And this stream of spiritual blessings is symbolized by the living water, or the river of the water of life. All these spiritual blessings of salvation have their ground and heart in one, namely, perfect righteousness. Righteousness and salvation are so closely and inseparably connected, that Scripture sometimes virtually identifies them. Just as the real essence of our misery is sin, so the heart of our salvation is righteousness. Without righteousness there is no life, no favor of God, no fellowship with Him.
Righteousness is life and joy.
We must be justified. Our sins must be blotted out and forgiven, and the perfect righteousness of God in Christ must be imputed to us, so that, even though in ourselves we lie in the midst of sin and death, we glory in our justification, and are assured that we are righteous before God. But we must also be sanctified, delivered from darkness and corruption and all defilement, and quickened unto a new life of holiness unto God. And in this comprehensive sense of the word righteousness is our salvation. We must come, then, to Christ, in order to drink the water of life, that is, to receive from Him, and to appropriate unto ourselves all the spiritual blessings of grace, to obtain righteousness and life.