The
Five-fold Witness of Christ Dr.V.Streifling
In John 5, Jesus had just
healed the invalid at
of his Healer, the Jews were enraged for the man had broken the Sabbath command which said “You shall carry no load on the Sabbath”, and when they
learned Jesus had commanded this, they immediately accosted Him for causing the Sab-bath to be broken. Thus, Jesus gave a Five-fold witness in defense
of Who He really is, including 1. His witness; 2. John the Baptist; 3. The witness of the Father; 4. Jesus’ miracles witness of him; and 5. “You are searching
the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, but they are they which testify of me, yet you won’t come to me that you can have eternal life” (5:39).
Jesus began saying He only does what His Father tells him to do, and just as the Father had life in himself, so too Jesus, the Son has life in himself. Thus in
5:17+18 the Jews set to stone Him, not only for breaking the Sabbath, but by calling himself the Son of God, He made himself equal with God. Christ
underscored
this stating “The Father himself judges no one at all, but has committed all
judging to the Son, in order that all men should honor the Son, just
as they honor the Father, and who does not honor the Son, neither honors the Father who sent Him (vs 22-27).
Then after giving incredible
witness of himself, Jesus showed he only began listing his credentials by
saying “If only I bear witness of myself, my witness is not
valid (complete)…” (vs 31), for the Scripture says “Out of the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses all things will be established”. Thus while his witness of himself
was true, yet Jesus’ witness of itself, was not sufficient or a valid witness. It had to be upheld by other witnesses. Yet here in John 5, He stated that He would
come in glory, and He would raise all the dead as both King and judge. But this wasn’t the only place where He witnessed of who he was. He did this
throughout the Gospels.
In Jn 2:18-22 He told the Jews that He’d raise his dead body, after they’d killed Him. In ch. 4 He told the Samaritan woman, that He would give the Holy
Spirit as
living water to whoever asks. In ch.6, whoever eats his flesh and drinks
his blood has everlasting life, and in
abundant life, saying in vs 17+18 He had power to lay his life down, and to take it up again, affirming “I and my Father are One” thus claiming equal essence
with
God, so again the Jews took up stones to stone Him. Similarly, in
in
Isaiah 43:13; 45:21 and 46:9+10 where YHWH claimed to be “I AM” on these bases. Ultimately, after his death, Jesus showed his resurrected body,
validating all these his claims, and too many more to list here. In this he demonstrated that His witness of Himself was indeed true.
Jesus said John had come in the ‘spirit and power of Elijah’, of Malachai 3:1 & 4:5. (Mt 11:10-14). Of Christ, John declared he was unworthy to loose his
sandals, that he was the Judge of all, and he was above Elijah the prophet, and he was fulfillment of Isa 40:3-5, which spoke of Jehovah God. In John 1 he
declared Jesus the Lamb of God, and the Son of God, and told his disciples to follow Jesus.
In Jn 3:20-36 again John witnessed of Jesus that: He was
ordained from Heaven (Yhwh);
He’s the bridegroom, who must increase; He comes from above,
and is above all; He is sent from God and does the works of God; He’s the Son of God—loved by the Father; He has all things in His hands--ie. His care
and authority; whoever believes in Him is sealed by God who is true, has eternal life; but whoever does not believe in Him, will receive the wrath of God.
It was because of John’s recognition of Jesus for Who
He really is, that when Jesus came to John for baptism, John insisted that
instead, he needed be
baptizedby Christ. He recognized Jesus was the Lamb without spot, without any sin, without any sinfulness in Him—holy, just and perfect!
In 1 Jn 5:6-9 we read of ‘the witness of God’ which is greater than the witness of man. Thus Jesus’ appeal to the witness of God His Father was to a
witness
that could not be repudiated. This witness of God began at Jesus birth where he
is “Emmanuel” (‘with us is the God’-- ‘ho Theos’,
Mt
In Lk 2:11, Hebrew translations call him “Jehovah the Messiah” while his name ‘Yeshuah’ means “Yehweh is salvation”. Heb 1:5+6 tells that at his birth,
the Father
commanded all God’s angels to worship Jesus—worship that’s due to God alone,
Who says in Isa 42:8 “My glory I will not sharewith
another”.
At Jesus’ baptism, God spoke “This is My beloved Son…”, repeating
this at Jesus’ transfiguration. Of this 1 Pet
Father, glory and honor” as God acknowledged Christ. Then as Jesus
prayed to the Father in John 12 the Father responded audibly. Jesus prayed to
God “glorify me with the glory I shared with you before the worlds were”, which the Father did at his resurrection and ascension to the Father’s
right
hand. Here He stated “Sit at my right hand ‘till I make your enemies your
footstool” fulfilling the prophecy of Jehovah speaking to “Ha Adon” (Ps 68:18;
110:1)--a Hebrew expression limited to Jehovah God. In Ps 16:8 Christ
is YHWH before the Father’s face, and seated at His right hand (Acts
Only because Christ was true deity by nature, and thus Almighty God,
could he share the Father’s throne as Jehovah.
The book of Revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave Him, thus also being ‘the witness of the
Father’. In
Lamb are the light and glory of the city. In
21:22 God and the Lamb are its temple. In
showing He as King is Jehovah God Almighty in 15:3. Since John
Rev 16:5-7 as the Judge, Jesus is the Lord God Almighty “who is and
was, and is to come”—who also is Almighty God in Rev 1. What a powerful
witness Jesus called on, when citing the witness of His Father in
John 5 !
Then Jesus cited
His miracles which bore witness to Whom He really was. He showed his power over
material matter when turning water to wine, or
feeding the multitudes. He showed his power over
other’s vision when passing unseen through crowds, or his disciples eyes were
withheld from seeing
him. Then his power over sicknesses as leprosy,
palsies, paralysis, lameness; and his power over disorders as blind from birth,
deafness and dumbness,
or even a 12-yr flow of blood stopped.
Christ showed his power over nature when a net was filled with fish; or
He walked on water or He calmed the storm; even when He caused the fig tree
to be dried up. But there was creative
power in his multiplication of
loaves and fishes, or when a withered hand was restored, or when He restored
Malcus’ ear at His garden
arrest. There He
demonstrated his power over his enemies, by speaking his name “I AM” and they
fell backward to the
ground (Jn 18:4-6).
This power extended over the devil and demons as He rebuked them, and
cast them out of people—sometimes multitudes of them
(Mt 4:23+24;
from
a widow’s son at Nain, but Lazarus had been
dead for 4 days and was already stinking. Yet most magnificent of all, in this
Jesus raised His own dead
body
from the tomb (Jn
(
soul was not left in hades. Paul tells us when
Jesus ascended from hades, He delivered its captives
as well (Eph 4:8-11; Heb 12:22+23).
Finally, Jesus had power to confer God’s power to others, giving the
Holy Spirit to his disciples so they had power over diseases and demons. They
received power to forgive sins, heal the sick and
raise the dead. They were given power to confer the Holy Spirit to others (Acts
Anyone who carefully considers Jesus’ miracles and His power which they
demonstrated, can be left with nothing else but a profound conviction of His
true deity, being God by nature, especially when he knew men’s thoughts,
revealing the secrets of their hearts, as only God can do.
Just as Jesus told the Jews
they must believe He was “I AM” in order to be saved (Jn
testified
of Him, to whom they must come, if they were to gain eternal life (Jn
speaker, Nicky Gumble speaks of over 300 references to Jesus’ messiaship, and Herbert Lockier’s “All the Messianic Prophecies…” details these well,
it’s outstanding that these cover all the areas of His life here on earth, as well as His ascension to heaven and priesthood for us there.
He was to be seed
of the woman, of Abraham, Isaac—(not his half-brothers),
He was to be both
Son of God and Son of man. The time of his birth was foretold as well as the
miracle of his virgin birth. He’d be born in
yet because of the massacre of the infants he’d
come from
was foretold. Of His messianic work we were
told He’d introduce a New Covenant, preach the gospel, die for men’s sins and
bring us peace with God.
He would unite
God’s people, call gentiles into the
the ‘prophet like Moses’, the High priest after
the order of Melchezadek, the Chief cornerstone and
yet he’d be the ‘stone of stumbling’ for
make Him the suffering servant. Many events in
his ministry were also foretold as his Galilean ministry, appearing in the
second temple, working of
miracles, relieving suffering and sorrows, his forerunner
John the Baptist and his messianic zeal, that his ministry was to be anointed
by the Spirit of Yhwh,
and his ultimate rejection by his own.
Of special note
were the many prophecies ofhis suffering, death,
resurrection and ascension. These included his triumphal entry, being sold for
30 pieces
of silver, that were returned and used to buy
a potters field after being betrayed by his friend, whose office would be taken
by another. He’d be silent
before his accusers who hated him without cause,
plucked his beard, smote him, mocked him and spat upon him. His vicarious
suffering was foretold,
being crucified with sinners, his hands and feet
being pierced as well as his side, He’d be given vinegar to drink, and pray for
his enemies who’d also
gamble for his garments. While no bones would be
broken, he’d suffer separation from God, crying out ‘My God, my God, why hast
Thou forsaken me’.
He was to be
buried with the rich and be preserved from decay for his resurrection from hades and the grave, leading captivity capt-ive.
And after his
ascension, he’d
be seated at his Father’s right hand where he’d be our great high priest,
having blotted out our transgressions with his own blood. All of
these, and many more were predicted of Jesus’ Messiahship. Yet, the Scriptures testified of Him in other
ways as well.
Witness of the Scriptures
to Jesus’ Deity
While Jesus’
deity was well attested by John the Baptist, and the Father’s own witness (above)
yet by comparing the New Testament Scriptures with
the Old, we see virtually boundless testimony
to the fact that Jesus of the NT was indeed the Jehovah God of the Old. God the
Father makes these so
clear saying to Christ “Your throne, O God (ho Theos) is forever” and “You in the beginning O YHWH, laid
the foundations of the Earth, and the heavens
are the works of your hands” (Heb 1:8- 10). The
Greek ‘ho Theos’ which identifies Jesus as God
appears about 20 times in the NT, while the anarthrous
‘Theos’ which speaks of him as God by nature is also used.
In
so that every aspect of deity, as omnipotence,
omnipresence, omniscience, eternalness, immutability and creativity are all
resident in Christ who is God by
nature dwelling in bodily form. Thus, many OT
texts of Jehovah as creator are defined by the NT showing Jesus as creator. And
so many OT references
to Jehovah as
savior are shown fulfilled in Jesus as savior, as also many OT texts of Jehovah
as King, Judge, I AM, Almighty God, the Rock, Lord of
Hosts, Good
Shepherd, beginning and ending, the One who always is, and on and on are
defined by the NT where it is Jesus who is the King, the Judge,
I AM, Almighty
God, the Rock, Lord of Hosts, Good Shepherd, beginning and ending, the One who
always is, etc.. An interesting variation of this is
seen
in the Hebrew expression “Ha Adon” where the article ‘ha’ precedes ‘Adon’
which Gesenius Hebrew Grammar shows ‘limits the
application to Jehovah
God. Here Jehovah’s witnesses emphasize this to
restore the name ‘Jehovah’ into their bibles. Yet the exciting reality is that
in each of these, the NT
application is seen fulfilled in Christ, as in Malachai where he is ‘Ha Adon’
who suddenly comes to his temple as the ‘messenger of the Covenant’, that is
fulfilled when Jesus cleansed the temple. Even the
plural of this expression, ‘Ha Adon Adonim’ (the Lord of Lords) who is Jehovah in the OT, is
fulfilled in
the NT by Jesus who is “King of kings and Lord
of lords” in Revelation. All of these witnesses to which Jesus appealed in John
5, His own witness, John
the Baptist, God the Father, Jesus’ miracles,
and the Scriptures indeed testified to His true deity and messiahship.
In this five-fold witness, Jesus appeal
was beyond refutation. The more one searches
the Scriptures, the more he discovers the depths of these witnesses cannot be
fathomed. For near 2000
years the leaders of the Christian church have
not yet fathomed it all, while those who’ve questioned this testimony have in
time, even as this writer, found
the preponderance of the evidence is all on one
side, and when carefully studied answers the questions or objections fully and
completely.
Thus we must also
heed Jesus warning to the Jews in John 8 “If you do not believe that I AM, you
will die in your sins”. We must believe in Jesus for who
He really is, for
Biblical salvation. Paul says in Romans 10:9-13 “If you confess Jesus is LORD
(Heb. ‘Ha Adon’), and believe that God has raised him
from the dead, you shall be saved…for whoever calls upon the name of YHWH shall be
saved”. Yet, the apostle warned
that there would come others
who would preach another Jesus from the
real Jesus whom they preached, as well as another gospel. Therefore
we today must still stand guard in defense
of the truth of
who Jesus is—even as He defended this truth; as well as in defense of the
faith, once and for all time delivered to the saints.