I JOHN: A STUDY IN SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT

XIV. Discerning The Father’s And The Spirit’s Testimonies About Jesus

(1 John 5:6-12)

I. Introduction

A. 1 John was written to counter heretical views (Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 881), so the epistle provides discernment, and is thus “filled with contrasts – light and darkness (1:6-7; 2:8-11); love of world and love of God (2:15-17); children of God and children of the devil (3:4-10); the Spirit of God and the spirit of Antichrist (4:7-12, 16-21).” (Ryrie Study Bible KJV, 1978, “Introduction to the First Letter of John: Contents,” p. 1770)

B. We view the epistle for much needed spiritual discernment today, and study 1 John 5:6-12 on discerning the true, authoritative testimonies of God the Holy Spirit and of God the Father about Christ for our edification:

II. Discerning The Father’s And The Spirit’s Testimonies About Jesus, 1 John 5:6-12.

A. When John wrote 1 John around A. D. 90 (Ibid., Ryrie, “Intro. to the First Letter of John: Date and Place of Writing,” p. 1770), many false teachers had risen and countered the apostles’ testimony about Jesus Christ.

B. To counter such errors, in 1 John 5:6-12, John wrote of the true, authoritative testimonies of the Holy Spirit and God the Father about Jesus to give his believing readers assurances of the truth about Jesus (as follows):

1. John wrote about the testimony of the Holy Spirit concerning Christ in 1 John 5:6-8:

a. In stating that Christ came not only by water, but also by blood, John countered the heretic Cerinthus who “taught that the divine Christ descended on the man Jesus at His baptism and left Him before His crucifixion.” (Ibid., Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 901, 881), 1 John 5:6a.

b. However, the Holy Spirit had witnessed by the Old Testament prophets (2 Peter 1:20-21) and by John the Baptist (Luke 1:15; John 1:29-34) that Messiah was God Incarnate in life, in death, in His resurrection, and in His coming kingdom, cf. Isaiah 9:6-7; 53:3-11.

c. John the Baptist clearly testified that Jesus was not only the Son of God as to His deity, but that He was also the Lamb of God Who took away the sin of the world by way of His sacrificial death, John 1:29-34!

d. Thus, the historical record of Christ’s baptism with the confirmation of the Holy Spirit’s coming upon Jesus in the form of a dove in John 1:32-33 coupled with the Spirit’s leading John to testify of Jesus’ Person as the Son of God and Lamb of God (cf. John 1:33 with Luke 1:15) all agreed – the Spirit, the water, and the blood – regarding Christ’s deity at His baptism and at His death, 1 John 5:6b-7a. [The KJV words beginning with the phrase “in heaven . . .” in verse 7 and ending with the phrase “ . . . in earth” in verse 8 are not in any early Greek manuscript, only in later Latin ones, Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to 1 John 5:7-8.]

2. John then wrote about the testimony of God the Father about Christ in 1 John 5:9-12:

a. If Deuteronomy 19:15 directs that we believe the witness of two or more humans, we must certainly accept the witness of God which is infinitely greater than man’s witness! (1 John 5:9a; Ibid., p. 901)

b. Accordingly, John wrote of the witness of God the Father regarding Jesus in 1 John 5:9b-12:

i. John, Peter, and James had personally heard God the Father on the Mount of Transfiguration say of Jesus, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him,” Matthew 17:5 KJV.

ii. Later, in John 12:28 KJV, after Jesus asked, “Father, glorify thy name” in front of Jesus’ disciples and a crowd of Hebrews at the Feast of Passover just before Jesus died on the cross (cf. John 12:27), a voice came heaven said, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The Father thus said that as He had glorified Himself in Jesus’ life, He would do so again in Jesus’ death!

iii. These verbal testimonies by God the Father about His Son, Jesus Christ regarding His life and death thus not only align with the witness of the Holy Spirit about these things, but to refuse to accept these claims about Christ is to reject God the Father’s witness about Him, 1 John 5:9b-10.

iv. The record that the Father approved includes Christ’s claim that God has given us eternal life, and that this life is in His Son, Jesus. He who has the Son through faith in Christ has life, but he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12 with Jesus’ words in John 3:16)

Lesson: The testimonies of God the Holy Spirit and God the Father certify that Jesus is the Son of God at His baptism, death, burial, resurrection, and coming eternal kingdom, and that believing in Him results in one’s having eternal life where not believing in Him means one does not have eternal life.

Application: (1) May we believe the testimony about Christ by the Holy Spirit and God the Father for eternal life. (2) May we believers hold to these truths in countering errant denials of them for our spiritual edification.