THE SON OF GOD, COME BY WATER AND BLOOD
In a previous paper we were considering the confession of Jesus Christ come in flesh, a divine Person come in manhood. Three things were involved in this great fact: the revelation of God, the introduction of another Man of an entirely new order, and the setting forth in that blessed Man of the good pleasure of God in regard to men. Now in order that all this might be available for us, He must die, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, “it abideth alone”, John 12: 24. Hence in this chapter He is presented as come by water and blood. Here it is not merely the fact of His having come into this world, but that as Man He has taken up His position as Son of God in glory according to divine counsel. Thus in Him as Man in glory God’s full purpose in regard to man has been already established, and that on the ground of His death, so that it is possible for us to have part in that which God has established in Christ, eternal life and sonship. He was incarnate the Word of life, the eternal life has been manifested in Him here as man with the Father, the apostles had contemplated Him in that condition, and He had been declared to be God’s beloved Son as man here below. We see in Him how eternal life as God’s purposed blessing for saints of this present period is connected with sonship. It will not be so for men on earth in the millennial period. But for us who know eternal life as seen in the Son of God, and God has given it to us in His Son, “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life”. “We are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life”, 1 John 5: 20. He who has revealed God, is at the same time the living expression of God’s purpose for men. All this is now presented to us in the Son of God glorified on the ground of accomplished redemption. He has come by water and by blood. There are three great facts in connection with the death of Christ: (i) The declaration of God was consummated. The extreme wickedness of man as displayed in the crucifixion of God’s Son, served as the dark background to bring into striking relief the truth of what God is revealed in love, it was the perfect triumph of divine love over man’s sin, of good over evil; God was proved to be supremely above all evil, see Rom 5: 6; 8: 32; 1 John 4: 10. (ii) The work of redemption was accomplished in which God has been glorified in regard to sin, and all that which came in by sin, John 13: 31, 32. (iii) There was the removal from before God of the man after the flesh in whom it was impossible for God to establish anything. The first man was judicially removed to make room for the second. God’s plan was not to reinstate the first man who had broken down, but to bring in another Man in the Person of Christ, and to form in Him out of Jew and Gentile one new man. In resurrection the second Man has become the last Adam, the beginning of a new generation after His own order, so that now He is no longer alone, but has borne much fruit, Gal 4: 14; 1 Cor 15: 45; Eph 2: 15; John 12: 31, 32. We see, then, that there are two sides to the death of Christ; there is God’s side and man’s side, there was the blood for God and the water for man; God required expiation and man required cleansing. “That he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people”, Heb 2: 17. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission, because there is no other means of expiation. This great truth was set forth typically on the great day of atonement, Lev 16. When the high priest carried the blood into the holiest and sprinkled it on the mercy-seat, the throne of God, and before the mercy-seat, it was presented to God and placed under His eye. For us cleansing is by death, as was set forth in type when Naaman was told to bathe seven times in the Jordan in order that he might be cleansed from his leprosy. We are not cleansed in the flesh, the old man could not be cleansed. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?”, Job 14: 4. The psalmist says, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me”, Ps 51: 5. “How [then] can he be clean that is born of a woman?”, Job 25: 4. That is in the sight of Him who requires truth in the inward parts. A merely outward cleansing would be of no avail. The individual believer is cleansed not by any change in the life of Adam, but in that life being judicially ended in the cross of Christ, so that he may come to live in the life of the last Adam. It says of Naaman, when he came up out of the Jordan, that his flesh was fresher than that of a little child; typically it was a new beginning in a new life in which there was no taint of leprosy. So with the believer, it is a new beginning by the Spirit in the life of Christ, Gal 2: 20; 3: 3. In that life he is clean every whit. Then the apostle goes on to say, “there are three that bear witness—the Spirit and the water and the blood”. These three bear witness to one truth, viz., that life is not to be found in the natural man, but in the Son of God. “This is the witness, that God has given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son”. Here we may remark that the first four chapters of this epistle are connected with that which the apostle bore testimony to, as being witnesses of what was manifested in Jesus the Son of God here in this world, but chap 5 is the testimony of the Spirit to what is established in the Son of God in glory, see John 15: 26, 27. “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself”, so that the testimony of these three witnesses to the truth may be made good in him by the Spirit of truth. Now the great result of the Son of God having come in this way is first that in Him is brought to pass and set forth livingly the purpose and pleasure of God for us, and it has become possible for us through grace and by the Spirit to have part in all that God has established in Him, and it is God’s will that His people should know consciously and have the present enjoyment of that which He has prepared for them, and given to them in His own Son, so that we ought to be able to say, “We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ”, 1 John 5: 20. We know God, and we know our relation to God as sons. If we are in His Son, then we are sons the objects of that love of which He is the all-worthy object. As the Lord said, “I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them”, John 17: 26. He is in us as life, so that we are made capable of enjoying and responding to that love. We are called to have part with Him, God’s beloved Son, in all the Father has given to Him. And we know that the love which has given us to Him will not rest till He has brought us home to His own house, made like His Son in every way, to be with Him, His blessed Son for ever before His face. And the love of the Son will not rest until He has brought us to His own place, that where He is there we may be also. “I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am”, John 17: 24. Then He will share with us the glory the Father has given to Him.
Thou gav’st us, in eternal love,
To Him to bring us home to Thee;
Suited to Thine own thought above,
As sons like Him, with Him to be.
From Helps for the Poor of the Flock vol 15 (1910)