John 7

John 7:38-39

John 7:38, 39, "Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit." The Spirit of God in the saints is called living water upon three accounts.

1. And chiefly it is meant that the water had life in it; common water is mere passive dead matter. But this water is alive, it is a living divine person. So Christ is called a living stone, 1 Peter 2:4. This water is not only something living, but it is life itself; it is that spirit that is the very life of God, and so is divine and infinitely perfect life, and act, and energy; for which cause partly the Spirit of God is called water of life, Rev. 22, at the beginning. Because divine life is the very matter of this water.

2. He is living water, as he is life-giving water, as Christ is called the living bread, John 6, and as the Spirit of God is called living bread there in that chap., verse 63, vid. No. 262. He is living bread, as he is life-giving bread; for so Christ explains himself in that chap. 3. It is living water in those in whom it is, as it is like a spring that never fails; as it gives life, so it will infallibly maintain life forever. So it seems to be explained by Christ, John 4:10-13, and especially the 14th. So Christ is called bread of life, because they that eat of him shall never die, but live forever, John 6. So the hope of Christians to which they are begotten by the resurrection of Christ from the dead, is said to be, 1 Peter 1:3, a living hope, i.e. a never-dying, never-failing hope; vid. Notes in loc. But yet it is not probable that this water would on account of its perpetuity be called living water, if there was no life in the water, and life was not the thing that was perpetual; for it does not appear that springs of water that were never dry were, on that account, called living springs then, as now, but it seems to be a metaphor invented since.

John 8:15