Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Four

                                                                                                                                       Verses 6-15 continued

God created some humans to possess a spiritual nature, and all others to possess a material nature. Romans 9:1-24. God uses both types for His glory. God plans to save both types forever with a higher and a lower form of salvation. God has promised in His Word that if a person with a material nature sincerely confesses that they believe that Christ is their God and Savior, then He will give them His spiritual salvation even though they will probably never feel the presence of His Holy Spirit who will reside within their inner being. John 20:24-29; Romans 10:8-10.

Jacob had the spiritual nature, but Esau had a material nature. When God's Word states that God loved Jacob but hated Esau, it does not mean that God hated his spiritual nature that God put into him when He created him. It means that God hated Esau's evil nature that dominated his material nature that, in turn, dominated his spiritual nature. Romans 9:13. God creates every human in His image. Genesis 1:27. When God changed Esau's heart and caused the love he had for his brother Jacob to overwhelm him and cause him to hug Jacob and weep with him and be reconciled to him, this event did not symbolize salvation by grace, Genesis 33:4. This event symbolized that a day will come when God will break the hold that evil has on every unbeliever on the earth and within the regions of the dead, and by the power of His Love and Majesty He will cause every unbeliever to repent and believe in the Lamb of their own free will so that their spiritual natures, no matter how small, will become reconciled to Him so that He can recreate their spiritual natures with new bodies to live righteous lives on His new earth forever. Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; II Peter 3:9-13; Colossians 1:15-20.

The woman at the well then asked Jesus from where He could obtain that living water that He said He could give her. She also asked Jesus if He was greater than her ancestor Jacob who had given her people the well. Her inquires demonstrated that her spiritual nature caused her to seek spiritual truths. Jesus gave her the deeper, spiritual insight that she sought. Jesus told her that material water could only satisfy a temporary, physical thirst, but that the living water that He could give her, symbolic of the Holy Spirit, would be like an artesian well flowing out of her to give to her everlasting life. When she heard that, her spiritual thirst became even more pronounced, and she asked Jesus to give her that living water so that she would never thirst for material water again. Her assumption demonstrated that she had come to believe that this living water could somehow replace and annul her material nature. The spiritual nature evokes faith in the supernatural power of God. This woman had that kind of faith.