PERHAPS no one ever read John 4 seriously without being struck by the singularity of the Lord's saying to the Samaritan, "Go, call thy husband, and come hither" (ver. 16). We adore Him for His grace, Who, though He knew as a divine person all her life of shame; showed her nothing but the saving grace of God. For His love delights in drawing the most guilty to Himself through the Lord Jesus, washed, sanctified, justified. But amazed as she was at that which was as much above Jew as Gentile, she was dead in her sins. How strange to her that God is a free giver, and that His Son humbled Himself to sit by the well, a man thirsty and wearied with His journey, deigning to ask of her a drink of water, that she might be awakened to ask of Him living water!
No; she did not look beyond the horizon of her daily duties and her earthly life. She felt its monotonous burden. She was the more unhappy because of her reckless pursuit of the pleasures of sin for a season. Yet was her conscience insensible. She did not dare to weigh her sins before God. If she cried, and she was not without bitter tears, she did not cry with her heart to God. His pure and holy love in Jesus attracted her and inspired a sort of wondering confidence. But the light of God had not yet shone into her dark heart to lay her in the dust. She gave the Lord Jesus credit for meaning some great boon of which she could make out nothing. But was He greater than our father Jacob? The Lord explained that He spoke of giving such water as should be in one a fountain springing up into life eternal. Still, dark as Egypt smitten of Jehovah, she perceived the truth in no wise, but begged this water only to get rid of her everyday toil.
It is neither the mind active, nor the affections moved, whereby the light of God reaches the soul. Through the conscience it must be; for man is a sinner, and has to face God about his sins now by faith unto salvation; if not so, for perdition by-and-by. Hence in the gospel repentance has its place as really as faith; and no one laid both down more impressively than the great apostle in his address to the Ephesian elders. He certainly testified, both to Jews and to Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. A faith without repentance is as dead as a faith without works. Where life is, faith means believing on the Lord Jesus, as repentance means judging oneself and one's sins, out and out before a holy and living God.
Hence our Lord speaks directly to her conscience. Abrupt as the turn may seem, it was the simple yet sure way to give God His place, and to put the sinful woman in her's, that she might be blessed forever. Otherwise there is no reality in His sight; and the truth is made subject to man, instead of acting sovereignly with divine authority.
“Go, call thy husband, and come hither." Her answer was, "I have no husband," to which the Lord made the overwhelming reply, "Thou saidst well, I have no husband: for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: this thou saidst truly." To this the woman bowed, under the light of God laying her bare. "Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet." God had spoken to her and of her; and she owns it. It is not all; but it is the condition of all blessing. It was God's search-light applied to her life. But she does not turn away from the light to renew her sins. She stays and would learn of Him Who had given her to judge herself before God. Nor does she leave Jesus, though she does leave her waterpot, till He made Himself known as the very Christ that was to come.
O my reader, why should not you be thus brought out of darkness into God's marvelous light? No doubt, the Samaritan physically saw and heard the Lord; but the account itself proves that this avails nothing, till a sin-convicted conscience enables one to receive the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit witnesses Jesus to the sinner; but the sinner pays no real heed, till the sense of sheer need and guilt opens the heart to receive God's answer to all its wants in Christ and His work. What the inspired John tells you here is more than if you had been there. It is God's word to save your soul, if you repent and believe the gospel.