4. G. Campbell Morgan, The Gospel According to John (Old Tappan, N.J.: Revell, 1931), 75.
Jesus Heralds His Gospel
yet ready for living water. There were two issues that needed to be addressed first: her sin and His true identity.
Jesus never sanctioned any form of cheap grace. He was not offering eternal life as an add-on to a life cluttered with unconfessed sin. It is inconceivable that He would pour someone a drink of living water without challenging and altering that individual's sinful lifestyle. He came to save His people from their sin (cf. Matt. 1:21), not to confer immortality on people in bondage to wickedness (cf. Gen. 3:22 – 24).
The Lord went right to the heart of the issue — by letting her know she could not cloak her sin: "Go, call your husband, and come here" (John 4:16). It was a loaded remark. G. Campbell Morgan, commenting on this passage, writes, "How did He reply? 'Go, call thy husband.' Why that? If she was to have that well of water springing up in her, there must first be moral investigation and correction."4 Willingness to confess the reality and odiousness of one's sin is an essential manifestation of genuine spiritual thirst. But the web of this woman's adulteries was so complex and her sin so great that she did not even try to explain. "I have no husband" (v. 17) was all she replied.
He knew the full truth anyway: "You have well said, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands; and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly" (vv. 17 – 18). Imagine her shame when she realized He knew all about her sin! Certainly she would have preferred to keep it hidden. She had not lied to Him, but she hadn't told the whole truth, either. It is as if Jesus said, "All right, if you're not going to confess your own sin, I'm going to confront you by telling you what it is."
Then she did confess her sin. By saying, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet" (v. 19), she was, in effect, saying, "You are right. That's me. That's my sinful life. What you said about me is true."
Here she must have realized that whoever this Person was, He knew all the details of her sinful life. He had peeled back the camouflage on all of it. And yet, even with full knowledge of her depravity, He was offering her the Water of Life! If she had known the Scriptures well, Isaiah 55:1 might have come to mind: "Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters." The offer of living water is not just to religious people like Nicodemus — everyone who thirsts is invited to drink deeply of the living water — even an adulterous woman whose life is fraught with sin.
Isaiah adds a charge to sinners, along with a wonderful promise that would have gladdened the Samaritan woman's heart:
4. G. Campbell Morgan, Th e Gospel According to John (Old Tappan, N.J.: Revell, 1931), 75.
He Demands True Worship
Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrigh teous man his thoughts; And let him return to the Lord, And He will have compassion on him; And to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
(Isa. 55:7, emphasis added)
The Lesson of True Worship: Now Is
the Acceptable Time
Having recognized Him as more than a mere traveling man, the woman asked the first spiritual question that came to mind: "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain; and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship" (John 4:20). Since He was a genuine prophet, He ought to know which group was right!
Jesus' response, like His answer to Nicodemus, cut through the woman's misplaced interest and confronted her with her real need — forgiveness. "Woman, believe Me," He told her, "an hour is coming when neither in this mountain, nor at Jerusalem shall you worship the Father" (v. 21). Then, almost incidentally, He told her that the Jews were right and the Samaritans were wrong: "You worship that which you do not know; we worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews" (v. 22). If only she had known it, the Jew she was speaking to was the One who came to bring salvation!
The where of worship is not really the issue; it is who, when, and how that really count. Jesus said, "An hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit; and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (vv. 23 – 24). True worship occurs not on a mountain or in a temple, but in the inner person.
The phrase "an hour is coming and now is" gave Jesus' words a sense of urgency and personal meaning to this woman. It was as if He were saying, "You don't have to go up to the mountain or down to Jerusalem to worship. You can worship here and now." Having brought her to the threshold of eternal life, He was affirming the urgency of salvation that Paul spoke of: "Behold, now is 'the acceptable time,' behold now is 'the day of salvation' " (2 Cor. 6:2). The Messiah was present, the day of salvation had arrived, and this was not only Messiah's time but her time too.
It is significant that Jesus used the expression "true worshipers" to refer to the body of redeemed people. All who are saved are true worshipers. There is no possibility of being saved and yet not worshiping God in Spirit and truth. God's