Thursday, June 27, 2013

More Than Enough Evidence to Believe

If faith in Jesus is necessary for salvation, how can we believe Jesus is who He claims to be? John answers that question by giving us all kinds of verification.

1st John 5:6-8 presents this evidence:
“This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.”

The proof is simple, John says. We have three witnesses in agreement - the spirit, water, and blood. That’s legal proof in any court.

It is according to Deuteronomy 19:15:
“One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.” One witness doesn’t work, two is better, but three establishes the matter. That means, they prove it. And so John is saying that Jesus has three trustworthy witnesses providing irrefutable proof of His claims.

Now, it’s just a matter of figuring out what the three are, and that isn’t such an easy task. As Plummer writes, “This is the most perplexing passage in the epistle and one of the most perplexing in the New Testament.” It’s perplexing trying to figure it out because there are textual problems, as well as the obscurity of the meanings of the water and the blood.

The textual problem is this: The Revised Standard Version (RSV), the New American Standard Version (NASB), and the New International Version (NIV) all leave out verse 7 completely and drop the phrase “on earth” from verse 8.

But why? Verse 7 is the clearest verse in the Bible that speaks of all three members of the Trinity – why leave it out? Were they trying to mutilate the Scripture? No, not at all – they were a much later insertion.

Let me read you the explanation compiled by James Montgomery Boice:
“The idea of the three heavenly witnesses – the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit – occurs first in the treatise written by a Spanish Christian named Priscillian, sometime before his execution on a charge of heresy in A.D. 385. It was written into the margins of some old Latin manuscript and from hence passed into the text, being added to the Vulgate about A.D. 800. At this point, the balancing words, ‘in earth,’ were added to the authentic listing of the witnesses which followed.
But how did the error, present only in Latin manuscripts, get into our English texts which are based upon Greek? It is an interesting story. At the time of the late Renaissance and Reformation, when classical texts were first being edited critically, Erasmus of Rotterdam produced a Greek text in which the words in question were missing. At this time, most of Europe was using the Latin Vulgate as its Bible version, so Erasmus was quickly criticized for omitting the passage. He replied that the words were not in any Greek manuscripts. Somewhat rashly, however, he added that if a Greek manuscript containing the passage could be produced, he would include it. Unfortunately, in time such a manuscript was found. It was written about 1520. Erasmus knew that this was not valid evidence at all, since the manuscript probably included the passage because of the Latin texts. Nevertheless, he had given his word. So he included the words in the third edition of his text, published in 1522. However, he also added a note in which he expressed his belief that the new Greek manuscript had been written on purpose just to embarrass him.
From Erasmus’ text the passage was taken over into German by Luther and into English by Tyndale. Erasmus text became the basis of the great edition of the Greek text by Stephanus in 1550, which in turn became the ‘Textus Receptus,’ or ‘Received Text’ from which most subsequent translation, including the KJV, were made.”

That story is given with more or less detail in all the scholarly commentaries, and it seems clear that verse 7 isn’t part of the Bible as God breathed it. But why did I share this with you? Most of you probably could care less, and were bored out of your minds. But it’s important that you understand. Even though the KJV insertion is theologically defensible – meaning good stuff -we stake our claim on divine inspiration. This passage was apparently not in the original. It was not God breathed, but man added. Now you know why there’s this discrepancy in our various translations

So, now let’s try to identify the witnesses. What is the water? And what is the blood? The Spirit - that one we know at least. But John assumes his readers will know. So it must have been a common part of their theology.

Three reasonable ideas have been offered. Calvin and other Reformers believed the water and blood represented baptism and communion, which sounds good, I suppose. Water is used for baptism, and blood is symbolized by the cup in communion. But blood is only one of the two elements used in communion – there’s also the bread. Both are visible symbols of Christ’s death. So it’s hard to see that this is the correct interpretation.

Here’s a second interpretation. Others have claimed these are the water and blood that flowed form Christ’s side at His death. John 19:33-35 says:
33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. 35 And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe.

It’s hard to say what kind of witness this would be, accept to prove that Christ died. Perhaps it’s to show the way He died. So I don’t think it’s the correct interpretation.

The third theory is this: The water and the blood represent Christ’s baptism and His death. There’s no real problem with this theory, and I kind of lean toward it. It does counteract the heretical Gnostic claim that the Spirit of God came upon Christ at His Baptism, but left before the Cross. No, Jesus always was, is, and always will be the Christ – the anointed of God.

Here’s how this interpretation fits: John is trying to give factual evidence of the Incarnation and the earthly life of the Divine Christ, and at both His baptism and at the Cross, God intervenes miraculously to give testimony. The Father bears witness at both the beginning and the end of Christ’s ministry.

At the water baptism of Christ, we read Matthew 3:16-17:
16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Who can argue with a witness like that? Jesus is the special anointed one – God said.

Then at the Cross when Christ’s blood flowed, Matthew 27:45 says: “Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land.” Miraculous darkness comes in middle of the day. God is showing the magnitude of their crime of killing their Messiah.

Then in Matthew 27:50-54 we read:
50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. 51 Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, 52 and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 54 So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

Wow! What an awesome display of power. What else could the centurion say? The centurion couldn’t help but be convinced when God puts on a display like that. And God did it all to prove who this one was hanging on the cross.

Now, we weren’t present at either His baptism or death, but the Holy Spirit was. And He actively testifies to our hearts today using the other two witnesses.

The whole point is: We’ve been given unquestionable, undeniable proof that Jesus is who He claimed to be. There is no reason in the world we shouldn’t believe. You can’t doubt the witness of the Holy Spirit using these historical facts. John must assume the case is closed - He has made his point. And the point was “that you may believe in the name of the Son of God.”

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