John 6:37–44

This is the key, and it has two sides. We only know the truth when we hold both. Take one side and leave out the other, and the teaching is incomplete. The result is likely to be error on one side or the other... The theologian who sees only the divine decrees pays little attention to the encouragement the Lord gives to the person who comes to Him. The man who argues for what he calls free will tries to cancel out the statement that all the Father gives to Christ will come to Him — if he does not ignore it altogether.

There is the sovereign grace of the Father, which has given certain people to the Son, and every one of them comes to Him. As far as they themselves are aware, many different things draw these happy people to Him, and those things differ in almost every case. Yet beneath it all, as the ultimate explanation, lies this gift of the Father to Christ — a love gift, we may call it.

If blessing depends on man's responsibility, then it is all over; no one will be blessed. But, as always, when man stands fully exposed, God falls back on the purposes of His own heart. He will not allow all to perish; nor will He allow that the coming of the Son of Man shall be all in vain.

Suppose I ask someone who has no peace with God, "Have you come to Christ?" If that person can answer, "Yes," then I can say: "This shows that you are one whom the Father has given to Christ. He said, 'All that the Father gives me will come to me' — and you have come to Him."

Whatever their nationality or their character — Jews or Gentiles, fallen women or hardened thieves, Pharisees or tax collectors — if they only come to Christ, He will receive them. Their coming is the proof that they are the Father's gift to the Son.

All that the Father has given come, and the Son casts out none who come. This is not only because of His own grace and personal love for them. It is because they are the Father's gift, and because the very purpose of His coming down from heaven was to carry out the Father's will, and so reveal the Father's heart... There is no possibility of any slip between the Father's gift and the Son's reception.

When He said, "whoever comes to me I will never cast out," it meant three things. First, I will receive him. Second, I will hold him fast. Third, I will never give him up — "never cast out."

The Son had come down from heaven of His own choice, and yet He was the Sent One of the Father. It was the Son's will to come, but to do His Father's will. The will of the Son and the will of the Father were not different. But the Son had come to reveal the Father, and to make known in everything what the Father wanted to do. The Father's will could only be shown and carried out in a place of complete subjection and obedience. The Son took that place.

The blessed Lord took His human body, "born of woman, born under the law" (Galatians 4:4). He did this so that obedience might become possible for One who had not only made all things, but also upheld them all "by the word of his power" (Hebrews 1:3). Before taking human form, He had never been in a position to obey. Once He had taken it, His delight was to carry out to the very end the will of the Father who had sent Him. The Psalm puts it this way: "Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart."

He was not someone who had no will of His own, as people sometimes say. He had a will as a true man, but He subjected His will to the will of the Father. He never exercised His will independently. He would not have been a perfect man if He had had no will. Think of Him never acting on His own will!

Jesus never did His own will, though, as we know, blessed be His holy Name, His will was absolutely perfect. He was a perfect servant, from first to last. His rule of action was the word of God. His power of action was the Holy Spirit. His only motive for action was the will of God. So the ruler of this world had nothing in Him.

People miss the beauty of that well-known passage — "whoever comes to me I will never cast out" — because they do not read the context. "Whoever comes to me" is only the last half of the verse. The whole verse is seldom quoted. First comes, "All that the Father gives me will come to me." Suppose I ask someone who has no peace with God, "Have you come to Christ?" If that person answers, "Yes," I can say, "That shows you are one whom the Father has given to Christ." The Father sends these sheep to Christ, and in receiving them He is doing the Father's will. How would He be doing the Father's will if He cast out those whom the Father had given Him?

This is why He stayed two days longer where He was, even after the cry of these sorrowing hearts had reached Him. In coming down to this scene, He came not to do His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him. So He would not act at the promptings of His own heart. He had taken the place of obedience, and He waited for the Father's word before answering the appeal. Cold must be the heart that is not moved by this shining out of His moral glory. Here is infinite greatness joined with the lowliest grace and humility.

The Father has given souls to the Lord Jesus. His will is that the Lord should lose not one, but should raise it up at the last day. He cares for those given to Him. He guards them, so that the enemy does not destroy them and their own folly does not lose them. He keeps even the body that lies in the grave, so as to raise it up again at the last day. In doing all this the Lord Jesus is the Servant doing the Father's will.

The Lord Jesus has His own personal love for the sheep, proved in life and in death. Apart from that love, in this memorable passage He presents Himself as responsible to the Father — willingly so, no doubt. He is responsible to keep every member of the loved and valued flock through all the changing circumstances of this life, and to present them in resurrection glory at the last day.

It is beautiful to see how perfectly the Son of the Most High becomes His Servant, now to save, as later to administer the glory. He chooses none for saving; He leaves all with Him Who sent Him. "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out." One side is the security of the children. The other is the free grace of the gospel.

In John 6:39-40 the main difference, I think, is between the negative and the full positive. The negative says of "all that he has given me" that "I should lose nothing, but raise it up" — the "it" agrees with the "all" looked at as one whole. In the positive He brings in the person: "everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him." There the question is not about being lost, but about the present possession of eternal life.

It might seem that as generation after generation of God's people pass away, and are forgotten by men, that they are forgotten by God. The Lord's words assure us that it is not so. Not one is lost or forgotten. They will appear again at the last day. The resurrection power exercised by the Lord will be the final proof that He has lost nothing.

In John 6, as I see it, the Lord is putting a blessing in resurrection in place of any royal Jewish blessing... He does not come and set up the Jews. The Father draws, and a man comes to Him. He blesses that man in the power of eternal life, raising him up when this busy and rebellious scene comes to its close.

In John 6 our Lord refers to the resurrection no fewer than four times, and each time it is the resurrection of His people. The way He speaks shows that this resurrection is their own distinctive privilege. The "last day" is not, as people commonly suppose, a day of twenty-four hours right at the close of all things. It is the great closing period. In it God makes clear the character and results of what man and Satan have done, of His own eternal purposes, and of His gracious workings throughout the periods before it.

Before, it was the Father's purposes that could not fail. Here it is the Son of God held out as the object of faith. If someone looked through the Lord's lowliness, saw the Son and believed on Him, that person would have everlasting life, and the result would be the same. In the first case it is a matter of the Father's purposes and His acts, and of what Jesus does in raising them: the Father gives them, Jesus raises them, not one of them is lost. Next comes the Son held out to people, along with man's responsibility.

The first thing is the doorway into eternal life, which is seeing the Son and believing on Him. By "seeing" we mean discernment. It means God has opened a person's eyes, as He opened the eyes of the blind man in chapter 9, to see that Jesus of Nazareth, the Man Christ Jesus, is the Son — the Son of God. Not everyone who met the Son in human form saw this, for the natural eye saw only a lowly Man. The one who saw was the one who received the testimony that Jesus truly was God's Son.

There were many who looked at Jesus and did not discern that He was the Son… It was the Father's revelation to Simon Peter that enabled him to say, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." That was a special revelation, no doubt. But in anyone at all, only the Father's work can enable him to see the Son and to discern the glory of Christ's Person, so that he believes on Him.

Do these words apply only to people of the family of Jacob? Or do they rightly reach as far as the whole human race?… "Whoever" means whoever. We must take "Every man," "he that," and the like in the widest sense. The Lord Jesus, we now understand, used language that foretold how far-reaching the thoughts of God and His purposes of grace were.

He has everlasting life. Someone may say he could lose it. But the Lord shuts out that way of dodging the truth by adding, "I will raise him up on the last day." That is, He ties the final blessing to having eternal life now.

In John 6 our Lord speaks of the resurrection four times, and each time it is the resurrection of His people. The way He speaks shows that this resurrection belongs to them as their own privilege… The "last day" is not, as many suppose, a day of twenty-four hours right at the close of all things. It is the great closing period, when God brings to light the character and results of what man and Satan have done, and of His own eternal purposes.

Eternal life does not belong to this world. Its home is in heaven, in the Father's house, so its full enjoyment, according to the thoughts of God, is still future… Even now we have the well that springs up inside us, and by the power of the Holy Spirit we can enter into the joy of eternal life and taste it in our measure. But to know it as the Father purposed, we must wait until the Lord Jesus Christ returns as Saviour and changes our lowly bodies.

Wonderful, must we not admit, had been the revelation just given. A man, who stood before them, was the bread of life. He had come down out of heaven... But there were Jews there who heard those words unmoved. Those who came from Judaea are meant here, in contrast to the Galilean crowd. They seized the chance to disturb the meeting by their murmurings.

Long ago in the wilderness, an unbelieving and sinful generation murmured at the heavenly manna. That same generation now murmured in the presence of the Bread of God, come down from heaven. He came to fill with good things those who were hungry and thirsty for righteousness.

Their pride refused to be in debt to one so lowly. They were so pleased with themselves that they saw no need for anyone to come from heaven to meet their case and be their Deliverer and Redeemer — much less for anyone to die on the cross... So when the lowly Jesus presented Himself as the Saviour of their souls and the Giver of everlasting life, this was a deliverance they felt no need of, and a Deliverer they had no taste for. They did not hunger for such bread; they did not thirst for such life-giving drink.

They could see what His language implied: that He existed in heaven before He was a man on earth. In other words, He was claiming divine glory as His own — glory veiled in His lowly place and condition as Son of Man. Against that implied claim they set what they supposed His origin to be.

So they set the circumstances as they knew them (and they knew them badly) against the truth of Christ. It was judging by appearances, and so it was unrighteous judgment. He was the son of Mary — truly and properly man; otherwise His work would not have availed for man. He was not the son of Joseph except legally; but this He was, so that He should be Messiah according to the law. If He had truly been the son of Joseph, as He was the son of Mary, He would not have been Son of God, or a divine Person. This was the foundation of everything. Without it the Incarnation would be a lie and the Atonement would be worthless.

The Jews judge by appearances and reason according to nature. So they cannot accept that anyone has come down from heaven. This is still the difficulty. The natural man can understand the family line of Christ according to the flesh. But he rejects the great truth that Christ is a divine Person, come in flesh, and so far more than the legal son of Joseph or the actual son of Mary.

They only saw the Man Jesus, and thought they knew His parents. They completely missed that He was the Son, come of David's seed according to the flesh. In this way they made it plain that they had no part or share in this matter. They were strangers to that drawing of the Father, apart from which no one actually does come to Christ.

They set the circumstances as they knew them (and they knew them ill) against the truth of Christ. It was judging according to appearances, and so it was unrighteous judgment. He was the son of Mary — truly and properly man; otherwise His work would not have been of use for man. He was not the son of Joseph except legally; but this He was, so that He should be Messiah according to the law. Had He really been the son of Joseph, as He was of Mary, He would not have been the Son of God, or a divine Person. But this was the foundation of everything. Without it the incarnation would be a falsehood and the atonement worthless.

The Jews, judging by appearances and reasoning according to nature, cannot accept the fact that anyone has come down from heaven. This is still the difficulty: the natural man can understand the genealogy of Christ according to the flesh, but he rejects the great truth that He is a divine Person, come in flesh, and so a great deal more than the legal son of Joseph or the actual son of Mary.

Their pride would not be in debt to one so lowly. They were so pleased with themselves that they saw no need for anyone to come from heaven. Still less did they see any need for anyone to die on a cross, to meet their case and be their Deliverer and Redeemer... They did not hunger for such bread.

Critics would have had the Lord reveal His supernatural birth here. But would that have suited men in the state of mind these were in? It could only have provoked their scorn.

They did not speak to the Lord directly. They showed a clear refusal of the truth of His incarnation... The Lord's quiet answer exposed their real state of soul, the cause of their murmuring: "Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day"... The matter, then, was perfectly simple. The Father must draw a person before he will bow to the truth of the Lord's incarnation. God had not done that work in these objectors. For those who have, the difficulties melt away. The soul that is simple before God accepts His word without hesitating. It still cannot fathom the mystery of the Son — God and man in one Person.

Questions may be raised and settled well, even about Christ's genealogy. But unless God does a work in a man, he will never have eternal life in Christ Jesus as one drawn by the Father to the Son. A man may be religious, or not. He may look into the royal descent of Jesus and satisfy himself about it. In his soul he can still stay far from the Saviour. Those who questioned about the Lord were very religious, but they were in darkness and death of soul.

Unbelief can only destroy and trouble; it cannot give life or comfort. Man under Satan is the source of unbelief, which always leads away from Christ, not to Him. But as the Father sent Christ, so He draws the believer to Christ, who raises him up at the last day. It is not man's worth or work or will, therefore, but the Father's grace, by which one comes to Christ. The whole blessing, in short, is of sovereign mercy.

Notice that Jesus says, "You will not come." I fully believe that they are responsible for it... Now certainly God does not stop anyone from coming, but the disposition of man's heart is such that he will not. This is why the work of God is necessary, and why it is said, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him." Perhaps you will say, everyone is drawn. No — the one who is drawn comes, and Jesus will raise him up on the last day: he is saved.

This then is the key, and it is twofold; and only in this largeness do we know the truth. If either side is taken to the exclusion of the other, the teaching is imperfect... The theologian who sees only the divine decrees pays little attention to the encouragement the Lord gives to the individual who comes to Him. The advocate of what he calls free will tries to neutralise, if he does not completely ignore, the declaration that all the Father gives to Christ will come to Him.

No one hungers for the bread of life enough to come to the Saviour unless a sense of urgent need draws him. That sense of need is found only in those whom the Father draws... God deals with the soul in this way. These humbling discoveries of self and sin lead to open confession of total ruin. That is what accounted for anyone coming to Christ.

The Father draws (verse 44); the Son speaks (verse 63); and the Spirit gives life by applying His words in power to the soul.

Notice: if you come to Jesus, it is proof of two things. First, that the Father has given you to Him (v. 37). For "no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him" (v. 44), and no one comes unless the Father grants it to him (v. 65). Second, it is proof that you are taught of God (v. 45). If you have not come, is it not because you do not believe God?

Here we learn that the teaching about the Bread from heaven involves the truth of the resurrection of the body. For the body, as well as the soul of the believer, is to share in everlasting life. So four times over in this chapter (6:39-40, 44, 54) the Lord declares, "I will raise him up on the last day."

The last day is the last day of the present age. It is a general term for the end of that age, not just the final twenty-four hours.