1 John 5:9-10 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he has testified of his Son.… I. THE DECLARATION — "he that believeth on the Son of God, hath the witness in himself." "The witness" of what? I do not understand it to be the same as that which we meet with in the eighth of the Romans, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." I think "the witness" here is to the truth connected with the former verse — "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God, which He hath testified of His Son." The declaration of the text, then, amounts to this: that he that truly believes on the Son of God hath internal proof that God's Word is true. If we take it in its most general view, it is so. He reads in that book declarations concerning man, as a guilty, lost, ruined, weak, helpless creature; and he that believeth hath inward witness that it is so. But especially does it refer to the Lord Jesus, as the great sum and substance of the gospel. The believer in Him has internal witness "that Jesus is the Christ." II. HOW IS IT THAT HE HAS IT? it is a thing altogether spiritual. It is the work of the Holy Spirit. If you ask by what it is that He conveys it, I answer, by faith. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." A man does not really know a truth till he believes it; a man does not really know Christ, till he believes in Him. It is faith that gives body to the truth; it is faith that reveals Christ to the soul of man. But do you ask what it is that confirms it? A man sees what effects it produces, a man observes the consequences of it. He has been working hard for righteousness, and he has the revelation of Christ and His righteousness to pacify his conscience. And if you ask in what school it is that the Lord the Spirit teaches a man and instructs him, I answer, in the school of experience. "In His Word I read it; in the experience of my soul I know it." III. THE QUALIFIES THAT MARK THIS INWARD WITNESS. Beloved, it is a Scriptural witness. The Spirit of God uses His Word as the great medium of all consolation and all sanctification. Not that He is to be limited by us; who shall say what direct communication He may have with us? I dare not deny it. But it must be tested by the Word of God. Bring it to the Word of truth; if it be of God, it will stand the test of truth; for all truth is to be tried by its own test, and whatever comes from God must be that which leads to God. (J. H. Evans, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. |
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