John 4 and Worship

^{John 4:20} Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." ²¹Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ²² You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. ²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

The discussion Jesus had with the Samaritan woman was so full of amazing truth it could be commented on for an entire book (and it has been). I want to talk about one aspect of what was said. The woman brought up the argument between Jews and Samaritans about where the acceptable place of worship is. This was a very important question because God defines not only Who we worship (Him alone) but also how we worship. Interestingly, Jesus shifts the focus from the answer to that Old Covenant question to a New Covenant truth. Jesus does answer it by saying the Jews worship what they know while the Samaritans worship ignorantly, but He then makes the point that a new type of worship has come. He says the hour is now here when worship will not be bound by the laws of the Old Covenant. The New Covenant had brought forth a worship that could not be performed by mere ritual or action. The Jews of the Old Covenant could technically perform the proper rituals but could still be far from God in their hearts (Isaiah 29:13). The New Covenant would be a covenant of the heart, not outward but inward. This is again preached by the apostle Paul when he says "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice...this is your spiritual worship" (Romans 12:1) Similarly Paul said "I die daily" in 1 Corinthians 15. The New Covenant has taken worship out of the realm of a ritual that can be done hypocritically, to a surrender of the heart; a death to self for the glory of God. This requires a regenerate heart to be preformed. As I've studied John's gospel the theme seems to be the transition from the Old Covenant of outward action which could be faked and forsaken to the New Covenant of God's regenerative power which is brought about by God's grace. John says this right at the beginning of his gospel.

John 1:12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.