It's difficult to see something hiding in plain sight; we can easily overlook what's not stated. As per last week, we saw that when the infamous serial adulterer, the one known only as "the woman at the well," became convinced that the Savior had now come and was talking to her, so she accepted by faith His offer and took a drink of the water of life, that is, she believed and was eternally saved.
What's hiding in plain sight in the evangelistic conversation in John 4 is that Jesus didn't demand that she feel sorry for her sins; He didn't order to stop living with a man who wasn't her husband; no admonition to clean up her life,no statement of "turn from your sins, no make a promise promise to make Me the lord of your life. She met Him as a woman involved in adultery and she left saved as a woman living in adultery.
The one requirement for eternal life is faith alone in Christ alone as John states one hundred times in his Gospel.
Let's move to something else that's hiding in plain sight: John the Baptist did not declare the same gospel message we do today. We see this by reading what he said when he presented his repetitive message the Bible calls the gospel ("good news") of the kingdom which was that the kingdom promised Israel in the Old Testament was at hand because your King has come!
In Luke 3, he's proclaimed that message, and the Jews listening ask, "Then what are we to do?" His answer was, “The one who has two [tunics is to share with the one who has none; and the one who has food is to do likewise.” 12 Now even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they said to him, “Teacher, what are we to do?” 13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than what you have been ordered to.” 14 And soldiers also were questioning him, saying, “What are we to do, we as well?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone, nor harass anyone, and be content with your wages.”
We can see this isn't the good news we preach today by comparing John the Baptist's message with Paul's in I Cor. 15: "Now I make known to you, brothers and sisters, the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received, in which you also stand, 2 by which you also are saved, if you hold firmly to the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
"For I handed down to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures."
We see John's message was not that of Paul's when we read Galatians 2:16: "a person is not justified by works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the Law; since by works of the Law no flesh will be justified." We Paul's message of the gospel in Romans 4:4-5: "Now to the one who works, the wages are not credited as a favor, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness."
When we look at John's message in Luke 4, his is filled with works such as giving your clothes and your food to others; stop harassing people, don't extort higher taxes than the law allows, in other words, "Stop these sins and start sharing,"
With the woman at the well, there was no, "Stop all this adultery and clean up your miserable, sinful life.!" The message to her was, "Accept My free offer of eternal life."
What's the difference? The difference is John's message and his audience, as he states right off the get-go of his mission, is, "Get prepared, Israel, for your King who is now here." It's a message of get ready to accept His offer of the kingdom promised to you. His was a message for Israel. The King came. They rejected their King, shouting, "We have no king but Caesar!" Therefore, the kingdom is now postponed.
Paul's message, Jesus message to the woman at the well were not the same as John's, nor should ours be.
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