In Spirit And In Truth

EXPOSITORY ARTICLE | Jeff Asher | Nachogdoches, Texas

In John four, Jesus converses with a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. His objective is to prepare her intellectually and spiritually so that He may introduce Himself to her as the Messiah. He used the circumstances of their meeting and their mutual need for the well to initiate the conversation. Jesus asked her to favor Him by drawing water from the well for a drink.

The woman was somewhat taken aback by the request. She expressed her cultural shock with a straight response, “How is it that you who are a Jew ask for water from a Samaritan woman like me?” Jesus, with good manners, good taste, and good intentions, ignores her startled unbelief and answers the question without ever addressing it directly. Instead, Jesus initiates a conversation about water, well, not really. The Lord says, “Well, if you knew who you were talking to you would have asked me for water.”

Living Water
Through that conversation, Jesus brings her to a place where she asks for water: “Sir, give me this water that I thirst not neither come here to draw.” She’s not ready yet, but she is close. Jesus has offered her living water. He has offered her water that only He can give. He has offered her water that will forever satisfy her inner thirst. However, she’s still thinking in terms of the material.

Yet, Jesus deftly and gently turns her mind and gives her the living water with another request: “Go and call your husband.” In an ordinary conversation, this may have been perceived as impertinent, even forward. But the woman knowing her own circumstance, being assured that Jesus is a total stranger and not a threat, readily replies, “I have no husband.” Then Jesus, with a simple affirmation of fact, brings her to a wonderful realization. He replies, “You are candidly forthcoming, because you have had five husbands and the one you are with now is not your husband.” Jesus reveals that this woman had been married and divorced at least five times and was even now living in adultery. Jesus is either expressing that she was living with a man without the benefit of marriage, or if married to him, he was not lawfully her husband (cf. Mark 6:18). To our amazement, the woman is not insulted or embarrassed. Instead, her mind and heart are focused on spiritual realities; she says: “Sir, I perceive you are a prophet.” Later, she will run to the city calling the citizens to come and see, “A man which told me everything I ever did, is not this the Christ?”

In this brief conversation, the woman has gone from seeing Jesus as just another prejudiced Jew to viewing Him as a prophet, a man of God. Her journey is not complete, but it is well underway.

A Question for a Prophet
Having confidence in Jesus as a teacher come from God, the woman asks what she perceives to be the most important spiritual question about which she should inquire. She asks: “Our father’s worshiped in this mountain, and you say being a Jew, that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship, what is the correct view?” Jesus replies to that question in an unexpected manner, a way designed to turn her toward the question she needs to ask.

Jesus says, “Woman…” He is not insulting her. It is a term of endearment used to express compassion and tenderness (John 2:4; 8:10; 19;26; 20:13, 15; cf. Matthew 15:28; 26:10). Jesus pleads with her, establishing trust. As noted, she perceived Jesus to be a prophet and asked, what was to her, the most important religious question of the day. It is not, but Jesus is not dismissive or harsh. This is important as a teaching technique. He implies from this one–word epithet: “Believe me, trust me, if I am a prophet, I will tell you the truth. Listen to me think about what I’m saying.” He then replies in an unusual way. Jesus says, “The time will come when you will neither worship the Father in this mountain (Mount Gerizim), nor yet at Jerusalem.” Then, Jesus challenges her intellect, saying: “You do not know what you are worshipping. The Jews have it right, but it will not be long until none of that matters anymore.”

What Really Matters?
The following words from the Lord’s mouth are the crux of His dialogue with this woman and His entire ministry. Jesus says, “God is spirit, and they worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

For many years, I thought I knew what Jesus was saying. However, further study has forced me to reconsider these profound words. With the help of Scripture, it became clear that my original perception, though not wrong, had little to do with what Jesus is talking about here.

Jesus sets the woman’s question in a context of relative importance. Many ask questions about things in the Bible because they are curious or do not really know what they should ask. Sometimes the things they inquire about strike their interest, but they are not very important to the situation that needs to be addressed, which is salvation. Rather than dismiss the question or chasten the woman, Jesus reframes her question in a context of relative importance. He answered her question, saying Jerusalem is the correct place, and the Jews are worshipping in the right manner. Still, there is something more important than that to consider.

Jesus says, “The hour is coming.” How many times does John or Jesus refer to this “hour” of glorification (cf. 2:4; 7:8, 30; 8:20; 12:23; 13:1; 17:1)? In John chapter 13, Jesus declares His “hour” is come. This “hour” is His prophesied coming into the Messianic Kingdom, the appointed time in which He will be manifested as the Son of God ruling and reigning at the right hand of the Father in heaven. At that “hour,” all things are fulfilled, and repentance and remission of sins is preached (Luke 24:44–46). This is when the law of the Lord, the New Covenant goes forth (Isaiah 2:2–4; Micah 4:1–3; Jeremiah 31:31–34). Jesus is not talking about a specific hour on the clock, but instead a spiritual hour, a prophetic moment, a general time in which something is appointed to happen. In John 4, Jesus speaks of the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom. This is what you must see in these verses.

The question was about Jerusalem and Samaria. Jesus says, “Well, that’s a good question, but you need to realize there’s something more important.” Jesus indicates something else is coming, something more important. It’s still about worshipping God, but it has nothing to do with the location. The time is coming when an entire change in system will occur and replace all that you know with that which is “in spirit and in truth.”

True Spiritual Worship
Jesus is pointing this woman to the New Covenant, the New Kingdom, and the New Worship, of which the prophets had all spoken. This woman perceives from Jesus’ words what we often do not. She understood that Jesus was indicating something new and different from what she had known from the traditions of her fathers. She perceived Jesus spoke of something which even transcended what the Jews themselves were practicing. Why else at this juncture mention “the Messiah” who will come and tell us everything?
Jesus necessarily implies that in the Kingdom, true worship and true worshippers would not be coming to the Temple in Jerusalem. These things are going to pass away (cf. Matthew 24). In the Kingdom, true worship would not be shrouded in types and shadows. The new worship of the Kingdom would convey spiritual realities to a spiritual people (cf. John 3:3–5).

In dealing with this phrase “in spirit and in truth,” I have said in the past the worship of the Kingdom must be from the heart and according to the truth. I have quoted Romans 1:9 to prove that worship requires the spirit or the heart. Similarly, I have quoted 2 John 4 or 1 Corinthians 11:23 to establish that there is a pattern for New Testament worship and truth to follow. But now let me ask you something, is that what Jesus is saying?

Consider Joshua 24:14, “Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth….” Joshua commands the nation that when they enter in land and come to the tabernacle, they must do so, worshipping Jehovah with the heart according to the truth Moses had revealed in the Law. Surely, Jesus does not mean the Jews worship without the heart and in error since He says, “The Jews know what they worship.” Likewise, in Deuteronomy 10:12, when Moses says to them, “And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” Jesus and the Jews understood that God required sincerity and truth as components of acceptable worship under the Law (Luke 10:25–28). While kingdom worship requires a sincere heart acting according to truth, this is not what Jesus reveals to the Samaritan woman.

Jesus is talking about something different than what has been done up until the hour that now is. Jesus is saying that the worship of the Jews up to this time has not been “in spirit and in truth.” Suppose the Jews know what they worship (John 4:22), and we admit that God required sincerity and truth in that worship under the Law of Moses. In that case, it does not make sense to have Jesus mean kingdom worship requires something new and different, which is the same thing.

The Father Is Seeking Such
So, for what is the Father looking? He is looking for people who worship according to understanding. When we think about the Jewish religion, what is it? What words are used to describe Judaism in the New Testament? The words: type, shadow, example, figure, pattern, carnal, earthly, worldly, fault, imperfect, old, remembrance, no pleasure, etc. As the Hebrew writer expresses, Judaism was “a figure for the time then present” (Hebrews 9:9).

What did Jesus say, “The hour is coming and now is.” The Samaritan did not know what he was doing in his worship. The Jew had truth, but still, he only worshipped in shadows and figures, looking for a time when all things would be made clear until the Messiah would tell us all things.

Jesus contrasts worship “in spirit and in truth” with the carnal, fleshly, earthly worship of the Mosaic tabernacle. Carnal, not because they are sinful, but material (1 Peter 1:18–20). These things were types, shadows, rituals, washings, and food; all these things were part of the Jewish religion until the time of reformation should come (Hebrews 9:10).

When was the time of reformation? The “hour that is coming and now is,” the time of the New Covenant and New Kingdom wherein is the New Worship. That began when Messiah ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Father to rule and reign. Since then, men no longer worship in Jerusalem, but they worship in spirit and in truth.

Jesus is not saying the Father was dissatisfied with those Jews who, in faith, worshipped according to the Old Testament institutions and were looking for their Messiah. On the contrary, they were doing what God wanted them to do. They were doing what they were able to do because the time was not yet fulfilled. However, when the fullness of time came, “the hour” in which Christ died, fulfilled all the types and shadows of the law, and made the once-for-all-time offering for sin, those Jewish institutions ceased to serve any purpose.

Now with Full Understanding
We are no longer walking after the law; we are complete in Christ (Colossians 2:10). Why? Because the “body,” that is, the substance, the real, is of Christ (Colossians 2:17).
The actual cutting away of sin and putting off the body of sins of the flesh is by the circumcision of Christ. Not physical circumcision, but the operation of God when we are buried with him in baptism, wherein we are raised with him through faith in the operation of God who has raised him from the dead (2:11–12). In Christ, we are made alive having our sins blotted out, the sins which the law by animal sacrifice could not remit. Therefore, we are freed from the Law, that system of types and shadows consisting of carnal ordinances (2:13–16). We no longer worship the Father following these things, which are shadows (2:17–23). We worship the Father according to the Gospel, the word richly dwelling within us unto wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with grace in our hearts, doing whatever we do in the name of the Lord (Colossians 3:1–15). This is what it means to worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

When the woman finally understood that Jesus was the Messiah offering all the promises God had ever made to man through the prophets, she left her bucket and ran to the city to call others to Jesus (John 4:28). That seemingly insignificant act is so revealing. She had come to the well to draw; she was thirsty, as was her household. She had asked Jesus for living water, so she need never come to the well or draw again (4:15). Obviously, she received that for which she asked: Christ the Saviour of the world (4:42). She no longer was concerned about Mount Gerizim in Samaria or the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. She was concerned about Messiah, Jesus, being a true worshipper and the Gospel, which brings us to a complete understanding of Him, His Kingdom, the New Covenant, and the New Worship.

January 2023 | GROW magazine