Section 10
religion. The Jewish rites of purification with water signify religion's attempt to make people clean by certain dead practices. The ancient Jews took care of washing themselves and of keeping themselves clean and pure in God's worship. The Lord, on the contrary, changes death into life. The ritual puri fication with water is outward, without life, but the Lord's changing death into life is from within and is full of life.
The Lord told the servants to fill the waterpots with water, and they filled them up to the brim (v. 7). What does this mean? As we will see, it signifies that human beings are filled with death. The waterpots, that is, mankind created on the sixth day, are filled with the waters of death.
JESUS CHANGING DEATH
INTO LIFE ETERNAL
The Lord's commanding the people to fill the six vessels with water indicated that the natural man is full of death. Water in the Scriptures has two symbolic meanings. In some cases it stands for life (4:14; 7:38); in others, for death (Gen. 1:2, 6; Exo. 14:21; Matt. 3:16). The waters in Genesis 1 and the water of baptism signify death. Similarly, in the instance at Cana, water signifies death. All the stone vessels were full of water, meaning that