Putnam Church Message – 10/26/2025

 Last week, we continued through the letter of 1 John and explored how to have “A Confident Life: The Supremacy of Love.”

This week, we continue through the letter of 1 John, and we will explore how to have “A Confident Life: Believers, Overcomers, and Witnesses” from 1 John 5:1-12 from the NIV, which is found on page 1903 of your Pew Bibles.

Believers are identified by various titles throughout Scripture. We’re called Christians, disciples, followers, saints, sheep, salt, light, ambassadors for Christ, members of the body of Christ, royal priests, aliens, strangers, servants of Christ, and the people of God, among other titles. Like a jeweler turning a diamond under a bright light, each designation reveals another facet of our character, role, position, or privilege.

Near the end of his letter, John introduces two more titles for believers and also mentions, in this section, the three witnesses who testify in complete agreement regarding God’s Son. All of this will help us deepen our understanding of what it means to be part of God’s forever family. As we arrive at the last two verses in this section, we come to one of the most explicit statements of the gospel found in the entire Word of God.

Approaching the end of his ministry, the apostle John penned the fourth Gospel with an evangelistic purpose: that his readers would believe,/ commit to,/ trust in,/ and rely on the person and work of Jesus Christ/ as their sole means of salvation. When that same apostle, about that same time, wrote 1 John, the assumption was that his readers had already embraced Christ with genuine faith. They believed that Jesus is the God-man, the promised Messiah, who died for their sins and rose from the dead. This faith in Jesus as the Christ (5:1) became the epicenter for a blast wave of spiritual blessings that radiated outward. We see these spiritual blessings in four statements about believers.

First, the believer is “born of God” (5:1). To understand this expression, we need to look at the third chapter of John’s Gospel, when Jesus told Nicodemus, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again,[a] you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” (John 3:3). Being “born again” means to be “born of the Spirit” (John 3:5–6, 8). Peter reflected on Jesus’ teaching regarding this spiritual new birth when he wrote, in his first letter, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead.” (1 Pet. 1:3). Peter went on to say, “For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.” (1 Pet. 1:23).

Second, the born-again believer enters into a loving relationship with the Father (1 Jn. 5:1). As those born again by the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ, we are spiritual children of God, adopted into His forever family. As such, the Spirit within us leads us to love God the Father. In Galatians 4:6, Paul wrote, And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” The Aramaic word Abba is a term of familiar affection for the head of the household. Thus, Paul's use of it emphasizes that we have become God’s children and enjoy an intimate relationship with Him.

Our new relationship as children of God is more than a mere position; it’s also an experience. Not only did God declare us righteous and, as it were, sign the legal documents to call us His children, He also gave us His Spirit to seal our sonship. By virtue of our being in union with Christ and by participating—through adoption—in Christ’s relationship of sonship with the Father, we, too, can call God “Abba” and have a personal, family relationship with God through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:15).

Third, our loving family relationship with the Father leads to a loving family relationship with fellow children of God (1 Jn. 5:1–2a). John says that whoever loves the Father will also love their spiritual siblings (5:1), the fellow “children of God” (5:2). To John, it’s inconceivable that one would abide in a loving family relationship with God the Father as an adopted child and despise their brothers and sisters in Christ, especially since God commanded that we love one another.

Fourth, our loving family relationship with God and one another leads us to obey His commands joyfully (5:2b–3). These commands are nothing more or less than the commands upon which the whole Law hangs.

37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matt. 22:37–40)

These two commands go together like two sides of a sheet of paper; without one, it’s impossible to have the other. They are inseparable.

Note that the commands of God are “not burdensome.” The Greek word translated as “burdensome” here is barys. This term is used when Jesus said of the Pharisees, “They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden.” (Matt. 23:4). When motivated by a love enabled by the Spirit, the commands of God are not a burden but a joy. They flow from a heart filled with love for the Father and love for His spiritual children.

John begins 5:4 with a connective “for,” meaning “because.” He explains why obedience to God’s commands to love Him and love others is not unbearable or irksome: because the man or woman who is born again “defeats this evil world” (5:4). The verb translated as “defeat” is nikaō, which can also mean “to conquer.” Here John uses it to refer to those who overcome Satan and the world—including its debilitating deceptions and damaging temptations—through the inner work of the Holy Spirit by faith in Christ. He makes this clear in 5:4: “For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.”

Notice it isn’t any good work or personal perseverance that overcomes the world, but it’s our faith. Faith in what? In the finished work of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. John makes this abundantly clear, leaving no room for a misunderstanding that we do not overcome the world by even one ounce of our own exerted strength: “And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.” (5:5).

The new birth—by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone—removes us from the ranks of the world and places us into God’s family. In that new relationship, which comes solely by grace through faith, we have been given the possibility of keeping God's command to love. We’ve been equipped with an inner enablement. God not only gives us the commands, but He also works in us to observe them by the power of the Holy Spirit. No wonder Paul can exclaim, Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?  37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. (Rom. 8:35, 37).

We believe in Christ and have been united with Him. We’ve become children of the same heavenly Father that Jesus Himself called “Abba”! We’re empowered by the same Spirit who empowered Christ throughout His earthly ministry. Yet as John has already made clear in this book, there were false teachers in the first century—as there are in the twenty-first century—who believe blasphemous things about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They doubt the holiness of God. They deny the deity of Christ. They scoff at the idea that Jesus’ death could pay the penalty for our sins. They call the resurrection of Jesus a myth. And they reduce the Holy Spirit to the best of human nature, an inner voice that inspires all of us.  (Bulletin)

Knowing that God’s children will face detractors and deceivers, John turns to Jesus and presents three proofs (witnesses) that verify Christ’s divine role. These are three things John himself witnessed decades earlier. He says that Jesus Christ came “by water and blood” (1 Jn. 5:6). Along with the water and blood, the Spirit Himself testifies, making three things that stand in complete agreement with one another regarding the person and work of Christ— So we have these three witnesses[c]— 8 the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and all three agree (5:7–8).

At this point, you may be scratching your head, wondering what he is talking about. Though different people have interpreted “the Spirit and the water and the blood” in various ways, let me suggest what I think are the most likely meanings of John’s language here, and why. The apostle John was, after all, an eyewitness to John the Baptist’s ministry. In fact, I’m convinced that the apostle John was one of the two disciples of John the Baptist mentioned in John 1:35-37, the other being Andrew: The following day John was again standing with two of his disciples. 36 As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared, “Look! There is the Lamb of God!” 37 When John’s two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus.

As an original disciple of John the Baptist, the apostle John would have likely been present at Jesus’ baptism just the day before. In any case, he certainly would have heard John the Baptist’s testimony concerning the baptism of Jesus: 32 Then John testified, “I saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove from heaven and resting upon him. 33 I didn’t know he was the one, but when God sent me to baptize with water, he told me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit descend and rest is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I saw this happen to Jesus, so I testify that he is the Chosen One of God.[a]” (John 1:32–34). Not only did the Spirit alight upon Jesus at His baptism in a visible form, but the Spirit also continued to work astonishing miracles during Jesus’ ministry. The apostle John, of course, was present for most of these proofs of Jesus’ divine sonship.

So, the apostle John had ample opportunity to hear the Spirit's testimony. But he also witnessed what he calls the testimony of “the water” (1 Jn. 5:6–8). Here again, I believe, is a reference to Jesus’ baptism. But this time, John focuses on a different aspect of that event, as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. When the Spirit descended upon Jesus while He was in the water, And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.” (Matt. 3:17). This powerful testimony from heaven—an audible voice from God the Father—would have left a lifelong impact on the apostle John. It’s intriguing to recall that the apostle John was also one of the three handpicked disciples to witness the transfiguration of Jesus But even as he spoke, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy. Listen to him.” (Matt. 17:5). John would have associated the heavenly voice—at the water of baptism and in the cloud on the Mount of Transfiguration—as the unimpeachable testimony of God the Father regarding the divine sonship of Jesus.

This then brings us to the testimony of the “blood” (1 Jn. 5:6–8). I think “blood” here clearly points to Jesus’ death on the cross; this is my blood, which confirms the covenant[a] between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many. (Matt. 26:28). John was there when Jesus uttered those prophetic words at the Last Supper. He was there, at the cross, when Jesus was crucified (John 19:25–27). And in his Gospel, he emphasized the point that when one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, “immediately blood and water flowed out” (John 19:34-35).

What’s significant about John’s eyewitness testimony concerning the blood and water pouring from Jesus’ side? Remember that at the time of the writing of 1 John, the false teachers known as Docetists had been asserting that Jesus was just a phantom, that He didn’t really have a body; or, if He did have a body of some sort, He didn’t really die. Death would have been unbecoming of a deity. However, the atoning death of Christ is so central to the whole Christian faith that the apostle John underscored the fact that Jesus did, in fact, die a real, physical death: “This report is from an eyewitness giving an accurate account. He speaks the truth so that you also may continue to believe. [a]” (John 19:35).

Even here, John appeals also to the testimony of the Holy Spirit by referring to Spirit-inspired Scripture fulfilled at the cross: These things happened in fulfillment of the Scriptures that say, “Not one of his bones will be broken,”[a] 37 and “They will look on the one they pierced.”[b] (John 19:36–37). Thus, the testimony of Jesus Himself through His bloody suffering and death proved that He was the long-awaited Messiah who would die for sins.

Not only this, but when Jesus died, the surrounding region also experienced wondrous signs that this was no mere mortal who succumbed to death. A deep darkness fell over the land, a great earthquake shook the region, and the veil of the temple was torn (Matt.