Subject 14 : The First Epistle of JOHN
[Chapter 5-5] The Concrete Evidence That Saves Us from All Our Sins (1 John 5:8-13)
“And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. And this is the testimony: that 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. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”
Do We Have the Evidence for Receiving the Remission of All Our Sins?
Today’s Scripture passage tells us, “And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one” (1 John 5:8). It also says that the evidence, that witnesses the remission of our sins, is the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
There is concrete evidence that our Lord has delivered us from all our sins, granted us the eternal life, and adopted as His children. What is that evidence? The evidence of our salvation is three fold: the Holy Spirit, the water, and the blood. Those three elements become the evidence of our deliverance from all our sins. God delivered us from our sins by coming to this world in the human flesh, receiving the baptism, which transferred all our sins onto Jesus, and carrying those sins onto the Cross, where He bled to death, and resurrecting from the dead. The Apostle John is now teaching us the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit.
As it is written in the Word of God, the water signifies Jesus’ baptism that He received from John the Baptist, and the blood signifies the judgment He received for all our sins. Again, the evidence of our salvation lies in the Holy Spirit, the water, and the blood (1 John 5:8). The ministries of the water, the blood, and the Holy Spirit are those of God through which He has delivered sinners from all their sins.
What Is the Concrete Evidence of the Remission of Sin for the Believers of Jesus Christ All around the World?
The evidence of God’s salvation consists of the Holy Spirit, the water, and the blood. The Holy Spirit is referring to God Himself. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, being born into this world in human flesh. His reception of the baptism and His blood on the cross were all out of God’s activities through the Holy Spirit.
1 John 5:9 says, “If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son.” What is the witness of God for us? It was God’s testimony about His Son. God the Father sent His Son into this world, having Jesus receive the baptism that took all the sins onto Himself, and having Jesus judged for our sins by being nailed to the Cross. God has given us true salvation through His Son. The remission of sin that we possess lies in this. God’s Son has delivered us from all of our sins completely by coming into this world, receiving the baptism, dying on the Cross, and resurrecting from the dead.
Now, therefore, whether we have received the remission of sin in front of God depends on our acceptance of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The evidence of our salvation is in the faith of the gospel of truth in our hearts, which states that God has given us the remission of our sins through His Son with the water and the blood. The Apostle John testifies to this Truth, that Jesus Christ has granted us the remission of sin through the water and the blood, in the entire chapter 5 of 1 John. We have the concrete evidence of our salvation in our faith in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, and the same evidence is enough to validate our remission of sins in front of God. This is even greater evidence, because this witness is from God and not from men.
1 John 5:10 says, “He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.” To a person who believes in the Son of God is also the witness of God. God the Father’s witness about His Son is that God sent His Son into this world to take all our sins onto Himself once for all through Jesus’ baptism, and that God completed our salvation by having Jesus die on the Cross bleeding. What is important on our part is whether we believe in this or not. What God has testified to us is about His Son and the salvation His Son has accomplished. God the Holy Spirit has descended upon the hearts of us, the believers of God’s evidence, and has testified to our salvation more intensely.
The water, the blood, and the Holy Spirit are not only the evidence of God’s salvation for us but also the benchmark of the Truth. 1 John 5:10 says, “He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.”
Thus, if any of us does not believe in Jesus Christ our Savior as having come by the water, the blood, and the Holy Spirit, that person makes God a liar. Here, God emphasizes on the baptism and the blood. Today’s Scripture passage clearly tells us that Jesus the Son of God had saved us from all our sins, and given us eternal life by coming to this world, receiving the baptism, and shedding His blood. If anyone does not believe in Jesus’ ministry of baptism and bloodshed on the Cross, that person makes God into a liar.
Our God Jesus Christ Has Delivered Us from the Sins of This World by Coming into This World
We have to examine ourselves whether we know the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit well enough. Jesus is simultaneously both the Son of God and God Himself. The Scripture says that one who does not believe in God and the true gospel makes God into a liar.
God has given us the remission of our sins through the gospel of the water, the blood, and the Spirit. God actually came in the flesh of man, received the baptism from John the Baptist, shed His precious blood on the Cross, and resurrected from the dead. In this way, our Lord has delivered sinners from all their sins through the water and the blood. Even now, therefore, disbelievers in this Truth are making Him into a liar. We must believe that God actually sent His Son, who is God, with the water and the blood so that He may grant us the remission of our sins.
The faith that holds us fast is to believe in God as the Absolute Being. Jesus the true God is our Savior, who received the baptism to take onto Himself our sins, carried them on the Cross to atone them with His blood, and resurrected from the dead. Jesus Christ is the eternal living God, who also became our Savior. Our Lord has delivered us from all our sins and condemnation, and, thus, we will never perish.
God is still alive even at this moment. Because God has granted us the remission of our sins, our salvation will not be shaken. God never changes on the remission of our sins that He has granted us. Our Lord is our Savior who delivered us all from our sins. It is our faith that is so changeable. Therefore, we have to strengthen our faith by ruminating the true gospel again and again. The faith that confesses Jesus as God will only make firm your own faith.
The entire Bible testifies that God the Father has saved us from all our sins by sending His Son to us. Jesus Christ is fundamentally God, but came to this world as a human to deliver His people from their sins, receiving the baptism by John the Baptist, bleeding to death on the Cross, and resurrecting from the dead. We receive the true remission of our sins by the ministries of the Holy Spirit, when we believe in the Truth of the water and the blood, which is like the cornerstone of our faith. When we come to believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is speaking to our hearts, “You are right! Your faith is correct!”
Our Lord God has already granted the remission of our sins and eternal life to those of us who believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit in our hearts. There is evidence for the remission of sin that God the Son has accomplished for us in this world through the water and the blood. And this is also the same witness that God the Father has granted us from the beginning. The God given gospel of the water and the Spirit is the unchanging Truth. Although we believe in Jesus the Son of God and the gospel of the water and the Spirit, our faith would be in vain if we lack the knowledge that Jesus is the true God.
It is essential at this point for us to discern whether our faith is purely emotional or based on the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. Truthful faith is one that first realizes and admits the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and then puts one’s faith into practice. Paul said to us, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). By listening to the word of God, we come to understand the real Truth.
Jesus Christ Is the True God and Our Savior
1 John 5:11-12 tells us, “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.”
What is the concrete evidence that we have been cleansed from all of our sins? In other words, what is the evidence that God is our true Savior? The evidence is that our Lord has given us eternal life and that this life is in God’s Son. Our Lord gave us a new life that lasts for eternity. The eternal God has given us the remission of our sins and the eternal life through His own Son.
My fellow Christians, do you know the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Our Lord has warned us that we will struggle with our faith unless we stand fast in our firm knowledge of the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
John firmly declared, “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1 John 5:11). The Apostle John told us that the new life is in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is our Savior, who granted us the remission of our sins through the water and the blood. Those who know and believe that the Lord has granted us the remission of sin receive the new life, but those who do not believe are like the dead despite their temporal lives because they have not received the remission of their sins.
1 John 5:20 says, “This [Jesus] is the true God and eternal life.” Who is this Jesus? He is our true God. Let’s reread 1 John 5:20. “We know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.”
What has the Son of God informed us of, who are living in this world? Jesus has first taught the Truth about who God is and how we can receive the remission of our sins. Thus, it was in Jesus Christ that we received the remission of our sins through the real Truth. Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, who delivered us from all our sins, and He who granted us eternal life. Our Lord is our all in all because he has made us into His own children.
One must live not in one’s emotions but in one’s faith in the Word of Truth. 1 John 5:20 says that He “is the true God and eternal life.” I believe Jesus to be the true God. Jesus is the equal God to God the father.
We have come to know about God’s love and the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit through the ministry of John the Baptist. John himself testified this fact in the Scripture (John 1:15, 29-34, Matthew 11:11-12, 21:32).
You Must Not Talk to a Person Who Is Not Born Again Yet As You Would to a Born-again Saint Who Has Received the Remission of Sin
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). As the above passage illustrates, if we confess our sins in front of God, we are cleansed by believing in Jesus’ merits that He has fulfilled by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist to take onto Himself all the sins of the world. Because Jesus has already cleansed our sins away through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we have to overcome all darkness by confessing our sins and confessing our faith in this true gospel.
To us, Jesus Christ is God of Truth and our real Savior, who has granted us eternal life. However, it is very difficult to share the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit with a person who believes only in the blood of the Cross. God is the holy light, not having a single dark spot. However, it gets complicated to share the gospel of the water and the Spirit with a person who is not born again.
Although the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the Word of Truth, people perish in their sins because they neither know nor desire to believe in this true gospel. Because they have a totally different way of comprehension, communication with them often breaks down in failure. They are those who have already drunk the old wine. It is written, “And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better’” (Luke 5:39). They usually reject the true gospel, because, from a condition saturated with the teachings of this world, they have not accepted the gospel of the water and the Spirit into their hearts.
Some of them accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit when we preach the true gospel with faith. However, they still need to be fed on the spiritual food continually. Otherwise, they fall back into a spiritual chaos. This is why we are trying to supply their spiritual food through this “Spiritual Growth Series.” Through our “Spiritual Growth Series,” they will come to realize the depth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit that they once might have thought as shallow.
Today, many Christians believe without knowing the gospel of the water and the Spirit manifested clearly in the Bible. However, Jesus is God, who granted us the remission of sin and eternal life. As the gospel of the water and the Spirit was within Jesus Christ, those who believe in this Truth will surely be blessed with new life.
We Are So Happy When We Believe in This True Gospel
I am glad that I am part of God’s Church. I am glad because there are fellow workers, and our brothers and sisters in Christ. We the workers of God’s righteousness are devoting ourselves to spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the world. There is not a single role we play that is not important to the whole. The gospel of the water and the Spirit that God testified to is the sin cleansing Truth. God’s righteous ministry is not done through a single individual. Not just by myself or any other single person. All of us the righteous must each do their parts. If all our brothers and sisters work faithfully on the tasks that are given them, God’s will is going to be fulfilled. Therefore, the ministry we have in our united effort to spread this gospel Truth is indeed precious. God Himself is pleased by the effort of God’s people, who constitute His Church, to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the world.
Satan tries to cause a heart of disbelief in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Still, we believe that Jesus is the true God, who gives us eternal life, and that He is also our Savior, who granted us new life. We have to live purposefully, believing that God commissioned the spreading of the gospel to His Church.
If any one of us has a different opinion about the works of God, that person is blinded by personal ambition. That is certainly the case. The Bible tells us, “A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; He rages against all wise judgment” (Proverbs 18:1). Again God says, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). God bestows us with His power and blessings, when we live for the glory of God. Despite the remission of all our sins, if we do not follow God’s will, God will not be on our side either. God is pleased by people who give up their own desires, and blesses them.
We first have to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which has blotted out all of our sins completely. A person, who does not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, cannot overcome the world. Those, who struggle to believe that Jesus is our Savior despite of their attendance in God’s Church, do so because they lack accurate knowledge and faith of Jesus as God. The souls of those people fail to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Jesus Christ is the Creator, who created all creatures in this world. Jesus is the true God. Jesus Christ, the Creator of the universe and the true God, has come to this world in human flesh temporarily to deliver sinners from their sins. Then, He received the baptism, taking the sins of the world onto Himself, was crucified on the Cross, bleeding to death, and resurrected from the dead. In all His accomplishments, Jesus Christ has become our Lord and Savior.
When we firmly believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, every other question we have becomes clear to us. Before I was born again, the Word of the Bible was like a difficult picture puzzle. It was not easy to put all the pieces together. However, I have experienced the untangling of all the mystery of the Bible once I believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
On the other hand, if we do not believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, every other word of the Bible gets entangled. Thus comes confusion to every Christian who is not yet bon again. The key to untangling all this mass is in the facts that Jesus Christ is God and that all of our sins have been blotted out through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. By accepting the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit into our hearts, we can possess the concrete evidence of our salvation in the Word of God. Thanks be to God.
Jesus is the true God and our eternal Savior, who granted us eternal life. With this precious faith, we can overcome Satan, our own weaknesses, and our own desires. We can also stand in front of God unashamedly after faithfully serving this gospel of the water and the Spirit till the day we die.
Peter the Apostle confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). The word ‘Christ’ implies that Jesus is God. Jesus Christ, He is fundamentally God and simultaneously the Son of God. Furthermore, He is our Savior. This is Peter’s confession of faith. We the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit should also confess the same faith.
Then, Jesus replied to Peter, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17). Like Peter, we also can find the evidence of the remission of our sins in the witness from God, that is, in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Let’s give thanks to Jesus Christ, who has delivered us from all of our sins.
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