THE KING’S BUSINESS
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source of blessing. The Greek word trans lated “springing up” signifies primarily not a mere gushing up of a fountain, but a leaping up of a living creature. This word is found in two other places in the New Testament: (Acts 3:8, of the man onfe lame now leaping, and in Acts 14:10 of the lame man healed and leaping). Used in connection with a Spring the word is most expressive of the abundant, bounding life that the Holy Spirit becomes within the one who receives Him from Jesus. The ultimate goal of this abounding life within is “everlasting (or eternal) life.” Eternal life is an infinite ocean of being and bless edness. There are three stages in the thought of Christ: (1) A drink of water fully and forever satisfying. (2) The water becoming a. fountain leaping up in rich abundance. (3) The fountain becom ing an ocean—eternal life. v. 24. “God is a Spirit, (:) and they that worship Him must - worship Him (omit, Him) in spirit, (omit , ) and in (omit, in) truth." The insertion of the indefinite article “a” before Spirit in this verse is unfortunate. This rendering would make God one spirit among many. What our Lord Jesus really said is “God is Spirit,” thus defining God’s essential nature, free from all limitations of place and time. Spirit is the antithesis to matter (Luke 24:39). It is incorporeal, invisible reality. To say “God is Spirit” is to say God is incorporeal and invisible, not limited to places like Gerizim and Jerusalem, or any other places. Spirit is invisible, but none the less real. There are three statements in the Bible describing the nature of God: “God is light” (1 John 1 :5) ; “God is love” (1 John 4:8); “God is spirit.” These are three of the greatest statements ever writ ten. They are all found in the writings of John, one in John’s record of what the Lord Himself said, the other two his own statements summing up the teaching of our Lord. This great truth that God is essen tially spirit is implied in the Old Testament revelation of God (Deut, 4:15-18; Isa. 31:3). But here is the first full and specific
fills the claim and does give to whoever drinks the water that He gives, satisfaction forever, then beyond a peradventure He is God. That He does so give millions can testify, and in this claim and its fulfillment there is as clear proof of His Deity as if He had said in so many words, “I am God.” We have here a twentieth century proof of the Deity of our Ldrd, a proof that we may all know experimentally today. The phrase translated “shall never thirst” is a very remarkable one. A more literal and expressive translation would be “shall not thirst forever.” The word translated “for ever” means literally, “for the aeon.” The phrase found here in the Greek, in the double negative form, is used five other times in John’s Gospel (ch. 8:51, 52; 10 58; 11:26;. 13:8) and is found in one other place in the New Testament (1 Cor. 8:13). In every place it evidently refers to absolute endlessness. The kindred phrase in positive form is of , frequent occurrence in the New Testament. . Our Lord’s thought is that, whosoever drinks of the water that He shall give, for him thirst is past and gone forever, he shall be fully arid, forever satisfied. He | uses “thirst” here “in the sense of feeling the pain of an unsatisfied want” (cf. Rev. 7:16). Of course there will be thirst in the sense that the believer daily thirsts for fuller and deeper draughts of the Divine life (cf. Ps. 42:4; ch. 7 :37, 38), but that sort of thirst is a source of joy and is ever being satis fied the moment it arises (Matt. 5:6). In the Old Testament it was of Jehovah that it was written, “With thee is the fountain of life” (Ps. 36:9)j but here our Lord says to the woman of Samaria, “With me is the fountain of life” (Ps. 36:9), but here our Lord says to the woman of Samaria, “With me is the fountain of life.” He might as well have said, “I am Jehovah.” The gift of water received from the Lord Jesus becomes a spring of continual satis faction and blessing. This water is the Holy Spirit (cf. ch. 7:37-39), and the Spirit is here represented as indwelling the believer and becoming a perennial inward
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