Articles


Born of Water and Spirit

 

1 In the land of Samaria, near the village of Askar, was in ancient times, the town of Sikar and the Well of Jacob. About two thousand years ago, a woman went to the well with her jug, as she often did. When she arrived, she saw a Jewish man sitting on the well’s edge, and to her surprise, the man spoke with her and said: “Give me water to drink”.

She replied: “How is it that being a Jewish man, you ask me, a woman of Samaria, give you to drink?” for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans”. But the man was Jesus of Nazareth, and his answer is of vital importance for us.

He said: “If you knew about the gift of God and who is he who tells you: “Give me to drink”, you would ask him, and he would give you living water”.

She replied: “Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep, from where have you then the living water?” But Jesus told her: “Whoever drinks this water shall thirst again, but whoever drinks the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst, and the water that I shall give him, shall become in him a spring of water flowing for eternal life”. (John 4:9-14)

 

2 When Jesus spoke of living water, he did not speak about the water of baptism, which is before God, a voluntary death in union with Christ, to pay the wages of inherited sin. The living water Jesus offered her was the instruction that comes from the spirit, in order to communicate spiritual things in spiritual terms”, (1 Corinthians 2:13) the sound instruction in harmony with the glorious Good News of the exultant God”. (1Timothy 1: 10-11)

Paul says, All who are guided by the spirit of God are sons of God”. (Romans 8:14) Those who drink the pure water of Christ's teachings, the water that flows for eternal life, and who walk under the guidance of the spirit of God, may understand his sacred secret as exposed in the Good News and they shall never be spiritually thirsty again, what's more, they have in their hearts a fountain that may give eternal life to those who by their words, put faith in the purpose of God through Jesus Christ.

 

3 Jesus said to the crowds gathered to hear his words: Blessed are those who seek earnestly for their spirit, because theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 5:3) And Peter wrote to the disciples: through the holy spirit sent from heaven, these things that even the angels try to understand, have been announced by those who preached you the Good News”, (1Peter 1:12) and Paul says, “it is written: Eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has been conceived in the heart of man, the things God has prepared for those who love him. But God has revealed them to us through the spirit”, (1Corinthians 2:9-10) granting us the privilege to proclaim among the nations the immense treasure of the Good News of Christ, by revealing to everyone how to administrate the sacred secret, which from the distant past was hidden in the God who created all things, and that now, through the congregation, has been made ​​known to the rulers and authorities that are in the heavenly places”. (Ephesians 3: 8-10)

 

4 Before Israel came into the Promised Land, Moses, in his farewell, told the people: Yahuh has confirmed you as a people of his property ... to obey his commandments and put you above all the nations that he establishes for praise, memory and glory”. (Deuteronomy 26:17-18)

God’s promises to Abraham granted to his offspring the glorious heritage that Paul describes as the adoption as sons, the glory, the covenants ... the sacred service, the promises ... and above all, the God to whom the praise belongs forever”. (Romains 9:4-5) And after the death of Christ, when the Christian Congregation was founded, the people of God became all who believed in Christ, who was God’s Messiah. Paul says:Now there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: because the same Lord is over them all, and he is generous with all that call on him, (Romains 10:12) and he explains: “the promise received by Abraham and his descendants about being the heirs of the world, was not trough the Law but through the justification that comes from faith, because in fact, if the heirs were those who adhere to the law, the faith would be useless and the promise worthless. The Law produces a trial, but where there is no law, there is no transgression, for this reason the promise comes as a result of faith, and may be attributed generously as a gift and guaranteed to all the offspring, not only to those coming through the Law, but also to those who through their faith, become Abraham's offspring, who is thus established the father of all of us, as it is written: “I have made you father of a great number of nations”. (Romains 4:13-16)

 

5 Speaking about the Christ of God and the spiritual Israel, Isaiah wrote: “Thus says Yahúh, your maker: “He who has trained you since you were in the womb of your mother will help you. Fear not my servant Jacob, Yesurún elected by me, for I will pour water on the thirsty and floods upon the dry. I will pour out my spirit upon your descendants and my blessing upon thy seed”. (Isaiah 44:2-3)

The descendants of Abraham and Jacob became the nation chosen to receive the Christ and the blessings of the kingdom, but as a nation, Israel refused him; he came to his house and his own received him not, but he gave power to those who recognized him, to become God’s offspring; those who put faith in his name and are not born of blood or by the will of man, but are born of God". (John 1:11-13)

John reveals the destiny of the heirs of the promise, those who are born of God through baptism, when writes these words addressed to Jesus in heaven: “You are worthy to receive the scroll and to open the seals, because you were sacrificed, and with your blood you redeemed men for God from every tribe and tongue, and population and nation, making them kings and priests for our God, to reign over the earth”. (Revelation 5:9-10)

 

6 All this allows us to understand the meaning of Jesus' words to Nicodemus. John writes: “There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a Jewish judge, who went by night to Jesus and said, Rabbi, we know that you came from God as instructor, because no one can perform the signals you do, unless God is with him”. Jesus replied, Truthfully, truthfully I say: He who is not born again cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him: “How a man could be born when he is old? Could he enter again into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus replied: Truthfully, truthfully I tell you: unless one is born from water and from spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. What is born of the flesh is flesh and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be surprised therefore when I say: You have to be born again”. And he told him: “You are a teacher in Israel, and don’t you know these things? (John 3:1-7,10) Jesus brought to God’s people the water that quenches the thirst of the spirit, that is, the instruction that the Good News encloses, and he was unyielding with the Scribes, the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin, who were responsible of teaching the Scriptures to the people and of instructing them in the Law and the prophets, and they did not do it. They read the Scripture every day, and still, they refused to recognize him as the Messiah promised by God.

 

7 Paul wrote for Christ’s disciples: “by faith in Jesus Christ, now, all of you are sons of God and those who have been baptized into Christ, are part of the Christ. Therefore there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, neither male nor female; you are all one in Jesus Christ, and according to the promise, if you belong to Christ, you are also heirs and offspring of Abraham(Galatians 3:26-29) Therefore, “we are heirs, heirs of God and inheritors with Christ, provided we suffer together with him to be also glorified together”, (Romains 8:14-17) because “just as there is a physical body, there is a spiritual body. It is written that the first Adam became a living being, while the last Adam was a life-giving spirit. So the spiritual was not the first one, it was the physical one and later the spiritual, because the first man was made out of the earth, so he is earthly, however, the second one came from heaven. Therefore, like the earthly man was, will be the earthly men, and like the heavenly one was, will also be heavenly ones. We have borne the image of the earthly man and we will also bear the image of heavenly one”. (1Corinthians 15:45-49)

 

8 Jesus invited the Jews and the proselytes gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles, saying in a loud voice: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink, and from the bosom of those who put faith in me, will flow, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water(John 7:37-39)

This invitation is also for us! On the day of Pentecost, his followers were filled with spirit and rivers of living water flowed from them, and reached the all the ancient world, but these waters also reach us through their writings, that give us the knowledge of the Good News about the true and everlasting purpose of God, and enable us to trust in his promises and to be generated by him for the eternal life, not by a corruptible seed, but by one incorruptible: the word of God that lives forever and never fails”. (1Peter 1: 23-24)

 

9 Paul wrote to his brothers from the nations: “It's me who generated you in Christ through the Good News”, (1Corinthians 4:14-15) And this may also be true for us, because through his writings and the writings of the other apostles and disciples, we have come to know “the truth that leads to the faith based on the hope of the eternal life, promised since antiquity by the God who cannot lie”, (Titus 1:1-2) and the way in which God provides the justification that the Law and the Prophets declare, the justification that God provides through the faith in Christ, and is available to all who have faith, without distinction”, (Romains 3:21-22) because “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ... in his great mercy, made us be born again to a living hope, through the resurrection of Christ from the dead”. (1Peter 1:3)

 

10 Throughout the Scriptures, the Creator of heaven and earth calls us to quench the thirst of our spirit with the teachings of his spirit. Let us obey his call by listening to the words of his firstborn, who tells us: “I Jesus have sent my angel to make known these things to the church, I am the root of David and the bright star of the morning. The spirit and the bride (his true Church, also called the Spiritual Jerusalem) say: Come! And anyone who hears it, repeat: Come! Whoever is thirsty: Come! And he who wishes it, may drink freely the water of life”. (Revelation 22:16-17)