Food for Friday
And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. 1 John 4:14
The law of Moses had a provision to protect people from being falsely accused by somebody. That provision, found in Deuteronomy 19:15, says this: ‘One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established’. And what holds true of false and true accusations also holds true for all other accounts. Truth is established on the testimony of more than one person, so that anything proposed by only one person was deemed to be either false or of no real value. That is why false religions and cults such as Islam, Mormonism, and Christian Science are bogus: they are based on what only one person claimed to have seen or to have received from God. And that is why Christianity is true: it is based on the testimony of not just two, nor three, but four Gospel writers. On top of those we have the witness of all of those in the first century who read those Gospels and who raised absolutely no criticism or denial of anything that was in them. Those Gospels, with their message that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world, meet and exceed the requirements of the law to verify them. That is why this great truth is so precious to us today.
During Jesus’ earthly ministry, John was one of the most careful and complete observers. After heeding Jesus’ call to be His disciple, John heard every sermon that Jesus preached, witnessed every miracle, performed miracles himself at Jesus’ direction, beheld the glory on the Mount of Transfiguration, watched the false trials of the Sanhedrin and Pontius Pilate, stood near the cross during the crucifixion and death of Christ, peered intently into the empty tomb in the garden, and stood gazing as Jesus arose into the heavens as angels proclaimed that He would return. No one had a better claim to be a witness of all these things. And yet, John does not say ‘I have seen and do testify’. If we can believe John’s witness, we can also accept the witness of all of those who saw what John saw and have consented to what John wrote.
With all that John witnessed and verified, he does not write specifically in today’s text of what the Lord Jesus did, but of the Father’s role in salvation. And we must never minimize that role. In our text, we read of the Father sending the Son. In John 3:16, we read of the Father giving His Son. In Genesis 22:8, we read of the promise of God providing a Lamb, followed by the declaration from John Baptist in John 1:29,35 that the Lamb of God had arrived. In Luke 2:30, we read of Simeon’s recognition of Jesus as God’s Salvation. The Father’s role in all that we accept and trust in today is verified throughout our Bibles.
No truth is so precious to us today or more clearly proclaimed by the Word of God than that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. – Jim MacIntosh