WEDNESDAY 29th
1 John 5:6-12
V11-12 ‘And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.’
The heading in the ESV for these few verses is ‘Testimony concerning the Son of God’.
John has already said that what he has written is based upon what he and the other disciples had seen and heard, here in these verses he talks about the testimony that is from the Spirit, the water and the blood. In his gospel John had recorded that Jesus had promised the Holy Spirit to come to be alongside the disciples, and that when he came he would bear witness about Jesus and would lead the disciples in truth. (John 15:26-27, John 16:13)
But beside the testimony or witness of the Spirit there was the witness of both water and blood. Scholars seem to agree that this is talking about the witness or testimony of Jesus baptism in water and of the shedding of his blood. Scripture records that at his baptism, God spoke from heaven confirming that Jesus was his beloved Son, and then when it came to the testimony of his blood, we know that John has already told us the shedding of his blood was to be as a propitiation for our sin, thus making it possible for man to be reconciled back to God, but the blood testimony must also include his resurrection for the sacrifice Christ made would only be effectual if it meant that we would not only be forgiven of our sin but would be made alive again and be recipients of eternal life, and the resurrection of Jesus demonstrated his power over death and his ability to grant eternal life.
Thus John concludes that this is the testimony, ‘God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son’. To everyone who is reading this devotion today, I say very clearly that you can only have eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ. I declare this as fact, not because I have chosen to make it up as some notion, but because it is the very testimony of God himself, revealed in his word which is the word of truth, it is as clear as what verse 12 says, ‘Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.’
You may have heard of it this way, NO Jesus, NO life, KNOW Jesus, KNOW life.
There is no other way to the Father, there is no other way to obtain eternal salvation, there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
Today if you are trusting in any other way to get to heaven rather than to trust in what Jesus Christ has done for mankind at Calvary, you will never, ever arrive there. Today you must come and acknowledge Jesus, believe that he is the One who John has testified about and place your faith and trust in him.