He Is The Son Of God

 “And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.” (Joh 1:34 AV)

 These words were spoken by John the Baptist as the Dove of heaven descended upon the LORD Jesus Christ.  As the Holy Spirit rested upon the Son of God, the Father spoke confirming who Jesus was.  John has known of Jesus his whole life.  Although they did not grow up together, they must have known of one another.  As close as Mary and Elizabeth were and the event of miracle conception.  Elizabeth conceived in her old age and Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit.  Mary visits Elizabeth as she came to term to help her aunt.  When she arrives, John leaps in the womb at the coming of his cousin and the Messiah of Israel, Jesus.  No doubt, these two would not have been strangers.  Perhaps meeting at the different feasts wherein all of Israel gathered, these cousins would not have been strangers.  When Jesus comes to John to be baptized of him, they would not have been foreign to one another.  What John saw was not who Jesus was, but what Jesus was.  John’s life was transformed because it was in the river Jordan where he finally saw with the mind and heart that his cousin was indeed the Savior of the world.  His knowledge went from a passing knowledge of a carnal nature to a spiritual one springing up into eternal life.

I was raised all my life to know who Jesus was.  He was the son of God.  He came to earth as a baby and grew into a man.  He did many miracles.  He helped a lot of people.  Then the Pharisees got upset with him and delivered him over to be killed on a cross.  After three days, he rose from the grave and now sits in heaven.  I knew all these things without really knowing Him.  I knew who and what Jesus Christ was in a factual way.  What I knew in a factual way had no effect because I didn’t know Him in a spiritual way.  Faith was not mixed with fact.  The existence and record of Jesus are hard to escape.  The Bible isn’t the only record of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.  First-century historians testify as to the factual accuracy of the Biblical record.  To deny that Jesus came to earth, died, was buried, and rose again is to deny more than the Bible.  It is to deny the common record.  However, assenting to facts doesn’t do anything but make us correct concerning those facts.  What we know in the head must arrive in the heart.  Faith must mix with fact in order for the life of Christ to mean anything to the individual.  What we know to be true must meet faith that depends upon what we know to be true for the salvation of our souls.  It wasn’t until a few weeks shy of my eighteenth birthday that Christ finally became personal to me.  I knew of Him in all my adolescent years.  I celebrated Christmas and Easter.  I assented to the facts.  But it wasn’t until a lovely spring day almost forty years ago what I knew to be fact became a real person to me.  I saw that Jesus was indeed the Son of God and the Savior of my soul.

John knew who Jesus was supposed to be.  He knew who he was.  He was the forerunner spoken of by Isaiah the prophet.  He knew he would meet the Messiah, eventually.  He knew the Messiah would be revealed within his lifetime.  All those years, he knew by word of mouth, who Jesus might be.  No doubt, because his parents told him who he was and what role he would play for Israel, he must have also been told who his cousin was.  Perhaps he knew all along who Jesus was, but it wasn’t until His baptism that he really knew.  And this is our point:  once he knew, he had to tell everyone.  This should be the life of every saint.  Once the Son of God arises in our hearts and it is evident He is what He says He is, then we shouldn’t remain silent.  We need to bear record.  John was the voice of one crying in the wilderness.  He was the one anointed to preach the coming of the Messiah and declare to all the world once He was known.  If Jesus is known to the heart of the saint, then he or she must bear record as well.  This is what we must do.