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As we draw nearer to the end of John’s first letter we encounter a bit of a challenging passage.

‘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. 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. 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 5:6-12)

Water and blood

Let’s begin by looking at this idea of water. John says that Jesus Christ came ‘not by the water only’ – this implies that he may have been expected to come by water alone but that he didn’t. For Christians, the idea of water points to the act of baptism, the public declaration that we have been born again into the Kingdom of God. We know from eyewitness testimonies that Jesus was baptised in water, by John the Baptist – this is not new news! But what John is highlighting to us here is that he not only came by water, but that he also came by the blood.

A heresy was popular in the first century (and is popular even in churches now but it’s a bit subtler), called Gnosticism. Gnosticism is the view that the physical realm is essentially sinful, fallen, and that the spiritual realm is good and perfect. The Bible never says that. In fact, the rest of eternity will not be spent in some other spiritual plane but on this earth, as the New Jerusalem descends upon creation – we will live in the united new heavens and new earth, not on clouds playing harps! In New Testament times people were already coming up with theories that Jesus was an angel, or an alien, someone inhuman who appeared for his ministry…but John wants to dispel that myth. His reference to blood here is to do with his regular human birth – Jesus was born to a human mother just like you and I were! The Word became flesh (John 1:14), not magically but through a normal pregnancy in Mary’s womb.

Listen, we talk about Jesus’ life, teaching, and stuff so much that I think we miss this absolutely incredible truth – God became a person! Next time you see a Middle-Eastern man just think: 2,000 years ago that could have been God himself. That should blow our minds.

The Spirit

The idea of Jesus’ birth into the Kingdom is completed with John’s introduction of the Spirit. John recorded a conversation Jesus held with a Jewish teacher called Nicodemus, in which he explained that Christians must be ‘born of water and the Spirit’ (John 3:5). The only one who brings new life to us is the Holy Spirit, and the ultimate example of that was Jesus, who was filled with the Spirit at his water baptism!

This is why John writes, ‘whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself’ – if you’re a believer and have been baptised then you have the blood (in your physical birth), water (at baptism), and the Spirit (in your new birth), and all three scream together, ‘Jesus is Lord’! What is important to note here, however, is that John points out to us exactly who the Holy Spirit is. Jehovah’s Witnesses and others will lie, saying that the Holy Spirit is God’s impersonal force, but John says that the Spirit is the truth, the title taken by Jesus in John 14:6.

There are three ways we might need to respond to this word:

1. Water - are you a Christian but have not been baptised? If so, why the heck not? Jesus commanded it; obey him.
2. Blood - do you have a mental image of Jesus as a glowing man in a white robe patting the head of a child and carrying a lamb? Read the Gospels – discover the real man that Jesus was!
3. Spirit - do you shy away from the idea of the Holy Spirit because you prefer or can better understand the Father and the Son? Read Acts – discover the wonderful third person in the Trinity and develop a relationship with God in his fullness!

"Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life" from Tom Kelley

The Curse is Gone