Rivers of Living Water (7:38-39)

Introduction

Recap from last week. Christ extends a universal invitation to come to him and drink. “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink” ().

1. If you’re thirsty (if you realize your need and are not attempting to satisfy your need in some other non-eternally satisfying manner)

2. Come to me (acknowledge you are unable to satisfy your own need and come to the only one who can eternally satisfy your need – but coming isn’t enough)

3. Drink (appropriate the gift that Christ offers, unlike the rich man who came but went away sad because he couldn’t give up all and follow Christ)

Interpretive challenges in 7:38. Let’s pause for a moment to acknowledge a few challenges that present themselves in verse 38. The church has long held various opinions as to the interpretation of this verse. Primarily the varying positions have fallen on two sides, the Western and the Eastern church. The early church Fathers and the manuscripts from their geographic areas reflect their conclusions in this debate.

Before summarizing the three primary points of the debate, let me first acknowledge that regardless the position you take, there appears to be little change in meaning and even less change in application. You may then wonder why any time should be taken at all.

Here’s why. I expect that you, as a believer, are not only reading the text of Scripture but that you are studying Scripture in some kind of depth. With that said, any depth of study of , beyond a simple reading of the text in one version, will present the reader with these conflicts. Nearly every commentary you could read will discuss this challenge.

The challenge consists of three areas, (1) punctuation, (2) antecedent of “his heart” and (3) the source of the scriptural quotation.

The first two challenges are closely tied together. The punctuation in the verse will affect one’s conclusion as to the antecedent of “his heart.” Most translations punctuate the verse according to what many would refer to as the traditional view (A below), but more and more commentators and modern translators are translating similarly to ‘B’ below.[1]

A If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink.

He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said,

"streams of living water shall flow from within him [the believer]."

B If any one thirst, let him come to me;

and let him drink who believes in me.

As the Scripture has said, "streams of living water shall flow from within him [Christ][2]

Regardless of one’s conclusions, both views agree to the following important realities. Christ is the source of living water. Even if one concludes that the living waters are flowing out of the believer’s innermost beings, this reality is only true because the Holy Spirit indwells that believer and is the ultimate source of the life-giving streams.[3] The believer simply becomes an “intermediate source through whom the living waters he receives from God's Son will flow.”[4] Both views accept that the believer is not the source of life for other men. They may be a channel used by the Spirit, but they are not the source. The life-giving river is sourced by the Holy Spirit who indwells the believer.

Purpose Statement. All who believe in Christ are dramatically transformed by the Spirit.

The Spirit had not yet been given. John offers us an inspired footnote in 7:39, “Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

The Spirit’s role in the OT. We are not going to do an in-depth study of the role of the Spirit prior to the life of the church, but this verse does imply that the work of the Spirit was different prior to Christ glorification than after His glorification. (1) Both Genesis and Job reference the active work of the Spirit in creation (, ). (2) Samuel, affirmed by Peter, speaks of the Spirit’s work in the revelation and inspiration of the Old Testament scriptures (; ). (3) As well, the Spirit was active on certain people at certain times for specific purposes. The Spirit empowered Samson but left him. The Spirit came on Saul but later left him. Joseph, Joshua and Daniel are all said to have had the Spirit upon them. (4) More definitively, scripture authors would argue that no one has ever been saved or sanctified or empowered for service or guided in wisdom and prayer without the active work of the Spirit in their lives.

Yet, this passage in , and many others, would indicate that the role of the Spirit in the life of a believer is unique following the ascension of Christ to heaven and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost.[5]

Characteristics of this unique role.

1. Conversion. “And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment . . . When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come” ().

2. Enlightenment of the word. Enlightenment of the Word is something that is accomplished by the Spirit throughout the entirety of the life of a believer. The Spirit’s first and most prominent enlightenment comes when He reveals the truth of the gospel to an unbeliever (; , ).[6]

3. Regeneration. God regenerates () according to His will () through the Holy Spirit () when a person believes () the Gospel as revealed in the Word ().

4. Baptism into the Body of Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. (). “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ().

5. Indwelling. (1) He indwells all believers (; ; and ).[7] (2) He indwells only believers (; ; and ).[8] (3) He permanently indwells ().[9]

6. Sealing and preserving. “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit” (). “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” ().

7. Sanctification. “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (). Cross reference .

8. Empowerment to do the work of service. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father” (). But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (). Cross reference ; ; ; and .[10]

9. Intercession. “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” ().

Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. As a result of this dramatic and beautiful work in the life of a believer, the Spirit’s transformative work in a believer’s life will have external and beneficial results, visible and experienced by those around them.

As the scripture has said. John seems to quote from the Old Testament as he writes, “the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (). But, none of you likely know of an Old Testament passage that offers that direct quote. Where exactly is John pulling this from? Even Chyrsostom, an early church father of the fourth century, concludes that this exact statement is nowhere in scripture but then reasons that scripture in general talks about grace and salvation and eternal life and living water.[11] It then appears that this statement is in no particular place in the Old Testament scriptures, but it is affirmed throughout in substance and in spirit.

Barnes. Jesus probably intended to say, not that there was any particular place in the Old Testament that affirmed this in so many words, but that this was the substance of what the Scriptures taught, or this was the spirit of their declarations.[12]

Where then might the substance or spirit of this quote derive in the Old Testament?

And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. ().

Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east . . . The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. 2 Then he brought me out . . . to the outer gate that faces toward the east; and behold, the water was trickling out on the south side. Going on eastward . . . it was ankle-deep. Again he measured . . . and it was knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand . . . and it was waist-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen. . . . Then he led me back to the bank of the river. 7 As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. . . . 9 And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live . . . the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. . . . 12 And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.” ().

for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. ().

O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water. ().

[less likely source but good analogy] On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. It shall continue in summer as in winter. (). [Hodges doesn’t consider this text to be a good example.][13]

This transformation by the Spirit will manifest itself externally. Inevitably, multiple rivers of water, flowing from the life of a believer, sourced from the Spirit living within and transforming a believer, will carry evidence externally. As the Spirit does his work internally, the visible results, such as the fruit of the Spirit, will be externally manifest.

[Fruit in all believers] But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control ()

[Varied evidence of Spirit in different believers] Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. ()

Therefore, the Spirit intends that his internal transformation never remain internal or individualized. Sadly, too many of us are better described as stagnant ponds of biblical information and self-centered religion than rivers gushing outward in refreshment and life to others. The emphasis in this passage is not that the believer will be satisfied – although he most definitely will be satisfied. Instead, John emphasizes that the believer becomes the conduit of blessing and life to others as he is transformed by the Spirit. “This means that to be Christ-centered is not to be self-centered. It is to be others-centered. It is to be made a blessing.”[14]

So then – those who are aware of their need and thirst, come to Christ fully aware of their inability to fulfill their eternal need, and they appropriate the gift of Christ’s eternally satisfying, life-giving resources. In so doing, their satisfaction is joyously manifest and heightened in the overflowing of Spirit transformed lives.

Piper. My deepest soul-thirst is not just to be a receptacle but to be a river. Experience has taught us that the joy we feel as Christ flows into us eventually turns sour if it does not flow out of us in praise to God and love to men. If our hearts are not rivers of love and praise, then all our religious experience will become a [salted] brackish pond.[15]

[1] New English Bible. If anyone is thirsty let him come to me; whoever believes in me, let him drink.' As Scripture says, 'Streams of living water shall flow out from within him.'

NET Bible. If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. Just as the scripture says, ‘From within him will flow rivers of living water.’

New Living Translation. Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’

[2] Juan B Cortés, “Yet Another Look at ,” The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 29, no. 1 (January 1967): 77. ““All critical editions of the Greek text adopt punctuation A, including the latest ones by The British and Foreign Bible Society (21958), by Nestle-Aland (251963), and the new edition of The Greek New Testament by the Bible Societies (1966). Probably the main textual evidence for such unanimous preference in the critical editions is that of papyrus 66 or Bodmer II. This papyrus, dated from about A.D. 200, by far the oldest text of John's Gospel that we possess, clearly contains a period after pineto as in reading A. Even if the papyrus is somewhat arbitrary in its use of punctuation marks, it definitely indicates that such punctuation goes back to the second century. Papyrus 75, from A.D. 175-225 also favors this punctuation. Thus, the oldest witnesses of the Greek text that we know of give preference to reading A. This argument, as some authors recognize,8 is a strong one.”

Additional problems with ‘B.’ (1) The parallelism is hardly obvious or really even parallel. (2) Why would a believer drink? If someone was thirsty and came to Christ and was satisfied, why would a believer need to drink? (3) The passage with the Samaritan woman () and the springs of living water coming from her would indicate that the rivers in this passage come out of the believer.

Keener, The Gospel of John: A Commentary, 728. “Those who argue that the waters of flow from the believer argue on the basis of the antecedent of αὐτοῦ, the parallel with 4:14, the emphasis on receiving in 7:39, the weakness of the opposing view’s parallelism, and, perhaps the strongest point, the punctuation in the oldest punctuated manuscripts, reflecting a tradition of interpretation favoring this position.”

[3] Zane Clark Hodges, “Rivers of Living Water: ,” Bibliotheca Sacra 136, no. 543 (July 1979): 242. “First, the traditional reading does not really make the believer the "source" of living water. The Lord Jesus remains its true and ultimate Source, while the believer might be more fittingly described as a "channel" for the waters he actually receives by coming to God's Son.”

[4] Hodges, 243.

[5] D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, 329. “What the Evangelist means is that the Spirit of the dawning kingdom comes as the result—indeed, the entailment—of the Son’s completed work, and up to that point the Holy Spirit was not given in the full, Christian sense of the term.”

[6] Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. (). But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (). When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. ().

[7] And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. ( ESV). and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. ( ESV). Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. ( ESV).

[8] You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ( ESV). The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. ( ESV). It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. ( ESV).

[9] And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ( ESV).

[10] Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them . . . (). Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. . . . (). And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, (). whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. ().

[11] Saint Chrysostom: Homilies on the Gospel of St. John and Epistle to the Hebrews, 14:183. “But where hath the Scripture said, that “rivers of living water shall flow from his belly”? Nowhere. What then meaneth, “He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture saith”?” [Chrysostom goes on to talk about how in general scripture talks about grace and salvation and eternal life and living water, etc. Therefore, he seems to communicate that while the words were not directly drawn from scripture, the concepts of the statements were.]

[12] Barnes, Notes on the New Testament: Luke and John, 261.

[13] Hodges, “Rivers of Living Water,” 243–44. “One text that has found particularly wide favor is . Since this has been thought to be part of a Tabernacles haphtarah17 — i.e., a passage publicly read on the occasion of the feast — and since it speaks of the outflow of living water, it has appealed to many as a possible solution to the problem being discussed. However, the text in question is not quite suitable, since it affirms, "And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be" (). It is evident here that only with extreme difficulty could such a statement be conceived of as applying to an individual believer.”

Although he does conclude on page 246, “If the millennial Temple was to become a source of living, healing waters when God's purposes on earth had reached their fruition, could the destiny of a believer be anything less? Surely, the indwelling of God's Spirit in the one who had slaked his thirst by faith in Jesus was more personal and intimate and rich than any connection God might have with a material building. Hence, if living waters could issue from such a structure as that, how much more must they one day issue from the "inner being" of each and every person in whom God's Spirit would come to live! Given such considerations as these, it must have followed for early believers in Jesus that the final meaning of Ezekiel's prophecy was that the "Temple of God" — however conceived — would ultimately gush forth waters that brought blessing to all whom they reached.”

[14] Boice, The Gospel of John, 2005, 2:587.

J. Blenkinsopp, “: Another Note on a Notorious Crux,” New Testament Studies 6, no. 1 (October 1959): 98. “The sense for John’s immediate audience would be at once apparent: the man with faith in Christ becomes at once the depository of the waters of knowledge and life which he can, in his turn, place at the disposal of others.”

Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, 404. “Here is the secret of all real service. When my own “belly” has been filled, that is, when my own needy heart has been satisfied by Christ, then no effort will be required, but out from me shall flow “rivers of living water.” O may Divine grace teach us daily to first come to Christ before we attempt anything for Him.”

[15] John Piper, “Rivers From the Heart,” Desiring God, July 19, 1981, https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/rivers-from-the-heart.

Rivers of Living Water (7:38-39)

Introduction

Introduction

Results of Accepting Christ’s Invitation (7:38-39)

Conclusion