When Jesus met and spoke with a deeply sinful woman at Jacob’s well in Samaria, He told her of the gift God was offering to her:
John 4:10 (NKJV) Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
That “gift of God” was (and is) eternal life in Jesus Christ. This woman, who had had five husbands and was now living with a man she was not married to, was the poster child for flagrant sin in her village. Yet, Jesus was offering her God’s greatest gift.
The wonderful thing about a gift is that it is unearned and undeserved. For example, if you work a job, your salary is not a gift! If your boss started talking in a department meeting about the financial gift you were getting every week from the payroll department, you’d probably be highly offended. That money was no gift – you earned every penny of it!
So, God’s gift is a blessing that is unearned and undeserved. The biblical word for it is GRACE: the unmerited favor of God.
And the same gift of eternal life that Jesus offered a woman who in no way deserved it, He also offers to each of us today. All we have to do is invite Him into our lives as Savior and Lord.
And that is grace, because we don’t deserve it any more than the woman at the well did.
