Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” John 3:5
Earthly life cannot exist without water, and water is most frequently used in Scripture to symbolize God’s free gift of eternal life. As the recipients of God’s Word, the ancient Hebrews were well versed in the meaning of its symbolic imagery. This is why Jesus rebuked Nicodemus as a teacher of Israel for not understanding His words about the source of eternal life (John 3:10). Isaiah used water to signify God’s free, gracious, and bountiful salvation (Isaiah 11:9; 32:2; 41:18; 55:1; 58:11) and the absence of water to symbolize separation from His blessings (Isaiah 3:1; 50:2). The vivid imagery in Ezekiel’s vision of the river flowing out from God’s temple (Ezekiel 47:1-12) is a depiction of His Spirit spilling out to the ends of the earth, bringing life wherever it goes. As the temple is, in part, a symbol of paradise, this river also looks back to the rivers of Eden (Genesis 2:10-14) and forward to the river of life in the heavenly new Jerusalem (Revelation 22:1-5).
He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. John 7:38
Covering more than 70 percent of the earth’s surface, water is the most basic and vital element in nature. Although it is so common that we rarely think about it, there is no substance in creation with more amazing or important properties. Without it there would be no life on earth, for every living thing is largely made of water and requires its unique properties to function. One of these vital qualities is water’s extraordinary heat capacity, or its ability to absorb great amounts of heat without significantly increasing its own temperature. To illustrate this, if the same weight of water and iron are cooled to absolute zero (minus 460 degrees Fahrenheit) so that no heat remains, and equal energy is then applied to both substances, when the iron starts to melt at 2,370 degrees the water will only have reached 32 degrees. Thus, the oceans absorb and release heat from the sun more slowly than does the land, and onshore breezes bring warmth to the land in winter and coolness in the summer.
Another fascinating property of water is its expansion in cooling, which makes it less dense in its frozen state than in its liquid form. This unique characteristic allows ice to float, which is vitally important to all living things. For if ice sank to the bottom of lakes, rivers, and seas, it would gradually accumulate and lower the water temperature to a point that it could no longer sustain life. The earth would eventually freeze, and all life would cease.
Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4:13-14
Water is liquid between 32 and 212 degrees Fahrenheit, and it is the only common sub-stance that is liquid within the temperature range normally found on earth. If it behaved like its closest molecular relatives which are liquid between about 130 and 150 degrees below zero, there would be no liquid water—or life—on earth.