I plead with you this day: Choose life. Choose Jesus.
Reflect and Discuss