John 7:37 - Meaning and Application

In these verses, we have Christ’s words, with their explanation, in John 7:37-39. These lines are likely only a brief summary of what he said at greater length, but they hold the heart of the whole gospel. Here is a gospel invitation to come to Christ, and a gospel promise of comfort and joy in him.

Notice first when he gave this invitation. It was on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the great day. The eighth day closed that sacred feast and was to be a holy gathering (Leviticus 23:36). Christ spoke on that day because many people were there, and a public call could reach more souls. He also spoke then because the people were soon going home, and he wanted to leave them with a final word to carry away.

It is a serious thought that a large crowd gathered together may never meet again in this world. So whenever we can say or do something that may help people toward heaven, that is the time to do it. It is good to be earnest at the close of a worship service. Christ made this offer on the last day of the feast to those who had ignored him earlier in the week, giving them one more chance to hear and live. He also made it to those who might never hear such an offer again, since months would pass before another feast and many of them might not live that long. Now is the accepted time.

Notice next how he gave the invitation. Jesus stood and cried out. This shows his great earnestness and his strong desire to bring lost souls to himself. The way he stood and raised his voice showed how deeply his heart was fixed on this. Love for souls makes a preacher earnest.

He also did this so everyone could hear and notice. He stood and cried because this was a message for every listener. Gospel truth is not hidden away in secret, because it has nothing to fear. Pagan oracles were spoken in private by people muttering in corners, but the gospel was announced openly by one who stood and cried aloud. How sad that people must be urged to be happy, and how wonderful the grace of Christ, who urges them so freely.

The invitation itself is very broad: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever he is, high or low, rich or poor, young or old, slave or free, Jew or Gentile, he is welcome. It is also very gracious. If anyone wants to be truly and forever happy, let him come under Christ’s rule, trust Christ, and follow him. Christ promises to make him blessed.

The people invited are those who thirst. This can mean those whose lives are needy, either outwardly or inwardly. If anyone lacks the comforts of this life, or is worn down by its troubles, let his poverty and suffering lead him to Christ, who gives a peace the world cannot give or take away. It can also mean those whose souls long for spiritual good. If anyone hungers and thirsts for righteousness, if he truly wants God’s favor and God’s work in his heart, Christ invites him.

The call is, Let him come to me. He must not go to the ceremonial law, for that law could not quiet the conscience or cleanse it, and so it could not make worshipers perfect (Hebrews 10:1). Nor should he go to pagan philosophy, which only misleads people and leaves them lost. He must go to Christ, receive his teaching, submit to his rule, believe in him, and come to him as the fountain of living water, the giver of all comfort.

The promise is this: Let him come and drink, and he will receive what he came for, and even more. He will not only be refreshed, but filled. Christ gives enough to satisfy a soul that truly wants to be happy.

A gracious promise is joined to this gracious call in John 7:38: He who believes in me, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. To come to Christ is to believe in him as Scripture presents him. We must not invent our own idea of Christ. We must trust the Christ the Bible sets before us.

Thirsty souls who come to Christ will be made to drink richly. Israel believed Moses and drank from the rock that followed them, with streams flowing from it. Believers drink from a rock within them, Christ in them. He is in them a well of living water (John 4:14). This means there is provision not only for present comfort, but for lasting and continued comfort.

The water is living water, that is, flowing water. Scripture uses that phrase because such water is active and fresh. The Spirit’s graces and comforts are like living water, because they bring life and keep life moving in the soul. They are both the working power of spiritual life and the first taste of eternal life (Jeremiah 2:13).

They are also rivers of living water, which shows both fullness and steadiness. The comfort comes abundantly and keeps coming, like a river. It is strong enough to carry away doubts and fears. In Christ there is fullness of grace for grace.

These rivers flow out of his heart, that is, from the inner person where the Spirit works and rules. That is where gracious principles are planted. Out of the heart, where the Spirit dwells, flow the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23). There divine comfort is stored, and there is a joy that a stranger cannot share.

He who believes has the witness within himself (1 John 5:10). There is light within. And where there are springs of grace and comfort in the soul, they will send out streams. Out of his heart will flow rivers.

First, grace and comfort will produce good actions, and a holy heart will show itself in a holy life. A tree is known by its fruit, and a fountain by its streams. Second, they will spread to benefit others. A good man is a public blessing. His mouth is a well of life (Proverbs 10:11). It is not enough to enjoy the comfort of grace for ourselves. We must let our springs run abroad, so others may also benefit from them (Proverbs 5:15-16).

Those words, “as the Scripture has said,” seem to point to some Old Testament promise like this one. There are many such promises: God would pour out his Spirit, using water as the picture (Proverbs 1:23; Joel 2:28; Isaiah 44:3; Zechariah 12:10); dry land would turn into springs of water (Isaiah 41:18); rivers would flow in the desert (Isaiah 43:19); gracious people would be like a spring of water (Isaiah 58:11); and the church would be a well of living water (Song of Solomon 4:15). This may also point to the waters flowing from Ezekiel’s temple (Ezekiel 47:1). Compare Revelation 22:1, and see Zechariah 14:8.

Dr. Lightfoot and others say the Jews had a tradition that on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles they held a special ceremony called the pouring out of water. They brought a golden vessel of water from the pool of Siloam, carried it into the temple with trumpet blasts and other ceremonies, and poured it out before the Lord with great joy. Some writers said the water stood for the law, and pointed to Isaiah 12:3 and Isaiah 55:1. Others said it stood for the Holy Spirit. It is thought that Jesus may have been alluding to this custom here. Believers will have comfort, not from a vessel of water brought from a pool, but from a river flowing from within themselves. The joy of the law, and the water pouring that pictured it, cannot compare with the joy of the gospel in the wells of salvation.

Here the evangelist explains the promise in John 7:39: “This he said about the Spirit.” Jesus was not speaking about outward advantages for believers, as some may have misunderstood, but about the Spirit’s gifts, grace, and comfort. Scripture is the best interpreter of Scripture. The promise is for all who believe in Christ, that they will receive the Holy Spirit. Some received his miraculous gifts (Mark 16:17-18), and all receive his saving grace, that is, the grace that changes them and makes them holy. The gift of the Holy Spirit is one of the great blessings promised in the new covenant (Acts 2:39), and what God promises, he surely gives to all who belong to that covenant.

The Spirit living and working in believers is like a fountain of living water. From it flow many streams that cool and cleanse like water, soften and moisten like water, and make believers fruitful while also making others glad. See John 3:5. When the apostles spoke so freely about the things of God, as the Spirit gave them words to speak (Acts 2:4), and later preached and wrote the gospel with such overflowing power, this promise was being fulfilled: “Out of his belly shall flow rivers.” The word means the inner person, or the heart, from which such streams come.

This abundant giving of the Spirit was still a promise at that time, because the Holy Spirit had not yet been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. Jesus was certain to be glorified, and he was always worthy of all honor, but at that time he was still in a state of humiliation and contempt. He had never lost the glory he had before the world began. More than that, he had earned further glory, and besides his inherited honor, he could claim the reward of a mediatorial crown, that is, the crown belonging to his work as our Savior and King. Yet all of that was still ahead. Jesus is now upheld (Isaiah 42:1), now satisfied (Isaiah 53:11), and now justified (1 Timothy 3:16), but he was not yet glorified. If Christ had to wait for his glory, we should not think it strange to wait for ours.

The Holy Ghost had not yet been given in that full sense. God’s Spirit was present from eternity, for in the beginning he moved over the waters. He was at work in the Old Testament prophets and saints, and Zacharias and Elizabeth were both filled with the Holy Ghost. So this must mean the rich, public, and general outpouring promised in Joel 2:28 and fulfilled in Acts 2:1 and following. The Spirit had not yet been given in the visible way that was intended. If we compare the disciples’ clear understanding and strong faith after Pentecost with their weakness and confusion before it, we see what is meant. The first gifts and early signs of the Spirit had already come, but the full harvest had not. What is most properly called the Spirit’s special dispensation had not yet begun. The Holy Ghost had not yet been given in such rivers of living water as would flow out to water the whole earth, including the Gentile world. It may also refer especially to the gift of tongues.

The reason the Holy Ghost was not yet given was that Jesus was not yet glorified. First, Christ’s death is sometimes called his glorification (John 13:31), because by the cross he conquered and triumphed. The gift of the Holy Spirit was bought by Christ’s blood. That was the price on which the gift was granted, and until that price was paid, the Spirit was not given, though other gifts were granted in view of it. Second, while Christ himself was still on earth, there was not as much need for the Spirit as there would be after he left, when the Spirit would supply his absence. Third, the gift of the Holy Spirit was to answer Christ’s intercession (John 14:16) and to show his authority, so it would not come until he was glorified and entered into that role. Fourth, the conversion of the Gentiles was part of Christ’s glorification. When some Greeks began to ask after Christ, he said, “Now is the Son of man glorified” (John 12:23). But the time for the gospel to spread among the nations had not yet come, so there was not yet need for the gift of tongues, that river of living water.

Yet even though the Holy Ghost had not yet been given in that full way, he had already been promised. This was now the great promise of the Father (Acts 1:4). Even when Christ’s gifts are long delayed, they are still fully secured. While we wait for the good promise, we still have the promise itself to live on, and it will speak and will not lie.

Some were drawn to him and felt warmly toward him. When many of the people heard what Jesus said, they heard his kind and urgent welcome to poor sinners, and they saw his authority as he promised to make them happy. They could not help thinking highly of him.

Some said, “This is truly the prophet,” meaning the prophet Moses spoke of to the fathers, the one who was to be like Moses. Others meant that he was the prophet who, according to the common teaching among the Jews, would come before the Messiah. Still others meant, “This is really a prophet,” someone truly inspired and sent by God.

Others went even further and said, “This is the Christ” (John 7:41). They did not mean only the prophet who would announce the Messiah, but the Messiah himself. At that time, the Jews were expecting the Messiah more than usual, so they were quick to say, “Here is Christ,” or “He is over there.”

Yet this seems to have been only a confused and passing opinion that came at first sight. We are not told that these people became his disciples and followers. A good opinion of Christ is far short of living faith in Christ. Many speak well of Christ and give him no more.

These people said, “This is the prophet,” and “This is the Christ,” but they would not leave everything and follow him. In that way, their witness to Christ became a witness against themselves.

Others were prejudiced against him. As soon as this great truth was mentioned, that Jesus is the Christ, it was quickly opposed. His background, as they thought, from Galilee seemed enough to answer every argument for him. “Will the Christ come from Galilee?” they asked. “Has not the Scripture said that Christ comes from the seed of David?”

Here we see a good knowledge of Scripture in one respect. They were right that the Messiah was to be a shoot from Jesse’s line (Isaiah 11:1), and that a ruler would come from Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). Even ordinary people knew this through the common teaching their scribes gave them. Perhaps the people who used these verses against Christ were not well taught in the rest of Scripture, but had these few passages placed in their mouths by their leaders to strengthen their prejudice against him.

Many people who hold false ideas and defend them with zeal seem very ready with Scripture. In truth, they often know little more than the verses they have been taught to twist.

Here also was a harmful ignorance about the Lord Jesus. They spoke as if it were settled beyond doubt that Jesus came from Galilee. Yet if they had asked Jesus himself, or his mother, or his disciples, or checked the family records of David, or the register at Bethlehem, they could have learned that he was the Son of David and a native of Bethlehem. But they were willing to remain ignorant.

So false reports about facts, about people and events, are often accepted by biased people. They build serious conclusions on them, even when the truth is easy to find in the same place and time where the facts took place.

Others were filled with anger against him, and they would have arrested him (John 7:44). Though what he said was full of kindness and grace, it only made them more bitter. In this way our Master suffered harm for speaking and doing good.

They wanted to seize him. They hoped someone else would do it, and if no one else would, they would have done it themselves. But no one laid hands on him, because an unseen power restrained them, for his hour had not yet come. As the hatred of Christ’s enemies is often unreasonable, so the holding back of that hatred is sometimes just as hard to explain.