Divine Testimony

John does three things in this passage. First, he marshals witnesses to Jesus in which the testimony of the Father is found. Second, he contrasts the testimony of men with God’s testimony, stressing that God’s testimony is to be believed and trusted. Third, he sums up God’s testimony and joins it to a final statement of his purpose in writing the letter.

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 earth” 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 of the Greek manuscripts.

In yesterday’s study, we looked at the first interpretation of the expression “water and blood” as a reference to that which flowed from Christ’s side at His crucifixion. We noted a couple of important similarities. Unfortunately, the similarities are not as great under examination as they seem to be on the surface.

If a person does believe God, he has an internal assurance that what he has believed is trustworthy. This is the work of God’s Spirit, the testimonium Spiritus Sancti internum, as the Reformers termed it. It is in addition to the assurance provided on other grounds.