190. The person who thinks like this fails to reflect that the Lord Jehovah, who is the God of heaven and earth, uttered the Word by means of Moses and the Prophets, and consequently it cannot be anything but Divine truth. For this is what everything is that the Lord Jehovah Himself speaks. He fails too to reflect that the Lord the Saviour, who is the same as Jehovah, uttered the Word in the Gospels, much of it from His own lips, and the remainder by the spirit of His mouth, which is the Holy Spirit, through His twelve Apostles. This is why, as He Himself says, His words contain spirit and life, and why He is the light that enlightens, and why He is truth. This is plain from the following passages:
Jesus said, The words which I speak to you are spirit and life. John 6:63. Jesus said to the woman at Jacob's well, if you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, Give me a drink, you would ask him, and he would give you living water. He who drinks of the water which I shall give, will never thirst, but the water which I shall give will become a well of water springing up in him to give everlasting life. John 4:6, 10, 14.
'Jacob's well' means the Word, as it also does in Deut. 33:28. That is why the Lord, being the Word, sat down there, and talked with the woman. 'Living water' means the truth of the Word.
Jesus said, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and drink. If anyone believes in me, as the scripture says, streams of living water will flow from his belly. John 7:37, 38.
Peter said to Jesus, You have the words of everlasting life. John 6:68. Jesus said, Heaven and earth will pass away; my words will not pass away. Mark 13:31.
The reason why the Lord's words are truth and life is that He is truth and life, as He teaches in John:
I am the way, truth and life. John 14:6.
In the same Gospel:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. John 1:1-4.
The Word means the Lord in respect of Divine truth, in which alone there is life and light. That is why the Word, which is from the Lord and is the Lord, is called 'a spring of living waters' (Jer. 2:13; 17:13; 31:9), 'a spring of deliverance' (Isa. 12:3), 'a spring' (Zech. 13:1) and 'a river of the water of life' (Rev. 22:1); and it is said that 'the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, [and bring them] to living springs of water' (Rev. 7:17). There are other passages too where the Word is called a 'sanctuary' and 'tabernacle*' in which the Lord dwells with man.
* Or: tent.
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