Salvation 14

The Aim of this devotional study is to learn about Jesus’ teaching of salvation to two very different people.

Scriptures

Today we compare two consecutive accounts in John to learn from the comparison.

John 3:1-12

1  Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.  2  This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

3  Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

4  Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

5  Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7  Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8  The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

9  Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”

10  Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11  Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 12  If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”

John 4:5-26

5  So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6  Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7  A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”  8  (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)

9  The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

10  Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

11  The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?  12  Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”

13  Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,

14  but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

15  The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

16  Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

17  The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’;  18  for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”

19  The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.  20  Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

21  Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.  22  You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.  23  But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.  24  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

25  The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.”

26  Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

Observations

The accounts in John 3 and 4 are placed next to each other very purposefully.

1. It helps to sometimes make lists or columns to see the arguments clearly. Take the following list of descriptive nouns and place them in the right columns to note the deliberate oppositeness of the accounts:

late at night || at noonday; in city|| outside small town;  this one initiated the conversation with Jesus || Jesus initiated the conversation with this one; man || woman; very educated || simple; elite || outcast in town;  ruler || commoner; Jew || Samaritan;

In John 3                                             In John 4

2. Notice how both Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman had their own theories of salvation. How did each one reason about salvation?  Briefly summarize Jesus’ argument to both?
3. What element of salvation did Jesus highlight in these two very different methaphors? (hint: 3:8 and 4:23-24)

Application

1. Each of these two very different people had their own theories of salvation, but Jesus confronted both with the truth. What do you think John wanted to teach his readers by placing these two “opposite stories with the same lesson” ?
2. Is there someone with his/her own theories who comes to mind when you read these accounts? What does that challenge you to do today?

Prayer

Jesus was loving, fearless and shameless to confront other theories of salvation with the truth of himself.  Pray for that love, fearlessness and shamelessness as you remember Paul’s words “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16)