I John 5 v 5 – 13 – Divine testimony concerning Jesus (2)

In his gospel John says that Jesus was brought forth from out of breath, and from out of water/flesh. Writing about a similar theme in his letter, he says once again that Jesus is the one who came by water/flesh. He is an incorporeal being who took on the likeness of human flesh. John then adds something else – Jesus came from out of water/flesh and blood. (verse 6). This is the second time in this letter that John mentions blood. The first was at the beginning of his letter: ‘But if we are walking within the light in the same way that He is within the light, [then] we possess partnership with one another and the blood of Jesus His Son is cleansing us away from every kind of missing the mark, self-forfeiture and no share’ (I John 1 v 7). John’s Hebrew Christian readers would have been familiar with the importance of the blood of Jesus. When Christians confess that Jesus, the Son of God, came in the flesh, they do not then mean as a result of this he was therefore some sort of ‘alien being’ who did not have blood like the rest of humanity. The lifeblood of Jesus is absolutely central to his mission as deliverer and I am sure that it is this central theme that John has in mind.

How does Jesus deliver those whom God has selected away from fair, proportionate divine judicial condemnation? God does not merely dismiss His Judgement with a cursory dismissal or metaphorical wave of His hand as though such judgement no longer matters. Rather, Jesus delivers those whom God has selected by paying the price that God’s judicial decision requires. Jesus pays the redemption price required and thereby buys them back. Sinai Covenant Law allowed for a substitute payment to be made with regards to those who were found guilty of breaking the Law. If a man stole some shoes he did not necessarily have to buy a replacement pair of shoes in recompense as part of his repentance and payment for his lawlessness. Such a man was allowed to make a substitute payment that was determined to be a sufficient recompense. This remained the case even when divine Law demanded the death penalty.

In addition, within Covenant Law, blood was considered to be set apart. Life was in the blood and so some Hebrew dietary laws prohibited eating meat that still had blood in it. Blood was ‘life-blood’ and the substitution payment that the only-begotten Son of God was required to pay in order to satisfy the price demanded by God’s righteous judgement was the shedding of his life-blood as the unblemished lamb of God. The Son of God was the unblemished sacrificial sin-offering of the Father. Jesus the anointed deliverer came by means of water – he was born in the likeness of sinful flesh (but without sin), and he came in blood – delivering sinners condemned to death by means of the substitute sacrificial offering of his lifeblood as a ransom payment to appease the judicial condemnatory decision of God. Life for life.

This is so important that John emphasizes these themes again, ‘not within water only, but within water and blood’ (Verse 6b). John is combating the teaching of pseudo-prophets and false teachers such as the Christian Gnostics. The fact that Jesus was born physically, in the similitude of sinful flesh, with skin and bone and blood, constitute essential and fundamental concepts within Apostolic teaching.

John has been arguing that only Christians can be persuaded of this in their heart to the point of obedience. Why are ‘outsiders’ or unbelievers unable to be persuaded of this? Because this enlightened truth can only be perceived as a result of the work of the breath of God. Christians possess the breath of God in their deepest inner core – in their heart – enabling them to perceive what is true to the facts concerning the unseen spiritual realm and be persuaded to the point of obedience. But ‘outsiders’ do not have the breath such that they remain in their ‘old humanity’ and prefer the darkness of ignorance that is in opposition to God and His Messiah.

I John 5 v 5 – 13 – Divine testimony concerning Jesus (1)

‘Who is it that is carrying off the victory and overcoming the orderly arrangement if not the one who is entrusting that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 This is the one who came by means of water and blood – Jesus the Messiah, not within water only, but within water and blood. And the breath is testifying and bearing witness, because the breath is the truth. 7 For there are three bearing witness [within heaven: The Father, the Word and the set apart breath – these three are one] 8 the breath, the water and the blood, and these three are penetrating towards one purpose. 9 If we take hold of human testimony, the testimony of God is greater because this is the testimony of God that He has testified around his Son. 10 The one persuaded and entrusting penetrating towards the Son of God is holding the testimony within himself. The one not persuaded towards God is making Him a liar because he has not been persuaded and entrusted the testimony that God has given about His Son. 11 This is the testimony: that God has given perpetual life to us, and this is the life within his Son. 12 The one holding and possessing the Son has life; the one not having and possessing the Son absolutely does not have life. 13 I am writing these things in order that you may know and appreciate that you hold and possess perpetual life, to you entrusting penetrating towards the name of the son of God’ (I John 5 v 6 – 13).

These are actually the most difficult verses in John’s letter and the different Bible Commentators spend quite some time in speculating what John means. I have reached the point that I don’t agree with any of the perspectives that I have read! But rather than look at all these different proposals so as to critique what they say, I am going to present my own understanding of these verses. If you are not persuaded of what I have to say then you can always refer to the commentators that you prefer and see if their view is any better.

Because the first few verses of this section in particular are somewhat difficult I will once again explore them in byte-sized portions. John has said in effect that Christians are carrying off the victory and overcoming the orderly arrangement because they are entrusting that Jesus is the Son of God. John then goes on to explain who Jesus is.

First of all there is this statement: ‘This is the one who came by means of water and blood – Jesus the Messiah…’ (Verse 6a). There is no doubt about who it is that John is talking about – he is talking about Jesus the Messiah, who came by means of water and blood. What does he mean? He says something similar in chapter three of his gospel, when Jesus spoke with Nicodemus who was a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish ruling council (John 3 v 1). In the course of their conversation Jesus said to Nicodemus, ‘“I tell you within truth, if there isn’t someone brought forth from out of water and breath, [then] he is not able to enter and penetrate into the Kingdom of God. 6 That brought forth from out of flesh is flesh, and that brought forth from of the breath is breath. 7 Don’t marvel or admire that I said to you, ‘It is absolutely necessary you are brought forth from above”’ (John 3 v 5 – 7). This is the very same theme that John is declaring in his letter. Namely that it is God Who brings Christians forth. This concept forms part of the context of the verses that we are now looking at. In both his gospel and his letter John is saying that there is fleshly bringing forth and in addition there is a bringing forth from out of breath.

In John’s gospel, being ‘brought forth of water’ is directly linked to fleshly birth (John 3 v 5, 6). But Jesus says to Nicodemus that in order to enter the Kingdom of God a person must be brought forth again. A person is first of all brought forth from out of flesh, brought forth from out of water. I propose that this is a reference to the amniotic fluid that is commonly called ‘water’ or ‘waters’. When a pregnant woman is about to birth we speak of her ‘waters breaking’. The amniotic fluid is the protective liquid contained within the amniotic sac that serves as a cushion for the growing foetus, and which facilitates the exchange of nutrients, water and biochemical products between mother and foetus. In this way ‘water’ has a general connection with physical birth and new life, and so it is also used as a metaphor that points to spiritual life. Jesus himself made this connection in referring to drinking water. ‘“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4 v 13, 14 N.I.V). And again, ‘He said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from out of the spring of the water of life freely, as a gift’ (Revelation 21 v 6). A similar connection is made in reference to events that will result from the pouring out of God’s wrath at the advent of the Millennium Reign. ‘The third messenger/angel began sounding his trumpet and a great star began to fall from out of heaven, blazing like a flaming torch. It was falling upon a third of the rivers and upon the source of waters. 11 The name and character of the star speaks Wormwood. A third of the waters started and continued to become wormwood and many people started to whither and die away from out of the waters because they began and continued being made bitter’ (Revelation 8 v 10, 11). And again, ‘The third (angel/messenger) started pouring out his bowl towards penetrating into the rivers and springs of the waters and they started to become blood’ (Revelation 16 v 4). I propose that some or all of these verses refer to problems with amniotic fluid, pregnancy and the birth of those who will be affected at this time. Thus Jesus says elsewhere, ‘at that time let those who are in Judea flee and escape to the mountains. 17 Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of his house, 18 neither let the one in the field go back to get their cloak. 19 But alas to those who are pregnant and to those nursing infants in those days’ (Matthew 24 v 16b – 19). And again, ‘Alas to those who are pregnant women and those breastfeeding within those days because there will be great constraint upon the land and violent, settled opposition against this people’ (Luke 21 v 23). These verses support my proposal that being brought forth from out of water is a reference to fleshly birth. In his gospel John says, ‘if there isn’t someone brought forth from out of water and breath’ (John 3 v 5). I want to suggest that this ‘someone’ is Jesus himself, the first brought forth from out of water and breath. Jesus is the ‘firstborn’, the pioneer and forerunner preparing the way for Christians, the first man to penetrate into the heavenly realm. This concurs with the context of what John has been saying earlier in his letter – Jesus was brought forth in the breath and in the flesh. He was not merely a ‘breath’ or ‘incorporeal spirit’ like the Christian Gnostics maintained.

I John 4 v 7 – 21 – The Love of God brought to completion (4)

There can sometimes be considerable debate amongst Christians about the place of ‘good works’ or ‘godly behaviour’. Protestant Evangelical Christians tend to follow Martin Luther and other Reformers by saying that individuals are delivered away from God’s judicial condemnation by faith – that is, through persuasion and entrustment in the Messiah to the point of obedience. There is often, quite rightly in my opinion, a strong denial that the individual’s own efforts and expended energies towards enacting good works play any part in earning their deliverance. Rather, their deliverance away from divine judicial condemnation is the result of God’s Love as revealed in the free gift of the Messiah through the free gift and enabling power of His breath. Even when Evangelical Christians agree on this point, it is what happens afterwards, after an individual’s profession of faith, that can then prove to be a theme of contention. In other words the dispute arises around the Christian’s day-by-day life once they have expressed faith in Jesus. It is not so much about what the Christian’s life is meant to be like but rather, it is about the process of attaining this lifestyle – about how Christians put this set apart, godly life into effect.

DIVINE LAW

In order to put into effect in practice a Christian life that is set apart from the values and principles of the worldly arrangement, some Christians turn to divine Law – usually summarized by the Ten Commandments. They divide divine Law into ‘Ceremonial’ and ‘Moral’ categories and propose that the ‘ceremonial’ aspects are now done away with because the Messiah has come, but further propose that the ‘moral’ Laws remain in force. They then propose that these ‘Moral Laws’ as a set of rules that Christians, indeed that all humanity, is called to obey and that act as a ‘spur’ that urge individuals towards godliness.

CHRISTIAN ‘FREEDOM’

But there are other Christians who propose that since they are delivered by Jesus and guaranteed a place in heaven through Him, it therefore does not matter too much what they say or do. Their shortcomings and divinely disapproved-of behaviours are now ‘washed away’ and ‘removed as far as the East is from the West’. They propose that if they fall into behaviour that God seriously disapproves of, then God’s free gift, love and mercy will super abound.

TRANSCENDENT EXPERIENCES

A third group of Christians, rather like the Christian Gnostics, seek to obtain transcendent and empowering experiences of the Holy Spirit that act like a ‘spiritual boost or uplift’. Sometimes, if the experience is transcendent and powerful enough, it causes their ongoing failures and errors to ‘fall away’.

What are we to make of all these different approaches to how Christians put into effect living a set apart, godly, clean life day-by-day? Once someone expresses faith in Jesus – once they become a Christian – what is the place of ‘good works’ in their daily life? Do they have any place at all? If so, how are they attained?

I John 3 v 24b – 4 v 6 – Assurance, the Breath of God and pseudo-prophets (5)

If Christians are assured of their salvation because they have the Breath of God in their hearts, how does a Christian know and discern the breath of God and His Messiah in experience? How do they distinguish the movement of the breath of God from their own misleading fleshly impulses? John says: ‘Within this you know God’s breath in experience: Every kind of breath that speaks together, agreeing and moving to the conclusion that Jesus the Messiah comes within the flesh is from out of God. Any kind of breath that is not speaking and moving to the conclusion that Jesus the Messiah comes within the flesh is not from out of God. This is the opposite to the Messiah that you comprehend – because it is coming at this present time, existing within the orderly arrangement even now’.

One early dispute within Christianity was between the Apostles and their teaching and practice on the one hand, and Christian Gnostics and their teaching and practice on the other hand. Gnosticism was originally a pagan form of ‘mysticism’ or ‘inner spiritual pathway’ that then infiltrated and gained a foothold within certain Jewish groups. From there it also infiltrated into some Christian assemblies. The word ‘Gnosticism’ is derived from the word ‘gnosis’ meaning ‘knowledge’, and one of the central tenets of Gnosticism is that a person gains experiential knowledge of the divine through Direct, Immediate Transcendent experiences. Within Gnosticism such experiences were sought after and cultivated by engaging in practices such as deep meditation and contemplation. Then the content of these experiences – the Immediate knowledge or insights that was conveyed in them – were understood to be Direct revelations or an uncovering of and by God. Christian Gnostics framed the content of their Transcendent experiences within Christian terminology and concepts. But as a result, many Christian Gnostics considered that Jesus had not come in the flesh, but that rather he was a spirit or breath that had been made manifest.

Christian Gnostics present examples of what appear to be Immediate Direct Transcendent experience of the divine. An individual’s experience of a ‘breath’ that seems very Real and True, indeed, to be Ultimate Absolute Truth. But such experiences directly conveyed Immediate knowledge and insight that Jesus did not come within the flesh, despite the experience seeming to be Real, True and Authentic. Thus it is an example of a breath that is not to be trusted, and teachers proposing such a view are to be rejected.

But on what basis is such an experience and teaching to be rejected? It is rejected on the basis that it does not agree with the eyewitness testimony of the Apostles – it is opposed to the Messiah that the Christians to whom John is writing to, had received. In this way the Christian Gnostic’s experience and teaching are ‘put to the test’ and found to contradict the eyewitness accounts and experiences of the disciples and followers of Jesus. Any teaching moving towards a conclusion that Jesus did not come in the flesh is to be rejected. John says that such teaching is not from out of God.

Such ‘Gnostic’ teaching is in opposition to the Messiah and is in effect without the law. Opposition to the Messiah will not be reserved and revealed only in the future, it is lawlessness that ‘is coming at this present time, existing within the orderly arrangement even now’. This kind of teaching that opposes the Messiah is tied to the ‘lawlessness’ that John spoke about earlier. It is tied to the devil, to the orderly arrangement of the world and to our natural, earthy, fleshly constitution. This lawlessness will be brought to completion and full expression at the end of the present gospel age by means of the ‘cut off son’ or ‘man of lawlessness’, but it has been present from the beginning of the gospel age. It was at work at the time when John writing his letter, and it maintains its presence throughout the age. Thus John urges Christians to watch over and guard the end result of the instructions of Jesus the Messiah, namely to show practical, beneficial love to fellow Christians.