The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true.  Jesus answered and said unto them, “Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go.” (John 8:13-14 KJV)

Here lies a perfect example of why we cannot simply write a program to interpret the Bible or to answer our spiritual questions. Recall that in my last article I quoted Jesus words, “I can of my own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father who has sent me. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.” (John 5:30-31 KJ2000)  So in John 5 he says his witness concerning himself is not true if he bears witness of himself while in John 8 he says exactly the opposite.  In logic an assertion and its negative cannot both be true.  This demonstrates one of the so-called “contradictions” of Scripture. But, it is no contradiction. Jesus means exactly what he says, as he always does.

Jesus reveals profound spiritual truths and mysteries in chapters 5 through 8 of John. These chapters reveal the identity of Jesus, including his body, progressively. First Jesus tells his hearers that belief in his words brings eternal life. He establishes this authority by noting five witnesses which verify his testimony, John the Baptist, his miraculous works, his Father’s testimony (remember that his Father spoke in approval when John baptized Jesus), the Scriptures, and Moses (remember that Moses wrote many of the Scriptures which prophesied of Jesus).

Chapter six then relates the miraculous event of Jesus multiplying the fish and the barley bread. This event means more than it first seems. It is also a parable that prophesies the time soon coming when Jesus will divide his body and send the pieces of his body (his overcomers, the sons of God) to the ends of the earth bearing the same authority he had on earth. This explains why he goes into such detail concerning himself as the bread of life later in the chapter. “My body is real food; my blood is real drink.” “The words that I speak are spiritual.” Like Jesus these overcomers will possess power to feed the masses, both physically and spiritually. The overcomers qualified themselves by learning the lessons of chapter 5. They learned that if they bore witness of themselves, then their testimony was not true. They learned submission to spiritual authority (John the Baptist), learned to walk by the Spirit (good works), heard the confirmation of their walk directly from their Father in heaven, and learned that the Scriptures prophesied concerning them. They ordered their lives according to these witnesses.

Chapter seven continues revealing the Son of God and the sons of God. Here Jesus says, “My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me” (John 7:16 KJV) and “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” (John 7:17 KJV) and “He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.” (John 7:18 KJV) These precepts mark critical steps on the path to overcoming. The overcomer does not develop his own “systematic theology.” His theology changes as God reveals more of himself to him. Thus he does not remain bound by what he has previously written. If God shows him he was wrong about a certain doctrine, he admits it and goes on. His doctrine thus remains free to change as God teaches him all truth. False teachers hate to change their doctrine. They do not want anyone to think they could ever be wrong! They seek their own glory and will thus find themselves full of guile at the judgment. Toward the end of chapter seven Jesus reveals himself as the source of living water.

Chapter 8 then culminates this teaching by emphatically stating, “Before Abraham was, I AM,” thus equating himself with God the Father. It is at the beginning of this chapter that he says something exactly opposite to his assertion at the beginning of this four-chapter teaching, “Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true.” Why can he say this now? Why didn’t he say this at the beginning? Because “I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go.”

Chapters 5 through 8 reveal the journey of the overcomers. We begin our walk needing the testimony of many witnesses. We end needing only two, our own and our Fathers. Why? Because then we have become one with our Father and our testimony will always coincide with his. Like Jesus at that time we will simply BE. Then, and only then, will we walk in a perpetual state of all our actions being confirmed by two witnesses. Then, when we bear witness of ourselves, our testimony will be true, for we will be speaking the very WORD of GOD.

Until then, let us always be sure that two or three witnesses confirm our words and our actions!