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Come! Whoever is Thirsty,
Let Them Take the Free Gift of the Water of Life
22: 17

Come! Whoever is thirsty, let them take the free guilty of the water of life DIG: Who pleads for the Lord to come back? Who wants sinners to repent in this passage? Who is thirsty? When had Yeshua given this offer before? What is the most amazing part of this offer? 

REFLECT: Is it hard for you to want Jesus to return? What sacrifices would it require of you? Would there be things left undone in this life if He came today? A career ahead of you? A relationship you are in the middle of? A marriage? A family you looked forward to raising up? Children? Grandchildren? Would the Lord’s return be of greater satisfaction than any of these? Why? Why not?

There are two distinct invitations in this verse, separated by the invitation to come. The first part of the verse is a prayer addressed to Yeshua. The Holy Spirit and the Bride say, “Come!” This plea for Messiah to come again at the Rapture (First Thessalonians 4:15-18), and is the only recorded prayer of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures.

The second part is an invitation to sinners. It is the last call for unbelievers reading Revelation to come to repentance. The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears the message of this book say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life (22:17). These words are an invitation to salvation by faith/trust/belief in Jesus Christ. This is accomplished through the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the Bride, or the Church, made up of Jewish and Gentile believers. The Holy Spirit does the work of conviction concerning the truth of the gospel (John 15:26, 16:8), and it is He who does the work of calling and regenerating people to salvation. Then the Church presents the message that the Holy Spirit uses to convict and call. Those who respond will have the authority to take the free gift of water of life in the New Jerusalem.

The one who hears is described as the one who is thirsty (Psalm 107:9; John 4:14 and 6:35). Whoever is thirsty may come because whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16b). The Bible frequently refers to thirst to picture a spiritual need to repent and accept Messiah as their Lord and Savior. In Isaiah, God called: All you who are thirsty to come to the waters of salvation (Isaiah 55:1a). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus stated: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled (Matthew 5:6). On the last and greatest day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Yeshua stood and said in a loud voice: If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. By this He meant the Holy Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive (John 7:37-39). And earlier in Revelation, the LORD had promised: To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life (21:6b).

The most amazing thing is that this gift of salvation is free. That unlimited invitation is typical of the broad, sweeping, gracious offer of salvation made in the Scriptures (Isaiah 45:22; Matthew 11:28; John 3:15-16). It also illustrates the biblical truth that salvation involves both ADONAI’s sovereign choice (John 6:44), and human decision. God saves sinners, but only those who recognize their need to repent. The water of life, or the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5b), is offered without cost (Isaiah 55:1b) to the lost because Jesus has paid the price for it through His sacrificial death on the cross (Romans 3:24); thus He is mentioned thirty-one times as the Lamb in Revelation. The Lord freely offers the water of life to all those whose hearts are thirsty for forgiveness, whose minds are thirsty for truth, and whose souls are thirsty for Him.527 If you are tired of drinking from the cesspools of this world, He invites you to come.