My Dear Brethren in Christ. In today’s Epistle we hear of a great victory, the victory of Jesus Christ over the powers of this world, over sin and death and the devil; we hear of a people born of God who partake of this victory by faith; we hear of the divine Testimony to this Victory in Scripture; we hear of the inward witness of the Holy Ghost, and the everlasting life given to all the faithful in Jesus Christ. Let us examine this glorious message from God’s Word today, dividing the text into three points:
1. Those born of God partake by faith in the Victory of Jesus Christ that overcomes the world! (5-4:6)
2. The Testimony of God in Scripture to the Victory of Christ. (5:6-9)
3. The Inward Testimony and Everlasting Life given to every Believer! (5-9:12)
The Epistle.
(1 John 5. 4)
Those born of God partake by faith in the Victory of Jesus Christ that overcomes the world.
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HATSOEVER is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood.
What does it mean for a man to be born of God? Saint John tells us in 1 John 4:7-10, Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his Only Begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Thus, to be born of God is to partake of His love as revealed in the sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son, to repent of our sins, and to show forth this love in our dealings with our fellow men.
“Born of God”. Think about this language. No man gives birth to himself. It is the work of another. So too is it with our birth in God, it is not our work, it is the unmerited gift of God worked in us by the Word and the Holy Ghost. Notice also that none of you are “born of God” from your mother's wombs, for we all partake of sinful human nature, so that to be “born of God” you must be born again by God’s Word and Spirit. What is the fruit of this spiritual new birth? It is that you partake of God’s love by faith, that you faithfully know God by that divine love shown to all the faithful in the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, that you repent of your sins, that you hate sin, that you trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and that you strive by God’s grace to live in loving service to God and neighbor according to God’s Commandments for His honor and glory. Where do we find this love of God? We see the love of God in the wounds of Jesus Christ, which were inflicted upon Him for our sins. In His Wounds we have life and health, and in His blessed passion and precious death we have the propitiation for our sins. Here is our victory that overcomes the spirit of antichrist which dwells in the world, even the victory of God’s Only Begotten Son over sin and death! How do we partake of this victory over sin and death? We partake of this victory by a lively faith in the Son of God and in His finished work of loving obedience on the Cross, faith which is itself an unmerited gift of God! Therefore, rejoice Christians, for Christ’s victory becomes our victory through faith in Him!
What does it mean that our Lord came by water and blood? Remember what John records about Our Lord’s Passion and death on Mount Calvary, But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced. Indeed, the water and blood signify that our Lord fulfills those things which the Old Testament rites foreshadowed, even as Calvin says, “And though they were of various kinds, yet under these two [water and blood] the Apostle denotes the whole perfection of holiness and righteousness, for by water was all filth washed away, so that men might come before God pure and clean, and by blood was expiation made, and a pledge given of a full reconciliation with God; but the law only adumbrated by external symbols what was to be really and fully performed by the Messiah.” Faithful friends, the powers of this world, sin and death, are put to death in you by the blood of Jesus Christ! You are washed and cleansed by the Word of God and the blood of the Lamb. Christians, here is your victory over the world and your reconciliation with God, accomplished for you by the Only begotten Son of God! Christ has conquered sin and death for you. Through God’s grace, let us repent of our sins, let us take hold of this victory over sin and death by Faith in the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and give God the glory with our lips and in our lives!
The Witness of God in Scripture to the Victory of Christ.
And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.
What does the Spirit bear witness to? To the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect God-Man and Saviour of the world. He bears witness to the power of Jesus Christ, to the power of Christ that has overcome the spirit of antichrist which is in the world, to the power of His blood as the propitiation for our sins, to the power of His righteousness that justifies us, to the power of His loving sacrifice wherein we find salvation and the forgiveness of our sins, to the power of His atonement which reconciles us to God. The Spirit testifies of all this, not secretly, but plainly and openly in the inspired Holy Scriptures. Here is the witness of the Spirit!
There are today many who claim to speak by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Pentecostals and Popes claim to speak by the Holy Ghost, and even communists claim a kind of inspiration for their little red book. Know, friends, that the Spirit only speaks to us through the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures. Therefore, trust no other alleged oracle or divination, for they are false prophets who claim to speak for God what God has not spoken in His Word. The Spirit’s witness to Jesus Christ in the Holy Scriptures is most certain truth upon which the faith of the Church, the faith of you and I, can rest established and secure.
In these verses, we hear the famous Johanne comma, For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. One of the most obvious Trinitarian passages in the Bible, it has been hated and despised by many down the centuries, and has been expunged from certain corrupted versions of the Bible both anciently and in our own day. John includes these verses to say that the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost are one, and agree in their witness to the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to the Gospel in His Blood. If our courts accept the testimony of men, of fallible lying men, then how much more certain and valuable is the testimony of the Holy Trinity to the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom it is infallibly said, “Thy Word is Truth”. The truthfulness of Jesus Christ, that He is the Second Person of the Trinity, the Word made Flesh, the Lord and Saviour of the world, is witnessed by the whole Godhead, a witness which is infallibly recorded in Holy Scripture! Therefore, know that your salvation in Christ, your victory by faith in Christ over sin and death as divinely witnessed to in Scripture, rests on the most sure and certain authority and witness of Almighty God. Take confidence in this in the midst of modern doubt, and glorify God that He so wonderfully testifies of His Only Begotten Son, and preserves this witness for us in the Holy Scriptures!
The Inward Testimony and Everlasting Life given to every Believer!
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
We see in these verses that God gives an inner witness of the Holy Spirit to the faithful heart which establishes and confirms our faith in God’s Word, so that in the words of the Westminster Catechism, “our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority [of Scripture], is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our heart.” This inner witness of the Holy Ghost in the heart of the believer witnesses to the truth of God’s Word. This inner witness tells you that what you read in the Bible is true; that the victory is won by Jesus Christ, that His blood is the propitiation for our sins, that God has regenerated us by His Word and Spirit and given the faithful eternal life in His only Begotten Son. Indeed, in this we see that Jesus Christ is risen indeed, that He is the Life and offers life to every man, woman, and child who believes on Him, not because of what that person does, but because of the gracious love of God shown towards him or her in the passion and death of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Whereas those who have not the Son of God have not this life, but are overcome by the world, and sink into everlasting death. May God move us to hear this inner witness to His Word, and to believe on His Son. This is the only way to life eternal!
Thus, the testimony which the Holy Trinity gives to the Lord Jesus Christ as recorded in Scripture is witnessed to and confirmed by the inner working of the Holy Spirit in the faithful. This inner witness of the Spirit has moved Christians of every age to put themselves on the executioner's block, into the fiery stake, or in front of a firing squad, to accept worldly death rather than deny the Lord Jesus Christ.
Think of Martin Luther, who stood before the might of papistical Europe, and in the face of death, was strengthened by the inner witness of the Holy Ghost to the truth of God’s Word, to the victory of Christ over sin and death, so that he could boldly proclaim, “My conscious is captive to the Word of God”. Behold what a wonderful blessing this inner witness is, for by it the Holy Ghost strengthens our faith in God’s Word, in the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, so that not even death can make us depart from Him!
Friends, May God give us the grace to listen attentively to the inner witness of the Holy Spirit in our hearts to the truth of God’s Word, that our faith may be strengthened in this time of tribulation, that we may know by faith that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God, that we may repent of our sins, that we may live in His Love and partake of His victory over sin and death, that we may glorifying God by witnessing to His Word with our lips and in our lives unto our last breath, knowing that death can do nothing to harm those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, for He has already gained the victory over sin and conquered death for us on the Cross, and has opened the gates of everlasting life to all believers.
For to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
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