No one can come to Me unless the Father who has sent Me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
John 6:44
I had a hyper-Calvinist quote this to me recently. He then gets on his preacher mode and says: “There are several arguments/interpretations of this verse.”
The first point, is that logical fallacy. He is building a straw man he will dutifully attempt to destroy. He pitched it this way: “(B)ut the truth is simple. Coming here is believing(.)”
This kind of thinking is very flawed. But it is the kind some use to prop up the fatalism expressed in their understanding of this verse. Oh, they may argue and say this is determinism. But that is the proverbial lipstick on the pig of fatalism. It may be dressed up, but it is still fatalism.
The fallacy exists because their beliefs do not reconcile. Truth always reconciles.
Simply put… Coming is coming… And believing is believing. Neither are compulsory, and coming doesn’t mean one believes. That is why the conjunction exists between the two separate ideas. One comes to Jesus, and one must believe, too. They are not the same. Simple elementary school language lessons reveal this. But the tricksters are taught to use flowery religious language to obscure the truth.
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me shall never hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst.
John 6:35
Jesus is speaking to a crowd that was already drawn to Him by the Father. He is explaining that point to them. They were in His presence on account of the Father’s drawing. And they came to Him at least twice, according to the context. They came to Him, saw Him, and even spoke with Him. Yet something is missing.
But I told you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.
John 6:36
Yet oddly, they don’t believe. So Jesus debunks the reformers’ fatalism the right there. Jesus goes further. He upends the idea that coming is believing. And frankly any other reformed notion centering on the text in John 6.
All whom the Father gives Me will come to Me, and he who comes to Me I will never cast out.
John 6:37
Reading the entirety of John 6, it is clear that all of those that came to Jesus that day were not ever turned away by Him. They left of their own accord and in disbelief.
For I came down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who has sent Me, that of all whom He has given Me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
John 6:38–39
Jesus is telling them that if they don’t believe Him, it’s on them. Because all things are given to Jesus, He’s not going to lose any… And He alone has the power of resurrection. This should not be a surprise to anyone who knows and honors the Father Who has the power of life and death. There is not a human that Jesus will not raise… Some to life, others to perdition, and He has already told them that in another place before they came to Him in Capernaum.
“Do not marvel at this. For the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come out—those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
John 5:28–29
But just because one comes to the Son and even sees and hears Him… Does not mean one has eternal life. One must do something with what they see and hear.
This is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
John 6:40
In case you are not able to understand exactly what Jesus is saying, the Jewish folk present at that time did. Their reaction is recorded for our edification.
The Jews then murmured about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
John 6:41–42
They know His claim is to be the very God of their Fathers. They struggled at that because of the legalism inherent in their beliefs. They could not quite grasp the truth, even though their Scriptures plainly spoke it. A Son is given. He shall be called Mighty God, Everlasting Father. He is rightly expecting them to expect Him, God in flesh!
Jesus therefore answered them, “Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who has sent Me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
John 6:43–44
In other words: You are here in My presence because I, the Father have drawn you here. I Am (He,) because nobody else raises people from the dead.
It is written in the Prophets, ‘They shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and has learned of the Father comes to Me.
John 6:45
You should know this!
Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God. He has seen the Father. Truly, truly I say to you, whoever believes in Me has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. The bread which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh.”
John 6:46–51
It’s necessary that you do something, other than just coming to Him, seeing Him, and hearing Him.
Don’t let a reformer (whether Calvinist or Arminian) twist this text to say something it does not. They will try to teach it is from a god with stingy grace only available to a few chosen people, the rest this God sends to perdition. What this text is showing, and the entire macro level view of John 5 through John 6 is the lavish and extravagant love of the Father to save anyone who wants it.
To understand takes one back to the lesson of the loaves from when Jesus fed these people earlier. Though all of them ate until they were glutted there were twelve baskets left over. The extravagance in providing for their needs left nobody wanting, and what is leftover is not wasted.
Master's Crumbs 