John 4:10. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it was that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
Well a good Sunday morning to all you beautiful believers out there in the Scrip-Bit family! And also to you who are joining us for the first time. I sincerely hope that it won’t be for the last too, because what we’re trying to do here is lift people’s spirits, encourage them to live strong, powerful, meaningful lives here on this evil, ungodly earth, by focussing on the Word of God, His incomparable LOVE and peace, mercy and forgiveness, kindness and compassion! Wow Friends, what a cornucopia of blessings! And believe me, you can’t get all that wonderful stuff from any other source but Almighty God, through belief and trust in His marvellous Son, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ! Now yesterday I left us hanging re the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, because it would have run on way too long for our way too short attention spans, especially when it has do with the Creator of our universe. So let’s bring on our Bit, so that we can get rolling. ‘Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it was that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.’ Ah Friends, what a convoluted, confusing statement! No wonder the poor woman didn’t understand what Jesus was talking about. And yesterday I ended by asking if we knew what Jesus meant re ‘the gift of God’ and ‘living water’? Well let’s look first at ‘the gift of God’ by turning to Isaiah, when he talks about God’s suffering servant. ‘Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise (crush) him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail (distress) of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil (plunder) with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.’ (Is.53:10-12) Some powerful scripture that my people! But here is what it means per the scholars: ‘It pleased the lord to bruise (from daka’, “to crush) him refers to the same condition in verse 5 (wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities). Put him to grief reads “pierce” Him in the Dead Sea Scroll copy of the text. His seed refers to those who will come to believe in Him. An offering for sin (asham, ‘guilt offering’) involves the trespass offering described in Numbers 5:5-10. The phrase he shall prolong his days indicates that the Servant’s ministry will not end with His violent death, and certainly implies His resurrection. The pleasure of the Lord refers to God’s ultimate purposes which will be accomplished by the atoning death and resurrection of the Servant. The chapter ends with the glorification and exaltation of the Servant of the Lord. His intercession refers to His high priestly ministry, by which He makes intercession on the basis of His own substitutionary death.’ What a mouthful! But I do hope we understand it better than before. Yes Friends, way back in the Old Testament, centuries before Jesus was born, the Lord divulged His future plans to Isaiah, so that His people had something to hold on to, some assurance that all would be well eventually. If they trusted and had faith in Him, He would work everything out for their good in His own time. And that prophecy was fulfilled many years later by none other than Jesus, whom we know and LOVE and worship as our Lord, Master, Saviour, Prince of Peace, Mighty Counsellor, etc. etc. Now let’s turn to a passage in the New Testament re ‘the gift of God,’ from Bruh Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, re sin coming into the world through Adam and Eve and salvation through Christ. ‘But not as the offense, so also is the free gift (the free gift is not like the false step). For if through the offense of one (Adam) many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.’ (Rom.5:15) Oh Friends, what that basically means is that just like sin came into the world through Adam and was imputed to, covered all his descendants, just so Christ’s death and the salvation He brought is imputed to all believers, through the gift of God’s merciful and undeserving grace. Yes my brethren, that ‘gift of God’ is His wonderful grace, freely given to whomsoever chooses to believe in His Son Jesus Christ. Now isn’t that a most wonderful and superlative gift? It sure is! So please, let’s ponder some on grace today nuh. In fact let’s hunger for it, rise up and accept it in wisdom, faith and truth as we are supposed to. Only then will we realize the full extent of God’s LOVING-kindness and mercy. Much LOVE!…GRACE…the gift of God…with benefits unimaginable…free for the asking…and also free for the taking…
SCRIP-BITS 