It is interesting to observe that there are points of similarity as well as of contrast between Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman. Both meet Christ with a "How?" When "truth" fell upon the ear of the master in Israel, he said, "How can these things be?" When "grace" shone upon the woman of Sychar, she said, "How is it that Thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?" We are all full of "bows." The truth of God in all its majesty and authority is put before us; we meet it with a how. The grace of God in all its sweetness and tenderness is unfolded in our view; we reply with a how. It may be a theological how, or a rationalistic how; it matters not; the poor heart will reason instead of believing the truth and receiving the grace of God. The will is active, and hence, although the conscience may be ill at ease, and the heart dissatisfied with itself and all around, still the unbelieving "how?" breaks forth in one form and another. Nicodemus says, "How can a man be born when he is old?" The Samaritan says, in substance, "How canst Thou ask drink of me?"
Thus it is ever. When the Word of God declares to us the utter worthlessness of nature, the heart, instead of bowing to the holy record, sends up its unholy reasonings. When the same Word sets forth the boundless grace of God, and the free salvation which is in Christ Jesus, the heart, instead of receiving the grace, and rejoicing in the salvation, begins to reason as to how it can be. The human heart is closed against God, against the truth of His Word, and against the love of His heart. The devil may speak, and the heart will give its ready credence. Man may speak, and the heart will greedily swallow what he says. Lies from the devil, and nonsense from man will all meet a ready reception from the human heart; but the moment God speaks, whether it be in the authoritative language of truth or in the winning accents of grace, all the return the heart can make is an unbelieving, skeptical, rationalistic, infidel, "How?" Anything and everything for the natural heart save the truth and grace of God.
However, in the case of the woman at Sychar, our blessed Lord was not to be put of with her "how?" He had answered the "how?" of the man of the Pharisees, and He would now answer the "how?" of the woman of Sychar. He had replied to Nicodemus by telling him of the powerful operations of the Spirit of God, and then of the love of God who sent His Son; He replies to the Samaritan by telling her, likewise, of "the gift of God." "Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water."
Now the little word "gift" opens a vast range of most precious truth to the soul. The Lord does not say, "If thou knewest the law, thou wouldst have asked." Indeed, had she known it, she must have seen herself as lost under it, instead of being encouraged to ask for anything. No one ever got "living water" by the law. "This do, and thou shalt live," was the language of the law. The law gave nothing save to the man that could keep it. And where was he? Assuredly the woman of Sychar had not kept it. This was plain. The Lord could talk to her of "gift," and surely requirement formed no integral or necessary part of gift. "The gift of God is eternal life," not through the law, but "through Jesus Christ our Lord." The law never even proposed such a thing as eternal life in heaven. It spoke of long life in the land.