Revelations from the Word

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My witness is true

by Jean-Louis Coraboeuf

"Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. The Pharisees therefore said to Him, You bear witness of Yourself; Your witness is not true. Jesus answered and said to them, Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from and where I am going. You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. And yet if I do judge, My judgement is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me. It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me. Then they said to Him, Where is Your Father? Jesus answered, You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one laid hands on Him, for His hour had not yet come" (John 8:12-20).

According to the dictionary, witness is an act by which the authenticity and reality of a fact or an event is publicly attested. The Torah tells us, "A fact will only be able to be established on the evidence of two or three witnesses" (Deuteronomy 19:15). From a human point of view, Jesus was therefore not able to witness of Himself for the witness is only true if it comes from a person other than himself (John 5:31). But from a spiritual point of view, Jesus was able to witness of Himself because the Holy Spirit was affirming that He was indeed the Son of God and because the works he was doing showed that God the Father had sent Him (John 5:36). Jesus therefore came to be a witness of the Light in order that all men might believe in God through Him (John 1:7).

The one who believes the witness of Jesus confirms absolutely (literally 'authenticates by a seal') that God is true, that is real (John 3:33). That is why when we accept Jesus as Saviour and Lord, God marks us also with a seal and gives us the Holy Spirit as a deposit of the good things to come (2 Corinthians 1:21-22). This seal with which we have been marked the day of our redemption (Ephesians 4:30), will be necessary in order to have a share in the first resurrection of the dead (Revelation 20:4-6). The apostle John wrote, "He who believes in the Son of God has this witness in himself; he who does not believe God makes Him a liar, since he does not believe in the witness that God has given back to His Son" (1 John 5:10). He who does not have the witness of Jesus Christ within himself is a false witness and he makes God out to be a liar!

Jesus made this recommendation to His disciples, "You will receive power, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem…" (Acts 1:8). The apostle John says, "They have overcome the accuser of the brethren (the Devil, Satan) through the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony" (Revelation 12:11). For us, our true witness is therefore the presence of the Holy Spirit in us, which authenticates that we belong to God. Our witness does therefore not come from ourselves but from the presence of Christ in us, "It is no longer I that live, it is Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20). From the spiritual point of view, we have this witness within ourselves: God has given us eternal life, as He has given it to His Son (1 John 5:11).