Author: PJD
Company: SymCast

©1998  Joe Griffin								98-09-03/JSH-018

Introduction: Victory through Faith: 1 John 5:6; The True Humanity of Jesus: A Rebuttal against Docetic Gnosticism

1 John 5:6 - [NAS] This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with water only, but with the water and with the blood.

This verse documents the literal physical death of our Lord’s true humanity.  It will also help us distinguish between the physical death of Christ and His spiritual death by the use of the word a‘ima, translated “blood.”  The verse begins with the nominative singular subject from the pronoun:
o^‘utoV / houtos /  - “This one” Refers to Jesus Christ, just      mentioned in verse 5.  The Lord is now the topic of discussion.

1) Our passage is documenting the initial victory over the cosmic system as being our faith alone in Christ alone.

2) The victory by means of faith is discussed in verse 4 while the object of that faith is found to be Jesus, the Son of God, in verse 5.

3) Now in verse 6 we are given information which verifies that Jesus is truly the Messiah and proves it by means of documenting the details of His physical death.

Next comes the verb, the present active indicative of:
e^’imi /eimi /  - “is”  “This One is …”

present: Historical; views the completed Incarnation with the vividness of a present occurrence.

active: Jesus Christ produces the action.

indicative: Declarative; for a statement of historical and biblical fact.

This is followed by the aorist active participle of the verb:

^’ercomai /erchomai /  - “He who came”

aorist: Constative; contemplates the First Advent in its entirety but emphasizes the end results,i.e., the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

active: Jesus Christ produces the action of functioning in the First Advent down to the final moment on the cross.

participle: Circumstantial

CTL: “This One is He who came …”

1) The One who came is Jesus Christ in the First Advent or the Incarnation.

2) His virgin birth began a sequence in which He fulfilled many Old Testament prophecies.

3) Others still remain to be fulfilled at the Second Advent and beyond.

4) However, it should be remembered that Old Testament writers knew nothing of the Church Age. 

5) The New Testament reveals only two prophecies related to the Church Age and they reference its termini: (1) The prophecy of the indwelling and filling ministries of the Holy Spirit and (2) the   rapture of the Church which ends the dispensation.

6) Prophecies regarding the First Advent indicated that the Messiah would possess true humanity, would be born of a virgin, and would die for the sins of mankind through spiritual death.

7) One of the devices of the devil, one of the doctrines of demons which is promoted in the invisible war is the idea that Jesus was not true   humanity.

8) In fact that was the main tenet of a philosophical movement active during the first century a.d. known as Docetic Gnosticism.

9) Gnosticism was a philosophical heresy which elevated knowledge above faith.  In doing so it sought to reconcile the teachings of the Greek philosophers Plato and Philo with the doctrines of  Christianity.

10) In order to do so, a system was established which also incorporated the eastern religions of Persia and India.

11) From this mishmash the following characteristics emerged which define Gnosticism:

1. Those who had knowledge, or gnwsiV /gnosis /, were superior to those who were content to depend upon faith.
2. They viewed the universe from the standpoint of dualism: matter and spirit, and matter was evil.
3. The solution to the merger of the spiritual with the material was to be worked out by a lesser deity they called the Demiurge who    would communicate with man by means of emanations. These emanations once perceived were referred to as gnwsiV /gnosis /.
4. Belief that matter was evil led to a denial of the true humanity of Christ which ultimately led to the denial of the Incarnation entirely.

12) Gnostics who came to deny the Incarnation were referred to as Docetics.  This word is taken from the Greek dokhsiV /dokesiV / which means: apparition, phantom, or vision.
13) Their contention was that the cross was an optical illusion and the humanity of Jesus was a phantom: someone who appears to the sight but who has no material substance [OED].
14) Therefore, John, in both his gospel and epistles, refutes this false doctrine by stressing the true humanity of Christ by references to His blood.  What follows is an example brought out by the prepositional phrase:

dia /dia / plus the ablative of means from the nouns:

^‘udwr & a^‘ima /hudor & haima /  - “water and blood”

CTL: “This One is He who came by means of water and blood …”  next comes the nominative of apposition   from:

^’IhsouV  CristoV /Iesous Christos /  -  “Jesus Christ”