WEEK 4 — DAY 6
Morning Nourishment
Rom. 5:21 “In order that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through
righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
John 4:14 “But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever;
but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into
eternal life.”
The Triune God flows in the Divine Trinity in three stages....When the fountain springs up, that is the fountain emerging. Then a river flows.
[In John 4:14 the Greek word translated “into”] speaks of the destination.The eternal life is the destination of the flowing Triune God. A fountain is in us springing up as a river into a destination. This destination is the eternal life. The New Jerusalem is the totality of the divine, eternal life. The eternal life eventually will be the New Jerusalem. Thus, into eternal life means
into the New Jerusalem. We must have something flowing into that divine New Jerusalem in order for us to arrive there. The entire Bible is needed to interpret John 4:14. The Father is the fountain as the source, the Son is the spring, the Spirit is the flowing river, and this flowing issues in the eternal life, which is the New Jerusalem. The Word is for speaking, and speaking
is the start of God’s flowing [John 1:1]. Speaking is flowing, spreading is flowing, and dispensing is also flowing. God flows through speaking, through spreading, through dispensing. (Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John, p. 139)
Today’s Reading
The Triune God is flowing through the Father, the Son, and the Spirit into us. When we drink of this water, it becomes a fountain in us. We all should say, “The fountain is in me!” This fountain emerges as a spring, and the spring flows out as a river for the New Jerusalem. This is the key to open up the entire Gospel of John. This is the divine speaking, divine spreading,
divine dispensing, of the Divine Trinity. The Father as the fountain, the Son as the spring, and the Spirit as the river flow into us. When He flows into us, He flows with us. He will flow us into the New Jerusalem to be the New Jerusalem. The preposition into also means “to become.” Into the New Jerusalem means “to become the New Jerusalem.” If we are not becoming
the New Jerusalem, we can never be in the New Jerusalem. We have to be the New Jerusalem; then we can be in the New Jerusalem. This is the intrinsic significance of the Gospel of John and Revelation. (Crystallizationstudy of the Gospel of John, pp. 141-142)
To have eternal life means to be joined to, to participate in, the New Jerusalem....The Father as the fountain, the Son as the spring, and the Spirit as the flowing river...all take the New Jerusalem as Their eternal goal....[The New Jerusalem] is seen in the eternal life in John 4:14. Eternal life here is the totality of the divine life. A man is the totality of the human life; each one
of us is the totality of the human life, but the divine life has only one totality in the whole universe—the New Jerusalem.
The Bible teaches us that eternal life is God Himself. In the beginning there is God as the eternal life, and the consummation of God as the eternal life is the New Jerusalem. The Bible consummates in the New Jerusalem,which is the very God who was in the beginning. How does God become the New Jerusalem? It is through His flowing. The Bible has two ends, Genesis 1—2 and Revelation 21—22. At the beginning of the Bible there is God, at the end there is the New Jerusalem, and in between are hundreds of pages speaking about all the matters related to the eternal life, including the believers, regeneration, transformation, conformation, and glorification....[In John 4:14] into eternal life does not merely mean to enter into the New Jerusalem as the eternal life but to become the New Jerusalem as the eternal
life. The coming New Jerusalem will be you and me. (A Word of Love to the Co-workers, Elders, Lovers, and Seekers of the Lord, pp. 23-24)
Further Reading: Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John, msg. 14; A Word of Love to the Co-workers, Elders, Lovers, and Seekers of the Lord, ch. 2
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