"If Thou Knewest the Gift of God"

“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)

Here are two sweet, precious, instructive views of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he held before the Samaritan woman, by which he graciously and effectually endeared himself to her. Let us ever behold our Savior in these two aspects of his character as our God-man Mediator: (1.) All that he is in himself, and (2.) the fact that he is the gift of God. These two things give poor, needy sinners both a reason to trust our Lord Jesus Christ and a divine warrant for faith in him. Ignorance of these two great things is the cause of much misery in those poor souls tortured with the guilt of sin, and the cause of much discomfort in believing sinners. Ignorance of these two, sweet revelations of grace greatly hinders our enjoyment of our interest in and union with the Lord Jesus Christ. “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.” — May God the Holy Spirit give us grace to prove these words of our Savior to ourselves.

Christ’s Person and Work

First, consider who and what the Lord Jesus is in himself. Consider his magnificent Person and his mediatorial work as the God-man, our Savior. In all that he is, in all that he performed, in all that he accomplished, and in all that he obtained as the God-man, he acted as the Surety of his elect. And in all the fulness which is treasured up in him, by virtue of it, we have all things. None of the virtue, merit, and power of his work or being as the God-man is for himself, but for us. He does not and cannot need it. We do! “So that,” as Robert Hawker wrote, “a poor sinner is as much suited to Jesus for him to give out of his fulness, as Jesus is suited for a poor sinner to supply his emptiness.” If we thus know him and come to him, we find that he is as eager and anxious to receive every poor, needy sinner and to give out of his fulness, as that poor, needy sinner is to come and take!

The Gift of God

Second, our Lord Jesus declares that he is, in all his mediatorial work and being, “the gift of God.” Here we are given a warrant from God to come to Christ. God himself gives sinners command to believe on his Son (1 John 3:23). That is the warrant of faith. That is the sinner’s right and authority to trust Christ!

      If you know who Christ is and what he has done for sinners, if you know that Jesus Christ the Savior is the gift of God, make use of him as such. Use him for every need of your poor soul. Christ is the only Sacrament there is. We receive grace only in and by him. He is he only Way sinners can come to God and find acceptance with him.

      May God the Holy Spirit enable us ever to keep in view that Christ is the gift of God and that God is honored by us when we honor his dear Son, by believing “the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.”

            The thirst of our souls cannot be quenched from any pool that depends upon dry or wet seasons; but only from the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who gives living water, and is himself that everlasting living spring of water in our souls, springing up into everlasting life.

Don Fortner

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