Is Seeing Believing, Or is Believing Seeing?

In this regular feature Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call.  Here is this week’s question: Dear Dave and T. A., What is your understanding of 1 John:5:6This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.
See All...?In particular, to what does the term water refer?

Tom:

Dave, that’s an interesting question because when it comes to the use of water, particularly when it comes in relation to baptism, in relation to being born-again, the washing of the Word, there are lots of different uses and I think people have to understand certainly the context of how it’s being used as to how they can understand this verse.

Dave:

Well this is one of those—

Tom:

Why don’t you read this verse 1 John:5:6This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.
See All....

Dave:

Well okay, verse 6, well let’s read verse 5, “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.”This is a tough verse Tom.“Came by water….”Now I know there are some people, for example, I remember when a doctor called me one evening. A Christian doctor and he said that he had just delivered a baby and he had led the parents to Christ.So he said one was born by water, in other words the water in which the baby is until its birth and two by the Spirit.So he would take it that when Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You must be born of water and of the Spirit, that water is our natural birth and the Spirit is the new birth.I don’t think so.I think that water almost always refers to cleansing.“The washing of water by the Word.”And Jesus went through that allegorically remember when he washed the disciples feet?He that is clean doesn’t need anything, but to wash his feet because your feet have been getting contaminated in the world and so forth.And you are clean through the Word that I have spoken unto you.So I would take it to mean that you must be born by the Word of God and by the blood of Christ and born of the Spirit of God.Here I think it could very well refer to “came by blood” I would take to be his birth into this world and the water his baptism and standing in our place as the sin-bearer.John the Baptist said, “I can’t baptize you, you ought to baptize me.You are without sin.”Jesus said it behooves us to fulfill all righteousness and so he baptized him, I would say as symbolic of the cleansing of sin that he was going to bring through his sacrificial death.

Tom:

Sure.There was no baptism for repentance for Jesus.He was perfect in every way.

Dave:

Yes, so Tom, this is a tough verse, because we are not given much in the verse by which we can understand it.So I think we have to go to other scriptures and what it’s talking—what it is leading up to, verse 8, “And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.”So I think if we look at that, all through the Old Testament, water was for cleansing.The cleansing now is in the blood of Christ.But how do we get to the benefits of the blood through Christ shed for our sins on the cross?It’s through the water of the Word.The Word of God gives us the truth and the understanding by which we can receive the cleansing of the blood of Christ.I do not believe that it is baptismal water, much less certainly holy water that some priest has blessed.I can say that thoroughly for this reason Tom, because Jesus himself said in John 6, “The flesh profits nothing, the words that I speak they are spirit and they are life.”And he said to the woman at the well, “You drink of this water you will thirst again.You drink of the water I will give you and you will never thirst again.And he used that analogy “If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink,” he was not talking about physical H2O in that sense, nor will physical H2O do anything for us spiritually.That’s one of the lies that’s behind sacramentalism, burning of candles and fancy robes and the hocus pocus and the incense and the idea that somehow this physical act can bring about some favor with God or spiritual benefit.So I could not believe that that would be what this verse means.It’s not talking about physical water, not even the water of baptism, but it’s talking about the washing of water by the Word of God.Now you catch me by surprise on these tough questions Tom.That would be my understanding of it.

Tom:

Dave, one aside.Do you think this has any relationship to when Jesus was pierced in his side and water flowed out of him as well as blood?

Dave:

I don’t think so Tom.I think the water falling out of him—I’m not a medical person, but it indicates he died of a broken heart or something like that, his sorrow, his grief.There is a certain amount of water in the blood that separates under great stress, but I don’t think that’s what it’s talking about here.Now for that reason some people say there ought to be a little water mingled with communion wine.But no, I don’t think so because it says he came by water and blood, so I would take that to mean the cleansing he endured at John’s baptism standing in for all of us, but that cleansing comes through his blood.Tom, it’s tough, but we do know this.That we have redemption in his blood, the forgiveness of sins and “the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s son, cleanseth us from all sin” and there we have the blood and the Word of God tell us about it and brings the cleansing that I think it is talking about here.