We can't get along without water. Polluted water cannot sustain life. We need fresh water.

Jesus gives us water that springs up to eternal life. By nature we are springs that produce polluted water - water that destroys life and leads to eternal death. To us who are burdened by our debt of sin God says: "Therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation" (Is. 12:3). Isn't it true that we often feel unworthy of God's grace? And indeed we are unworthy of it. But we also tend to think that we are not permitted to believe that our sins have been forgiven. We think we are not good enough. This way of thinking is in us by nature. It is a dangerous way of thinking. It includes two insidious false assumptions: First, that we must become better before we can believe that our sins have been forgiven; second, that God's grace does not cover the sins of someone as sinful as I am.

God invites us joyously to draw water from the springs of salvation. Therefore, why should we worry, why should we sigh? Isn't God's invitation greater than our weakness? Hasn't Jesus' blood been shed for our sins? Surely we cannot doubt the fact that Jesus' blood can cleanse us from our sins. Let us cast aside our doubts and joyously draw water from the springs of salvation. In other words, let us believe in Jesus. He is "a fountain opened... to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness" (Zech. 13:1).

The spring of salvation is not polluted. And it does not become polluted when a sinner cleanses himself in its waters, but continues to produce fresh water. That's why the water of life must also remain pure in our preaching. If we change the Gospel to conform to the thinking of the world, we offer polluted water. "Like a trampled spring and a polluted well is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked" (Prov. 25:26).

"There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel's veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains."

L.H. 157:1