The Water of Life

As I sit and listen to the sound of the rain this morning, it gets me thinking about water and how common it is, but also how essential it is to life. We need water to live. Plants need it to grow and produce food. Animals also rely on it for life.

Did you know that your body is made up of 60% water and it makes up 70-75% of your total body weight? Water is your body’s most important nutrient and is involved in every bodily function. Water helps you to maintain your body temperature, metabolize body fat, aids in digestion, lubricates and cushions organs, transports nutrients, and flushes toxins from your body.

We drink it, wash in it, cook with it, swim in it and generally take it for granted. This clear, tasteless and odorless liquid is so much part of our lives. It has many more fascinating features that suggest that it has been designed ‘just right’ for life and in fact, without water there would be no life.

I have run the number of references to water in Scripture and came up with 722. Obviously to discuss all those references would take up more space than I have here, so I’ll just share with you a few thoughts that will whet your appetite for further study.

The first mention of water in Scripture is found in Genesis 1:2, “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” The final mention is found in Revelation 22:17, “The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.”

In between those two books water flows continually through the pages of Scripture. This testifies to the fact that there is great
spiritual significance to water. Water speaks of physical (or natural) birth and to spiritual re-birth. Water also speaks to us of the Word of God where in Ephesians 5:26 concerning the church we read, “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.”

Water speaks to us of the purification of the Christian; of the sinner who comes to Christ. In Hebrews 10:22, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” Water is a symbol of vibrant spiritual life as we read in John 4:14 “but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Without water we cannot have earthly life just like without the Lord Jesus Christ there cannot be eternal life. Ephesians 5:26 tells us that we are cleansed “with the washing of water by the word.” Therefore, we are washed by the power of the Word of God and though that washing we are given a new nature by God through His Spirit.

This begins to help us to understand why studying the Word of God is so important. The Bible is never boring, and it is always relevant. Just like we need rain to sustain the earth, we need the Word of life to sustain us spiritually. We must take them in so that we can live and be transformed by them. Just like we need water to keep us fresh and clean, if we wash ourselves in the Word of God, they will purify and cleanse us from the inside out.

Water. It’s a good thing.

In Jesus’ Name,
Pastor Scott