Food for Friday
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. 1 John 5:9
Which do you believe is true, the Bible’s account of creation, or the theory of evolution? Of course, you will say creation is true. But if we put the question to the next 100 people who we encounter on the street, we would find that most people disagree with you. You believe in creation because God says it is the truth. They believe in evolution because men say that is the truth. They accept the witness of men; you accept the witness of God. It doesn’t matter how many men say that evolution is true, the witness of God is greater. It’s important to keep that in mind when the ideas of men conflict with what the Word of God teaches.
Whether we believe the record of the Bible determines whether we have eternal life or will enter eternal death. The apostle John declares that it is for this very reason that he wrote his Gospel: ‘These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His Name’ (John 20:31). John was a personal witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Greek word for witness is marturia, and it means ‘one who remembers or who has knowledge of something by personal experience’. John was the fulfillment of the words of Isaiah when he wrote 600 years earlier, ‘Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth’ (Isaiah 43:9).Yes, we can accept John’s witness, as well as the witness of all of the Scriptures.
The Bible makes it clear that one witness is not enough to establish a matter. ‘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’ (Deuteronomy 19:15). In the case of John’s witness concerning the Lord Jesus, his evidence is supported by not just a second witness, nor just a third, but by a fourth also. Four godly men wrote Gospel accounts, records that agree with each other and prove that all four are true and reliable. No honest judge would reject the account of the Bible concerning the person and work of the Lord Jesus, based on the evidence of those witnesses.
Each Christian has more than just the witness of the Bible and the men who were used by the Holy Spirit to write it. Jesus spoke of another Witness when He said, ‘There is Another that beareth witness of Me; and I know that the witness which He witnesseth of Me is true’ (John 5:32). He was referring to the Holy Spirit Who indwells each of us, and Who guides us into all truth. He enables us to be convinced that the witness of God is true when the unsaved around us believe the witness of men.
The witness of God is greater. Let that truth support you when you are mocked for your faith, or when the lies of men are welcomed by those around you. – Jim MacIntosh