He that believeth in the Son of God hath the testimony of God in himself. He that believeth not the Son maketh him a liar: because he believeth not in the testimony which God hath testified of his Son.
ο πιστευων εις τον υιον του θεου εχει την μαρτυριαν εν αυτω ο μη πιστευων τω θεω ψευστην πεποιηκεν αυτον οτι ου πεπιστευκεν εις την μαρτυριαν ην μεμαρτυρηκεν ο θεος περι του υιου αυτου
8 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Therefore, he who believes in the Son of God, that He is God as the Son of God, has the testimony in himself. For the believer himself has been adopted through Jesus, the Son of God. But the unbeliever is guilty in two respects: in unbelief, by presenting God as a liar, and in depriving himself of adoption. Through this he deprives himself of eternal life, which Christ also has in Himself, as it is said in the Gospel: “In Him was life” (Jn 1:4).
God does not make Himself false, for He proclaims the truth. Rather, the unbelieving man is false, because he himself does not believe that Christ is most truly God.
St. John has unfolded the great divine testimony given to us by the heavenly and earthly witnesses, of whom you heard in the preceding homily.
This is the testimony that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the promised Savior of the world.
In the words now set before us, he shows that we can also see the divine testimony confirming faith in Christ within ourselves, if we nourish in our soul this faith that overcomes the world.
"He who believes in the Son of God," says the Apostle, "has the witness in himself." What is this testimony?
From the Apostle's following words, which we shall now consider, we shall see that it is the testimony certifying the divinity of faith in Jesus Christ.
The Lord pointed to this when He said, "My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone wants to do His will, he shall know concerning the teaching, whether it is from God, or whether I speak on My own" (Jn 7:16-17).
This is the inner power and beneficence of the divine teaching, appropriated by faith. It is the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts (2 Cor 1:22), the seal of the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13), expressed in His gracious fruits.
But whoever does not receive, through faith, the divine testimony concerning Jesus Christ, and whoever does not believe that He is the Son of God, true God, and Savior of the human race, sins gravely.
"He who does not believe God," says the Theologian, "has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has testified concerning His Son."
The higher the testimonies that assure us of the divinity of faith in Jesus Christ, the more guilty unbelief in Him becomes.
This is the faith that Jesus Christ is true God and Savior of the world, and that there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12), except the name of the Lord Jesus.
Such unbelief is unbelief in God, because all the testimonies proving that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and Savior of the world are not human testimonies, but divine.
They are testimonies by which God assures men that Jesus Christ is the true Only-begotten Son of God, sent into the world for the salvation of men.
Thus everyone who believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life (Jn 3:16). But the unbeliever is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the Only-begotten Son of God (Jn 3:18).
The divinity of Jesus Christ, witnessed from heaven, is also witnessed on earth. We know that the power of the Gospel is unchanging, the conversion of sinners is everywhere, and the patience of the saints is unshaken. If these earthly, or one may say lesser, witnesses to Christ's divinity are beyond doubt, should one doubt the greater, that is, the heavenly testimony? If “by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established” (2 Cor 13:1), and if the testimony of several men is enough for accepting some event as certain, then how much greater is the significance of God's testimony?
“He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.” Founded on external testimonies, faith in Jesus Christ at the same time becomes a powerful inner testimony confirming the truth of those external testimonies. Experience shows that for a believing heart the simplest and lightest indications are enough to be convinced of some truth. By contrast, the strongest and most evident proofs of truth are suspected, disputed, and rejected by unbelievers. “He who does not believe God has made Him a liar.”
On the contrary, whoever does not believe God, and therefore does not believe His testimony concerning His Son or receive that testimony, makes Him a liar and faithless to Himself (1 Jn 1:10 and note).
This unbelief in God is all the more guilty and destructive for the unbeliever because he does not believe the highest testimony of God concerning the Son of God (v. 9).
"The unbeliever is guilty in two respects: in unbelief, by making God a liar, and in depriving himself of adoption as son, and through this, of eternal life" (Theophylact).
This inner testimony is the believer's feeling or consciousness of the presence within himself of eternal life in communion with God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
For whoever has the Son, with the Father abiding in him, also has eternal life. Whoever does not have Him does not have it.
"For there are three who bear witness in heaven," concerning Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God: the Father, Mt 3:17; 17:5; Jn 1:18; 3:11; 8:14; 10:36; Mt 26:64; Mk 14:62; 1 Pet 1:21; Lk 1:35; Mt 3:16; Jn 1:32, "the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one" (1 Jn 5:7).
That is, they are witnesses equal in honor and consubstantial, as equal in divinity.
"And there are three who bear witness on earth: the spirit," that is, the same Spirit, but not in His person and hypostasis, rather in His actions.
"The water and the blood," which flowed from the side of Jesus as a true man and became the elements of the two greatest mysteries, Baptism and Communion, "and these three agree in one" (1 Jn 5:8).
"If we receive the testimony of men," the Apostle adds, "the testimony of God is greater" (1 Jn 5:9). That is, should we not all the more rightly receive the greater testimony from God?
For is not this testimony concerning the Son of God, that is, Christ, from God Himself? (Theophylact).
So it ought to be, yet it is not always so. Unbelief and faith have always divided people, and will divide them, into two different camps.
Therefore, however important and reliable the witnesses named above may be, their voice reaches only hearts that are pure, uncorrupted, and capable of faith.
For this reason the Apostle says further: "He who believes," that is, a man with a pure and uncorrupted heart, "in the Son of God has the witness in himself."
"He who does not believe God," that is, a man with a corrupted and proud heart, "has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has testified concerning His Son" (1 Jn 5:10).
He does not believe that "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son" (1 Jn 5:11).
Finally, the apostle John points to the most evident testimony for all concerning the divinity of Jesus Christ in the fruits of redemption. Christians feel these fruits in the state of their minds, hearts, and souls generally, as they are in living, mystical communion with Him, and through Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit. By the power of faith, every true Christian feels peace and joy within himself. He senses within himself the fullness of the powers needed for piety and leading into eternal life (see 2 Pet 1:3-4; Gal 5:22-23).
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 34 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS