1 John 5:5-12
“Who is the one who overcomes the world, but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. 9 If we receive the testimony of people, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son. 10 The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. 11And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 The one who has the Son has the life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.”
Believes that Jesus is the Son of God: The Gospel is simple: We need to believe that Jesus is the Son of God in order to be saved. This means that we do not need to perform for God for salvation. We experience transformation through faith in Jesus.
Water and with the blood…It is the Spirit: There are two views of this. John could be speaking of Jesus’ water baptism and his crucifixion. However, another view is preferable. John is likely speaking of Christ’s physical birth being born of flesh and water. This makes sense in light of John arguments against the Gnostic belief that Jesus was only spirit and lacked physicality. Jesus was born of both a woman and the Spirit. Therefore, Christ is both fully man and fully God at the same time. This means that God’s divinity is compatible with our humanity, and our humanity is compatible with his divinity. This is why the Gnostic rejection of Christ’s humanity is so problematic.
The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony: We often worry about having more faith and needing to somehow keep our faith alive. And yet God has poured His testimony into our hearts. We know God at the cores of our beings and nothing can interrupt this.
Eternal life: God’s testimony is that all who believe have eternal life. This means that we can’t lose our salvation. We may feel like we lost our salvation, but our salvation is not based on our emotions. Our salvation is based on God’s testimony. There is no eternal life apart from Christ. Salvation is not a ticket to heaven or a thing: Salvation is the Son of God. If we have the Person of Christ living within us, then we have salvation.
