Words of Hope Daily Devotional
START EVERY DAY WITH HOPE
Get the Words of Hope Devotional and get daily encouragement to love God, read his Word, and meet with him in prayer. Available in print and email.
START EVERY DAY WITH HOPE
Get the Words of Hope Devotional and get daily encouragement to love God, read His Word, and meet with Him in prayer. Available in print and email.
The Best Testimony
Read: 1 John 5:1-12
And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. (v. 11)
Sharing testimonies of faith is an important part of Christian tradition. At times, these stories, particularly conversion stories can be quite dramatic. For example, the influential 19th-century evangelist Charles G. Finney described his conversion as “waves of liquid love” washing over him.
Getting caught up in the drama of these testimonies can miss the point. It is not how a person becomes a Christian that matters but whether a person really believes in Christ. There is only one way to become a Christian, to be a Christian, and to remain a Christian. We must believe that Jesus is the Son of God who offers the gift of eternal life. “Whoever has the Son has life,” John writes (v. 12). It is as simple as that.
God has a testimony, too. He testifies to the true identity of his incarnated son, Jesus Christ. That testimony includes the water of Jesus’s baptism, the blood of his sacrificial death, and the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, which inspires us to believe in Christ. All three point to Jesus as God’s Son and the Savior of the world. This—and only this—is what we must believe.
As you pray, thank God that he has made things so simple for you, that if you believe in his son, Jesus, you can have life. Thank God for the gift of his son, Jesus Christ.
Jerry Sittser is a professor emeritus of theology and senior fellow at Whitworth University. He specializes in the history of Christianity, Christian spirituality, and religion in American public life. As an author, he has written nine books.
