The last mystery in the First Epistle of John is that of the water, the blood, and the Spirit. This Epistle is not a long one dealing with doctrinal points. John’s way of writing is to touch only the main, crucial points. Six of these we have already covered in the previous messages: life, fellowship, abiding, the anointing, the divine birth, and the divine seed. It is hard to understand the real meaning of 1 John. We may read it over and over, without really grasping what the significance of these terms is. Especially puzzling is this mystery of the water, the blood, and the Spirit.
“This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one” (1 John 5:6, 8). Why are there these three witnesses? What is meant by each of them? Schools of opinion have arisen to explain what water and the Spirit mean in this context. Concerning the blood, of course, it is generally agreed that this is the blood shed by the Lord Jesus on the cross.
To know the real significance of this mystery, we must understand the central concept of this Epistle.
John’s central thought is that God in His Son as the Spirit has come into us as our life. This life brings us into a fellowship-between Him and us and also with each other. This fellowship is corporate; there is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and there are the saints. This fellowship is actually the church life. The church life is a fellowship in the divine life. Since we have received God’s life and nature as a seed of life within us, we have this wonderful Person abiding in us as the Holy Spirit, a living, moving, active One. As such, He is the anointing to us. We abide in Him according to this anointing, and we let Him abide in us. By this abiding all things concerning the eternal purpose of God will be accomplished.
This central concept is focused on the Son of God. Whenever the New Testament uses this title, its significance always involves the imparting of the divine life. The Son of God was manifested for the purpose of imparting the divine life. “God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life....These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life” (1 John 5:11-13).
Why, then, is there the need of the witness of the water, the blood, and the Spirit? It is important for us to understand this, in order that we may apply its value; otherwise, we are lacking in something.
Yes, the Son of God came that we might have life. But He came in a way that puzzled people. He appeared as a Nazarene with no outward honor, with nothing to command respect. How could it be manifested that this One was in very fact the Son of God? It was by the water, the blood, and the Spirit that testimony was given as to His true identity.
From John 1:31-34 we can see how the water bore witness to Him. “In order that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water. And John testified saying, I beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He abode upon Him. And I did not recognize Him, but He Who sent me to baptize in water said to me, He upon Whom you see the Spirit descending and abiding upon Him, this is He Who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.” The first manifestation of Jesus as the Son of God was His baptism by John. This was the occasion when it was declared for the first time, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I delight” (Matt. 3:16-17).
Water baptism is commonplace now, but for John the Baptist to practice it was most unusual. Though he was the son of a priest, he was not brought up in the temple, nor did he wear the priestly garments, nor eat the priestly diet. He stayed in the wilderness, wore a garment of camel’s hair, and ate locusts and wild honey (Matt. 3:4). Such a way of living was contrary to what was expected of the priesthood. There was a garment prescribed for the priests (Exo. 28:4, 40-41; Lev. 6:10), yet John wore a robe made from the hair of an unclean animal (Lev. 11:4). He did not eat the normal food of the priests, but rather what he found in the wilderness.
This strange-looking person was bound to attract a following. When the crowds gathered, he told them, “Repent!” The Spirit was with John, and some did repent. Then they “were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins” (Matt. 3:6). For John to baptize them was to say that these repentant ones were good only to be buried, that they needed to be terminated. It must have been a strange sight for this strangely dressed preacher to put people into the water. One day yet another Person came to John to be baptized. This time something new happened. The other baptisms were quite ordinary, but after this One was baptized and came up from the death waters, the Spirit of God descended upon Him as a dove, and John testified that He was the Son of God.
In this scene the water and the Spirit were both present to introduce this little Jesus as nothing less than the Son of God. He was not merely a Nazarene. Along with the water and the Spirit, a voice from the heavens bore witness that this was the beloved Son.
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