Bible study reading
Please prayerfully read through the following portions of ministry related to this lesson.
When I first heard the story of Jesus’ changing water into wine, I did not know the meaning behind this event. Later I came to understand that this was not simply a story, but an event accomplished by the Lord Jesus to establish the principle of life. What is the principle of life? The principle of life is to change death into life. (Life-study of John, msg. 6, section 1)
What does the wedding signify? It signifies the enjoyment and pleasure of human life…The marriage feast, whether in ancient times or in the present, whether in the East or in the West, depends primarily on wine, which typifies that all human pleasure depends on life…Wine signifies life, for the wine of the grapes is the life of the grapes. Thus, the enjoyment of man depends upon the life of man. When life is brought to an end, all enjoyment is gone.
The wine, which was the center of the enjoyment of the wedding feast, ran out (John 2:3). This signifies that the enjoyment of human life will be terminated when human life runs out…Regardless of how much pleasure you are enjoying, when your human life is ended, all your human enjoyment is also gone. Regardless of how good your wife, your husband, your parents, your children, or your job may be, if your life has come to an end, your pleasure is gone.
When the Lord came into the world, He came into a situation where human enjoyment existed, but was not lasting. He came into a situation where the death of human life terminates all human enjoyment…When our wine is about to run out, we know that our marriage feast will soon be over. But, praise the Lord, it is at such a time that the Lord comes into our situation. In our marriage feast we have the Lord! We need not be afraid, for He can change the water into wine. (Life-study of John, msg. 6, section 3)
The Lord’s miraculously changing water into wine signifies that He changes our death into life…Even as the ruler of the feast discovered that the new wine is better than the former wine (John 2:9-10), so we too shall find that the life we receive through regeneration is much better than our natural life…The first life, the human, created one, is an inferior life; the best life is the second life, the divine and everlasting one. This life is the best because it is the life of God Himself in Christ…A new marriage feast began when we were saved, and it will never end. There is always joy within and there is always a marriage feast within because we have the divine wine, which is the divine life—the Lord Himself. (Life-study of John, msg. 6, section 4)
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