The Woman at the Well

The next claim concerns how the gospel is presented, and it runs like this. Yeshua has already dealt with sin, and salvation is a gift. So when you present the gospel, do not begin with sin and the law, because people already feel judged enough. Do what Yeshua did with the Samaritan woman and make them thirsty. Speak of the living water until they want it, and leave the rest alone.

There is real truth in this, and it deserves an amen before anything else is said. Salvation is a gift. As we saw in Chapter 1, it is “the doron δῶρον do'-ron(gift) of God” (Ephesians 2:8), and Paul says it again in Romans:

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the charisma χάρισμα khar'-is-mah(grace-gift) of God is eternal zoe ζωή dzo-ay'(life) in Messiah Yeshua our Lord.

The word in Romans 6:23 is charisma (χάρισμα), which the YLV’s note explains as a favor that one receives without any merit of his own. The word in Ephesians 2:8, doron (δῶρον), means a gift. No one earns it, and no one pays it back. On that point, this book agrees with the claim.

Notice how Romans 6:23 opens. This verse about the gift does not begin with the gift. It begins, “For the wages of sin is death.” Paul did not think he had to keep sin out of the sentence to make the gift sound good. He put sin first, and the gift shines because of it.

A Kind Doctor

Picture a doctor who is very kind. You come in for your test results, and because he does not want to upset you, he tells you about a wonderful new treatment, how well you will feel afterward and how much energy you will have. He makes you want it, but he never tells you what the scan found.

You might leave his office happy, yet you would not know why you needed the treatment, and you might never come back for it. It would be hard to call that doctor kind.

A good doctor does both. He tells you the truth about what is wrong, and he tells you that there is a cure. The diagnosis does not compete with the cure; it is the reason the cure matters.

With that in mind, we can return to the well and see what Yeshua actually did.

Living Water, Then the Husband

The conversation in John 4 begins just as the claim says. Yeshua, tired and thirsty, asks a Samaritan woman for a drink, and then He turns the conversation toward a different kind of water.

John 4:13-15 Yeshua answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal zoe(life)." The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw."

It works. She is thirsty, and she says, “Sir, give me this water.” If the claim were right, this is where Yeshua would hand it over and the scene would end.

Instead, His very next words are these:

John 4:16-18 Yeshua said to her, "Go, call your husband and come here." The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Yeshua said to her, "You have correctly said, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said alethes ἀληθής al-ay-thace'(truly)."

Right after speaking of living water, Yeshua went straight to her life and told her to call her husband. She answers, “I have no husband,” and He tells her what she has not told Him. She has had five husbands, and the man she lives with now is not her husband.

His last phrase is “this you have said alethes(truly).” The word alethes (ἀληθής) means true. She had told the truth, but only part of it, and Yeshua laid the whole truth beside her part. He did not lecture her, but neither did He leave it out.

She then speaks of where people ought to worship, on this mountain or in Jerusalem. Yeshua answers that too, and He does not soften His answer:

John 4:22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for Salvation is from the Jews.

Then He tells her what kind of worship the Father is seeking:

John 4:23-24 But an hora ὥρα ho'-rah(that-hour) is coming, and now is, when the alethinos ἀληθινός al-ay-thee-nos'(true, genuine) worshipers will worship the Father in pneuma πνεῦμα pnyoo'-mah(spirit) and aletheia ἀλήθεια al-ay'-thi-a(truth); for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is pneuma(spirit), and those who worship Him must worship in pneuma(spirit) and aletheia(truth)."

Aletheia (ἀλήθεια) is the noun for truth, from the same family as the word He used about her husband. The truth about her life and the truth about worship came in the same conversation as the living water, from one mouth, within a few sentences.

If this conversation is our model, it shows exactly what the claim tells us to avoid. Yeshua made her thirsty, and then He told her the truth about her sin.

How the Apostles Preached

The apostles did the same. On the day of Pentecost, Peter spoke plainly to a crowd in Jerusalem about what they had done to the Messiah, and they did not walk away flattered.

Acts 2:37-38 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the kardia καρδία kar-dee'-ah(heart, soul-domain) and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" Peter said to them, "metanoesate(Repent, spiritual domain), and each one of you be baptized in the name of Yeshua Messiah for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the dorea δωρεά do-reh-ah'(free-gift) of the hagio(holy) pneuma(spirit).

A soothing talk does not leave a crowd “pierced to the kardia(heart, soul-domain),” and Peter’s answer to their question was to repent. The gift appears in the same breath: “you will receive the dorea(free-gift) of the hagio(holy) pneuma(spirit).” It comes together with the call to repent, not in place of it.

Years later Paul stood before Felix, the Roman governor, and his wife, and Luke records what Paul spoke about:

Acts 24:25 But as he was discussing dikaiosyne δικαιοσύνη dik-ah-yos-oo'-nay(righteousness), self-control and the krima κρίμα kree'-mah(verdict) to come, Felix became frightened and said, "Go away for the present, and when I find opportunity I will summon you."

Paul spoke of righteousness, self-control, and the verdict to come, and Felix, a powerful man, became frightened. Paul did not open with the topics most likely to win the governor over. He spoke about the very things the claim tells us to leave out, and Felix felt their weight.

Saved From, Not Left In

Why should the gospel include the truth about sin? The answer lies in the name:

Matthew 1:21 And she will bear a Son, and you shall call His name Yeshua, for He will save His people from their sins."

The angel did not say that He would save His people in their sins, leaving them where they were under a new label. He will save His people “from their sins.” To save someone from a fire is to bring him out of it. The removal of sin is not an extra the gospel might add later; it is in the name of the One who brings the gospel.

Paul raised the obvious question himself: “Shall we sin because we are not under nomos νόμος nom'-os(law) but under charis χάρις khar'-ece(grace)? May it never be!” (Romans 6:15). And John said it with no room for doubt:

1 John 3:6 No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him or known Him.

Salvation is a gift, freely given and never earned, and Yeshua did make a thirsty woman thirstier. But He did not stop there, and neither did Peter or Paul. They offered the water, and they told the truth. To leave out the truth is not to make the gospel kinder. It is only to make it shorter than the One who preached it.

A practical question still remains, and it is an honest one. Even those who agree with all of this often say that we read the Old Testament and take its lessons, but surely do not keep everything in it. They point to the command not to boil a young goat in its mother’s milk and ask whether keeping that today is really obedience. Paul’s own words about what all Scripture is for speak to that question.