In the accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion, we find that each Gospel writer mentions different facts about what took place on the cross. Here’s how St. Mark describes Jesus’ death: “Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed His last” (Mark 15:37). But John and Matthew want you to know that Jesus “gave up His Spirit” (Matthew 27:50, John 19:30). And when it came to a spear piercing Jesus’ side, only the Apostle John mentions that.
But John also wants you to know what came out from Jesus after He was speared: blood and water. He wrote: “When the soldiers came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead… one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water” (John 19:33-34).
Jesus didn’t just stop breathing; He gave up His Spirit. He didn’t just suffer and die; He released blood and water from His side. For John, Jesus giving up His Spirit and pouring out blood and water have enormous significance.
But how do we know that? John tells us so, in His first epistle. He wrote:
Jesus Christ: He is the One, who came by water and blood. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And the Spirit is the One, who testifies, for the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and the three are in agreement.
The Spirit, the water, and the blood came out of Jesus while nailed to the cross. But that’s more than just historical fact; John says they are witnesses. To be witnesses, to testify to us, means that they—the Spirit, the water, and the blood—have to come to us today. If they don’t, how then can they testify to us, if they are not here to do so?
And if “witness” or “testimony” wasn’t enough, John uses present-tense verbs in our epistle reading. He wrote, “There are [not “were”] three that testify.” “Are”: That’s present tense. Then he wrote, “If we accept human testimony, God’s testimony is [not “was”] greater, because it is God’s testimony. “It is”: again, that’s present tense. For the Spirit, the water, and the blood to testify to us in the present tense, means that they have to come to us today, bringing those events of Christ on the cross to us today.
So, what’s the Spirit? John tells us. In something that only he recorded in his Gospel, Jesus mentioned that Spirit in today’ Gospel reading. Jesus, speaking to His Apostles, said, “As the Father has apostled me, so also am I sending you” (John 20:21). Then Jesus breathed on them and said: “‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain them, they are retained’” (John 20:23).
Jesus told His first pastors, His Apostles, to forgive sins (and if needed, to retain them) because He had given them the Holy Spirit for such a task. And this Spirit testifies to us today, bringing Jesus’ forgiveness that He earned for us on the cross, through the spoken Word of His pastors. The Spirit testifies to us, in the present tense, here and now, through such spoken forgiveness. We Lutherans call that “absolution.”
The Spirit speaks, giving what He says. The men who speak are but the instruments: It’s the Holy Spirit who’s working and doing. That’s John’s point: The Spirit testifies, bringing us Christ’s forgiveness from the cross, here today, in the present tense.
But John also says the water testifies. And John also tells us what that water is in something that only he recorded in his Gospel. John tells us of Jesus speaking to Nicodemus, in John chapter 3. Jesus said: “I assure you: Unless someone is born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). Then, Jesus was pointing forward to the water of baptism. But John, in his epistle, speaks of the water, of baptism, in the present tense. It testifies to us now.
That’s what Paul says: “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Romans 6:3). The water of baptism comes to us, here and now, in the present tense, giving what Jesus earned for us on the cross. That’s why baptism can save, as the Apostle Peter writes (1 Peter 3:21). That’s why Paul calls baptism a “washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).
But John also says the blood testifies. And John also tells us what that blood is in something that only he recorded in his Gospel. John tells us of Jesus speaking to those whom He had earlier fed with fives loaves and two fish, in John chapter 6. Jesus said, “I assure you: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53). In the same way that Jesus had pointed forward to baptism, He now pointed forward to His Supper. But John, in his epistle, speaks of the blood, of the Lord’s Supper, in the present tense. It testifies to us now.
That’s why the Apostle Paul wrote, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a communion in the blood of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16). Yes! In the Lord’s Supper, we take into our bodies the body and the blood of Jesus, where salvation for us on the cross becomes real in His real presence, here and now, in the present tense.
This triple witness is true because, “it is the Spirit who testifies because the Spirit is [not “was”] the truth” (1 John 5:6). Again, that’s in the present tense. Because the Spirit is the truth, we believe the witness that comes to us in the Spirit, the water, and the blood, here and now, today, in the present tense (1 John 5:10).
John says that those who believe in Christ have such faith within them (1 John 5:10). But here’s the kicker: such faith comes to us from outside of us! Without the testimony of the Spirit, the water, and the blood, we remain without God. But the triple witness of the Spirit, the water, and the blood—of absolution, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper—come to us now, bringing us Jesus and His cross-won forgiveness and life.
John chapter 3, has the most well-known verse in the Bible: John 3:16. “God loved the world in this way: He gave His only Son so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus spoke those words, pointing forward to the salvation that He that would earn for all on the cross. But Jesus spoke about believing in Him in the same conversation where He said that unless someone was born from above, by water and Spirit, by baptism, he would not be part of God’s kingdom.
Faith comes to someone through the ways that God chooses to give him faith. We can’t produce that faith inside ourselves. We can’t will it into being. That’s why Jesus spoke about believing in Him in the same conversation that He spoke about being born from above, by being spiritually born in the waters of holy baptism. Jesus’ conversation connects belief in Him to an external means that brings such faith.
God gives you eternal life; it’s not some wage that you earn. Eternal life isn’t a carrot that God dangles in front of you, trying to get you to behave as if He were saying, “Do this and you’ll have eternal life.” As John wrote in our epistle reading—God gives eternal life (1 John 5:11). And God connects the life that He gives you in the belief, faith, and trust that He gives you. That’s what verse 10 of our epistle reading tells us: “The one who believes in the Son of God.”
But then John goes on to say, “The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.” What is that testimony? It’s what John had just mentioned: “There are three that testify: The Spirit, the water, and the blood.” To have that testimony in you is to have Jesus in you through the ways He gives you forgiveness, life, and salvation: In absolution, the water of baptism, and the Lord’s Supper.
Why does John connect belief to these witnesses, these testifiers, of God? It’s so we know that no one can create faith within himself. But it’s also so we know where we receive the forgiveness, life, and salvation that Jesus earned for us on the cross. It’s in the Spirit, the water, and the blood; in absolution, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper.
Did you catch John’s serious tone in our epistle reading? He wrote, “The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony within him.” Okay, that triple testimony is Jesus coming to us in absolution, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. But then John says, “The one who does not believe God has made Him a liar.”
So, how does unbelief make God a liar? John goes on to tell us: Someone makes God “a liar because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given about His Son” (1 John 5:10). This testimony isn’t some generic testimony floating in the air. It isn’t just the truth that Jesus died for you on the cross. It’s the triple testimony that John just mentioned: “the Spirit, the water, and the blood.”
To say that Jesus’ cross-won forgiveness, and thus, salvation doesn’t come to you through the “Spirit, the water, and the blood” is to deny Jesus. It’s the same as calling God a liar. Jesus’ salvation for you comes to you in absolution, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper because those three witnesses connect you to the cross. But if you don’t believe that Jesus’s salvation comes to you in such ways, then it does you no good. Because as John says, it’s the same as calling God a liar.
This triple testimony of the Spirit, the water, and the blood bring and keep you in the one, true faith. That’s why you don’t have to wonder if you’re really saved or not. You don’t have to hide your emotional turmoil, searching for such certainty within yourself. God gives you external testimonies, three of them: the Spirit, the water, and the blood–absolution, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper.
What a marvelous God we have! He gives us, He gives you, external testimonies, so you know that you have forgiveness, life, and salvation. So then, receive one such external testimony now: Christ as He gives you His saving body and blood. Amen.
