1 John 5:6–12 | Three Witnesses of Jesus
Introduction
You may not know it to look at me, but I have a gym membership to Planet Fitness. I have been blessed most of my life with a great metabolism and the ability to eat really bad food with little obvious consequences, but it is catching up with me at age forty-eight. The thing you should want to know more than IF someone has a gym membership, is HOW OFTEN they actually use it.
Isn’t that the funny thing about a gym membership? Sometimes, having a $10/month gym membership can make you feel almost as good as if you used it. For about the cost of the McDonald’s meals that I am trying to cut back on, I can feel like I have access to the gym and be healthy whenever I want, regardless of whether I use it or not. I think to myself, “At least I’m TRYING to be healthy.” As though the membership card itself helps my BMI or my cholesterol somehow. My guess is, some of you do something similar. We try to be healthy, even if we aren’t really accomplishing anything.
I can’t imagine many people DON’T WANT to be healthy. Everyone I know wants a better, healthier, longer life. In the US we spend 5.3 trillion a year on health care, or roughly $15,474 per person. Clearly much of that is because of regular, healthy visits to the doctor and some of it is for minor or common health concerns. But a decent amount is our attempt to prolong our life, whether it is for a heart attack, a cancer treatment, or to lower blood pressure. In addition, the US wellness economy accounts for $2.1 trillion. Just like me, 73 million Americans belong to fitness centers, and many try other means to prolong their lives through things like supplements, specialists, and other self-care routines.
And all of that is amazing and good! I praise God we live in a time where we have access to such amazing technology and resources to care about this life God has given us. But think about how much time and money we spend on things like doctor appointments, dental appointments, annual physicals, exercise, meal planning, dieting, filling prescriptions, taking medications, physical therapy, medical procedures, screenings, vitamins, sleep tracking, sunscreen, blood-pressure checks, cholesterol tests, and cancer screenings.
We spend extraordinary amounts of money, time, intelligence, and effort keeping ourselves alive—and yet every one of us eventually dies.
What would you give for another year of life? Five years? Twenty years? I’m guessing you would give quite a bit, especially as you age. Clearly, we value life immensely! But can we really keep it? And at what cost?
The Problem
That is the problem all people end up having to face. No matter how hard we try or how much we spend, we notice that everyone around us, everyone who has lived up to now, has died. We saw that was a major theme throughout the beginning of Genesis. People are born, they lived extraordinarily long lives then, but they still died. No matter how long they lived, death still came.
Today, we expend extraordinary resources trying to preserve a life we ultimately cannot keep. But Christianity makes an astonishing claim: God gives eternal life. As John says in our passage this morning:
And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
1 John 5:11 ESV
John makes this astonishing promise in his letter. But can I, can you, can we really believe that this eternal life is ours? If you are like me, you often end up wondering throughout your life: How can I know that I will move from this life into an eternal life in everlasting joy with the Father?
Jack’s section from last week raises another question for us. In 1 John 5:1–5 we saw that John is giving us very real characteristics—birthmarks of a Christian—that we should recognize in ourselves. As Jack said, we should see evidence of our Christianity in our faith in Jesus, our love of the Father and our love of our brothers and sisters in Christ, our obedience, and ultimately, our overcoming the world in Jesus Christ.
As Jack reminded us at the end of his sermon, God isn’t sharing these birthmarks with us because he is asking us for perfection. In fact, one of the ways Jack put it was, “The belonging comes first. The overcoming flows out of it.” We don't produce these patterns in order to become God's children. They are patterns of a life that already belong to God.
John has already assured us we are not seeking perfection:
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1 John 1:8 ESV
Yet, from our perspective, we often see those areas as incomplete. We might see ourselves as failing. John says, “Look: these are the marks of someone born of God.”
So, I look. So, we all look.
Faith? Yes—but weak.
Love? Yes—but inconsistent.
Obedience? Yes—but accompanied by far too much sin.
Overcoming? Yes—but sometimes I feel considerably more overcome than overcoming.
We wonder if this is our experience, then how can someone like us—someone as imperfect as we are—know what awaits us? The problem isn’t, “I sin, therefore I must not be a Christian.” We all know that isn’t true. But our failures and imperfection create a nagging doubt.
Amazingly, John doesn’t end this section by telling us to stop and look more at ourselves. Right after 1 John 5:1–5, we might naturally think that if these are the characteristics of a Christian, then the way to gain more assurance is simply to examine them more closely. We need to look harder at our faith. We need to measure our love. We need to scrutinize our obedience. We should ask ourselves whether we are really overcoming the world. And we can do the same with all the other marks of Christian life we find throughout Scripture. Maybe, we think, if I can just see enough evidence in myself, then I can finally be sure.
To be certain, everything you heard last week is true. Those really are birthmarks. Look for them. Rejoice when you see them! Seek their growth. They are meant to give you true glimpses of assurance that God is working in your life. But don't ask those birthmarks to carry a weight John (and God) never intended them to carry.
What do I mean? What do I mean when I say don't ask those birthmarks to carry a weight John (and God) never intended them to carry? Notice where John takes us next.
Jack ended last week with verse 5: “Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” And then John immediately begins verse 6: This is he…
John hasn't changed subjects. He has just told us that the one who overcomes believes Jesus is the Son of God. Now he begins showing us why we can believe that this Jesus really is the Son of God.
This is he…
And we're going to begin this morning at the other end of John's argument, where he finally tells us what he wants us to be sure to understand regarding the Son:
Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
1 John 5:12 ESV
John points us to Jesus. He points us to the Son. Why? Because the solution to finding full assurance of eternal life does not lie in focusing only on the characteristics that our faith in Jesus is meant to produce in us. We should know those. We should want to see those characteristics grow in us. They are part of our assurance. But they can’t carry all the weight.
The marks can confirm our assurance; Christ must carry its weight.
And why can Christ carry that weight? Why does John say, “Whoever has the Son has life?”
Look at verse 11. Christ carries that weight for us, because: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
Know You Have Eternal Life
I wanted to start at the end of this passage today because John answers a question Christians ask often: How can I know that I will move from this life into an eternal life in everlasting joy with the Father?
I don’t know about you, but there have been many different times in my life where I felt like my assurance was weak. I’m sure you have had those moments, as well. And what John wants us to know, what John wants us to be convinced of, is exactly the answer to that question! Our section ends here:
And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
1 John 5:11-12
John’s logic is not that you can be assured of having eternal life if you just have strong assurance in yourself.
strong assurance → eternal life (no)
Nor is his logic that if you have a sufficiently impressive Christian life full of Christian characteristics (like we saw in 1 John 5:1-5) then you are assured of eternal life.
sufficiently impressive Christian performance → eternal life (no)
Rather, John is saying that if we have the Son, if through faith we are now found IN Jesus Christ, we have life, and specifically, eternal life. THAT is our ultimate assurance!
Son → life → therefore assurance
God does something incredibly relational in saving us, where he could have done something merely transactional. When we came to faith, God could have simply given us a certificate, or a physical mark, or some other external sign to denote that we are saved. Wouldn’t that be funny—every Christian with their framed God certificate, like their diploma from college or High School, signifying that they are saved. Salvation isn't God stamping ETERNAL LIFE: APPROVED on your record and handing you a benefit independently of Christ. The gift remains bound to the Son.
The language here in verses 11–12 is incredibly relational: …and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
The life God has given us is “in” the Son. True life for us comes through our relationship of faith in Jesus. Paul says it this way to the Philippians:
For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Philippians 3:8–11 ESV
Being found IN Jesus is what it means to put our faith IN Jesus. Being found IN Jesus is how we receive countless benefits and joys. We find that God no longer views us only through our own actions and successes and failures, but rather he views us as IN Jesus. We are not left standing before God with a righteousness of our own, measured only by our successes and failures. We are found in Christ, with what Paul calls “the righteousness from God that depends on faith.”
That is incredible! Salvation isn't merely a transaction that happened once in the past. We have Christ. We are found in Christ. And all that God gives us in salvation—including the eternal life that stretches beyond the grave—is ours in relationship with Jesus.
The negative here reminds us that there is no other option. There is no eternal life apart from the Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
Amazingly, this is not just a promise for this life. This is a promise of eternal life: And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
“This life” and “eternal life” are the same here. The life we have been given by being IN the Son, by walking in relationship with God again through faith in Jesus Christ, is eternal life. That is our hope. God doesn't merely give us the gift of eternal life. He gives us his Son, and in his Son is the life. If we have the Son, then we have life, even unto eternal life.
The Testimony of God
That is incredibly good news! But it might move the concern we have. If we believe God is the giver of eternal life and that life is found in the Son and whoever has the Son has life, we then likely ask ourselves: But how can I know? How can I know that the Jesus I have trusted is really the Son of God, in whom eternal life is found?
As many of you know, I have been involved in some court cases recently (not about me personally, just as a witness, in case you don’t know me that well). One of the things I love about our American justice system is the presumption of innocence. It may frustrate you when you feel like you have been wronged, but it is a beautiful thing.
In this world full of AI and the ability to fake photo and even video evidence, I am thankful that we start from innocence and then ask the question, “What proof do we have? What testimony backs up the charges?” We expect that there must be tangible proof of what has happened. We even expect that there will be testimony from people who can attest to what is true.
And we have nothing less with Jesus Christ. Let’s go back a few more verses:
If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son.
1 John 5:9-10 ESV
John begins with something completely ordinary. We receive human testimony all the time. We trust witnesses. We believe things we haven't personally seen because someone we consider trustworthy tells us they are true. John says, if we do that with human testimony, “…the testimony of God is greater.”
God…has borne [testimony] concerning his Son.
That is amazing! God does not owe us a defense. And yet, God graciously chooses to give us testimony concerning his Son. Sadly, people think we can presume to put God on trial. As C.S. Lewis says, we can think that: “[Man] is the judge. God is in the dock [the witness stand]” (C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock).
Lewis describes what sinful humanity does—we presume ourselves qualified to sit in judgment over God. But John's picture is different. God hasn't been dragged unwillingly into our courtroom. God has graciously chosen to speak. He has borne testimony concerning his Son. In fact, his testimony is the entire foundation of our faith. As Charles Spurgeon says: “The basis of faith is the testimony of God concerning his Son” (Charles H. Spurgeon, Sermon on 1 John 5).
Before we were arguing that our own strong assurance doesn’t ensure us eternal life. Similarly, a sufficiently impressive Christian life doesn't create or ultimately ground our assurance of eternal life. Now we can add that it isn’t even our ability to convince ourselves that Jesus is really the son of God that assures us of eternal life.
John’s logic here is almost embarrassingly simple. We constantly believe things, because someone else tells us it is true. You want to plan to go on a vacation, so you ask your friends a good place to go, or if you already know where you are going, you ask them for suggestions on what to do. And you believe them based on their testimony, on their witness. We accept things as true that we haven’t personally seen or experienced, because credible witnesses tell us they are true.
John then essentially asks us: If we receive human testimony, what are we going to do when God himself testifies? This testimony isn’t greater merely better because the information he shares is different or better (though it is). The testimony is better because God himself is the testifier!
And then Spurgeon ends his quote: “The basis of faith is the testimony of God concerning his Son. Dare we ask more?” (Charles H. Spurgeon, Sermon on 1 John 5).
That is the problem with unbelief. John is not telling us that people who don’t believe simply misinterpret or misunderstand what God is showing them. If God has testified before everyone, then refusing his testimony is essentially saying, “I do not believe you.” And John intensifies his argument here enormously:
Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son.
I John 5:10 ESV
That is the problem with unbelief—we are calling God a liar. We are saying that the God of the universe who created us, the God of the universe who has loved us, the God of the universe who has stepped down into time to show us his great love—is a liar. That is tragic, and that is deadly.
Which leads us naturally to our next question: What then is God’s testimony?
If God has chosen to bear witness concerning his own Son, then we don't want to miss that testimony! That is why we started with the end here. If we had started with the beginning, there is a temptation to read John’s statement about the witnesses and testimony of God and wonder, “Why does this even matter?” Why should I care about what may seem like three random items, and why would John care to call them witnesses and testimony.
But if we start here, at the end, we see the gravity of what he is talking about. These are not three random details John has thrown into the passage. They are three witnesses through which God bears testimony concerning his Son. This is here to answer some of our deepest questions about how we can have assurance of our future and our hope of eternal life with God.
We asked, “How can I know that this Jesus really is the Son of God?” John says: Look at the testimony God himself has given you.
Three Witnesses
Now we are back at the beginning of our passage today:
This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.
1 John 5:6-8 ESV
Again, John’s logic is simple. There are three witnesses of Jesus Christ: the water, the blood, and the Spirit. Water is pointing us backwards to his baptism by John the Baptizer. Blood is pointing us to his death on the cross—a substitutionary death for me and you through faith. And the Spirit is the Holy Spirit himself, the very Spirit of God given to you and me as we have faith in Jesus today.
And I think the initial temptation is to hear these three moments, these three events, and think about them simply as a moment or a marker. Yes, I remember that Jesus was baptized by John, “in accordance with the Scriptures.” Yes, I know that Jesus died on the cross, “in accordance with the Scriptures.” And yes, I remember that the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost and now is given to us to fulfill God’s promise to give himself to us, “in accordance with the Scriptures.”
You may not be saying that exact phrase—in accordance with the Scriptures—but that is essentially how we often think about these moments. They are merely facts. They are merely data. They are proof of God’s answer to a promise, but not much more.
That is far from viewing them as witnesses and the testimony of God. These three are specific witnesses of God, his very testimony to me and you, that Jesus is the Son of God. Stop and think for a moment what we see in the water, the blood, and the Spirit.
At Jesus’ baptism, we are told the heavens open, the Spirit of God descends upon Jesus as a dove, and the Father himself says:
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Matthew 3:17 ESV
God himself testifies.
On the cross, Jesus hangs there, bearing the burden of the sins of his people as the true Passover Lamb, taking upon himself the penalty our sins deserve. Jesus dies the necessary death for those under sin. At Jesus’s death on the cross, we are told that when he dies the earth shook and God himself ripped the curtain in front of the Holy of Holies, depicting that people once again have access to him through the death of Jesus Christ.
God himself testifies.
And just as Jesus promised, once he ascends, the Spirit is sent by the Father. The Spirit—who bears witness that Jesus is the Son of God, and who indwells God's people, that we might know and walk with God again—is poured out upon God's people.
God himself testifies.
We are not to see these solely as moments marking highlight points or fulfillment of God’s plan and prophecy. Rather, these are witnesses through which God himself is testifying. He shows at the baptism (“this is my Son”), through the blood (his death on the cross), and himself (his Spirit given in relationship), that Jesus truly is the Son of God.
Water. Blood. Spirit.
In this section, John isn't giving us three random theological details. He is showing us the testimony God has given concerning the identity of his Son: the Jesus revealed at his baptism, the Jesus who died upon the cross, and the Jesus to whom the Spirit bears witness is one and the same Jesus Christ—the Son of God.
And importantly, he says: For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.
All three—the water of Jesus's baptism, the blood of his cross, and the Spirit himself—agree and point to the same thing: Jesus is the Son of God. There is no escaping that point. In fact, John wants to make sure we don’t miss how important this witness is.
Especially concerning the water and the blood he says: …not by the water only but by the water and the blood.
That is interesting. He could have simply left us with the three witnesses who are all the testimony of God that Jesus is the Son of God. But John wants us to see that Jesus at the baptism is the same Jesus at the cross. We don’t have an option when we look at Jesus to simply accept the good prophet, the best example, the faithful servant. We cannot stop at the water. We must also accept the Christ who went to the cross.
You cannot have the Christ of the baptism without the Christ of the cross.
This is God’s testimony. His witnesses—the water, the blood, the Spirit—are not merely pointing us to a good man or a prophet to be listened to. They are pointing us to the Son of God! The one standing in the Jordan is the one hanging on the cross. The beloved Son identified by the Father is the sacrificial Son shedding his blood for his people. And the Spirit of truth continues to bear witness to this same Jesus Christ.
And people still try to separate Jesus today. We will take Jesus the teacher, Jesus the moral example, Jesus the compassionate prophet—but not Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son, whose bloody death was necessary for our sin.
Connections
Main Street, we look at one of our lifelong questions: How can I know that I will move from this life into an eternal life in everlasting joy with the Father?
And we see that is exactly the question John is answering here in 1 John 5:6–12:
How can I know I have eternal life?
→ have the Son
→ find that life—eternal life—is in the Son
→ God has testified concerning the Son so we can know he is the true source of life
→ through these witnesses (water, blood, and Spirit) God bears testimony concerning his Son
John simply started with the witnesses to get us there:
water, blood, Spirit
→ through these witnesses God bears testimony concerning his Son
→ so we might believe God's testimony
→ God gave us eternal life
→ this life is in the Son
→ to have the Son is to have life.
Conclusion
We began this morning talking about all the things we do to hold on to life. Gym memberships. Doctors. Medicine. Exercise. Diets. We spend enormous amounts of time and money trying to preserve a life that, eventually, we cannot keep.
But the good news of this passage is that God offers us something none of those things ever can. He gives eternal life. And he does not tell us to manufacture it, earn it, preserve it, or somehow hold onto it by our own strength. This life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life.
We spend our lives trying to hold on to a life we cannot keep. John tells us that God has given us a life we cannot lose, because that life is in his Son.
Friends, we don’t have to live our lives worried about our future. And even more important, we don’t have to see our imperfections and failures as taking away our ultimate assurance. Our greatest assurance doesn’t rest in our certainty, it doesn’t rest in our efforts and actions, it doesn’t rest in our ability to reason to Jesus. It rests on the very testimony of God himself. The water. The blood. The Spirit. These are God's witnesses that Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God. And God testifies that he has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
When you are doubting, come back to these. Not merely as data, not merely as facts, but as God himself, who chooses to willingly testify so that you and I might have assurance! Assurance that is based in the life of Jesus himself, seen in his baptism, his death on the cross, and the giving of his Holy Spirit as witnesses and God’s very testimony to me and you. Find in these comfort that you don’t have to put the ultimate weight of assurance within yourself. Place it in God. Place it in HIS testimony.
Look again at his witnesses. And then let them point you again to Jesus. Through faith, you have the Son. You are found IN him. And if you have the Son, you have life. This is not merely God's stamp of approval on a promise of future life. God has given you his Son. You belong to Christ, you are found IN Christ, and your eternal life is found in that relationship with him.
And if you haven’t put your faith in Jesus yet, why would you want to call God a liar? That sounds strong, but that is what we are doing when we see the testimony God has given us and still say, we will not believe in the Son. God has testified concerning his Son. And this is what God says: he has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Put your faith in the Son, because whoever has the Son, has life.
“The basis of faith is the testimony of God concerning his Son. Dare we ask more?”
Charles H. Spurgeon, Sermon on 1 John 5
