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I. THE QUALIFICATIONS WHICH WERE REQUISITE. A witness is one who gives evidence, even at the expense of life. This has been so generally received as its meaning, that the original word "martyr" has been transferred to our own language, without any material alteration of its signification — not that every person who is willing to lay down his life, is therefore a true witness, but he cannot be a true witness without it. There are many qualifications requisite beside this, and we shall now examine how far they were possessed by the Lord Jesus Christ.

1. He must have been an eye-witness of the things He related. He came to bear testimony to things of which the world at large were entirely ignorant, and concerning which He could derive no information, except by being intimately conversant with them. But He who "came for a Witness, to bear witness unto the truth," could say, "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world." "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him."

2. But He might have possessed this and every other qualification without the willingness to communicate what He knew as an eyewitness. And herein is manifested the exceeding love of the three Persons in the Trinity, towards man. The Father sets Him forth as His gift to sinners — "Behold I have given Him." The Son, when before His unjust judge, declares, "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. And He was anointed with the Holy Ghost, and with power for this particular work.

3. It is also required in a witness that He declare the whole troth, and nothing but the truth. In Revelation 1:5 we read — "Jesus Christ is the faithful Witness;" and in the third chapter He calls Himself "the Amen, the faithful and true Witness." Hence it follows that His testimony must contain all needful truth: that natural religion is not sufficient — that as it is a testimony, it can be received only by faith, and no prerequisites are placed by God in the way of a sinner coming to Him. That whilst this testimony is before the mind, it does work effectually in all those who believe, i.e. receive it on testimony; and that, as it came from God, it is the imperative duty of all who hear, to believe it, and that God is just in condemning those who believe not.

II. WHAT THAT TRUTH WAS TO WHICH HE BORE TESTIMONY. "I am come," says He, "a light into the world, that whosoever followeth Me should not walk in darkness, but have the light of life." By this He means to say, that all the world was lying in darkness and the shadow of death, "alienated from the life of God by the ignorance that was in them, because of the blindness of their hearts;" and it was to strike at the root of every false religion, and every garbled form of His own, that He puts Himself forth as the only Witness, who, from His perfect acquaintance with what He spoke, was qualified to teach those truths which mankind had so perverted.

1. The Lord Jesus Christ came to restore the true knowledge of God, and this He did by testifying, in the first place, to the character of the Father, that "God is love."

2. Having thus borne testimony to the Father, He proceeds to bear testimony to Himself. Of Himself He testified that He was the promised Messiah, and that, though man, He was also God.

3. The Lord Jesus likewise was a Witness in declaring that it was the belief of His word, received as a testimony, which should bring salvation.

4. We shall now examine what He says of Himself as being a King, and consequently having a kingdom in the world. Whether He has a kingdom or not in the world is a question we are competent to decide by our own observation of the characters we meet with in our passage through life. But if we can see no signs of it, we must suspend our judgments till we see what the end will be. If He has already established, it will be an additional proof that He is a faithful and true Witness. Now when examined by Pilate, the question was expressly put by him to Jesus, "Art thou a king then?" to which in the most unequivocal manner He replied, "Thou sayest that I am a king." The nature of that kingdom He had as expressly borne testimony,, to — "My kingdom is not of this world; now is My kingdom not from hence. But He bore testimony to this fact not only on His trial before Pilate (though this is called the good confession, because he immediately after sealed it with His blood), but in the whole of His public ministry.

III. THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. While Christ was in the world He bore witness to the truth, but when He went hence to the Father, the Spirit was commissioned to lead into all truth those whom He left behind, and they, by His inspiration, have committed it to writing. The Holy Scriptures are, therefore, the testimony of Christ, as it has been witnessed to us by the Spirit. Of this testimony, the whole world are ignorant by nature, and as soon as it is made known to them, the pride and carnal enmity of the unrenewed mind rises in opposition to it. This opposition to the truth of God, it is the especial province of the Spirit of God to overcome, and the way in which He effects this, is by taking of things, i.e. the testimony of Christ, and showing them to us, and this He does in such a manner as commends to us, as most lovely, what we before thought most hateful. Many of the children of God are led into and kept in a state of doubt as to their acceptance with God, from thinking that the only witness which the Spirit bears is to the life and conversation, forgetting that these evidences can only flow from the primary witness which He bears to the testimony of Christ. This consideration will also show what it is so important to remember, the connection between soundness and clearness of doctrinal truth with consistency of life.

(R. Jessop, M. A.)

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KJV: Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.

WEB: Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander to the peoples.