In John 4 Christ is also presented as the Messiah. The Samaritan woman said to the Lord Jesus, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when He comes, He will declare all things to us” (v. 25). Jesus responded by saying, “I, who speak to you, am He” (v. 26).
As the Messiah, Christ came to bring the divine life—the living water—to men (vv. 10, 14). In verse 29 the woman said to the people of the city, “Come, see a man who told me all that I have done. Is this not the Christ?” This indicates that she believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah. By thus believing, she received the living water and was satisfied.
The Messiah brought living water to men that they might worship God in spirit. In verse 20 the Samaritan woman spoke to the Lord Jesus concerning the place of worship: “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, yet you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men must worship.” To this the Lord Jesus replied, “An hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truthfulness, for the Father also seeks such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness” (vv. 23-24). In verse 24 God is the complete Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—and Spirit refers to the nature of the complete Triune God, not merely to the Lord Spirit. To worship God, who is Spirit, we must worship with our spirit, which is of the same nature as He is. The Lord’s word in verses 21 through 24 was given to instruct the Samaritan woman regarding her need to exercise her spirit to contact God the Spirit. To contact God the Spirit with the spirit is to drink of the living water, and to drink of the living water is to render real worship to God.
May the Lord impress us with what proper worship is. Proper worship is to continually drink the living water. God the Spirit is the living water, and our organ for drinking the living water is our human spirit. Whenever we exercise our spirit to contact God, the living Spirit, we drink of Him as the living water in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the real and proper worship of God.
Verse 42 speaks of Christ as the Savior of the world. The Lord Jesus is the Savior of fallen mankind based upon His person and His redemptive work. He is the very God who became a man to be our Savior, and He has accomplished full redemption for us the sinners, through which He saves us from God’s condemnation and from our fallen condition. What He is and what He has accomplished make Him competent to be the Savior able to save us to the uttermost. In particular, He is the Savior to save men from sin (vv. 16-18) through life as their salvation (v. 22). In salvation He is not only our Savior objectively; He is also our life subjectively.
Chapter five of the Gospel of John reveals that we may experience and enjoy Christ as the One equal with God, the One who gives life and has the authority of judgment, and the One testified by the Scriptures.
In verses 1 through 9 the Lord Jesus enlivened an impotent man on the Sabbath. Because He worked to enliven an impotent man on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted Him and sought to kill Him. “But Jesus answered them, My Father is working until now, and I also am working” (v. 17). In their religious concept, they were resting in keeping the Sabbath, but they did not know that there was no rest for the Father and the Son as long as poor sinners were not saved. While the religious Jews were resting in keeping their Sabbath, the Father and the Son were still working that sinners might receive life and have rest. This not only offended the religious Jews but also caused them to consider that Jesus was blaspheming, because, according to their concept, He “not only broke the Sabbath but also called God His own Father, making Himself equal with God” (v. 18). In their consideration that was blasphemy to God, yet the One whom they accused of blasphemy had enlivened the impotent man. Christ’s enlivening of that man testifies that He is equal with God the Father in giving life to people. Actually, the Son and the Father are one (10:30).