There Was No One

What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. (John 3:32)

At first I thought that this verse was an overstatement, a dramatization of the resistance of people to accept God's truth as revealed in the life of Jesus. But the more I look at it and research the original words behind the translation and pray about it the more I think differently.

Another verse from the Old Testament comes to my mind in relation to this.

And He saw that there was no man, and was astonished that there was no one to intercede; then His own arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness upheld Him. (Isaiah 59:16)

This whole section of verses in John 3 is closely parallel to verses 11-13 earlier in this chapter. The more I look at this the more I am coming to believe that indeed not one single person on earth other than Jesus has ever truly received the testimony of God. That is reflected in the verse from Isaiah which also affirms that there was no man, even to the point of astonishing God Himself.

It was because of this very situation that Jesus was sent to become a human, to take on the situation of this earth blinded and held hostage by sin and to become THE witness for the truth about God. Jesus became a human to reveal explicitly and emphatically that God is indeed true. This is the core issue of the whole battle between right and wrong, between sin and righteousness, between Christ and Satan. No one else really believes thoroughly that God is true even though many may profess it and believe it to some degree.

He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true. (John 3:33)

So evidently from the context here Jesus is the only one who has really received His testimony. He received it from His Father and is bringing it into humanity through the means of His own living out of that testimony as well as His words about God. It is only the life and death of Jesus that perfectly confirms and testifies that God really is true and that He can and will do everything that He says is true. Jesus came to reverse the lies of Satan that God cannot be trusted to speak the truth. He insinuated to Eve and Adam that God did not have their best in mind when He instructed them not to imbibe of the forbidden fruit. Humanity has lived under the spell of those lies ever since and Jesus came to bring fresh light, life and truth about God into the minds and hearts and the very soul of humanity at its core.

From this perspective it becomes more clear to me that by becoming a real Christian through the new birth experience we may not really be becoming new witnesses for God, separate witnesses from Jesus, but in fact we are simply becoming reflectors and extensions of His witness and giving voice to His testimony. That is part of what it means to live “in Christ”. Thus everything is totally dependent on Christ and His righteousness alone. Nothing, not even our testimony as witnesses and certainly not any righteousness found in us is originated with us or even becomes ours to claim ownership over. Everything in the plan of salvation for us is dependent on the life and testimony of Jesus our Messiah.

And a great voice in heaven came to my ears, saying, Now is come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ: because he who says evil against our brothers before our God day and night is forced down. And they overcame him through the blood of the Lamb and the word of their witness; and loving not their lives they freely gave themselves up to death. (Revelation 12:10-11 BBE)