This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son.
1 John 5:6-9
With Easter coming up, I thought I would talk about rebirth. (I didn’t actually plan this… I went through verses I saved on my Bible app I wanted to write a blog on and it just so happens that I realized one of the verses would go along with Easter weekend and the timing just worked. God’s pretty good.)
Not so much psychobabble, but what it means to be born again and the testimony of the blood of Jesus. Being born again is a concept first coined by Nicodemus in the Bible. He basically asks Jesus what you have to do to go to Heaven and believe in Him and Jesus says you must be born again. Our man Nicodemus, hecka confused, goes “am I supposed to crawl back into my Mother? Awko taco.”
Obviously not.
However, Jesus does say baptism is used to be born again. Baptism being the physical act of a spiritual cleansing. When you go into the water, you are yourself. Coming out of the water you are a new creation in God and your sins are washed away.
So to be born of water and blood means two things. First off, it means being literally birthed. When you are a wee baby you are in an amniotic sac, otherwise known as water, and there is often blood involved in birth.
In the same way, being born again requires blood and water as well. Blood being the blood of Jesus shed on the cross. IE, communion. Taking part in communion is incredibly important. For those who do not know what communion is – Jesus at the Last Supper (His last gathering with His Disciples before death), broke bread and said it is like His body and told His Disciples to take it in remembrance of Him. Then He told them to drink the wine and said it is like His blood and to take it in remembrance of Him.
Jesus was the sacrifice that cleansed us from sin and the only one we shall ever need. Back in the olden days people would have to sacrifice a spotless lamb or animal to atone for their sins. I think this was an incomplete sacrifice for multiple reasons. One of the many reasons being that animals do not have souls as we do, so they are not redeemable. Another reason being that the animals could not volunteer their lives. Jesus not only volunteered, He took our place, pain, death, torture and returned.
So blood – communion and His death. Water – baptism by Water. And then the Spirit. So the Holy Spirit in case you didn’t know, is the third part of God, and it is the internal part. The part of Himself that lives inside of us. Which is super cool because then we all have a little bit more of God inside of us when we become Christians.
Being baptized by Water is not enough, you must also be baptized by the Holy Spirit. This is seen in Pentecost. Jesus’ Disciples were all chilling after He ascended, waiting for the ‘helper’ He promised and then the Holy Spirit came. It gave them boldness, authority in Jesus’ name, languages, miracles, all this stuff.
You must be baptized by the Holy Spirit to truly testify to the Lord. Communion and water baptism are not enough.
Together, these form the three-part testimony. Also in another way, Jesus’ birth, His death, and His Spirit or helper – all which testify to Him as the Son of God and the meaning of His life here on Earth.
Testimony is basically a fancy word for evidence or proof provided by the existence or appearance of something. When you are asked what your testimony is, it’s basically a fancy way of being asked ‘what brought you to this place now and why do you believe what you believe?’ What is your proof for your faith and Christianity? What did you encounter?
Our testimonies can be very individualistic but the three-part testimony is what gives Jesus His true uniqueness. No one else has done the same and it connects all Christians because to share the Word of God, we must take part in the three things that testify. His Blood, the water of baptism, and the Spirit.
So really, it’s four-part because it’s Water, Blood, Spirit annnnnd your own experience. Though your testimony as stated above does not supersede that of the Lord. His testimony to the goodness of God and truth overcomes anything else.
Thought this was an important thing to touch on as we are going into Easter Weekend – the most important event in human history.
Thank you Lord for testifying the truth to me. Thank you for opening my eyes to you. Lord I pray you would continue to share the truth with me and give me the strength to share it with others. Thank you for spilling your blood for me and taking my debts on the cross. Jesus you are too good. I pray I would become more like you every day and that you would Disciple me.
Lord I pray the authority and power of your testimony would convict anyone who reads the blog post. Father I pray for those who were just searching for something for Easter to encounter you. I pray you would open their eyes and soften their hearts. May they understand the importance of baptism by Water and by the Spirit. Testify to them.
I pray you would infuse the testimony of your people with power. May we bring glory and honour to your name as you deserve. I pray we would do well by you and make your will happen here on Earth. Please give us guidance and wisdom.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen
God bless and Happy Easter!
~ Ashley
P.S. I know technically it’s only Good Friday tomorrow but I am not writing extra blog posts (as of right now) for the Easter weekend.
A Light in The Darkness 