What is "the gift of God" in John 4:10?

The "gift of God" the Lord speaks of to the woman is not simply life, as it was introduced in the third chapter. There we are told of the communication of a new life by the Holy Ghost to the soul, which by faith in the lifted-up Son of Man, and the opening of heavenly things, takes the character of eternal life. What I find the Lord proposes here is an added blessing — the Holy Ghost as the power of life forming a well (Gr. a fountain) within. He says, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." Christ Himself is here the giver, and therefore "the gift of God" cannot be Himself. You may say to me, Is it not eternal life? We find in the Epistle to the Romans that "the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:23). Again, we find the apostle Paul saying, "Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift" (2 Cor. 9:15). That may refer to the Lord Jesus. Scripture never repeats itself. Here, however, is something new proposed. "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is" that has stooped down so low as to say, "Give me to drink," your heart would have been attracted, your confidence won, and "thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." He makes no claim on her, but her need is a just claim on His gracious heart. Love and need are face to face, in this touching scene, and therein is always the point of contact between the soul and God — need on my side, love on His.

Now, brethren, just think of this; do just contemplate the mind and the spirit in which He met this poor outcast - this wicked Samaritan. He did not enter into argument about the prejudices of the Jews, or their justice in thus treating their neighbours; His mind was on the one subject - her salvation; and therefore He needs nothing else. He answered and said unto her, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." Now there is the great truth, the ignorance of which ruins the world. They do not know who it is that is asking them to give Him a drink - still beseeching them to be reconciled - "We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God" - still entreating them, in terms of the greatest gentleness and love, to give themselves to Him - still in this character of petitioner for a favour. The point of distinction which the world knows not is this, that it is the Son of God who thus humbles Himself to ask sinners to come; that it is the Lord of glory doing it - the Son of the eternal God doing it. They know not who it is that is asking them, and therefore they ask not from Him that gift without which they never can enter into the kingdom of God. "If thou knewest … who it is that saith to thee, … thou wouldest have asked of him."

4 We come then to inquire, What is this gift? The gift of God. Living water. A well of water - a springing well - springing up continually into eternal life. There are just two things to he considered: first, what it is - namely, the giving of the Holy Spirit; secondly, who it is that gives it - Christ. To have known the latter would have been to have asked for the former. It is the knowledge of whom we have to do with that puts us upon asking for His gifts; for this gift of the Holy Spirit in us (which is Christ's to give) is to be in the believer a well - always living water - not a pool, which, though full, may be liable to be dried up, but a well that cannot dry up. There is the fountain which can never be exhausted that is given to him - is put into him, and lives and abides for ever. Now this is the promise to the believer - "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

It is not, then, quite correct, as some have said, that Christ is here alluded to as meant by "the gift of God," the next clause being viewed as explanatory. Undoubtedly, He was the means of displaying it; but the first of the clauses in this rich word of our Lord sets forth the thought, so strange to man, of the free-giving of God. Nature, as such, never understands it; law alone makes it still less intelligible. Faith only solves the difficulty in the Person, mission, and work of Christ, Who is the witness, proof, and substance of it; but it is the gratuitous grace of God that is meant. Hence, the second clause, instead of being merely exegetic of the first, directs attention to Him Who was there in the utmost humiliation (weary with His journeying, and asking a drink of water from one whom He knew to be the most worthless of Samaritans), yet the Son of the Father in unshorn fulness of Divine glory and of grace to the most wretched. And this was so true that she who was as yet blind to all this had but to ask Him, and have the best and greatest gift the believer can receive — living water, not life only, but the Holy Ghost. Thus, while Christ is the way of it, the Trinity was really involved in making good these words of our Lord to the Samaritan woman, all the Godhead engaged in the proffered blessing.

The ‘gift of God’ in John 4 is the Holy Spirit and Christ, who is God, is the giver. This gift is referred to in verse 10 as ‘living water’ and we find the same expression in John 7:38 where the Lord Jesus said: ‘He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’ There in the next verse John writes: ‘But this he said concerning the Spirit, which they that believed on him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.’

Indwelling the Christian believer this living water becomes ‘in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life’ (v. 14). In this divinely energetic way the Holy Spirit lifts up into the knowledge and enjoyment of the Father and the Son. Only a divine person can do this. This satisfies the heart and soul as nothing else can. ‘Whosoever drinks of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst for ever.’

A new revelation about the Holy Spirit is given by the Lord to the Samaritan woman. Expelled from Judea by the hatred of the unbelieving Jews, our lonely Lord was crossing Samaria en route to Galilee, where He would accomplish most of His miracles (v. 4). At Jacob's well in Sychar, He then meets a lonely woman, reduced by a merciless world to occupy the lower end of the social ladder, as compared to Nicodemus, a respected ruler of the Jews. Humanly speaking, she would have been deemed less qualified than Nicodemus to receive the Lord's message ; But, how true is it that "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord" (Es. 55 : 8). Despised by the Jews as were all Samaritans, this woman had looked for happiness in the world, but had reaped utter misery. The Son of God, Lord of all creation, "wearied with his journey" (v. 6), meets her at the well and asks from her something to drink, as though He, the Son of Man, was dependant upon her to quench His thirst (it was the heat of midday). This simple request was the occasion for the Lord to reveal the marvelous gift of God of the well of living water. Here, this is not essentially the gift of eternal life in God's own begotten Son (John 3. 16). This living water characterises more the gift of the Holy Spirit as a source of refreshment for the believer's heart. Consequent upon the gift of eternal life (ch. 3), God adds now the energy for the divine nature (ch. 4). This remarquable scene shows how God gives freely, while the Son of God stoops in humiliation and the Holy Ghost becomes a living source of energy and joy for the heart. At a difference with man's material needs which constantly repeat, God's spiritual gift is constantly renewed in the believer's soul : the Spirit becomes in him "a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (v. 14).

The misunderstanding of the woman led to further unfoldings contained in verse 14, which again seem to range themselves under three heads. First, the one who drinks of the living water as the gift of Christ will have it "in him," abiding in his very being. Then, it will be in him as a "well," or "fountain," of water, "springing up into everlasting life." A fountain of life within, which springs up to the level of its Source! Lastly, the drinking of such water and the possession of such a fountain will produce abiding satisfaction. The Lord used a very strong expression — "shall never thirst for ever."

By "living water" the Lord indicated the Spirit of God as is quite evident when we reach chapter 7:39. In the previous chapter the only begotten Son is God's gift to the world but in this chapter, the Spirit of God is God's gift to the believer, but a gift which is administered by the Son of God; who was the Speaker, seated on Sychar's well. By the Spirit we have the life within — He is spoken of elsewhere as "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:2) — and by Him the life within springs up to the Source of the life above. In this way did the Lord indicate the life of communion and worship and satisfaction which He was about to make available for the believer. As a result, the believer today may anticipate the millennial joy, set forth figuratively in the beginning of miracles at Cana of Galilee: and not only anticipate, but also know it in truer measure and a more spiritual way.

The expression, "The gift of God," in this scripture, signifies that God is a giving God, the God of grace, but the God of grace, with special reference to the truth of this gospel, in the bestowment of eternal life. This is made plain by the close of the verse. After our blessed Lord had said to this poor woman, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink," He proceeded to add, "thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water." The last half of the verse is therefore a full explanation of the foregoing words. And it should be observed that the Lord does not say, "Thou wouldest have asked of God," but it is of Himself. Thus He, the wearied Man that sat on the well, is unveiled before our eyes as the God of grace, the Giver of the living water "springing up into everlasting life." It is one of the scriptures out of which shine the full rays of His divine glory before the opened eye.

John 4:10. The Lord's reply discloses that the woman knew neither her own need, nor the love of God, nor the glory of the One in whose presence she was. Had she known, she would have asked, and He would have given. She had yet to learn that God is a Giver in love, and that such is her need that she can only be a receiver in grace.

The Lord speaks to the Samaritan woman concerning the living water, which He can give to all that ask Him. The central verse of His teaching is the fourteenth, "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." The well or fountain of water in the believer is the indwelling Spirit. In chapter 7:37-39 the Lord speaks also of living water and there the interpretation of it is given. "This He spake of the Spirit, whom they that believe on Him should receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified." The believer has therefore not only eternal life, but also the gift of the Spirit, Who dwells in him as the spring of living water.

The Lord thus explains more clearly than ever how the living water is the great supernatural gift man needs. The water of an earthly spring, however good, like every natural boon, lasts but for the moment. It quenches thirst, only to recur soon and constantly, as is the nature of all things seen and temporal. The soul, immortal as it is, needs more to satisfy, as God delights in giving when He is looked to in felt want. But here the Lord vouchsafes what satisfies the believer and God Himself, what forms a blessed and permanent and intimate relationship with the Son and the Father. It is not only eternal life, as in John 3, but the Spirit of adoption given, and therefore said to become in him, the believer, a fountain of water springing up into eternal life. Not only are creature things no longer an object of desire, but a fountain of divine refreshment is within through the indwelling Spirit, Who ever leads the believer to worship by His own power, to rejoice in Christ Jesus, and to have no confidence in the flesh. It is not holy longings only as of old, but present possession and enjoyment by virtue of Christ come and redemption. It is inexhaustible and leads the soul to the sources on high.