I.　Our hymns are full of precious truths that enable us to preach the high gospel to people; for example, the first stanza of Hymns, #1058 says, "Rock of Ages, cleft for me, / Let me hide myself in Thee; / Let the water and the blood, / From Thy riven side which flowed, / Be of sin the double cure, / Save me from its guilt and power":

A.　We need to take note of the water and the blood, the double cure, and guilt and power.

B.　The double cure refers to the cure of our outward sinful acts by the Lord's precious blood to save us from the guilt of sin, and it refers to the cure of our inward sinful nature by the Lord's flowing life to save us from the power of sin.

C.　The blood refers to the precious blood shed by the Lord to deal with our outward sinful acts (John 1:29; Heb. 9:22), and the water refers to the life imparted by the Lord to deal with our inward sinful nature (John 19:34).

D.　The precious blood of the Lord redeems us from the eternal punishment that we deserve due to our sinful acts, and His life saves us from the power of our sinful nature.

E.　If we have a thorough understanding of the stanza of this hymn, we will be able to preach the high gospel to people, because this "double cure" of blood and water fulfills God's original intention with man.

II.　Two substances came out of the Lord's pierced side: blood and water—v. 34:

A.　We sinners became fallen and were then against God's righteousness and estranged from God's life—Gen. 3:24; Eph. 4:18.

B.　As sinners, we need to be redeemed judicially from God's condemnation according to the righteous requirement of His law (Gal. 3:13), and we need to be saved organically by His life from the death brought in by sin (2 Tim. 1:10; Rom. 5:10, 12, 17, 21).

C.　God's full salvation for us is judicial according to His righteousness and organic according to His life.

D.　Christ, as the Redeemer and Savior of fallen man, redeems us and saves us through His death and resurrection.

E.　In His crucifixion, after He was pierced by a soldier, blood and water, two elements which are critical to human life, came out of Him—John 19:34:

1.　Blood is for God's judicial redemption to deal with sins (1:29; Heb. 9:22) for the purchasing of the church (Acts 20:28):

a.　Redeeming the believers—Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Gal. 3:13; 4:5.

b.　Forgiving the believers' sins—Heb. 9:22.

c.　Washing away the believers' sins—1:3.

d.　For God to justify the believers—Rom. 3:24; 5:9.

e.　Sanctifying the believers positionally—Heb. 13:12; 10:29.

f.　Speaking something better for the New Testament believers before God—12:24.

g.　Overcoming Satan, the accuser of the believers—Rev. 12:11.

h.　Thus, it is the precious blood of Christ—1 Pet. 1:19.

i.　It is also considered God's own blood, which is very dear to God and with which God has purchased and obtained the church as His flock—Acts 20:28.

2.　Water, signifying the divine life, is for God's organic salvation—for imparting life (John 12:24; 3:14-15) for the producing and building up of the church (Eph. 5:29-30):

a.　The Lord promises to give the sinners the water of life—John 4:10, 14; Rev. 21:6.

b.　The Lord calls the sinners to come and drink His water of life—22:17; John 7:37-38:

(1).　The believers are regenerated by God with His divine life—1 Pet. 1:3.

(2).　The divine life saves the believers—Rom. 5:10b.

(3).　The divine life dispositionally sanctifies (6:19, 22), renews (12:2b; Titus 3:5), transforms (Rom. 12:2a; 2 Cor. 3:18), conforms (Rom. 8:29), and glorifies (v. 30) the believers.

(4).　The believers reign in life—5:17.

(5).　The believers grow in life for the building up of the Body of Christ—Eph. 4:15-16.

(6).　The divine life consummates the New Jerusalem, which is wholly supplied with the river of water of life and with the tree of life—Rev. 21:2; 22:1-2.

III.　The flowing water and the unbroken bone mentioned by John in 19:34 and 36 are signs that relate to the life-releasing aspect of His death and the life-imparting aspect of His resurrection for the producing of His bride, His counterpart—Gen. 2:21-24:

A.　In order to produce a complement for Himself, God first became a man (John 1:14), as typified by God's creation of Adam (Rom. 5:14).

B.　Adam's deep sleep for the producing of Eve as his wife typifies Christ's death on the cross (1 Cor. 15:18; 1 Thes. 4:13-16; John 11:11-14) for the producing of the church as His complement (Gen. 2:21; Eph. 5:25-27).

C.　Through Christ's death, the divine life within Him was released, and through His resurrection, His released divine life was imparted into His believers for the constituting of the church.

D.　Through such a process, God in Christ has been wrought into man with His life and nature so that man can be the same as God in life and nature in order to match Him as His counterpart.

E.　The rib taken from Adam's opened side (Gen. 2:21) typifies the unbreakable, indestructible eternal life of Christ (Heb. 7:16; John 19:36), which flowed out of His pierced side (v. 34) to impart life to His believers for the producing and building up of the church as His complement:

1.　When Adam was created, there was no sin, so there was no need of redemption; it was not until Genesis 3 that sin came in.

2.　Thus, all that came out of Adam's side was the rib, without the blood.

3.　However, by the time that Christ was sleeping on the cross, there was the problem of sin; thus, His death had to deal with the sin problem.

4.　The blood came out of Christ's side for judicial redemption; following the blood, the water came out, which is the flowing life to produce and build up the church.

5.　This divine, flowing, uncreated life is typified by the rib taken out of Adam's side.

6.　"These things happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled: 'No bone of His shall be broken'"—John 19:36:

a.　In the Scriptures the first mention of a bone is in Genesis 2:21-23; there it was a rib taken out of Adam for the producing and building of Eve as a match for Adam.

b.　Eve is a type of the church, which is produced and built with the Lord's resurrection life released out of Him.

c.　Hence, the bone is a symbol, a figure, of the Lord's resurrection life, which nothing can break.

d.　The Lord's side was pierced, but not one of His bones was broken; this signifies that although the Lord's physical life was terminated, His resurrection life, the very divine life, could not be hurt or damaged by anything.

e.　This is the life with which the church is produced and built; it is also the eternal life, which we have obtained by believing into Him (John 3:36).

7.　The building of Eve with the rib taken from Adam's side typifies the building of the church with the resurrection life released from Christ through His death on the cross and imparted into His believers in His resurrection—Gen. 2:22-24; John 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:3.

8.　The church as the real Eve is the totality of Christ in all His believers; only that which comes out of Christ, having His resurrection life, can be His complement and counterpart, the Body of Christ—1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 5:28-30.

9.　Day by day as we enjoy this flowing, divine, uncreated, unbreakable, resurrection life, we are being transformed, and as we are being transformed, we are also being built into the church to be the bride to match Christ as His counterpart—Matt. 16:18.

10.　At the end of Genesis 2 there is Eve, and at the end of the entire Bible there is the New Jerusalem, which is the ultimate Eve, the ultimate consummation of the eternal bride built up with precious materials produced by the flowing, resurrection life of Christ.

11.　May we all be brought into the enjoyment and experience of this flowing, transforming, and building life to be prepared as the bride of Christ that will bring Christ back.