“Jesus answered and 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).
At this Christmas season, how ignorant the multitudes are of the true gift of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. In the giving of gifts, is there a thought in the world’s mind concerning the greatest gift of all?
Christ recognized this ignorance by the phrase, “If thou knewest the gift of God.” Obviously the woman at the well didn’t know, and even today, the world does not know that Christ is God’s unspeakable gift. In this matter, ignorance is not bliss, for without a knowledge of Christ man is hopelessly and utterly lost.
There are many who are ignorant because they have never heard, but there are just as many who have heard but are “willingly ignorant” (II Peter 3:5) of the implications of the gospel of Christ and the God of creation.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16). “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men” (Titus 2:11). This gift of Christ is not a loan to be paid back nor a debt that God owed to man. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9).
The woman at the well learned that this wondrous gift was free for the taking. Christ would become “living water” to quench her thirsty soul. “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” (John 4:14). “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). NPS
