By Tyler Shean
So the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, though You are a Jew, are asking me for a drink, though I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus replied to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water (John 4:9-10, NASB).
In John Chapter 4, we find a remarkable interaction between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. This account is indispensable for anyone seeking to better understand or communicate with others what one must do to receive everlasting life.
Within this chapter, Jesus Christ, the Messiah Himself, gives us the authoritative formula. In fact, over the course of this interaction, Jesus tells us exactly who gives eternal life, what you need to do to have it, and what it is (eternal and irrevocable).
What Jesus told the Samaritan woman in this encounter perfectly supports a Free Grace view of salvation. The doctrine of Free Grace holds that everlasting life is a free gift from God, received by faith alone in Christ alone apart from works of any kind. In other words, in order to receive everlasting life, one must simply believe (be convinced or persuaded) that Jesus Christ gives eternal life to all who simply believe in Him for it.
Let’s examine the first portion of Christ’s statement in verse 10: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink…’” This includes the what and the who in Messiah’s formula. As the consummate evangelist, Jesus started with the goal: the gift of God. We know from John 4:14 that the gift of God is eternal life: “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” (emphasis added; cf. John 3:16). Living water is a metaphor for the message (or promise) of life, which, once believed, results in a person’s having everlasting life.i
The who is not explained until later in the dialogue (vv 25-26).
With the gift of God established, Jesus moved into the action that would reveal who the Giver of this gift is: “you would have asked Him.” In 4:16-19, Jesus gave hints about who He is. He told the woman things about herself that required supernatural insight.
What Jesus is plainly saying to the Samaritan woman was: “If you knew that I freely give eternal life, and you knew who I am, you would ask Me for the living water and I would give it to you.”
The Samaritan woman gradually moved in her understanding of who it is who offered her this living water. She realized that He was greater than Jacob who gave the Samaritans this well (v 12). Then she perceived that He was a prophet (v 19). Finally, she understood that this could be the Messiah. So, she asked him, “‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When He comes, He will tell us all things’” (v 25). (She later confessed [v 30] that He had just told her “all that I ever did.”) Jesus then answered her and gave her the final piece to the formula: “I who speak to you am He [the Messiah]” (v 26).
She drank the living water and received the gift of God at that moment.
The gift of God is everlasting life. The Giver of the gift is the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the gift is obtained by all who believe in the Giver for the gift. If we simply believe in Jesus for everlasting life, then we have it. We can be sure that Jesus freely gives the gift of eternal life to anyone who believes in Him, and that once we receive the gift, we will never lose it!
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Tyler is a business marketing professional who lives in San Diego with his wonderful wife Taryn and dog Seve. In his free time chances are good you will find him on the golf course. Tyler is a GES Seminary student and this paper was submitted in the Fall semester Soteriology class, taught by Prof. Dix Winston.
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i Wilkin, Bob, “Asking Jesus for the Living Water (John 4:10),” Grace in Focus (May/June, 2019)
