Faith-Testimony-Life (John 5:4-12)
Here John arrives (again) at the last of his qualities of the Children of God. Just as those who walk in the light, the children of God keep the faith. They stick to the truth that they received.
And the truth is that it is simple. John has just said that the commands of Christ are not burdensome. The truth of His story isn’t either. Instead of a long list of philosophical ideas and rules of behavior, “the Faith” here is the simple truth the Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The core of orthodox Christianity is the truth that Jesus is the Messiah. He is fully man and fully God. He is the only way to a restored relationship with God.
There is a bit here that is hard for us to fully explain in our context. Whatever John precisely meant with the water and the blood talk was apparently clear enough to his readers that he didn’t feel the need to expand on this shorthand. But what is clear is that the Gospel of John is a testimony about Jesus that serves as prove to his claims. And, if that is not enough, John reminds us that his story is corroborated and affirmed by the Spirit of God Himself in his ministry of inspiration.
So there is a nice flow here as John describes the fidelity to “the faith” of the Children of God. The faith is attested to by the testimony. The Children of God, in staying true to the teaching they have received, share in that testimony. To trust in the witness is to participate in that witness. We carry the testimony in our own stories with the Gospel. And that testimony is what leads us—as well as those who hear and believe—to life.
And the truth is that it is simple. John has just said that the commands of Christ are not burdensome. The truth of His story isn’t either. Instead of a long list of philosophical ideas and rules of behavior, “the Faith” here is the simple truth the Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The core of orthodox Christianity is the truth that Jesus is the Messiah. He is fully man and fully God. He is the only way to a restored relationship with God.
There is a bit here that is hard for us to fully explain in our context. Whatever John precisely meant with the water and the blood talk was apparently clear enough to his readers that he didn’t feel the need to expand on this shorthand. But what is clear is that the Gospel of John is a testimony about Jesus that serves as prove to his claims. And, if that is not enough, John reminds us that his story is corroborated and affirmed by the Spirit of God Himself in his ministry of inspiration.
So there is a nice flow here as John describes the fidelity to “the faith” of the Children of God. The faith is attested to by the testimony. The Children of God, in staying true to the teaching they have received, share in that testimony. To trust in the witness is to participate in that witness. We carry the testimony in our own stories with the Gospel. And that testimony is what leads us—as well as those who hear and believe—to life.
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