“If you knew the Gift of God?”
(John 4:10)
A weary one sat at Jacob’s well. He had left the land of the Pharisees. It was Jesus. He came in love to His own, to save them from their sins but they received Him not. Weary and grieved was His tender heart as He sat there in the heat of the day.
A woman came to that well with her water pot. She is one to whom the proud Pharisees-the religionists of the day would scornfully never speak. She is a despised Samaritan, a mixed-bred foreigner and that is not all, she is a poor wretched being, living in open sin! She little knows that she is about to meet the eye of Him Who knows all that she ever did. She arrives at the well and is astonished that Jesus, being a Jew should ask her to give Him a drink.
Jesus said unto her, “If thou knewest the Gift of God, and Who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.” (John 4:10)
He did not say, if you were not so great a sinner. He did not say if you will reform and become a holy woman, then I will give you living water. No, No! he let her know that He knew all that she had ever done.
But there was such a depth of pity, grace, and compassion in His wonderful countenance, such tender love to the sinner in those words, that it won her interest, her heart and converted her soul. Christ was revealed to her and then leaving her water pot she went to the city so full of Christ, that forgetting her own shame, she said, “ Come see a man which told me all that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”
Friend, can you meet the eye of Him Who knows every thought of your heart from childhood? All that ever you did is open and naked to His eye. This is the One True God with whom we all have to do!
Can you say that you are not a sinner? Have you thought, how was it, that there was nothing in Jesus to repel this wretched, fallen sinner? And what can those words mean, “ If you knewest the gift of God…”? Is this the one great thing needed by a poor, wretched sinner?
Make no mistake friend, it is the one thing needed for every sinner, whatever nationality,whatever sins committed, the first thing you need is not the water of the Ganges, the precepts of Confucius, the intercession of the saints and the church or any works of amendment – no, the one thing you need is to know THE GIFT OF GOD !
Do you ask what is the gift of God? The same that met that poor woman at the well- Jesus the Son of God, the Saviour of the world.
“ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
“The gift of God is eternal life.” (Rom. 6:23)
“Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.” (2 Cor. 9”15)
“ He that hath the Son hath life; he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life.” (1 John 5:12)
Friend, reader of this tract, it is a gift, a gift, A GIFT! If you knew this and believed it, your whole life would be made over again! You cannot buy it, you cannot merit it. He knows all that you have ever done, all that you are, and now God is placing Jesus the crucified, the Risen One, Jesus the glorified One before you. Do you know Him, the gift of all gifts?
Do you say, “but my sins are heavy, they press me down, what must I do?” If you knew the gift of God, even though you had committed every sin that has been committed in this dark, sinful world, yet God’s gift, His Son and His redemption abounds above them all!
There is redemption through His blood for “the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)
Jesus Christ came into the world to seek and to save weary and heavy-hearted lost sinners such as we. Praise God, Jesus Christ has done the work that saves and now all that remains is for you to allow God to reveal to your soul Jesus Christ, the gift of God.
Believe this gift, receive this gift, ask Him and He will give you living water and you will never thirst again!
A change of life and holiness of life will follow, but the first thing is, The Gift of God.
By ®Christian Book Room
P.O. Box 95413 Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong, CHINA
Photo by Hassan Yuen