The title Lembaga Alkitab Indonesia (Bible Institution of Indonesia) gives to this pericope, "Kesaksian Yesus tentang Diri-Nya" (The Testimony about Jesus about Himself), is not appropriate, for it is said in verse 31 "If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true", if Jesus testifies about Himself, that testimony becomes an invalid testimony. Jesus did not testify about Himself, but about the Father. The Holy Spirit testifies about Jesus. And in this section, we read that the Father testifies about the Son. This is the Trinitarian Personhood, each does not testify about Himself; self-testimony shows human's narcissistic personality, not Trinitarian Personhood.
We are created in the image of God, therefore we must follow the movement within the Trinity, and not create our own concept of personality that has been intoxicated by sin. We have often heard the word sin, but what is the true meaning of sin? Sin is of many dimensions, one of them if we discuss in the Trinitarian understanding, that is the perverse concept of personality that does not correspond with the Trinitarian concept. So, it is not that the Father testifies about the Father Himself, the Son testifies about the Son Himself, the Holy Spirit testifies about the Holy Spirit Himself, these are not the Trinitarian that we read in the Bible; what is written is that each testifies about the other persons.
We might testify in perversion if we testify about ourselves, we could diminish our shortcomings and failures, we bloat our virtues as much as possible, even if they exceed reality. Jesus would never have done that. If you pay attention here, say if Jesus testifies about Himself, His words must be true, and nothing wrong, because He is Jesus. But according to the faith of Christianity, the problem is not only the 'content' of the true testimony but also 'who' testifies it. Just if Jesus testifies about Himself, then the content must be right, but here Jesus says that that testimony becomes incorrect. Why? Because it is not right for Jesus to testify about Himself.
In the first chapters, we have discussed that in our daily life, the most common setting for witnessing is courtroom; which means there should be an accused and a witness (a person who testifies). Therefore, if Jesus testifies about Himself, He would be in the accused position, as well as the witness; if that is the case, we should might as well say that He could too be the judge. And because Jesus is the Judge, He would always win the case. But that is not what is written on the Scripture. Verse 31 is very relevant in our life, because we alone are not free from being talked about behind our backs, which is often slanderous and full of misunderstanding, and we are tempted to defend ourselves. We are tempted to testify about ourselves. Yet, according to Jesus, testifying for ourselves will not be a valid witness. We are not called to be a witness for ourselves; we are called to be the witness of Christ. A personality that revolves around oneself is non-Trinitarian, but a sin. The denial towards the concept of the personality of the Trinity is a sin.
In the Bible, we see a strong connection between the understanding of the Trinity with eternal life. If you read the books of catechism, including the classic Reformed confessions and catechisms such as Heidelberg, Belgic, Second Helvetic, Canons of Dort, Westminster, Geneva Catechism that Calvin wrote, you can obtain many insights about the Trinity. The understanding of the Trinity is the fundamental of eternal life. If we do not know and understand the Trinitarian God, we do not inherit eternal life, and the Scripture confirms this. The question is, how should we understand the Trinity? You should be careful with the idea called formulae Christianity, that revoles around a formula, " O, my understanding of the Trinity is straight, not hereditical, that is Una Substantia (one substance), Tres Personae (three persons)" then think if we say 'one substance, three persons' we would automatically be saved; but if 'one person, three substances' we would be damned in hell. This is called Christianity in a form of a formula. I am not harassing the ecumenical councils that the LORD has blessed, but if you read the Bible, we would be aware of how limited the ecumenical councils are. There are many that are not discussed in the ecumenical councils, the Bible is so much more deeper, more broad, richer than them. There are many that could not be contained by the great ecumenical councils, including the great Reformed catechisms, because the richness of the Bible is too abundant.
This sermon note has not been revised by the preacher.
Alice
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