“He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.”
that God has given of His Son
We cannot excuse the rejection of Jesus as the Son of God based on ignorance because God made Himself abundantly clear on that subject. Unbelief in Jesus as the Son of God is culpable because it rejects God’s testimony.
We cannot confuse the nature of God’s witness to Jesus Christ as the Son of God. God makes the witness possible. He affirms the Son’s validity.
PRINCIPLE:
We affirm God’s credibility by believing His testimony about Jesus Christ.
APPLICATION:
Belief in Jesus as the Son of God is the irreducible minimum in becoming a Christian. By accepting God’s testimony to the truth in Jesus, we affirm the credibility of the One who gave the testimony. Lacking trust in God’s Word makes Him a liar.
We may think we honor God when we say, “Well, I would like to believe, but somehow I don’t feel sure that I am a Christian. If only I could have a different feeling come over me, then I would know that I am a Christian.” But so long as we talk like that, we make God a liar. God has told us something in His Word that He expects us to believe.
What does it imply if we do not believe Him? Unbelief involves more than the testimony; it looks beyond the testimony to the subject of the testimony. Our disbelief is a failure to trust Him. A wide difference exists between believing a man and believing in a man. If we believe a man, we do no more than accept that whatever statement he is making at the moment is true. All we are saying is that, in a particular case, we believe he is telling the truth.
However, if we believe in a man, we accept the whole man and all that he stands for in complete confidence and trust. We are not only prepared to trust his spoken word but also to trust our lives to him. Believing the Father’s testimony is not simply accepting what He says is true; it is a commitment to all that He says is true; it is placing ourselves in His hands for time and eternity.
When we put ourselves into God’s hands, the Holy Spirit within us testifies that we believe we are right. The Holy Spirit gives us the conviction of the ultimate worth and value of Jesus Christ. This trust assures us that we are right to commit ourselves to Him. The man who refuses to do that is refusing the promptings of the Holy Spirit within his heart. He refuses to listen to God’s message.
