HE CAME BY WATER AND BLOOD. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

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The Bible says that Jesus Christ came not only by water, but by water and blood. What does this statement mean?

(1 John 5:6 KJV) This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.

The secret to understanding this scripture is in the context. John used many verses in his 1st epistle to affirm that Jesus Christ came in the flesh (i.e. in real human body) and to counter the teachings and belief of some in those days that Jesus never came in the flesh.

(1 John 1:1-2 NIV) That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.

(1 John 4:1-2 NLT) Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God.

(1 John 4:3 KJV) And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

It is in this context of afirming that Jesus came in real body that John made the statement in 1 John 5:6. He said Jesus not only came by water, but by water and blood.

To come by water means to come by natural birth. A similar term was used by Jesus in John 3:5 where He said except a man is born of water and spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Jesus went on to explain the meaning of water, in verse 6 of that chapter, to mean flesh (i.e physical or natural birth). Read my previous blog on the topic, WHAT DOES BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT MEAN?

So, water in the context of John 5:6 means natural birth of Christ. However, John also said our Lord Jesus Christ came by blood. To understand what blood means, let us look at what John says in John 1:12-13:

(John 1:12-13 KJV) But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

"Not of blood" in the above verse simply means "not of ancestry" or "not of lineage" or "not of bloodline" or "not of descent"

(John 1:12-13 NIV) Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

So, John is affirming in 1John 5:6 that not only did Jesus come by natural birth, he came both by natural birth and by their lineage or ancestry (ethnic descent).

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