1 John 5:9–12

Men accept two or three witnesses to settle any matter. God set up that rule for people, both under law and in Christianity. Human witnesses can be wrong, even when no one could question their honesty. All people have weaknesses and imperfections. But look at the divine witnesses! One is a divine Person, come from heaven to declare what He knows, what He has seen, and what He has heard. The other two witnesses have come from the side of Christ in death. They come to tell us of the love shown in that death, and of the greatness of the Person who could make that love known and accomplish such a work. How wonderful is the grace that has stooped to our weakness! It brings three witnesses before us, to persuade our poor hearts about what He wants to tell us.

There are three witnesses: the water, the blood, and the Spirit — a threefold testimony, but a united testimony, and so one. They unite in witnessing that life is in the Son, and is for men through His death.

We do receive the witness of men. We have to, almost every day of our lives. We accept it, though mistakes often mar it, even when no one means to deceive. The witness of God is far greater in its theme and in its character. The Son is the theme, and absolute truth its character. When the Son was on earth He bore witness to God. Now the Spirit is here, and the witness of God is borne to the Son. Very remarkable, is it not?

We receive the testimony of competent, trustworthy men without question. How much greater is the testimony of God! He speaks what He knows; with Him knowledge is absolute, not relative. He witnesses to the truth as He alone fully knows it.

The heart keeps looking for God to give it a testimony about itself. But God is giving a testimony about His Son, not about what we are. If God were to give a testimony about us, it must be about our sin and unbelief of heart. In this day of unbelief, one thing matters greatly. If God gives a testimony, it is about His Son, and what He is to the sinner. If you believe that, you will get peace.

Let me recall the divine relief and deliverance these words gave more than sixty years ago. They came to a soul who was converted, but harassed and deeply troubled by a sense of sin. That sense of sin clouded his rest in Jesus. These words chased away all doubt, and made him ashamed to question God's witness. It became God's application of the truth to him, and no longer his own applying of it to himself. Yet he had never doubted the true worth of Christ's death for the sinner. It is not that I see the power of the blood as I ought. Rather, I rest by faith on God's seeing it, and God's valuing it as it deserves.

The believer needs to have the sense of this in his soul. The blessing is his as a believer. But how much power and enjoyment he has in it depends greatly on whether he knows the testimony is divine. If it has been received only as the word of men, it will not have its full sanctifying power in the soul.

Some people create a difficulty for themselves by wrongly assuming that we have a definition of faith here. That is not the point. The verse describes faith's power, range, and effect. Faith in Scripture is believing God, accepting His word because He says it, not on visible evidence or on reasoning but on God's authority. Under the gospel, because it matters so much, faith is receiving the testimony of God which He has testified about His Son. As John 3:33 puts it, whoever receives His testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. But the one who does not believe God carries the awful guilt of making Him a liar.

He who believes on the Son of God now has the witness in himself, because God has given the Spirit, who is the Witness, to live in us. We begin by believing the witness about the Son of God that comes to us. Then, "by the Spirit whom He has given us," we have the witness in ourselves. No unbeliever can have this witness within.

Suppose the believer were in a land where he could enjoy no fellowship with other Christians. Suppose he had no chance to hear a Christian teacher, and knew of not a single fellow believer. The Son of God on whom he believes remains just the same. He has the witness in himself, as fully as if every Christian privilege on earth surrounded him. He is not dependent on anyone under the sun; he has the Son. In such a case many might cry out, "What audacious presumption!" But God Himself says, "Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself." The audacity lies in the unbelief that rejects it.

Let me recall the relief and deliverance these words gave more than sixty years ago. They came to a soul who was converted, but harassed and troubled by a sense of sin that clouded his rest in Jesus. These words chased away all doubt and made him ashamed to question God's witness. It became God's application of the truth to him, and no longer his own applying of it to himself. It is not my seeing the power of the blood as I should. It is resting by faith on God's seeing it, and God's valuing it as it deserves. The troubled spirit is no longer dead, so it is intensely anxious for God's witness about itself. That agitation keeps it from hearing God about His Son. Christ received on God's witness lets me have done with myself altogether. What Christ is and has done gives peace.

The fault of the unbeliever is not that he does not have the blessing, but that he makes God a liar. God has given an adequate witness about His Son, and "whoever does not believe God has made him a liar." So a person rejecting the gospel is rejecting God's testimony about His Son. The witness was enough.

In the presence of such testimony, not to believe God is to make Him a liar. How grave, how solemn, how wicked, to dishonour Him in this way! In far less important matters we accept the witness of men. Is not His witness greater? All the more so, since the one who believes receives in the Son what God testifies about: the cleansing, the justification, and the life are his. Unbelief dishonours God and robs man beyond measure.

It seems impossible to make the truth plainer than the apostle was given to do. He is showing that God's witness deserves greater attention, being in itself beyond comparison greater than any witness of men. And it is this: that God gave to us, Christians, eternal life — not merely promises or a kingdom — and this life is in His Son.

The apostle sums up in a few words the testimony of God about the eternal life He has given us. This life is not in the first Adam, it is in the last — in the Son of God. Man, as born of Adam, does not have it and does not get it. He ought indeed to have gained life under the law. That was its character: "Do this and live." But man did not and could not.

All these great truths — the death of Christ, and the presence of the Spirit in the believer — witness the same thing. God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. It is in us as a gift; it is in Him as a source. Apart from the Son there can be no life before God.

We know that a leaf has life in it, just as the believer knows that eternal life remains in him. But it is just as true that the leaf has life in the tree, and only in the tree. In the same way, Scripture tells us that the believer's life is in the Son. Clearly, if the leaf were cut off from the tree it would perish at once.

Though we have the life, its proper seat is not in us but IN HIS SON. When God makes us alive, the life is not viewed as being in us, for Christ says, "Because I live, you also will live." It is therefore unchangeable. If Christ's life could in any way be cancelled or set aside, then the life in us could be too — but not otherwise. If Christ can die, so can we; but if death no longer has dominion over Him, neither does it over us. And this is what gives this life its amazing value and most blessed character: that its spring and source is in Christ.

It is very blessed to know that the life is in Him. No such thing could be said of us, and there is never any thought of life apart from Him. We enjoy heavenly things already, not merely security in Him. We shall eat of the tree of life in the glory. But we already have the power to enter into these privileges and joys, and all is in the Son. Of course security is implied, and life in Christ is secure indeed. But we should not make "life" just another word for "security." It includes security, but it is far more.

All the character of the life, and all the communion, flows from that blessed truth: "in His Son." The character of this life is nearness to God. Christ Himself is my life.

As a young man he thought it was outrageous to claim, "I have eternal life, I will not be lost." Then he read these verses. He saw that following such teaching meant calling God a liar. It might sound humble to men, but that is what it does. When God says, "The one who believes in My Son has eternal life," we have to take Him at His word.

All these great truths — the death of Christ and the presence of the Spirit in the believer — witness that God has given us eternal life. This life is in His Son. It is in us as a gift; it is in Him as a source. Apart from the Son there can be no life before God.

To get it we must come to Christ, and go nowhere else.

The test of life is whether you possess the Son of God, by faith and by the Spirit of God. Some have no living faith in the glorious Son of God, who gave Himself for our sins and who lives in the presence of the Father. They do not possess eternal life. To have the Son means accepting His deity, His true humanity, and His finished work on the cross to make propitiation. Refusing any of these great truths means the Son is not known in the heart, whatever the lips claim.

"Whoever has the Son has life"; and if someone does not have the Son of God, it does not matter what else he may have — he does not have life. Life is in the Son, and only in Him.

Do not be deceived. Has the Holy Spirit brought you, as a lost sinner, to receive Jesus as your Saviour? He is your Saviour from the guilt and condemnation of sin, by His death on the cross. He is also your living Saviour, to free you from the present power of sin. If that has not happened, then no matter what you claim, and no matter what you have, you do not have Christ, and you do not have life.

Here it is either eternal life or no real life at all. From this viewpoint, man's natural life is mere existence, for after all it is a dying thing, subject to decay and corruption. Eternal life is living, vital, untainted, far above and beyond all that is mortal.

The alleged difference between "the Son" and "the Son of God" is rash and wrong, and the text itself refutes it. It is true that "Son of God" is said of Christ as the King of Israel (in Psalm 2 and elsewhere, as John 1:49, as well as Luke 1:35). But if you want one clear disproof of that error, you could not have a more decisive one than 1 John 5:12.

What is it to have eternal life? It is to have Christ... Observe, it is the gift of God, and it is "in His Son." It is not in our keeping, but is secured for us in Christ... Faith believes the record of God, receives Christ, and passes from death to life.