Verse 8
8. And… witness Literally, And three are they who bear witness. It is remarkable that the words three are masculine, implying persons, and one is neuter, implying thing or substance. It is not without a shadow of reason, therefore, that Augustine found an indication of the Trinity in the words. Very similar is the Greek in the words “I and my Father are one,” where “one” is neuter. The water represents the Father, the author of our regeneration; the blood represents the propititiating Son; and these, with the Spirit, ever witness in the world to the Messiahship of him that came. And as the Spirit, so the water and the blood are ever present witnesses in the Church through the sacraments of baptism and eucharist.
Agree in one Literal Greek, these three are into one. The three persons converge into a unit.
It can hardly be doubted that there is an intended correspondence between these words and those in John 19:34-35. John there states, with great emphasis, that he beheld and bare record to the marvellous fact that blood and water came forth from the Saviour’s side. It is obvious that he viewed that water and blood as witnesses to the fact that the dying Jesus was truly a Saviour, both by atoning blood and by purifying water. Similarly striking are the Baptist’s words attesting the Spirit’s testimony of the divine Sonship. “I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.” John 1:34.
From all this we derive a solemn proof that the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s supper are a perpetual institution of the Church, bearing record with the Spirit that Jesus is our permanent propitiation and sanctification. In the eucharist we “show forth the Lord’s death until he come.” And the baptismal commission extended “to the end of the world.” 1 Corinthians 11:26; Matthew 28:19-20.
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