I J ohn 4:14. The subjective experi ence of the Spirit’s power is not to be considered in isolation; it con firms the objective fact of the Son’s coming to earth. This, John says, we have seen. He uses the same word as in verse 12. God in Himself no man has seen, but we have seen the Son whom He has sent. “The word must here refer to the actual eye witnesses of the life of Jesus on earth” (Brooke). It is because we have seen that we can and do testify. The unity of these two witnesses to the truth is in the Father, for there is reference in these verses to the three Persons of the Trinity. It has been the Father’s gracious purpose both to send His Son into the world as Saviour and to send His Spirit into our hearts as witness (cf. Gal. 4:4- 6). Christianity certainty rests both on the objective historical fact of the Son’s mission and on the sub jective inward experience of the Spirt’s witness. Another way of put ting it is that there are two wit nesses — the apostles (14) and the Holy Spirit (13). Cf. John 15:26, 27 and Acts 5:32. We must not di vorce what God has purposed to unite. Oliver s ta te s : “Much Christian truth is contained in the straight forward affirmation of this verse. Here is the essence of the gospel. The world means sinful society, estranged from God and under the dominion of the evil one (cf. v. 19). Its urgent need was to be rescued from sin and Satan. And the Father ‘so loved the world’ (John 3:16) that He sent the Son, His dear and only Son, to be its Saviour. The perfect tense of the verb (apestalken, lit. ‘has sen t’) points not just to the historical event of the sending, but to the purpose 30
and result of it, namely the salva tion of the world. Further, within this statement of the gospel all three of the apostle’s tests are implicitly contained, doctrinal (it was the Son Himself whom the Father sent), so cial (God’s love is clearly seen in the sending of His son, (9, 10, 16), thus obliging us to love each other) and ethical (if Christ came to be our Saviour, we must forsake the sins from which He came to save us). It is clear, then, that John’s tests are not arbitrary. He has not made a random selection. They arise inexor ably from the central Christian reve lation. The mission of Christ mani fests both His divine Person, God’s great love and our moral duty. Once grasp the truth of verse 14, and we shall confess Christ, love one another and keep the commandments.” Vine, declares: (15) “Of these three tests it is the doctrinal one on which John now lays emphasis (cf. 2 :23, 4 :2). The aorist tense (homolo- gese) cannot be rendered precisely in English. John is referring neither to a future confession (AV, RV, shall confess), nor to a present and con tinuing confession (‘confesses,’ RSV; ‘acknowledges,’ NEB) but to a single and decisive public confession, the time of which is unspecified. But how do men come thus to acknowl edge the deity of Jesus? The apos tolic testimony is necessary (14) but it does not compel assent. It is by the Spirit of God that men confess that Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh (4 :2). Or, as he puts the same truth here, whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God thereby gives evidence of the fact that God dwell- eth in Him, and He in God. As we have pointed out above, the witness of the apostles must be supplement
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online