Our faith is based on the Spirit’s testimony

1 John 5:6 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. Our faith is based on truth, on reality. John wrote this verse as a direct refutation of what the Gnostics were teaching, namely, that Jesus was naturally born to Joseph and Mary and that the spirit of Christ came on Him at His baptism (water) and then departed from Him before He died on the cross (blood). John wrote that the testimony of the Holy Spirit came through His baptism (water) when God testified from heaven, “You are my beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased” (Mark 1:11). The Holy Spirit also testified that Jesus was God’s son through His death (that is the blood). The meaning is that Jesus was God in a human body from the beginning to the end. He went through both baptism, God identifying Him with man as His Son, and the shedding of blood in His substitutionary death for our sins. John was writing to say that faith which is born of God and that overcomes the world is based on real world events. The implication is clear. Our faith isn’t based on man-made constructs. It’s not based on a myth or fiction. The Christ isn’t a theological idea or a spirit that descended on Jesus for a period of time. The Spirit has testified that Jesus is God’s human-born son. He is the reality of God in the flesh. The children of God not only believe because of the witness of God at His baptism and His death, but also on the testimony of the Holy Spirit within them regarding Jesus. That is the faith that overcomes the world and that empowers them to love in His name. I hope you know this experience, this reality. If you are living to love with Jesus, you believe that Jesus was God when He was baptized and when He bled and died on the cross. That reality is your hope of salvation and glory. Let us rejoice today that God has given us His Spirit so we could believe in Jesus and live to love with Him.