Water, Blood, and Spirit

"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."    1 John 5:6-8

I readily confess that I have no idea what in the world John is talking about in these verses.  What does it mean that Jesus came by water and blood as opposed to just water?  The list of things to which commentators suggest blood and water could be referring is long.  Is it baptism and communion? A roundabout way of referring to Jesus' humanity?  The blood and water that flowed from Jesus' side at his crucifixion?  And what would the significance of any of those referents be?  I have to honestly say I don't know ... but, of course, that won't keep me from venturing a guess. 

Whenever we encounter really obscure passages of Scripture like this one, I always think its a good practice to look at the verses nearby and find something that's not obscure - something with a relatively plain and obvious meaning - and work from there.  If we look just a few verses later, we find just such verses. 

"And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life."  v.11-13

There is a resounding and obvious theme in these verses:  that those to whom John is writing know Jesus and therefore have eternal life.  Whatever the point may be of the whole blood/water discussion, it must serve this point since this is clearly what John is driving at.  The one thing John wishes to communicate to his audience here is that there should be no doubt that they have eternal life.  We can ask then "What does Jesus being the one who came by blood and water as opposed to just water have to do with this truth?"

For help in answering that question, we can look to the first chapter of the Gospel of John.  There, John the baptist is described as one who came by water.  In v.26-27, he says "I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie."  A few verses later, John identifies this one who stands among them as Jesus, calling him "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"  Although the rest of the Gospel of John will fill out what it means to call Jesus "Lamb of God", there can be little doubt that the mention of a lamb taking away sin would evoke thoughts of that lamb's blood being shed for just about any first century reader, especially Jewish ones.  So in just a few short verses we have John the baptist presented as one who came by water contrasted with Jesus who came by water and blood.  Additionally, John says in the same passage "I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God."  So Jesus is described not only as having come by water and blood but also the one on whom the Spirit rests, affirming John's declaration about him. 

Of course, Jesus will breathe this same Holy Spirit on his followers after his death and resurrection.  This is, in fact, one of the major themes of the Gospel of John.  Jesus repeatedly promises the disciples that the Holy Spirit will come to them but that this comforter can only come after Jesus has gone away; that is, after blood and water have flowed from Jesus' side at his crucifixion (John 19:34). 

So what's all that got to do with John's main point that his audience has eternal life?  Immediately after the verses about blood, water, and the Spirit, John's very next words are these: "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.  Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself."  Then follow the verses that say that this testimony God has given is that these followers of Jesus have eternal life.

In other words, we can easily imagine that there were some who were saying to these believers "You don't really have eternal life.  You are just following the teaching of a mere man whose got it wrong." And John is saying in response "You know better than that!  It is not the testimony of man that you have trusted but the very testimony of God that tells you that you have eternal life!  Jesus is not a mere man who came by water alone as John the baptist did.  Jesus is the who came to be baptized in water but who also gave his own life so that blood and water flowed from his side.  And in that giving of his life the same Spirit which descended upon him in the waters of baptism now also actively bears witness among you."  That is to say that the water, the blood, and the Spirit all three testify and agree to the same thing; that these believers have eternal life.  The testimony of the blood and water of Jesus Christ and the testimony of the Spirit are the testimony of the one and only God and not the testimony of man.  As Paul says in Romans 8:16, "The Spirit himself bear witness with our spirit that we are children of God." 

"You know you have eternal life because of what the Spirit has done among you" is the message of this passage.  This is typically termed the doctrine of Christian Assurance in the language of the Church; the belief that we can be assured of our salvation.  But we are not assured by the witness of others about us or by our works or by the quality of our life or the "success" of our church.  We are assured by the witness of God's own Spirit with our spirit.  Our re-birth may be messy for sure - not unlike our first birth, a mess of blood, water, and spirit- leading one to wonder if new life is really happening in the midst of all this chaos.  At times, we may even questions it ourselves as John's audience seems to have done.  But in the midst of all the chaos, God reminds us by the Son and the Spirit that we are surely children of this Father.

Circular Love

The opening verses of 1 John 5 are admittedly a bit circular.

"Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments."

So we know we love the Father if we love the children of God and we know we love the children if we love the Father?  We might think that last phrase about obeying his commandments would offer some objectivity as an exit off this merry-go-round.  However, it really only serves to further the circularity since the commandment in the Johanine literature is to love one another.  Logically speaking, it seems John might as well have said "we know we love the children of God when we love the children of God." 

I suppose the disadvantage of a circle, especially in matters of logic, is that it doesn't take us anywhere.  We keep going around the same path.  It doesn't reveal anything new to us.  We start with "love the children of God" and we end with "love the children of God". 

But I suppose that is also what makes it an appropriate shape for the Christian life.  Our goal isn't to get somewhere new.  We don't start with "love the children of God" only as a stepping stone to move onto something more profound.  When we are talking about God's love for us, our love for God, and love for God's children, why wouldn't we want this path to loop back on itself as many times as possible?  Indeed, any search for something new, some knowledge more profound than loving our brothers and sisters is only a distraction from the path that leads us back to God's love.  Truth is not acquired by escaping this circularity.  The circularity that is God's love enabling us to love our neighbor leading us back to God's love enabling us to love our neighbor is the most profound truth of all. 

As a culture, we are pretty much obsessed with anything new. It might not be an exaggeration to say we are not merely obsessed with new things but with newness itself; anything that will relieve the tedium of our lives and infuse them with new meaning.  Our watchword is progress; movement forward.  Anything else is failure.  Most of the Church seems to adopt a similar model.  We are constantly searching for that new thing that will make all the difference in our spiritual lives, our families, our churches.  What we try next must always be bigger and better than what we tried before or we might as well admit defeat.

All the while that ancient circle of love of God and neighbor quietly awaits us.

Obviously, there is something to be said for "straining toward what is ahead" and "pressing toward the goal".  But John reminds us that pressing forward in the Christian life is not a matter of blazing our own trail.  It is entering the circularity of God's love. 

Children of God, Practitioners of Righteousness

Similar to last week's passage of Scripture, this week's pericope from 1 John 3 is filled with a number of dialectical statements; seemingly opposing truths that tug on each other and thereby hold each other in tension and balance.  If this tug of war is decided in favor of one side over the other then the truth is lost.  The truth is in the tension.

On the one hand, John boldly declares that we are already children of God

"See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are." v. 1

"Beloved, we are God's children now..." v.2

In these verses we see the theology of the Gospel of John shining through clearly.  There is an emphasis on the world's judgment having already occurred by way of Christ's incarnation.  John describes salvation as something that is available now, in this life.  The light has already come into the world, the darkness is already dispelled, and those who trust in Christ are already children of God.  None of these statements are incorrect but they are incomplete.  Without other statements of truth laid alongside of them, this sole emphasis on the already aspects of salvation easily leads to a Christian faith that is out of balance.

It is difficult to say with any certainty what heresy had arisen in the Johanine community that caused 1 John to be written.  But it is easy enough to imagine the kind of problems that could arise if we believed that our salvation was already complete in this world.  For one, it could lead us to believe that all of our actions, no matter how heinous, already have a rubber stamp of approval of God.  If we are already completely and entirely saved then that must mean that everything we do is God's work.  Or at the very least, if our actions are not good then they are simply of no consequence for God has already saved us and what we do or don't do isn't going to change that.

It seems this is at least part of that to which the writer of 1 John is responding in chapter 3.  He says

"...what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is." v.2

"No one who abides in him keeps on sinning.." v.6

"Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous." v. 7

 Some of these statements, verse 7 especially, appear to border on being tautologous; they are so obvious and self explanatory that they don't reveal any new information.  "Whoever practices righteousness is righteous?  Really, John?  Thanks for that gem!  That's sort of like telling us that water is wet."

But this is likely yet another place we take for granted the vast Christian tradition which stands between us and the audience of 1 John for this connection may very well not have been obvious to them. In the ancient world it was usually not assumed that there was any connection between religion/spirituality and morals.  Gentiles regularly worshiped at pagan temples without thinking there was any connection between that worship and how they lived the rest of their lives.  Religion and ethics were simply separate categories that had little if any relation to each other.  When this is combined with a belief that one has already experienced salvation in its entirety, that is one has already been made righteous, it is easy to see how these believers might have thought that being righteous had nothing to do with living righteously.  They viewed it as something accomplished entirely by God because of their trust in Jesus.

Of course, that last line sounds quite a bit like a lot of modern day Protestant professions of faith.  After all, we are saved by faith and not by works.  While I certainly don't want to lose this emphasis of Protestantism, I also think it unnecessarily bifurcates the language of the New Testament, especially terms like faith and righteousness.  As I never tire of pointing out on this blog, the Greek word pistis is the word often translated as faith in the New Testament but it can be just as easily (and often is) translated as faithfulness; in the language of the New Testament the two concepts are inseparable, to have faith is to be faithful.  Much the same thing is true of righteousness.  In many places, this word (dikaosune and its cognates) are often translated as justification which we usually take to mean something like forgiveness.  But in the Greek of the New Testament the word is related to the word for justice (dikaios) and in the Old Testament righteousness (tsedek) often refers to covenant faithfulness (God's, Israel's, or an individual's) by which the world is set in right relationship.  That is, to be made righteous is not merely to be forgiven but also to be transformed and empowered to live rightly and justly in the world.

John's words still speak to us today.  Yes, we are saved.  Yes, we are already children of God.  Yes, we have been made righteous.  And all of this has been done entirely by God's grace and not of ourselves.  But that is not a pass to go on sinning.  In fact, it is just the opposite.  It is a call to work for justice and right relationship in our world because what we will be has not yet been revealed, the kingdom is not yet.  There will be a day when "we will be like him because we will see him as he is" but until that day we are called to be a people who practice righteousness in this world.

Darkness, Light, and Entire Sanctification

1 John begins with an abrupt assertion of orthodoxy.  No introduction.  No greeting.  Just a blunt, nearly grammatically incoherent assertion of faithfulness to the Johanine teaching about Jesus.

"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life..."  

It is easy for us to forget just how much diversity there was in early Christianity, how many disagreements there were over really fundamental questions like "Who is Jesus?" and "Was he really human?".  But these questions lingered for centuries before the Church worked out what it believed.  It seems likely that the Johanine community was in the midst of debating such a question, though the enigmatic, proverb-like language of 1 John (just think how different 1 John sounds from Paul's very logical, sequential arguments) makes it difficult to discern just what that question might be.  Nevertheless, it is clear that the writer of 1 John (John himself? a disciple of John?) wishes to assert right away that his understanding of Jesus is the one the Johanine community should follow.  He asserts that his teaching is the one that has been since the beginning (thereby implying that the beliefs of his opponents are heretical innovations) and that it is this teaching which has been publicly verifiable (seen, heard, even handled) and passed on to those to whom he is now writing.

This message is that God is light and in him there is no darkness (v.5).  With this summary statement, the writer turns to a series of alternating and escalating statements which describe the relationship between light/truth and darkness/falsehood in the life of the believer.  The writer begins the alternating pattern with a darkness/falsehood statement.

"If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth." v. 6

"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us."  v.8

"If we say we have not sinned, we make him (God) a liar and his word is not is us." v.10

Each statement escalates in severity.  If we claim fellowship with God but walk in darkness then we lie.  If say we have no sin then we lie to ourselves.  If we say we've never sinned then we make God a liar.

Interlaced between these statements of darkness/falsehood are statements of light/truth, each meant to counter-balance the darkness/falsehood statement that comes before it.  

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of his Son cleanses us from all sin." v.7

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." v.9 

 These statements are dialectical.  They are meant to stand in tension with one another.  We can almost imagine each sentence tugging on the others.  As long as each statement continues to pull its weight then a balanced view of the Christian life will emerge.  But if we begin to lean on one statement or group of statements too hard then the tug-of-war will be thrown out of whack and we will end up with a distorted view of the Christian life.

On the one hand, v.6 and 7 make plain the expectation that a Christian is to walk in light rather than darkness.  That is to say that being a disciple of Jesus requires a certain kind of living, it requires "practicing the truth" and avoiding sin.  On the other hand, v.8 and 10 tug back the other direction so as to make it equally plain that avoiding sin is not the same thing as saying that we don't sin or have never sinned.  Finally, v. 9 gives another tug back in the direction of v.6 and 7 by reminding us that if we confess our sins God really does forgive those sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

This brings into clearer focus what it means to "walk in the light".  It is not sinless perfection.  If it were then confession would be failure.  Instead, the recognition and confession of our sinfulness is the very thing that allows God to forgive us and cleanse us and thereby make righteousness possible.  Confessing our sinfulness allows God to work in us in such a way that further sin can be prevented in our lives.

As a people who believe in a doctrine of Entire Sanctification, we Nazarenes would do well to meditate on these verses day and night, letting them soak into the deepest parts of our existence.  We are a people who are optimistic about the extent of transformation that is possible by God's grace in this life.  When 1 John says that we can be cleansed from all unrighteousness, we take that to mean that God frees us from all of sin's power in this life so that it really is possible for us not to sin, to really live righteously in this world.  However, as these verses remind us, that is not the same thing as saying that we will never sin again once we are entirely sanctified.  Too often in our tradition entire sanctification has been confused for a spiritual plateau, a place where spiritual growth levels off because one has already reached the highest possible state of holiness.  As a result, confession has become somewhat of a lost art in our denomination since there has at times been an implicit expectation that those who are entirely sanctified shouldn't have anything to confess.  This in turn has led to an abundance of legalism and self-righteousness.

This is not to say that we should give up on our hope of transformation, sanctification, and righteousness in this life.  1 John clearly calls believer to "walk in the light" and to be "cleansed from all unrighteousness". It is to say that such sanctification is not a state that we reach once and for all but a path we must continually walk and the means to staying on this path of light is not pretending that we have no sin.  For the concealing of anything will only require that we seek out even more darkness.  But if we remain on the well lit path then even our darkest deeds will be exposed and it is that exposure itself which will eliminate the darkness.  It is the exposure of our whole selves to the light of Christ that makes our cleansing from all unrighteousness possible.