I John 3:5 “And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.”
One of the blessed things we are made to “know”, when the Holy Spirit gives us Spiritual Birth, is that Christ “was manifested to take away our sins”. In our mind’s heart we “know” it, and then the preaching of the Gospel brings what we “know” to our understanding. The true Gospel message simply harmonizes with and explains what our Lord has already placed in our heart. This glorious knowledge is also described as “faith”, which is the “substance” and “evidence” that allows us to “know” with certainty that these things are so. The word “manifest” means that, what could not be seen, was now made visible; that is, Jesus Christ, the Son of God was born into this world and could then be seen, heard, and touched. When “Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost” he “prophesied” and said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, 69 And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;” (Luke 1:67-69). And, “the angel of the Lord appeared unto” Joseph “in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. 21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20-21). And John wrote, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;” (I John 1:1). After He had appeared on this earth and had finished what His Father sent Him to do (John 6:38-40), our Lord ascended back (Acts 1:9) and is now “at the right hand of God” (Romans 8:34). Now we, like Job, anxiously look forward to that blessed and holy day in which we will “see” Him for ourselves, and our “eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:27)!