Water and Blood

View daily reading plan: 1 John 5.6-9

John’s readers had been targeted by Gnostic philosophers. Among other things, they suggested that “The Christ” was some kind of divine emanation that came upon Jesus at His baptism and left Him before His death, possibly in Gethsemane.No, says John, “This is he that came by water and blood...not by water only, but by water and blood”.

John stresses that it was the Son of God who was baptised in water at the commencement of His public ministry and it was the same Son of God who shed His precious blood at the end. At His baptism the Father’s voice witnessed to His Sonship. At the cross His absolute control of circumstances bore witness to His Sonship and deity; no mere man could have claimed what proved to be true, “No man taketh (my life) from me” (Jn 10.18).

The Holy Spirit added to the testimony of the events at His baptism and death, by inspiring Scripture records relating to the Son, and empowering preaching about the Son, and so “these three agree in one”.  We were not present to hear the Father’s voice at His baptism, nor were we present when His blood was shed, but we have the abiding witness of the Holy Spirit, which is relevant to the teaching of v.10.

Friday, 17 May, 2024