“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Revelation 22:1).
THE RIVER OF LIFE
From the early parts of Scripture we read about rivers, the garden of Eden was watered. We read in Genesis 2:10 that a river flowed from Eden and watered the garden. Then we read how “from there it divided.” There was a conjunction of four rivers not too far from Eden. We know two of them because they are still flowing: the Euphrates and Tigris. Landscapes and weather patterns change over time and the rivers Pishon and Gihon are no longer flowing in that area, although there is speculation about dry channels which can be located by satellite that look like they could have been the rivers spoken about in Genesis chapter 2.
Rivers bring life. I recently stood on a river’s edge, and looked into the crystal clear water, I was immediately reminded of the “river of life” that flows from the throne of God.
God is the source of life, he is the way, the truth and the life. Life stems from him, it flows to various areas bringing life with it.
CS Lewis said, “if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very centre of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you; if you are not, you will remain dry. Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever?”
The life flows from God, from the great I Am – He who need no material apparatus to support his being – he who is.
Adam was told that the day he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would be the day he would die, (Gen 2:17), but he didn’t die on that day, so God must have been talking about some other kind of death. Jesus said, "Whoever lives and believes in me shall never die," (John11:26), but we still die a physical death so Jesus must have been talking about some other kind of life. That is the message of the Bible - humans, who are made in God’s image, can partake of the life of God if they choose to do so.
“They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts” (Eph 4:18).
The "life of God" is available to fallen human beings, his "divine nature" can be ours: "he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires" (2 Pet 1:4).
We are baptised in water, and we see the symbolism, emersed in water, buried and raised in new life.
Ezekiel saw a river flowing from the temple, he followed its progress and soon the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in. (Ezek 47:1–5).
We are “in Christ”, emersed in God, in the love of God, in God’s joy and peace. These are waters to swim in.