The Vision (9/22/17): The Water That Christ Gives

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on John 4:1-15.

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life (John 4:14).

Here we are told what Christ offers to thirsty men. He offers them the living water that satisfies and wells up like a spring within a man to eternal life.

Calvin notes that the Lord does not invite “those who have drunk enough, but the thirsty, not those who are satisfied but the hungry, to eat and drink.” He adds: “For we are like a dry and barren soil; for there is no sap or vigor in us, until the Lord water us by his Spirit.”

They say one can live three weeks without food but only three days without water. A couple of years ago I went with my three oldest children for a couple days of hiking and camping on the Appalachian Trail. We hiked a stretch parallel to the Skyline Drive with which I was not very familiar. Most importantly, I did not know where the watering holes were. We had to make camp one evening with very little water and ran the risk of dehydration. How wonderful it was to hike the next morning a few miles down the trail to discover a spot where there was a flowing creek and pools of water from which to drink!

How needful is water? Take it away and you find out quickly how important it is. Take it away and a man will dwindle and die. Give it to him and he will live and flourish. That is what Christ is to a man’s spiritual life. This is what Jesus is saying here and what he will say later in John 6:35 when he says, “and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”

Does this mean that Christ’s disciples never have hardship? No. Christ perfectly satisfies our ultimate thirst in salvation, even if the believer must sometimes pass through periods of dryness. So, in this sense, Calvin writes:

Thus believers thirst, and keenly thirst, throughout their whole life; and yet they have abundance of quickening moisture; for however small may have been the measure of grace which they have received, it gives them perpetual vigor, so that they are never entirely dry.”

Isaiah 55:1: “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat….”

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle