Three Witnesses Confirm A Matter

In this month's article, I am writing about the Trinity and the testimony of two or three witnesses testifying to the truth. This is still used in our court system today. Someone is innocent until proven guilty by more than two or three witnesses.

God’s testimony about Himself and the truth He gives leaves humanity without an excuse. In this article, we will see the Father testifying about the Son, the Spirit testifying about the Son, the Son testifying about the Father (John 14), and two or three witnesses confirming a matter.

Why is the testimony from the Father about the Son so important? If you were on a jury and someone came to the witness stand, and a list was given of what they did and how they are an upstanding person known for always being just and serving others, would you be more likely to believe their testimony? Of course, you would.

Their reputation proceeds them. This is why the testimony of the Father about the Son is so important. This leads to adding just a small note to remind us of September’s article about the Trinity. All three persons in the Trinity are represented in this article today, testifying of each other. God, in one essence, testifies to His truthfulness in the three persons because He is entirely true and uncorrupted by sin. 

God cannot lie; all His words and ways are just and true. “By no means! Let God be true though everyone were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.” (Romans 3:4)

God can't lie. It would be a contradiction of His character. This is why He can be trusted. When the Father speaks about the Son, we–His creation—should listen intently. There are a few places in the New Testament where this takes place.

1.      The Father testifies about the Son.

“He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” (Matt 17:5)

This is the second time we have heard this heavenly voice in Matthew's gospel. In this text, the only words the Father adds from Matthew three is (listen to Him). I am going to go back and give us a review of what we can learn about the Father and the Son from this passage.

First, a bright cloud overshadowed Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. From the cloud, the Father communicates with the lawgiver, a prophet, and the Messiah. Second, His voice came from the cloud in verbal communication to the disciples of Jesus who were nearby. Third, we learn that Jesus is the beloved son of the Father.

There is a relationship that is grounded in love for the Son and His obedience. Fourth, the Father is pleased with the life of Jesus Christ. We see the Father loves Jesus, and He is obedient to the Father to the point of giving His innocent life on the cross. Fifth, the Father states, “Listen to Him.” The testimony of the Father, who is a truth-teller and can be no different, says, “I love my Son. He is obedient to me, so listen to Him.”   

These are excellent reasons to listen to Jesus. We need also to understand what Jesus thought about the Father.  “Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.” (John 14:24). If we love Jesus, we will obey His words.

However, the text shows that Jesus's words come from the Father. He is giving us a picture of the beautiful explanation of the essence of God and how the persons interact with each other.  

In this verse, we not only see the Son submit to the Father and His words, showing that they are one in essence, but the Son is also testifying to the Father by giving us His words because they are trustworthy testimonies of the universal truth. The Father loves the Son; the Son obeys the Father. The fact given by the Father is echoed through Jesus, and the Father exhorts us all to listen to Him. This is a picture of the essence of God and the persons working together to present truth to creation.

I now want to look at how the spirit testifies to Jesus.

2.      The spirit testifies about the Son.

“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.” (John 15:26)

The Holy Spirit is sent as a tutor. He is a gift to the human race that reminds us and teaches of the validity of the scriptures and the three persons of the Trinity. In this text, we see that Jesus sends the Spirit from the Father, and one of His roles is to testify to the life of Jesus, the truth that He spoke, and the Old Testament scriptures He fulfilled.

So far, we have seen two witnesses testifying to the truth. We see the Father testifying that we need to listen to the Son, and we know the Father cannot lie. And we see the Spirit testifying to Jesus. Now, I want to examine how the Son testifies to the Father.  

3.      The Son testifying about the Father.

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” (John 14:9-10)

Jesus, from this text, is correcting one of His disciples. From this verse, we see the essence of God; we see that the Father and the Son are separate persons, yet they are one. We see Jesus testifying to the Father doing His work through Jesus, Him attesting to the truthfulness of the Father, and Jesus making this statement in the Gospel of John.

If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. (John 5:31) Jesus states that He is not testifying of Himself. Someone testifying of themselves would not even hold up in an earthly court of law. However, if they have other reliable witnesses and their testimonies line up and can be proved with evidence, the affidavits would be considered trustworthy.

This is what God is doing for us. Jesus said, “I am not testifying of myself.” Neither is the Spirit nor the Father. They are all testifying to each other. Each person attests to the truthfulness of the other; they all are one in essence. They are showing the importance of their oneness and the reality of their personhoods.

There are many more places in scripture where others testify to the Godhead, like John the Baptist, the law testifies to the coming of Jesus, the prophets telling where Jesus would be born etc. In the next section, we will see what God says about two or three witnesses confirming a matter.

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