Is Jesus really God in the flesh? Did Jesus really die on the cross?
These are questions that many people ask concerning the person and redemptive work of Jesus. The apostle John was surrounded by skeptics. The Gnostics didn’t believe Jesus had a real human body and actually died on the cross. Much like the world today, these Gnostics wanted Jesus’ death to be reduced to the death of a mere man who was divinely inspired for a short time. They further spread the false teaching that Jesus was not really human but only appearing to be human, thus attempting to nullify the redemptive work of Jesus.
Once the life and death of Jesus are reduced to that of a mere man or dismissed as a myth, we lose the foundational doctrine of the atonement. From the time of Adam’s sin, God declared His plan for the atonement of sin, and man’s redemption. When Abraham was called to offer his only son Isaac, God declared that He would provide Himself a sacrifice. Jesus’ death represents the divine sacrifice as the second Adam that satisfied God’s judgment of sin. If Jesus is not God incarnate, who truly is the Son of God that has taken away the sin of the world, then man becomes hopeless, because there is no sin-bearer, no pardoning love, and no forgiveness of sins.
“But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe.” (John 19:34–35)
In this account, John declares himself an eye witness to the physical death of the Son of God. He saw the spear pierce the side of Jesus, and saw the blood and water flow. This is a condition that takes place when the pericardium sack outside the heart is filled with blood and fluid under extreme trauma. Some would say that Jesus died of a “broken heart.”
Later John would write of another witness that would testify to the truth that Jesus is the Son of God who really died for the sins of the world. This witness is the Holy Spirit, who does not only testify of Jesus’ death but the truth of His whole life from the beginning of Jesus’ official ministry at baptism to the end of the redemptive ministry at the cross (1 John 5:6).
John the apostle was an eye witness to the life and death of Jesus. The Holy Spirit continues to be a witness of the life and redemptive ministry of Jesus.
Did Jesus really live and die for your sins? YES! Accept the truth and live. Denying the truth will leave you without excuse before a Holy God and without hope for eternal life. As John says, “These things were written so that you will believe.”
Pastor Cary Wacker