John 6:36-46

36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All whom the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day."

41 At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." 42 They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?"

43 "Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered. 44 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me.46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.



Dig Deeper

We thought that we were going for a fun evening of dance lessons. At least that's what my wife had told me. She had received a flyer about a swing dance event that was happening in our town. On the flyer it mentioned, she said, that there would be a time of free swing dance lessons for anyone who wanted them and then there would be a time of open dancing. This all sounded horrible to me but she wanted to go, so I agreed. When we got there, we found out that it was not at all what we were expecting. In fact there were no lessons at all. In reality, it was a local swing dance competition between swing dance schools. This was all on the flyer, but my wife had missed all of that. All she had noticed was the bold writing that mentioned free swing dance lessons. She assumed that this would take place during this evening but had missed the smaller writing at the bottom that explained that in order to get the dance lessons you had to go to the studio that was sponsoring the event and then you got one free lesson. We went to this event thinking it was something else entirely, and complained about it at first, until she pulled the original flyer out and we looked at it and realized that the details had been there all along, we had just missed them.

In a somewhat similar manner, the Jews had been reading the Old Testament their entire lives and had certain expectations. The details often varied, but there was an overall agreement on what they could expect when the Messiah came. The problem was, when he got there, he wasn't at all what they were expecting. He was something completely different but he was still, nonetheless, calling them to believe that he was from the Father and claiming that he, himself was the new sustenance from the Father. He was, according to him, the new thing that the Father had promised all along. How could they possibly believe all of this? Especially when he wouldn't do the sorts of signs that they expected and demanded of a Messiah. He demanded belief. He refused to meet their expectations, but instead insisted that they go back and read the Scriptures again. If they did that with humility and a desire for the truth rather than to be right, they would see that the Father had been pointing to him and drawing them towards him all along.

Many have supposed Jesus to be saying in this passage that only certain people can come to God. God has chosen some to come to him in belief and the others will simply not have that opportunity because they have not been sent or drawn to him by the Father. This is simply not the case, however, and doesn't really work if we continue to consider the full context of this passage and the Gospel as a whole throughout this passage.

John stated in 3:16 that whoever would believe in the life of Christ would have eternal life. Jesus has just finished saying as much by stating in verse 35 that whoever comes to him will never go spiritually thirsty or hungry again. This is an offer, not a statement that only some can come. He is offering them the life of the new creation. They have seen him and the signs that he has offered but they still do not believe. Jesus is not trying to take any credit for attracting people to himself. If he had done that he would be serving as his own testimony which he has already clearly rejected as an option (5:31). Those that are coming to Jesus are not coming as a result of his own testimony or acts but as a clear result of the Father pointing the way. Jesus continues to stress throughout this passage that is he is not about his own will or actions. He is the apprentice, sharing in the works that the Father has already been doing for a long time.

Jesus says in verse 44 that no one can come to him unless the Father who sent him draws them, and in verse 37 that all whom the Father gives him will come to Jesus. His point is not that the Father has chosen only certain people to come to faith in Jesus. His point is well in keeping with the tenor of John's Gospel that salvation is available to whosoever will (it would not, for instance, make much sense if, in 3:16, John says that God loved the whole world so much that he sent Jesus so that only some have eternal life). Jesus is saying that all who do come to him in faith are there because the Father enabled it. He worked through Moses and the prophets to point to Jesus. Everything in the Old Testament pointed to Jesus. The Father has made this available to all, so when someone does come to Jesus in faith, it is because the Father has pointed and drawn him rather than Jesus testifying to himself. The whole thrust of the argument here is that Jesus' work is really a continuation of the work of the Father rather than something new altogether.

It is, after all, the will of the Father that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life. It is not that only some will be caused to look and believe in Jesus. It is God's will that all men be saved (1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9; cf. 1 Jn. 2:1), but only those who believe in the Son will have eternal life. In other words, God wants all men to be saved and has made the life of His Son available to all humans but it is also His will that only those who enter into that life will, in fact be saved. Those who come to belief in Jesus and take up His life, will not be lost. They will be raised up, but raised up to what?

Jesus makes clear here what he and John have alluded to throughout the Gospel thus far. Eternal life and resurrection are two sides of the same coin. As we have discussed previously, most Jews believed in the age to come, eternal life, and the fact that this would be the time of resurrection when God would dwell with His people. What they couldn't fathom was that Jesus was announcing that eternal life was available now. It was a share in that life that Jesus came to announce. Eternal life doesn't just mean that it goes .. death, it describes what kind of life it is now. In order for one to grab hold of it, though, they must first lay down their own life and enter into his. Eternal life doesn't mean what so many people today envision when they hear this term, that of a disembodied spirit floating off to some non-physical location forever. It is the realization of the life of Christ (and the process of being transformed into his image) now. This is a process that continues in the present age when someone believes in the life of Christ and will eventually take the form of the resurrection when Christ does return to restore all things (Matt. 19:28). Those who share in Christ's life now, will surely be raised up at the last day. So, eternal life does have to do with eternity, but it also has to do with the quality and source of life now.

Once the Jews heard all of this they began to act just like the Israelites in the wilderness who did not like how God was working, so they began to grumble. How could Jesus be claiming all of this and that he came down from heaven when they knew very well who his father and mother were? Once again, John gives us a picture of humans stuck in the earthly way of thinking who are simply unwilling to look beyond the normal limitations to the deeper spiritual truth.

They were grumbling for the same simple reason the Israelites of the Exodus grumbled. They didn't think that God should be working like this. Jesus was saying that what he was doing was what God was doing. They didn't like this train of thought one bit and began to rebel against Jesus just as the Exodus generation rebelled against God. Yet, Jesus makes clear that the Father has indeed sent them to Jesus. This is what the Father is doing, they need not complain or remain in their unbelief. Jesus quotes from Isaiah 54:13 in verse 45 which stands in testimony to the point he has been making. When God did do his new thing, they will all be taught by God. What Jesus is claiming, what he is teaching them, comes from the Father. It is He who is at work bringing His people back from exile. Anyone who has truly and humbly read the Scriptures with a heart to learn what the Father was teaching, will realize that Jesus is the fulfillment of all that they say. The passage in Isaiah goes on in 55:1 to invite all those who are thirsty and hungry to come and get their full. These are the very people Isaiah was speaking of, and if they will just believe that God is the author of everything that Jesus says, they will enter into eternal life. Jesus, is after all, the only one who has seen the Father, because he is the only one that is truly from God.



Devotional Thought

Eternal life is something that is available to Christians now. As Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:12: "Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses." Have you taken hold of that eternal life? Do you live the life of the age to come for all those who are lost in the present age to see?