The
words above are attributed to John the Baptist, but they could just as easily
been uttered by John the Apostle. The
statement is a declaration from the witness stand—unwavering and certain of
what they are both testifying. What they
say is based on what they saw. The basis
of their testimony is not second-hand hearsay, but personal and
experiential. Their conclusion is
unequivocal and irrevocable. John unites
his voice to the evangelist—in unison they declare, “I testify that this Man is
the Son of God!”
It
sort of makes my often muffled and understated whispers of faith fall into
irrelevancy. I am a product of the age
in which I live. I avoid
all-encompassing statements that risk offending people of other religious or
non-religious persuasions. I have been
fed a steady stream of political correctness and moral relativity to the point
that I askew positions that cast me into a mold that is too narrow or confining.
Neither John is concerned with such matters.
They know what they saw and experienced—it changed their lives.
What
is my equivalent experience as a “believer”?
I can’t roll back time or rewind history, but what I lack in visual and
tactile evidence I can experience in abundance through a personal experiential
encounter with God. Such an encounter
requires something that I have become less open to experiencing—a mystical and
non-quantitative experience with a Being that is not seen. It is a faith experience, which too many
times is equated with superstition and old-world thinking. But both Johns are inviting me into an experience
that is foreign to my natural sense and scientific bent. It is a jump into the unknown; it is scary;
it is unsettling. I am in a life’s
journey which will force me to make a decision to accept or deny the confession
stated in this verse. There is no
option—I must choose. The choice looms
on my daily horizon calling me to declare, “I testify that this Man—Jesus, is
the Son of God!”
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