The Threefold Witness

“For they that bear witness are three, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and the three agree in one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which He has witnessed concerning His Son.” 1 John 5: 8, 9.
While recalling, in connection with this passage, the three aspects in which we have found the work and effect of redemption presented in the types of the Old Testament, we would now insist specially on the great truth, that the object of all testimony is CHRIST. It is to Him, not to us, God bears witness, when He would establish’ our hearts before Himself in the full blessing of the revelation He has made to us. The ground of all divine assurance in the soul is “the witness of God which He has witnessed concerning His Son.” Whatever side of the truth may be before us-that which is external, the work done for us, or that which is internal, operated in us by the Spirit of God-the divine “witness” is borne to Christ, and to Him alone. This is important, in order that the believer may be established before God in peace that cannot be shaken or disturbed. If we consider ourselves, nothing is yet perfect even in the most advanced Christian. Paul said, “Not that I have already obtained, or am already perfected; but I pursue, if also I may get possession of it.” (Phil. 3:12) If, then, our practical state were the ground of our assurance, even the blessed apostle himself would not have had it. But he says elsewhere, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep for that day the deposit I have entrusted to Him “(2 Tim. 1:12) Christ was ever the foundation of his confidence towards God.
“In Christ” the Christian enjoys a standing absolutely perfect before God, while he waits for the moment when his knowledge will be perfect also, when he sees Jesus as He is. Everything in Christ is perfect, and His redeeming work is once and forever completed. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it. Having died too, He died once for all to sin; but in that He liveth, He liveth to God. He has nothing more to do with sin. Everything connected with it was fully settled before God when He died on the cross, and His precious blood was shed. He rose from among the dead on the third day, and henceforth His life in resurrection represents the perfect position in which God sets all those who by His death have been redeemed and brought to Him in holiness and righteousness.
It is the character of this new position we have now to consider; and surely it is the first thing a heart truly exercised in God’s presence feels the need of laying hold of but let us not forget that it is in Christ we learn it, just as we find that Christ is the key for understanding all the types of the Old Testament. What is then the relationship with God into which we are brought as a direct consequence of the redemption Christ has wrought? God bears witness to what Christ is personally His Son, and tells us that “He that hath the Son hath life.” He sends His Holy Spirit-” the Spirit of His Son”-into the heart of those whom He has brought to Himself in order to make this relationship good in their souls individually. And thus He more than answers the need of the awakened soul. But it is to Christ, not to us, that the witness is borne. It is in Him we learn what it means to be a son of God.
We read in the first chapter of the gospel of John, “To as many as received Him” (that is, Christ), “to them gave He the right to be children of God.” And so, too, the first message the Lord Jesus sent to His disciples after His resurrection presents this new relationship as a now accomplished fact, because of His work being finished. He had died and was risen, and says to Mary Magdalene, “Go to my brethren, and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.” (John 20:17) He puts them in the position and relationship in which He Himself stood. God takes us to be His children-His sons and daughters.” Christ suffered in order that we might receive the adoption, in order that He might carry out and make true as regards us personally the revelation He brought us from God; that is, that He is THE FATHER. Christ was the Son essentially; but in order that I, a poor ruined sinner, may know God as the Father, I must be His child, and for that redemption was necessary. God revealed Himself as “the Father “in Christ. The Lord says, “I am come in my Father’s name.” And again, “If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also.” (John 5:43; 14:7) But He so revealed Himself that we might receive the revelation and be brought personally to enjoy it. Although this testimony is so simple and positive in the word of God, our hearts are very slow to receive it. Like the prodigal son, after he had come to himself and was on his way back to the father’s house, we think the position of a hired servant would suit us better than that of a son. Provided God assures to us food for the body and raiment to put on, we would be content and ready, like Jacob at Bethel, to take Him to be our God. That comes from thinking of ourselves rather than of Him. It is what happens when an upright soul is occupied with itself. It can get no relief from itself either, but is overwhelmed with the feeling of its own wretchedness, and never thinks of turning to God to find out what He can do, not for our sakes, but for Christ’s sake, and for His own glory. God has other thoughts about us. He will make us His servants, it is true, but first of all He makes us “sons.” A servant of God is surely the highest title for a creature as to his activity in this world. Christ was the perfect Servant, a divine Example for all who come to God by Him; but He was so because He was THE SON. And we can only know this kind of service on the condition of enjoying first of all “the adoption.”
It is in Christ we learn what it is to be a child of God. Christ manifested as Son of God in this world that eternal life which He came to communicate to us. He was it, and He says, “I am come that they might have life.” He brings us into the relationship with the Father, of which He was personally the expression. “No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” “In Him we have contemplated a glory as of an only-begotten with the Father.” (John 1:14,18) But that is not all. Christ said to His disciples, “I ascend.” He has gone up to the Father, and is seated at His right hand, already anointed with the oil of gladness in the presence of God, where is “fullness of joy.” And the very same scripture which speaks of this mentions that, being thus crowned, He has “companions” whom God associates with Him. He is above them, of course, but they are associated with Him who is in that place of glory, and consequently they can look on to the time when they too shall be there with Him. They are the “many sons” whom it pleases God to bring unto glory the children that Christ came to gather out and bring together in one, while awaiting the time when they shall see the Savior as He is, and be changed into His likeness.
(See Heb. 2:9,10; 1:9; John 17:24; Phil. 3:20,21) He is “above” His fellows in every sense. He has entered the first into the glory, while they are still in this world witnessing and suffering for Him in the place where He was rejected. But His presence up there as MAN has opened heaven to “men,” and already prepared a place in the Father’s house for all who believe in Him It is His presence there as Man in the glory which has prepared the place for them; and He has sent down the Holy Ghost from the Father in order to reveal to us practically what sonship is, and make us enjoy it, giving us to cry, “Abba, Father.” The Holy Ghost directs our hearts to Christ, and occupies us with Him, teaching us in His person what sonship is, that we may enjoy individually the “adoption” we have received.
Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. He is also the first-born from among the dead, and as such He opens to us the door of adoption, that we may participate with Him in the blessings resulting from His finished work. Had He not died, He would have remained alone in His personal glory, and there would have been no possibility of our being associated with Him Adoption is a consequence of redemption, as we know from Gal. 4:5. It was as risen from the dead that Jesus announced to His disciples the blessed relationship into which His atoning sacrifice had brought them, “My Father and your Father.” And when He had gone up into glory, God sent the Holy Spirit to unite us to Christ in the glory. It is “the Spirit of His Son.” (Gal. 4:6) God associates us thus with His own Son, who is the first-born among many brethren, so that His title of “first-born” might be given to us with Him, and that we might thus form the assembly of the first-born who are registered in heaven. (Heb. 12:23) He makes too His heirs joint-heirs with Christ. This is the fruit of redemption we have already seen in type, when considering the deliverance of the people of Israel from the land of Egypt, and the consecration of the firstborn to God. In the type we see the moral principle; in the person of Christ glorified we see the accomplishment of the marvelous work of redemption; and the Holy Spirit, who unites the believer to Christ in the glory, shows us in Him the image, the perfect model after God’s own thought, of the redeemed family that God is going to bring to the glory where Christ is already.
“When we see Him as He is we shall be like Him; for as we have borne the image of the one made of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly One.” (1 John 3:2; 1 Cor. 15:49) It is, however, needful that another testimony should complete that which we have just been considering; it is needful for our hearts, and that we may have a good conscience in the presence of God; it is needful also in order that we may enjoy really the witness of the Spirit as to our adoption. For how could we freely and happily take the place of a child in relationship with our Father in heaven, if we had not received from Him a nature which suits His perfect holiness, and if we had not the assurance that all our sins are blotted out? But He gives us this nature, a nature capable of enjoying Him; He gives us this assurance too, and both of them in the person of the CHRIST; for it is to Christ He ever bears witness.
The special testimony of which we speak was given the moment after He had accomplished the work of redemption and yielded up His Spirit to His Father. “This is He that came by water and by blood, Jesus the Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, for the Spirit is truth.” (1 John 5:6) The blood and the water which flowed from the pierced side of a dead Christ are the double witness of the efficacy of His work for us. (John 19:34,35)
“The blood” speaks of divine justification, which God makes ours in virtue of the purification of sins having been already made. He forgives them; for “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son purifies from all sin.” He bore our sins in His own body on the tree.
“The water” is the expression of the purifying power of the death of Christ as applied to our hearts and lives by the word of God. We need to have our hearts “purified by faith” (Acts 15:9) in order that we may stand before God in holiness. God places us first of all in a position of absolute holiness in virtue of the sacrifice of Christ (Heb. 10:10,14); and then the Spirit presents Christ to us in the word, so that we may feed upon Him, and especially on His death, in order to maintain in us practical holiness for the daily walk, and accomplish in us that growth in grace and in the knowledge of God which alone renders this holiness possible, and perfects it in His fear and in communion with Him. (2 Cor. 7:1) On the one hand we read, that being justified by faith, by the blood of Christ, we have peace with God; on the other, in virtue of redemption it is said that “both He that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; “ they are identified in God’s sight. (Rom. 5:1,9; Heb. 2:11)
Here then are “the three that bear witness, the Spirit and the water and the. blood,” and we see how they agree in one. The Spirit sets before us the person of the Son of God, and the efficacy of His work. God bears witness to HIS SON. And therefore he who receives this testimony enjoys solid assurance in his soul, divine certainty that nothing can shake. He has confidence towards God. In the person of the. Son of God we see what it is to be a son in Him; we learn practically what sonship means. By His death this relationship has become possible for us, and God in His grace introduces us there even now, while waiting for the glory, giving us a “good conscience “by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He who believes in Jesus is a child of God. One becomes so in believing. (Gal. 3:26) But then this relationship is inseparable from the standing of absolute holiness in which the death of Christ places us, and in which we have to “keep the feast with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth “in view of the rest of God which awaits us.
We have to walk with Him in a way that is in harmony with His holiness and righteousness, “worthy of Him who has called us to His own kingdom and glory.” Being completely delivered from the burden of our sins through Christ’s work, we receive from Him “a good conscience,” and the heart is thus made free to enjoy communion with God, and learn that He dwells with us. (Eph. 2:22) For He Himself assures us that the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin; and He receives us in favor according to the full value in His sight of this precious blood. It is written, “Ye who once were afar off are brought nigh by the blood of Christ;” and again, “His grace wherein He has taken us into favor in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through His blood.” (Eph. 1:7;2. 13) It is well to add a remark as to the order in which the truths of holiness and righteousness are presented in the Word and applied to us practically. Purification, of which the figure is “water”-that is, the word of God divinely applied to the heart and the conscience-is that which is required by the holiness of God with whom we have to do. Justification, on the other hand, is the pressing need of the awakened soul as soon as it finds itself in God’s presence, having been brought there by His grace. Now we are justified by the “blood” of Christ. (Rom. 5:9) Both of these things are found together in the death of Christ surely; but when we come to the practical teaching of Scripture it is evident that what refers more especially to God must have the first place; that is to say, the sanctification of the person precedes justification. We have found it so in the types we have been considering, and it comes out more remarkably still perhaps in the ordinances for the consecration of the priests. (Lev. 8: 6, 30) They are washed before they receive the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifice. The washing is the first act; the sprinkling of the blood and oil the last. The epistles teach us the same moral order. (1 Cor. 6:11; 2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2)
But again, we must not forget to distinguish carefully between the perfect standing God gives us in virtue of the sacrifice of Christ, and the progress in practical holiness every saint makes in growing in the knowledge of God. But this progress is only effectuated in proportion as we lay hold more and more simply and really of the practical application of the death of Christ to our entire being, the Holy Spirit occupying us with Him who is now in the glory, and who is about to come to take us to Himself into the Father’s house, where His presence as Man has already prepared us a place.
W. J. L.
The Epistle to the Hebrews
But God does not leave His people to get on as best they can. He has provided His word, living, and powerful, which can do what the keenest blade cannot, pierce even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (12, 13) Thus by the Word the believer may detect the springs of his actions, and see all in the light of the divine presence; “for all things are naked and opened to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” But more is wanted than the searching and dissecting action of the Word. We need grace for the wilderness walk. Now this the High Priest procures, so the writer next dwells (4:14-8: 13) on the present service of the High Priest, before dwelling on the sacrifice and offering up of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The grace needed the High Priest procures. Able to succor them that are tempted (2: 18), He is also able to sympathize with His people, having been in all points tempted like as they are-sin apart. He knows what is needed, and intercedes for us with God, that we coming to the throne of grace may reap the fruit of His intercession by receiving mercy and seasonable help. (4: 14-16) Having then a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, i.e. has gone up to the throne, Jesus, Son of God, let us hold fast the confession. A great High Priest He is called. Aaron was high priest. Jesus, the Son of God, is greater. The Hebrews then were in this no losers by embracing Christianity. The Jews might boast of the Aaronic line of priesthood; these Hebrews could say, “The Son of God is our High Priest.”
But this new priesthood, centered in Him who is in heaven, must be shown to be really of God, else none of those on whose behalf the Aaronic priesthood was instituted would be authorized to turn away from it. So Psa. 110 is quoted to prove it. The One who called Him His Son is the One who addressed Him as Priest after the order of Melchizedek. And He has passed through death, having learned, too, obedience by the things which He suffered. A High Priest who first passed through death, having learned obedience by what He suffered, and having experienced deliverance by God out of the deepest trials, who among the sons of Aaron could be compared with Him for fitness to understand the difficulties of the people, and to sympathize with each and all in their need? Each year that Aaron lived he might be better able to understand the personal difficulties of the people. But the Lord had learned them all, and fully, ere He entered on His office of High Priest. What encouragement was there in this for the saints in trial!
But the apostle could have unfolded more had the spiritual state of the Hebrews not hindered it. They had become γεγόνατε, dull of hearing, needing to be taught the elements of the beginning of the oracles of God, when for the time they ought to have been able to teach others; and they had become such as had need of milk, and not of solid food. They had become this, let the reader observe. It was not the condition in which the gospel had found them. It was the condition into which they had got through not going on unto perfection; i.e. full growth.
To that the sacred writer would lead them. The word of the beginning of Christ, truth common to Jews and Christians, was not all that God was teaching, nor would that establish souls. He would therefore pass on from it to perfection; i.e. what belonged to full growth (6:1-3), not now occupying himself with such as had enjoyed every advantage a professor could share in without the heart being really changed. (4-8) Fruitfulness through the truth working in power was what was desired, as the illustration of the ground shows us, and explains for any that need it, the real bearing of verses 4-6.
Two plots of ground receiving in common rain from heaven-the one fruitful, producing herbs meet for him by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God; the other, not requiting the labor bestowed upon it, and producing only briers and thorns, is found worthless, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. So of those called Christians. All enjoying the same outward advantages, those really converted are fruitful, the rest, mere professors, are unfruitful. With such, if they fall away, he could do nothing. They had heard, and had professed to receive, all Christian teaching. These then he would leave, addressing himself to those to whom he was writing, who had given evidence of the reality of their faith. (9, 10) Yet they needed stirring up to show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end, and to imitate those who through faith and patience have been inheritors of the promises. Now all was really secure, God’s promise and God’s oath made that certain, and the entrance of the forerunner, Jesus, within the veil made it plain. (11-20)
And He is High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. On the value of this for the saints the writer would now insist (7), reminding them of Melchizedek’s history and of Abraham’s interview with him (Gen. 14); and bow the patriarch, by giving him tithes of all, and by receiving his blessing, acknowledged his superiority. Hence a priesthood after this order must be more excellent than one after the Aaronic order; for, first, Levi, as it were, paid tithes to Melchizedek as being in the loins of Abraham (9, 10); second, the institution of this order of priesthood, after the induction of Aaron and of his sons into their priesthood, indicates a setting aside of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof (for the law made nothing perfect), and the bringing in of a better hope by the which we draw nigh to God (18, 19); third, the Lord was made priest by oath, which Aaron and his sons never were (20-22); and lastly, He has, like Melchizedek of old, an unchangeable priesthood (23, 24), whence He is able also to save completely those who approach by Him to God, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Further, He who is our High Priest has sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the holy places, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. He is also mediator of a better covenant, the new covenant, established on the footing of better promises. (8)
Now what could Judaism offer in comparison with all this? Who among the tribe of Levi could present such credentials, and provide what is needed for the wilderness path, as He who, uniting the functions of Moses and Aaron in His own person, was addressed by God as High Priest after the order of Melchizedek?
A minister of the holy places and of the true tabernacle the Lord is. So we read next of the service which He has performed inside the veil. Having dwelt on His present priestly service, as meeting what the saints needed in their pathway on earth, the writer now proceeds to point out the superiority of the Lord’s sacrifice of Himself above all that the Mosaic ritual could provide, by the shedding of His blood (9), and the excellency of the sacrifice of Himself. (10)
There was the holiest on earth, and at the date of this epistle the Mosaic ritual was still carried on. There is the sanctuary on high, of which this epistle treats. Into the former the High Priest went alone once every year with the blood of bulls and of goats.
Into the latter the Lord Jesus Christ, the High Priest of good things to come, has entered by His own blood, and remains there, having found eternal redemption. Now blood had a prominent and important place in the ritual of old; so on the surpassing excellency of the blood of Christ we are taught to dwell. It purges the conscience from dead works to serve the living God. By His death redemption of the sins that were under the first covenant is effected, that they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. By His blood too forgiveness is procured; on it the new covenant will rest, and the heavenly things themselves are purged with better sacrifices than any earth could have provided. For into heaven itself has He entered now to appear in the presence of God for us. Not to offer Himself afresh, for that He did once when manifested here for the putting away of sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And He will appear again the second time to them that look for Him without sin unto salvation.
Once He has suffered, never to repeat it. His death was enough. By God’s will believers are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (10: 10) By His one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified (14), and has sat down in token that all has been done in the sanctuary that He intended and came to do. Thus we learn what God thinks of the sacrifice, since we are sanctified by it. We see what the Lord thinks of it, since He has sat down, never to renew it. And the Holy Ghost attests its sufficiency, as He tells us by the prophet (Jer. 31:34) that the sins and iniquities of the redeemed people God will remember no more. Hence there can be no more offering for sin, and believers have boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, the new and living way, which He has consecrated for us through the veil; that is, His flesh. And having a great priest over the house of God, we are to approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, sprinkled as to our hearts from an evil conscience, and washed as to our bodies with pure water, holding fast the confession of hope without wavering, caring for one another, assembling together, and exhorting one the other as we see the day approaching. The Lord will come. The just shall live by faith, but in one who draws back God will have no pleasure. (15-39)
Hereupon we are reminded how the worthies of old walked by faith (xi), the order in which they appeared on the scene illustrating the life of faith for the Christian. With what interest a Hebrew must have read this portion of the epistle, learning from it how God had been ordering the appearance on earth of person after person herein mentioned in pursuance of a design which has now been unfolded.
Commencing with a statement of what faith is, the substantiating of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, we learn that it takes God at His word (11: 3), and by it the person connected with the sacrifice, as illustrated in the case of Abel, is accepted before God. Then in one of two positions will the saint be found, either, like Enoch, to be taken away ere the judgment comes; or, like Noah, to be preserved on earth through it. Christians will be in this like Enoch, the godly remnant of the earthly people like Noah. But if we stand accepted in connection with the sacrifice, awaiting the being caught up to be with Christ, we are made at once pilgrims here, whose home is elsewhere. Hence faith, for the pilgrimage walk, illustrated in the lives of the patriarchs, is next set before us. They looked for a city prepared for them by God (10). Abraham by counting on the fulfillment of his hopes in the heir raised, as it were, from the dead (17-19); Isaac by blessing Jacob and Esau, showing that the inheritance does not run in the order of nature (20); Jacob by blessing both the sons of Joseph, intimating that the double portion belongs to him who was rejected of his brethren (21), to be made good in the fullest way to the Lord, who will have heaven and earth as His inheritance; and Joseph by giving commandment concerning his bones (22), all tell us of the proper expectation and desire of the saints-the full deliverance of God’s people, coupled with the wish to rest in the portion allotted them by God.
But if there is the pilgrimage walk, there will also be conflict. So illustrations of faith in times of conflict next come; yet all in the order of history (23-31), followed by examples of the life of faith in times of declension (32-34), and in times of persecution. (35-40) Yet encouraging as this exposition of Old Testament times must have been, no one of these worthies could be a perfect example for them or for us. One only of all who have walked on earth is fitted to be that, even Jesus, the Leader and Perfecter of the faith, who, having endured the cross, despising the shame, is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (12:1-3) From Old Testament history we learn that the walk of faith was nothing new. In the Lord Jesus’ walk on earth we have the perfect pattern of it, and in His exaltation we see where the road will surely lead us.
Exhortations then, follow, and encouragements, first by reminding them that their sufferings were a proof that they were God’s sons (4-17), and next by telling them to what they had come; viz., above and beyond all Jewish expectation and portion, and above all angelic ranks on high, to God the Judge of all, from whom receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, they were to serve Him acceptably with reverence and godly fear. “For also our God is a consuming fire.”
With further exhortations as to brotherly love, hospitality, remembrance of those in bonds, and marriage; with warnings too against uncleanness and discontent, their leaders who had passed away by death they were called to remember, and to imitate their faith. But if leaders pass away, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. Hence, they were not to be carried away by divers and strange doctrines, but to have the heart established with grace, not with meats, which have not profited those who have been occupied therein. But Christians have an altar, whereof no Jew could eat, as they feed on Him who was the sin-offering, who suffered without the gate. Since, then, that is the case, they must go forth to Him without the camp, bearing His reproach; yet offering the sacrifice of praise to God continually, the fruit of their lips giving thanks to His name; doing good and communicating likewise; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Then, exhorting subjection to their leaders, and asking for an interest in their prayers, and expressing his wishes for them (17-21), the writer closes his letter. What a communication it was! How it opened up the Old Testament, and ministered Christ as Apostle and High Priest, to establish the Hebrews in the doctrines and continued confession of Christianity.
C. E. S.