4-18-2026           1 JOHN 5:5-8

V5-6

Who is it that overcomes the world?  He who believes Jesus IS the Son of God.

That is he who has come by water and blood, even Jesus Christ.  Not just by water but water and blood.  And it is the Spirit that bears witness, because the Spirit is truth

V7-8

There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one. 

There are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, the water and the blood and these three agree in one.

 Okay, let’s take a look at the definitions of some of the words used in this passage:

Overcomes = nikao (G3528) = subdue, conquer, overcome, prevail, gain v victory

World =           kosmos (2889) =  world (including inhabitants), orderly arrangement

Believes=         pisteuo (4100) = believe, put trust in

Father  =          Pater (3962) = Father or parent, could be immediate or ancestoral (aka

                        Grandfather, etc.

Word   =          Logomachia (3056) =  something said or thought as in reasoning, a divine

                        expression, (as in Christ), or a speaking of doctrine.

Ghost   =          Pneuma (4151) current of air (as a forceful blast), spirit, breath, rational soul,

                        something superhuman (aka angel).

Holy     =          Hagios (40) = sacred, pure

Spirit    =          Pneuma (4151) current of air, breath, spirit, rational soul

Water  =          Hudor (5204) = water (as in rainy or coming down)

Blood   =          Haima (129) = blood (especially as in human) or juice of the grape, implies

                        bloodshed or kindred (family)

Agree  =          Eisi (1526 = agree, are (as in Christ – as ‘one’)

Effectively victory is to gain victory over or defeat. The Greek word (kosmos) refers to the natural world, but we can also relate this to the ‘spiritual’ world. Like as in what we know now but more so when Satan was cast out of heaven, he was cast into our world, planet earth (Rev. 12:9) and has become the prince and power of ‘our air’ and who works disobedience in the children of this world (Eph. 2:2).  We live in this world through God’s grace because we believe that Jesus IS the Son of God, come into this world by water and blood so we gain victory over Satan and what he does in or to this world.

Okay, water and blood, why?  Our sins are washed away by water (Acts 22:16).  Our sins are cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ (Heb. 9:22, 1John 1:7).  When Israel was in Egypt, the Hebrews put blood on the door jamb and side posts so when the angle of death came to destroy the first born in Egypt, he would pass over those doors marked with the blood of the lamb (Exod. 12:1-14).  Jesus has become our Passover lamb and through our acknowledging Him as Lord and Savior, His blood marks us (spiritually) so that we are ‘passed over’ from condemnation of eternal death into eternal life!

As we believe in Jesus, that is put our full trust in Him as our Lord and Savior, we have eternal fellowship with the Creator of all things (Psalm 23:6, John 3:16) in this world (John 17:9-12) or the next (John 14:3).  

Three witnesses in Heaven

We receive witness from men but God’s witness is greater than man’s (1John 5:9). 

God’s witness is the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.  Father is just what it says, a male parent, even going back through the generations.  Let’s go back through the generations: our dad, grandad, great-granddad and if we could all the way back do Noah.  Than we start tracing back from Noah through Lamech, Methuselah, Enoch … (Gen. 5:1-32) Seth and Adam and God created Adam (Gen. 26-27), technically becoming his Father.  There were no Fathers before God yet Adam was a creation of God.  Now, Jesus was born of woman, Mary (Matt. 1:18-25).  Note in Matt. 1:18, Mary w found to be with child of the Holy Ghost.  Note that Luke says that “the Holy Ghost shall come upon you and the power of the Highest shall over shadow you” (Luke 1:35).  How did God create the World?  “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2) and then God said …(Gen. 1:3 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24 & 26).  God spoke and the Holy Ghost put it into action (moved across the face of the waters, in this case it was Mary).  What did the Holy Ghost put into action?  God’s Words and Who is God Words?  In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God (John 1:1).  In Genesis chapter one we see that God spoke everything into existence.  As we see, everything came into existence though the Word and the Word is the light for man (John 1:3-4) and-- Jesus declared Himself to be that light (John 8:12).  Father created Adam from the dust of the earth but He ‘fathered’ Jesus through the Holy Ghost’s overshadowing of Mary, so Jesus was ‘born’ onto the earth through one of God’s creations.  

Three witness on earth

The Spirit testifies within our own hearts that Jesus is the Messiah (Gal. 4:6) and scriptures tell us that no man can call Jesus Lord with having the Spirit of God within him (1 Corinth. 12:3).  As we keep Father’s commandments we testify that the Spirit of the Father is in us because Father’s love is clearly seen in our lives (1 John 4:12-16) because God is love (1 John 4:8).

Blood is life of the creature (Lev. 17:11).  Forgiveness of sin requires the shedding of blood (Heb. 9:22).  In Exodus, the Hebrews were saved from the Angel of Death by shedding the blood of a lamb and putting that blood on their doorways (Exod. 12:1-14).  The blood of a lamb was a sign of protection, or covering, over them so they wouldn’t die.  When the Hebrews brought their sacrifices, the blood was offered for the covering of their sin (Lev. 4:2--35).  Jesus cleansed, or covered, our sin, on the cross (Col. 1:20), so that we might have eternal life (1 John 1:7, Eph. 1:5-7).

The Greek word used for water is hudor - water, H2O.   Before the Chief Priest could enter the Holy of Holies he had to go through a cleansing process (Lev. 16:23-24).  When we confess our sins, Jesus forgives us those sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).  Understand that the high priest had to be clean before entering the presence of God (Lev. 4) indicating his complete trust in the Lord.  When the veil before the Holy of Holies was torn (Matt. 27:51), Jesus was giving us direct access to God’s presence through His sacrifice. Jesus is our High Priest so we can come boldly into His presence (Heb. 4:14-16).  When we are baptized in water, we are declaring our complete trust in the Lord by identifying ourselves with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom. 6:3-5).  So through Jesus we are now a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9).  That means that by cleansing ourselves by the confession of our sin, we may enter into the presence of God – directly, no go-beteen.  We do that through prayer with Father, through Jesus Christ (we do all things in Jesus’ name –Col. 3:17 ) because we have received the Holy Ghost into our lives (John 20:22, Acts 1:8 & Acts 2:1-18).  We have that direct connection, because the Holy Ghost intercedes for us (Rom. 8:26-27). 

So we see that Father (Himself, the Word (Jesus) and the Spirit (The Holy Ghost or breath of God) all testify who God is.  We also see that the blood (Jesus’ love for us), the water (our spiritual cleansing) and the Spirit (the Holy Ghost in us) all testify that God IS who He says He is.

The testimony of two or three witnesses establishes a thing (Deut. 19:15, Matt. 18:16).

As a professional athlete from years ago said “And that’s the bottom line!”

Amen