Spirit ~ Water ~ Blood

Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth. There are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree. If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son. Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. And this is the testimony: 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, so that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him. (1 John 5:5-15, NRSV)

The one who will conquer the world is the one who believes that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God!

And this is how we know that Jesus is the Son, because He came by water and blood and because the Spirit testifies to the truth in each of us.

These are the 3 that testify, water, blood and Spirit. The Spirit gives us the truth deep down in our lives, and gives us the power to come to God, and gives us the truth and the hope of the relationship we have in Christ!

As Martin Luther said in his explanation of the third article of the Apostles Creed:

“I believe that by my own reason or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in true faith, just as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and preserves it in union with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian church he daily and abundantly forgives all my sins, and the sins of all believers, and on the last day he will raise me and all the dead and will grant eternal life to me and to all who believe in Christ. This is most certainly true.”

through the Spirit

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you. (Romans 8:1-11, NRSV)

Through the Spirit our chains are released and we are not held captive to our flesh.

We are freed in Christ to live a life that is not bound by our fleshly wants and desires.

The Spirit dwelling in us, gives us the power and hope of a life that shines a light in the dark places of this world.

So live into the freedom you have through the Spirit dwelling in you!

love one another

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:7-17, NRSV)

Everyone who loves is born of God. If you are loving you have been filled with God.

You see we can not of our own capacity love, without the in filling of our lives with God.

For we did not love God, but God loved us and sent His Son to be a bridge for us to come to God. And because God has loved us this much, we need to let that love overflow from our lives and love each other.

Even the person you can not serve, we have to serve them in love, because that is how we were to God before Jesus came, but God still sent Jesus to bridge the gap.

So love one another!

might be

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.” (John 3:14-21, NRSV)

Every one knows this verse. Even if you have never been to church, you know John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.” That one point in time that God so loved the world was the cross. He gave Jesus to die for the world.

But to me the verse that means the most in this selection of scripture is not 3:16 it is 3:17!

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” God did not send His Son here to condemn us, which He could have. He sent Jesus so that we might be saved! He sent Jesus to bring us back.

And that my friends is love. A Father or a God who is relentless in His pursual of His children that He goes to the lengths of sending Jesus to show us to live and to save us from ourselves!

So know that Jesus came so that you might have a relationship with God and live into that relationship!