[Previous post: How Much We Need Need (part 1)]
'Need' is a Significant Component to the Gospel Message
In the last post I took a fresh look at John 4 and the gospel presented to the woman at the well. In this post I would like to ask some critical thinking questions.
Imagine a salvation where there was no redemptive works to be done, no thing for saints to accomplish by Christ's power, in this life or the resurrected one. What would the offer of eternal life in John chapter four look like if humanity only needed forgiveness of sins and a wage-less, rewardless, workless, and undistinguished experience of eternity in heaven? I might have to pull out a pen and (God forgive the concept) mark out portions, perhaps something like this:
This is a good point for discussion. What do you think of the stuff in the last post? I know I don't know a lot yet and I probably have some major holes in my understanding of what is happening in John 4.
Around town I head FG people say about our own gospel that it "makes no difference, it's only the convincing thing to do." Did Jesus share a "no difference" gospel in John or in the other Gospels?
What is the gospel according to the passage? Is the gospel precisely only one verse: "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water"?
If that's all the gospel is, what's all the context for? Did the woman at the well need the context on husbands (Jesus' conversation piece) and places of worship (her conversation piece) in order to receive the gift of eternal life? Seriously, we just don't need all that do we? Even the study note in my bible says that she was deflecting the gospel issue by bringing up a theological hobby horse. Is the discussion on the proper place of worship in this gospel presentation just theological legalism? Is Jesus doing biblical synthesis? Of course the biblical backdrop is necessary. I believe Jesus needed those scriptures because it satisfies what this woman knows she needs of God. She need not repent here in this encounter; Jesus does not ask her to repent in this passage. She isn't pressing to perform good works for her salvation. What she needs is a New-Covenant grand integration with God; the kind that advances her abiding with God, and God abiding with her.
Jesus asked her, "If you knew..." To "know" God is to be intimately knowledgeable of Him through living with Him (John 14:7-9; 17:3). Sounds like a question of fellowship. We read gospel passages in the New Testament scriptures as always being a "yes/no" answer of whether or not people in His day were saved (justified/possessing eternal life). Why can't it be a "yeah-but wait"?
There are two typical ways a Free Grace person assesses Spiritual exchange with God. They do it by asking the question, "Is this person being saved/justified/receiving eternal life?" Or they assess by asking, "Is this person already a believer, but now is coming to a conviction regarding sanctification or fellowship with God?" Right? Both those questions are excellent for this passage. The woman at the well: is she being invited to return to fellowship with God, and therefore was already justified (saved)? If she was not saved before He presented this gospel, is He inviting her to just believe and therefore also receive the fulfillment of the promised gift of the Holy Spirit, previously unavailable to believing Jew or anyone else for that matter, in Living Water now available to the world? But there is a third way to assess the Spiritual exchange, which is the essence of this post.
First be sure, this is a gospel for a Jew, a physical descendant of Abraham (she calls Jacob her father in verse 12). This may be a most inappropriate gospel to share with a Gentile to help them receive justification with God; that is, unless it's suitable for all people, which I believe it is, but I will explain that in another post. Before I explore some of the issues of salvation/fellowship for a Jew, let me share what a burden it has been to study this carefully. It is so difficult to understand her relationship to God, especially considering she is a half-breed Samaritan, with all the pondering I've been able to make of this passage.
There's a more paradoxical way of approaching a passage such as this, than just asking two diagnostic questions "Is she getting saved?" and "Is she returning into fellowship with God?" This third approach finds the most consistent support through scripture, and once I got it, it was simple to understand why Jesus was preaching the way He did, and why the Apostles preached the way they did in Acts and taught the gospel the way they did in Romans and Hebrews. Let me show you how I found what I have.
Abraham had Eternal Life and the Holy Spirit
First I asked myself, what about Abraham? Was he saved? And his sons, Isaac and Jacob? How about all his other offspring... were they saved? We know that "only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham" (Gal. 3:7). "That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed" (Rom. 9:8). Therefore we know that whoever is a descendant of Abraham and who also had at any moment the faith of Abraham (faith in the promise first given in Genesis 12) are those who will inherit the promise. If the promise was most illustrated as guaranteed to anyone at all, it was illustrated as guaranteed to Abraham. Can anyone nullify the promises to these believers? No!
If Abraham were standing there with the woman at the well, would he need to hear the gospel Jesus told this Samaritan woman? Can you imagine Jesus telling Abraham, "Believe in Me and receive everlasting life!" The answer is yes, and no. First: the reason why the answer is no....
The promises made to Abraham already contained the saving work of Jesus Christ in His death, burial and resurrection: The Holy Spirit for, and the Resurrection of, believers. It is quite something that the gospel of Jesus Christ in 1 Cor 15:1-4 is caught up in Genesis 12... but thanks be to God that it was kept secret till the administration of grace began in Paul's preaching and teaching.
Proof text: Matthew 22:29-33
Proof text: Galatians 3:2-9
Jesus says "You won't have to 'come here' (to Jacob) to draw God anymore. I'm changing (fulfilling and replacing) the covenant."
The Free Grace Gospel: What it has Been and What it can Become
John 4 is a gospel proving how the LORD uses human need for God to bring people into persuasion of the Truth and Work of Christ, to receive Him (the gift). It seems to me indisputable He did just that in this passage. And since it is so simple (as the GES say, one drink, one persuasion is all it takes), and must be doctrinally sound (as the FGA say, the Jesus of scripture is what must be identified), this gospel focusing on human need for receiving Jesus is the framework for both sides of this debate to be right when they preach.
John 4 is a great example of the weakness in both the GES's and the FGA's distinct philosophies on evangelism. The FGA wants to safeguard against universalism and false doctrine of the work and person of Christ; therefore they probably wouldn't use this passage to help someone come to Christ. The context is eschatological, and otherwise incredibly narrow and personal, and does not articulate 1 Cor 15:1-4. It is sad they wouldn't use a passage from scripture of our own Savior offering living water to "anyone" ("And let him who thirsts, come" Rev. 22:17) who wants it. The GES wants to safeguard against false doctrines of works so believers can gain assurance of salvation and rest and grow in Christ. This passage does a great job at leading a lost person to assurance of salvation. Unfortunately the context is eschatological and incredibly narrow and personal, and in this woman's case her presence by Jacob's well suggests she already possessed eternal life.
Dave Anderson remarked at the Free Grace Alliance conference last spring, "I don't want to go on with this business of finding the minimalist gospel. I want to preach the maximum gospel." Minimums are wrong. But so are maximums. What we want is a way to navigate through gospel passages according to the way that most helps the lost person get saved. This passage can and should be used in evangelism in spite of its flaws in satisfying the noble goals of the FGA and GES. I want to explore the heart of the scriptures on salvation, perhaps by which we can assess the Spiritual exchange happening in New Testament gospel accounts.
[Please click the links below to other posts in this series:]
How Much We Need Need (introduction)
'Need' is a Significant Component to the Gospel Message
 |
| The Woman of Samaria by Harold Copping |
Imagine a salvation where there was no redemptive works to be done, no thing for saints to accomplish by Christ's power, in this life or the resurrected one. What would the offer of eternal life in John chapter four look like if humanity only needed forgiveness of sins and a wage-less, rewardless, workless, and undistinguished experience of eternity in heaven? I might have to pull out a pen and (God forgive the concept) mark out portions, perhaps something like this:
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 himThe Woman at the Well: Evaluate the "Homework"a fountain ofwaterspringing up into everlasting life.”
This is a good point for discussion. What do you think of the stuff in the last post? I know I don't know a lot yet and I probably have some major holes in my understanding of what is happening in John 4.
Around town I head FG people say about our own gospel that it "makes no difference, it's only the convincing thing to do." Did Jesus share a "no difference" gospel in John or in the other Gospels?
What is the gospel according to the passage? Is the gospel precisely only one verse: "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water"?
If that's all the gospel is, what's all the context for? Did the woman at the well need the context on husbands (Jesus' conversation piece) and places of worship (her conversation piece) in order to receive the gift of eternal life? Seriously, we just don't need all that do we? Even the study note in my bible says that she was deflecting the gospel issue by bringing up a theological hobby horse. Is the discussion on the proper place of worship in this gospel presentation just theological legalism? Is Jesus doing biblical synthesis? Of course the biblical backdrop is necessary. I believe Jesus needed those scriptures because it satisfies what this woman knows she needs of God. She need not repent here in this encounter; Jesus does not ask her to repent in this passage. She isn't pressing to perform good works for her salvation. What she needs is a New-Covenant grand integration with God; the kind that advances her abiding with God, and God abiding with her.
Jesus asked her, "If you knew..." To "know" God is to be intimately knowledgeable of Him through living with Him (John 14:7-9; 17:3). Sounds like a question of fellowship. We read gospel passages in the New Testament scriptures as always being a "yes/no" answer of whether or not people in His day were saved (justified/possessing eternal life). Why can't it be a "yeah-but wait"?
There are two typical ways a Free Grace person assesses Spiritual exchange with God. They do it by asking the question, "Is this person being saved/justified/receiving eternal life?" Or they assess by asking, "Is this person already a believer, but now is coming to a conviction regarding sanctification or fellowship with God?" Right? Both those questions are excellent for this passage. The woman at the well: is she being invited to return to fellowship with God, and therefore was already justified (saved)? If she was not saved before He presented this gospel, is He inviting her to just believe and therefore also receive the fulfillment of the promised gift of the Holy Spirit, previously unavailable to believing Jew or anyone else for that matter, in Living Water now available to the world? But there is a third way to assess the Spiritual exchange, which is the essence of this post.
First be sure, this is a gospel for a Jew, a physical descendant of Abraham (she calls Jacob her father in verse 12). This may be a most inappropriate gospel to share with a Gentile to help them receive justification with God; that is, unless it's suitable for all people, which I believe it is, but I will explain that in another post. Before I explore some of the issues of salvation/fellowship for a Jew, let me share what a burden it has been to study this carefully. It is so difficult to understand her relationship to God, especially considering she is a half-breed Samaritan, with all the pondering I've been able to make of this passage.
There's a more paradoxical way of approaching a passage such as this, than just asking two diagnostic questions "Is she getting saved?" and "Is she returning into fellowship with God?" This third approach finds the most consistent support through scripture, and once I got it, it was simple to understand why Jesus was preaching the way He did, and why the Apostles preached the way they did in Acts and taught the gospel the way they did in Romans and Hebrews. Let me show you how I found what I have.
Abraham had Eternal Life and the Holy Spirit
First I asked myself, what about Abraham? Was he saved? And his sons, Isaac and Jacob? How about all his other offspring... were they saved? We know that "only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham" (Gal. 3:7). "That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed" (Rom. 9:8). Therefore we know that whoever is a descendant of Abraham and who also had at any moment the faith of Abraham (faith in the promise first given in Genesis 12) are those who will inherit the promise. If the promise was most illustrated as guaranteed to anyone at all, it was illustrated as guaranteed to Abraham. Can anyone nullify the promises to these believers? No!
If Abraham were standing there with the woman at the well, would he need to hear the gospel Jesus told this Samaritan woman? Can you imagine Jesus telling Abraham, "Believe in Me and receive everlasting life!" The answer is yes, and no. First: the reason why the answer is no....
The promises made to Abraham already contained the saving work of Jesus Christ in His death, burial and resurrection: The Holy Spirit for, and the Resurrection of, believers. It is quite something that the gospel of Jesus Christ in 1 Cor 15:1-4 is caught up in Genesis 12... but thanks be to God that it was kept secret till the administration of grace began in Paul's preaching and teaching.
Proof text: Matthew 22:29-33
Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.If Abraham is living thousands of years after his physical death, then hasn't he already received the gift of eternal life? Do Abraham's spiritual offspring (those who "believe in the LORD") also already possess eternal life? I think so. After all, Jacob and Isaac already have it too. If this woman already believed in the LORD before meeting the person of Jesus, she had already received the gift of eternal life before Jesus offered it at the well. Therefore she did not need the gospel of everlasting life preached to her to offer her justification. In fact the terminology Jesus uses may simply be formality and confirmation for the long-awaited promise. He says essentially, "Got some good news here!" John 4:13-15
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.”Payment of goods promised, is the gospel ("good news") here? Yes indeed! But even this is not the most important issue going on here, because in a sense she still needed to believe this gospel to be saved. In this perspective, the answer is yes -- Abraham did need to believe the gospel Jesus was preaching here. Let's investigate the issue of the Holy Spirit and see if we find the same pattern (and we do).... When I read Genesis 12, or Genesis 15:6 where his faith was accounted for righteousness, I just don't see the promise of the Holy Spirit embedded in these promises. Nevertheless, that is what Paul tells us was latently there all along in the book of Galatians, all of chapter three. (Paul is the authority on this doctrine.)
The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
Proof text: Galatians 3:2-9
This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?We also know the promise of blessing spoken to Abraham was a dim revelation of the Holy Spirit from another verse in Galatians, 3:14
Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?—just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.
that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.Abraham did not possess the Holy Spirit. Not in the way we Gentiles do (in this 'time of the Gentiles' after Emmanuel has come). The Holy Spirit was not come to dwell in men till Pentecost happened. Before that, it was some kind of closeness with His Spirit yet without Him making His eternal dwelling in those who believe in Him. Abraham was most definitely looking forward to the day of Pentecost. He knew it was the means by which God would bless all the families of the earth. Here is the doctrine which contrasts the difference between Abraham's covenant and Jesus' covenant, John 4:13-15
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." The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”She wants two things. She wants to not have to travel to draw water - implying distance. There would be no distance now between her and God anymore, since the fountain of water (the Holy Spirit) would make her connection to God a personal possession. Second, she wants to not thirst. She needs God's Spirit, in fact we could just say she needs God (Father, Son or Holy Spirit), period. She wants Him. She IS thirsty. She wants Him all the time. Thirst happens when you leave the side of the well, does it not? But we cannot escape the presence of God in the New Covenant. This is an upgrade in water-dispensing technology. It is in a grand sense, integrating God and man closer than they had been through the promises of Abraham. With Jacob's well, this much is sure: they had already received the gift of the Holy Spirit. They had received the promise of God. They had free access to God's presence, God's Spirit. Jacob's well proves that the usual Free Grace questioning of salvation and fellowship issues is stopping short of the most important question. It is not a "yes/no" but a "yeah, but wait" kind of answer.
Jesus says "You won't have to 'come here' (to Jacob) to draw God anymore. I'm changing (fulfilling and replacing) the covenant."
The Free Grace Gospel: What it has Been and What it can Become
John 4 is a gospel proving how the LORD uses human need for God to bring people into persuasion of the Truth and Work of Christ, to receive Him (the gift). It seems to me indisputable He did just that in this passage. And since it is so simple (as the GES say, one drink, one persuasion is all it takes), and must be doctrinally sound (as the FGA say, the Jesus of scripture is what must be identified), this gospel focusing on human need for receiving Jesus is the framework for both sides of this debate to be right when they preach.
John 4 is a great example of the weakness in both the GES's and the FGA's distinct philosophies on evangelism. The FGA wants to safeguard against universalism and false doctrine of the work and person of Christ; therefore they probably wouldn't use this passage to help someone come to Christ. The context is eschatological, and otherwise incredibly narrow and personal, and does not articulate 1 Cor 15:1-4. It is sad they wouldn't use a passage from scripture of our own Savior offering living water to "anyone" ("And let him who thirsts, come" Rev. 22:17) who wants it. The GES wants to safeguard against false doctrines of works so believers can gain assurance of salvation and rest and grow in Christ. This passage does a great job at leading a lost person to assurance of salvation. Unfortunately the context is eschatological and incredibly narrow and personal, and in this woman's case her presence by Jacob's well suggests she already possessed eternal life.
Dave Anderson remarked at the Free Grace Alliance conference last spring, "I don't want to go on with this business of finding the minimalist gospel. I want to preach the maximum gospel." Minimums are wrong. But so are maximums. What we want is a way to navigate through gospel passages according to the way that most helps the lost person get saved. This passage can and should be used in evangelism in spite of its flaws in satisfying the noble goals of the FGA and GES. I want to explore the heart of the scriptures on salvation, perhaps by which we can assess the Spiritual exchange happening in New Testament gospel accounts.
[Please click the links below to other posts in this series:]
How Much We Need Need (introduction)
5 comments:
This is very difficult. Very challenging for me at least. Sometimes I get it, then I lose it again. I continually ask the LORD to help me write it. This next post is finally coming together. :) PTL!
I hope readers give some feedback for this thought:
God's Word can be believed point-blank, in passive persuasion. Man is less willing to believe Him at His Word, and so God gave more; demonstration and power and the nearness of God. "Signs," "semeion" means a distinguishing mark or an indication. It means a portent, a miracle... bringing attention to the Trinity.
I purposely left out the issues of justification, righteousness and godly living, from this post. We so often want to answer that question that we don't spend as much time on everything else. I wanted to write about everything else before going on to the issue of righteousness. It's coming in the next post and it is going to be the most interesting one to me.
I believe this series (though I am not too good at all this yet) will help free grace people tie together their need for a clear gospel message free from works and their outstanding teachings on eternal rewards. The gospel should be one cohesive flow.
Hi Michele,
WOW~!!! You did a lot of work and thinking on this post. You see things that I've never seen.
I love the Gospel of John, too. I wish everyone would start there because it's the only book in the Bible with the stated purpose of being evangelistic.
John 20:30-31.
That verse tells me that anyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.
John 11:25-27 defines what it means to believe that Jesus is the Christ. Jesus' encounter with Martha was such a wonderful passage to show what it means that Jesus is the Christ. He is the giver of eternal life to those who believe in Him for it.
AWESOME~!!!
:-)
All the way through the book Jesus and the disciples say clearly that whoever believes in Him HAS eternal life.
For me, I have no trouble seeing that Jesus was giving the Woman at the well the living water... the message that springs up into everlasting life when believed.
I'm just a simple person who only sees the simple meanings. But I'm so thankful to the Lord for showing me that wonderful truth. I actually believed that message long before I ever heard of Zane Hodges or GES. But when I did meet them, I found that they were teaching what I had already come to know. They just brought out details that fit what I had come to believe already.
For instance. I didn't know that John was written for the purpose of telling a person how they could be eternally saved. Yet, I came to believe in Jesus for eternal life in that wonderful verse, John 3:16.
I didn't know until they pointed it out that John 11 defined what it meant that Jesus was the Christ. But when I checked it out, it fit with what happened to me many years early.
Isn't God good~!!! His Word really does come alive to those who want to know Him.
It's so neat that you have a heart to search His Word for truth. God says He's a rewarder of those who deligently seek Him.
I'm glad you have a heart to know God and search the scriptures. He alone is worthy~!!! He alone gives everlasting life (His life) to the one who simply receives it by faith.... all by grace.
AWESOME~!!!
Keep searching the scriptures because He alone makes life worth living~!!!
In His love,
Diane
:-)
Hi Diane,
Thanks for replying in email and also on my blog. I am going to check out that blog you mentioned after I stop in here and then reply to that email too.
I hope you also read part 3?
In John 4 Jesus mentions the harvest. Can you tell me why you think it's there?
I'm such a dork, I published my comments twice on two threads... This is challenging for me and sometimes I think studying it is beyond me. Then I think, all I need to do is try. I have really grown in my faith to try and blog this.
Thanks Diane for the conversation. I want to hear your thoughts and scriptures.
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