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He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true. (John 3:33)
It is becoming more and more clear to me as well as more significant what the content of this testimony is that is referred to here. It is a testimony that is vital for me to accept, appreciate, embrace and believe if I ever hope to live with God for eternity or to enjoy the bliss of heaven.
The more I meditate on this chapter the more clearly this testimony emerges into my awareness. It is the primary reason that Jesus came to this earth – to bear witness, to declare His testimony in the case of the false charges against God in the great trial going on in the universe. This trial will someday come to a final conclusion in the last day of judgment and full revelation but at this point we are still caught up in the titanic struggle to capture and lock in the testimony of as many witnesses as possible from both sides of the trial.
The only way to understand the real significance of these words is to appreciate the actual trial context that is vividly going on behind the scenes. Jesus did not come to this earth to deliver instructions on how we can get perfect enough to get ourselves into heaven or to escape hell. Neither did He come to demonstrate and encourage us as to how to get along better or have more platitudes to live by. Jesus did not come to help us out but to rescue us, to save us from ourselves and the enormous mass of lies about God that continue to suffocate and blind us even yet today. But at the same time He never violates one the highest principles of freedom that is honored by all of heaven, the freedom of our personal choice.
I continue to be amazed at the blindness and ignorance that all of us, myself included, still retain in so many of our assumptions. We think we really understand what religion means and what God's purposes are for us. Our bold confidence in how we interpret Scriptures is often far beyond our true abilities. I know that this is all we seem to be able to see right now and God meets us where we are, but each time I sense God taking me to a deeper level spiritually it is always in the direction of clarifying the issue of what His character is really like and His disposition toward us as sinners. And the clearer His feelings about me emerge to my consciousness, the darker and more cynical become the claims of most all of religion including many of my own.
I am realizing that the Light is much, much brighter than I can even imagine and that it is urgent that God opens my eyes and heals me to be able to endure the brightness of His glorious truth and love if there is ever to be hope for me. I am not talking about physical light here but about the enormous intensity of pure, unaffected, passionate love that is untainted with any dark motives whatsoever. I am also becoming more aware that to cling to any false beliefs or fears in the presence of that kind of pure and holy passion is to guarantee self-destruction, and God is keen to cleanse me of all of that before I encounter His presence at those dangerous levels of intensity.
So, what does this have to do with the testimony of Jesus mentioned here? How does Jesus' coming to this earth help me prepare to successfully encounter the dangerous levels of love and passion that are inevitable in the presence of God? And why is it so important to see this in the context of a great trial going on?
The testimony of Jesus focuses on one thing and one thing alone. Everything else is peripheral and explanatory to that. The testimony of Jesus is the same testimony that will be seen in the life of every person who accepts and embraces Jesus' testimony and is stated plainly at the end of this verse. The testimony of Jesus is that God is true.
One of our problems in understanding this phrase is that the very concept of truth itself has become so narrowed in our thinking that it is hard to grasp the significance of this statement properly. This whole chapter helps to unpack the meaning of truth even more, and the writings of John expand on this even more thoroughly. One thing that becomes very clear as I look around in this chapter for related concepts to this core declaration is the clear message that God loves and that His love is unconditional and unmerited – it cannot be earned or induced by what we do or don't do.
That element of truth at first seems to be easy enough for most Christians to think that they believe. But it does not take long at all to notice that most tend to view God as two-faced when it comes to love. The teachings that most people promote about God infer that if sinners don't respond the way God wants them to and become obedient or compliant with His demands to love Him, that He will run out of patience with them someday and will suddenly turn to anger and violence to accomplish His revenge against all those who reject His mercy.
We also maintain very confused notions about God's forgiveness as well. Most people believe that forgiveness is somehow conditional in some respects and they are scandalized at even the thought that God forgives unconditionally. Most people believe that God withholds forgiveness at least until we come and ask for it, but this is not what the Scriptures really teach if one is open to studying it carefully. Our beliefs about God's forgiveness are much more reflective of our own notions and feelings that we carry toward those who offend us rather than based on the truth revealed in the Word. And this is strongly influenced by deep, subconscious misconceptions about God that we have not yet confronted in our own hearts.
It is in these ways that we weaken and discount the testimony of Jesus about the character of God. What we are really describing in our teachings about God is a god that is reflective of our personalities and our character rather than the real God of heaven. Instead of relying on Jesus to be the primary source of revelation about who and what God is like, we are inserting our own feelings and desires and confusion into our beliefs about God and coming up with a God that often acts the way we want Him to act and treats our enemies the way we want to treat them.
But when we do this we are not receiving the testimony of Jesus but in fact end up bearing false witness against God in contrast to what Jesus came to do. When we do that we are following a different course than believing in Jesus, no matter what our claims and professions may be to the contrary.
As I look around in this chapter I find many relevant statements that start to unpack what is really contained in the testimony of Jesus talked about here. And as I choose to embrace these truths about God and displace the assumed beliefs that I have had all of my life then I will find myself being sealed as my own testimony about God comes more and more into alignment with the testimony of Jesus.
...I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God. (Revelation 19:10)
