##DailyDevotion Jesus Is Our Faith Who Has Overcome The World
1 John 5:4–10 4Every child of God conquers the world. Our faith is the victory over the world. 5Who conquers the world but he who believes Jesus is God’s Son? 6This is He Who came by water and blood — Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And the Spirit is telling the truth because the Spirit is the Truth. 7There are three who bring us the truth: 8the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three have one purpose. 9If we accept the testimony of men, God’s testimony is greater because God’s testimony is the truth He told about His Son. 10If you believe in God’s Son, you have in you the testimony of the truth. Anyone who will not believe God has made Him a liar because he hasn’t believed the truth God told about His Son.
There are two things going on in this passage, one is our faith and the other is the witness our faith is based on. First our faith is the victory over the world. John says every child of God conquers the world, then our faith conquers the world, then he who believes Jesus is God’s Son conquers the world. There’s a little trinity going on here. I think there is a little Jesus sandwich going on here. What do I mean by that. There is us, then Faith, then the action of our faith. The Faith in the center here is Jesus, or rather his faith. There is at least one instance in the Old Testament and in the New where our faith is identified with Jesus or the LORD. It is his faith that saves us and he is the content of our faith. In fact you can pretty much tell if you are talking about faith correctly if you simply replace faith with Jesus in whatever you are talking about. It is doesn’t make sense when you do it, you probably need to fix something there. Indeed Jesus has overcome the world. Jesus has told us this. (John 16:33)
When we are baptized, we are given Jesus, the Spirit of Jesus, faith in Jesus and we are adopted by God being made his children. We conquer the world because we have Jesus. The world opposes faith in Jesus. Believing in Jesus, believing he is God’s Son is a sign we have overcome the world. We are no longer its possession but belong to Jesus now. We have believe the testimony God has given us about his Son.
Which brings up the second point. Every truth is established by two or three witnesses. Jesus came by water and blood and was testified by the Spirit. When Jesus was baptized, the Father witnessed, “This is my beloved Son.” When John baptized Jesus the Spirit told him the one upon whom he came down upon was the One. John testified this is so about Jesus and proclaimed him the Lamb of God. On the mountain the Father again testified about Jesus being his Son. When Jesus shed his blood upon the cross the Roman soldier cried out surely he was the Son of God. These three, the water, the blood and the Spirit testify Jesus is the Son of God. They witness to his work of salvation for us.
When we believe the testimony Jesus is God’s Son we have the testimony of God’s truth in us, namely the Spirit. When we have the Spirit in us testifying to this truth we show we belong to God and the Truth. If we deny Jesus is God’s Son then we become liars like the world and Satan. Those who do not confess Jesus is God’s Son who is truly God in the flesh do not yet belong to God and have not overcome the world.
Merciful God and Father, ever give us your Holy Spirit so the Truth, Jesus Christ, may abide in us and hold to the testimony Jesus is your beloved Son, who is our victory over the world. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.