Before closing his Epistle, the apostle presents a threefold witness to the Son of God, the One through whom eternal life has been communicated to believers. There is the witness of the water, the witness of the blood, and the witness of the Spirit.
(Vs. 6). Jesus, the Son of God, came into the world by incarnation, but, in order to bless sinners and impart to believers eternal life, He had to come by water and blood. In other words He had to die.
His life of infinite perfection exposed our condition and revealed our need, but could not meet that need or impart to us eternal life.
Apart from His death He would forever have been alone, according to His own words, "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (John 12:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (John 12:24)).
The water and the blood that flowed from the wounded side of a dead Christ both witness to His death, and they set forth two great results of His death. The water witnesses to the judgment of death pronounced and executed on the flesh, whereby the believer is cleansed from the old nature. We are crucified with Christ, and, participating in the life of Christ risen, we reckon ourselves dead with Him to the old man that is governed by sin. We are thus purified from the old nature. Further, He comes to us by blood. By His death we are not only purified from the old man, but we are justified from our sins by His blood. Moreover, on the ground of His death and resurrection, the Holy Ghost has been given to bear witness to us of Christ and the efficacy of His death.
(Vss. 7-8). Passing over verse 7, which is an admitted interpolation, we have the three witnesses again presented, but now in the order of their testimony on earth. In verse 6 we have had the historical order in which the Holy Ghost came after the death of Christ. When it is a question of testimony to us, the Holy Spirit is first mentioned, for it is by the Spirit that we receive the testimony of the death of Christ and appreciate the value of the water and the blood. These three, the Spirit, the water and the blood, unite in one testimony to the Son and the efficacy of His work, and the blessing of eternal life that comes to the believer through that work.
(Vss. 9-10). In these verses the apostle reminds us that the witness to these great truths is "of God". If we receive the witness of men, how much more should we receive the witness of God to His Son. The one that believes has, by the Spirit, a witness in himself to the truth of God. As God has thus given an adequate witness concerning His Son, it follows that "he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar."
(Vss. 11-12). All these great truths—the death of Christ and the presence of the Spirit in the believer—witness to the fact that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. It is in us as a gift; it is in Him as a source. Apart from the Son there can be no life before God. To have the Son is to have received the truth and to have the Son before us as the Object of our faith. He that is in ignorance of the Son, or rejects the truth, has not the Son of God and "hath not life."