Revelation 22:1 also tells us that the river of water of life is “bright as crystal.” The fact that the river of water of life is bright as crystal means that it has no darkness or opaqueness. Nothing is more clear than the flow of the river of water of life within us. The more this river flows in us, the more it purifies us and makes us transparent.
The water of life is the flowing of the divine life. Life is actually the flowing out of God. Revelation 22:1 and 2 speak of the river of water of life flowing out of the throne of God, and of the tree of life which is in the river of water of life. Here we see that the divine life is that which flows out of God. According to His eternal nature, God Himself is life. However, if God does not flow out, although with respect to Himself He is life, yet to us He is not life. Only when God flows out is He life to us. Therefore, the life we receive as the water of life is the flowing out of the Triune God Himself.
The water of life is the content of the flow of the Triune God. The flow of the Triune God has a content, and this content is the divine life, the life of God.
The water of life is the consummated, all-inclusive, life-giving, and dispensing Spirit, as the consummation of the Triune God to saturate and satisfy the entire city of New Jerusalem. The flow is the Triune God as life flowing within us, and this life is the consummated, all-inclusive, life-giving, and dispensing Spirit spoken of in John 7:38 and 39.
In verse 38 the Lord Jesus says, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” These rivers of living water are the many flows of the different aspects of the divine life, which is God’s Spirit of life.
John 7:39 goes on to say, “This He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” The Spirit of God was there from the beginning (Gen. 1:1-2), but the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7), the Spirit as the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9), and the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19) was “not yet” when the Lord Jesus spoke the word in John 7:38, because He had not yet been glorified through resurrection (Luke 24:26). When the Spirit was the Spirit of God, He had only the divine element. When He became the Spirit of Jesus Christ through Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, He had both the divine and human element, with all the essence and reality of the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ. Hence, He is now the all-inclusive Spirit of Jesus Christ as the living water for us to receive.
With such a consummated, all-inclusive, life-giving, and dispensing Spirit there is the bountiful supply (Phil. 1:19). As this Spirit flows within us, He dispenses all the riches of the processed Triune God into our being. This Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God. He is the Triune God reaching us and flowing within us to saturate and satisfy the entire city of New Jerusalem.
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