John 4
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
Truth - Psalm 119:142 - Thy righteousness
is an everlasting righteousness, and thy
law (Torah - H8451) is the truth.
Spirit - Romans 7:14 - For we know that
the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
God's Torah is truth, and God's Torah is spiritual. That is how we are to worship Him.
Why did Jesus say the scribes and pharisees professed with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him? Because, they traded their own man-made doctrines and traditions, for the Torah. They preached the Torah, but put far more importance on their nonsensical traditions, as opposed to the truth.
I digress though, my point is made in Ezekiel:
Ezekiel 37:15-19
15The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
16Moreover, thou son of man,
take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions:
then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and
for all the house of Israel his companions:
17And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand. 18And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these? 19Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold,
I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows,
and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.
Here God says that He will combine the stick of Judah, with the stick of Ephraim, and they will be one in His hand. Why is this so important? What does Ephraim have to do with anything? Well, if we go back to the blessing Jacob gave to Ephraim in Genesis 48:
19 And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he
(Manasseh) also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother
(Ephraim) shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a "multitude of nations"
(fullness of the gentiles - "melo H4393 hagoyim" H1471)
Here we see that Jacob prophesied that Ephraim was to become multitude of nations, or as it's written in the original hebrew "melo hagoyim" which means, fulness of the gentiles.
This is where Paul gets the phrase, fulness of the gentiles in Romans 11. We are joined together
with Judah, into Israel. Literally, not just spiritually. They are natural born, we are grafted in, but all belong on the same tree nonetheless now, as our roots are all in what Jesus has done for us.