What does it mean that "no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father" (John 6:65)?

91 For they must believe that He really was the Son of God, the living God, and in His character as Man from heaven, really to come to Him; and this was faith. "For Jesus" (nor was He willing, save in the special instance and case, that they should continue with Him) "knew" who believed [not]; and therefore our Lord said that none could come to Him except it were given him of His Father; because it included really coming to Him in this spiritual apprehension of what He was, which was the gift of the Father alone. They might, as here, come actually and carnally; but coming to Him even here, as manifested in the flesh, they must come to Him in reality, as containing within Himself the personal power of that glory which was to be manifested to faith when He was exalted, as see chapter 1:14, or they would come to Him only carnally and falsely, and in denial of Him (therefore our Lord thus far revealed it, that He might have none but real followers); that is, the principles in offence which were the food in glory; so that none (it being really spiritual) could come except the Father gave it to him; for it was His gift to show the Son's glory (as our Lord to Peter). This is an important comment on the whole thing (that is, verses 60-65). Accordingly, many of His disciples showed they had not received this or Him (as remarked), and departed on the statement of what He was, and walked no more with Him.

John 6:64-65. There were some who professed to be His disciples, but they believed not. Men might indeed follow Him in the crowd, for the sake of material benefits, but no man truly came to Christ except it were given him of the Father. The Father draws (verse 44); The Son speaks (verse 63); and the Spirit quickens by applying His words in power to the soul.

Such is the flesh even in disciples. It profits nothing. It is the Spirit that quickens, and this by and in Christ, never apart from Him, still less to His dishonour. Hence His words have a character essentially Divine and Divine efficacy; they are spirit and life, as He says Himself of what He had just spoken in His discourses, stumble as men might; and few words have been more disastrously perverted to this day, idolising the sign to the shame of Him Who was signified to have thus come and died in supreme love, Who blesses faith accordingly. But, alas! "there are some of you who do not believe." Not to believe is fatal to any, most inconsistent withal in a disciple. Christ must be all or nothing. If all, His words are to the believer no reproach but a delight, and have power all through — yea, increasingly as He is thereby better known. Jesus knew their unbelief, not by observation or experience, but from the first. He is God, and none the less because He became man; and this is our evangelist's constant thesis. Yet did He distinguish between such as did not believe and him who should betray Him; but who ever gathered it save now from His own words? Who had ever seen grace in Him falter in His ways with all? How solemn is the patience of Divine love! On the other hand, those who believed had no ground of boasting, for though they did cleave to Jesus, none could come unto Him, except it had been given to him from the Father. It was sovereign grace in God.

The teaching of this chapter is completed by verse 63, where the Holy Spirit is brought in. Nothing proceeds from the flesh that profits in this matter: it is the Spirit who gives life. The Father is the Giver of the true bread of life: the Son is that bread, and as Son of Man gives His flesh for the life of the world: the Spirit quickens. All is of God, and nothing proceeds from man. How dead man is this chapter shows, for the Lord's words, which are spirit and life, were only an occasion of stumbling to them. The Evangelist interrupts his record in verses 64 and 65, to tell us that Jesus spoke in the full knowledge of this, and that not only did He know in Himself what they thought and said, but also who believed and who did not, from the very beginning, and who should betray Him.

These men were not worse than others. Their unbelief was manifest and declared; and He treats them, therefore, as unbelievers, as rejecters; but this is what would be the result in every case, were we left to our own thoughts of Christ, when thus seen as "come down from heaven." Thank God, there is something more. Christ had not only come, as bringing life and love so near to the world, to men as such, that only by refusing the life and repelling the love could they hold on in their sins; He had come to fulfil the counsels of His Father's love in the sovereign gift of life, as shown in John 5; and of this He now proceeds to speak, though still as "come down" and here in humiliation, the Object for faith to receive and appropriate. Such faith, it was evident, had no place in man's heart; but God could give it, and would sovereignly in His grace. "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out."

How humiliating and heart-breaking for us, that, in the presence of incarnate life and love in the Person of the incarnate Son of God, no one would have come to Him, no one have been benefited by His mission, had there not been those who were given Him of the Father, and on whose coming therefore He could securely reckon. Man's will would, in each individual, have held out against Christ, had not the Father resolved that He should have some as the trophies of His victory, and the reward of His coming down from heaven. Alas, that our deadness to such love should have called forth such sighs as seem to breathe in these words of Jesus. Is it not as though He were accounting to Himself for the marvels of human unbelief? — as though saying, After all, it is but what I might have counted on? Nothing will affect man's stony heart, save where My Father's grace effectually intervenes, and on that I may securely count. All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me. And, then, to see how perfectly He fills the servant-place He had taken. For any now to come to Him is the proof of their being among those given to Him of the Father; so He may well declare of such that He will cast none out. The heart to come to Jesus is the sure sign to Him, had that been needed, of His Father's gracious working; and, therefore, He is but obedient to His Father's will in receiving, without question as to the past, all who come to Him. "Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out." Precious words! Rich has been the comfort they have yielded to many an otherwise desponding one; but how greatly is their value enhanced when the coming to Christ is seen, not as an act of man's fickle will, but as the effect of the Father's drawing to Jesus of one given to Him in the counsels of that Father's love before the foundation of the world.

*Observe, if you come to Jesus, it is a proof — 1st, that you have been given to Him by the Father (ver. 37); for "no man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him" (ver. 44); and except it were given him of the Father (ver. 65); and, 2ndly, that you are taught of God. (Ver. 45.) If you have not come, is it not because you do not believe God? (Ver. 45.)

John 6:43-45. The blindness and unbelief of man only proves the necessity for a work of grace if any are to come to Christ. All are free to come, but, left to himself, man will not come. There is none that understands, none that seeks after God. Thus the Lord clearly shows that if men are to be blessed, it can only be by sovereign grace. "No man can come to Me, except the Father which has sent Me draw him. "

Moreover, the way the Father draws is by divine teaching, according to the word, "They shall be all taught of God". The Father enlightens the soul, convicting of the need of Christ on the one hand, and revealing the glory of Christ on the other. Thus the soul is driven by need and drawn by grace to Christ.

The Jews murmur because the Lord said that He had come down from heaven. They saw the Son, and did not believe in Him: they knew Him after the flesh; He was, for them, Joseph's son. The Lord then insists upon the fact, that no one can come unto Him unless the Father draw him; He insists upon the necessity of grace to be able to come, not that every one was not free, as people say, to come, for whosoever should see the Son, and believe on Him, would have eternal life; but He shews that the mind of the flesh is enmity against God. There is the blinding of sin, of the flesh, and hatred of God, as far as He reveals Himself; there is none that understandeth, none that seeketh after God; so that the power of grace is needed to dispose the heart to receive Christ. Now when the Father draws to Jesus, it is by efficacious grace in the heart: the eyes are opened, one passes from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God; one passes into a salvation assured by Christ, who will raise up such a soul at the last day. It is the revelation of Jesus to the soul by the grace of the Father: the soul sees the Son, it receives eternal life, it shall never be lost, but raised up at the last day. It is important to observe, that he who is drawn by the Father will never be lost, and that at the last day he will have his part with the redeemed in an entirely new world, in an entirely new state. Such a soul is taught of God to recognise the Son; the Father has spoken to it; it has learned of Him; it comes to Christ, and is saved; not that any one hath seen the Father, save Christ Himself. Christ had revealed Him, and he who believed in Christ had everlasting life (v. 47). Solemn but precious assurance! Eternal life has come down from heaven in the Person of the Son, and he who believes in Him, possesses it, according to the efficacious grace of the Father, who draws him to Christ, and according to the perfect salvation that Christ has accomplished: his faith lays hold, as to life, of this Son of God, who will manifest His power later on, in raising the redeemed one from among the dead.

After such words that should have awakened interest and concern, the questioning of the Jews turns to murmuring. They resisted His claim to be the Bread sent down from heaven (v. 41). People want what He can give, but they do not want Him personally. They think of Him as merely Joseph's son: their eyes can see nothing more that what is natural, despite every spiritual evidence of His glory. But though their murmuring was among themselves, the Lord reproved it, an evidence in itself of His divine omniscience. He goes further, to declare the impossibility of one coming to Him apart from the drawing of the Father (v. 44). This refers to the Father's working by the Spirit to exercise people as regards their need of Christ. For human beings will never, of their own voluntary will, seek the Lord: the movement to produce this must be the work of God. Indeed, the Gospel itself comes from God: it is He Himself who sends the message of entreaty by His servants: it is He who produces by grace a response in hearts. All mankind needs to be reminded of this, that they may learn to depend, not on their own wisdom or ability, but on the grace of God. Notice that those spoken of three times as being raised up at the last day are those who (1) are given by the Father; (2) believe on the Son; and (3) are drawn by the Father (vv. 37, 40, 44).

But the Jews murmur at the greatness of His claim. To them He is but the son of Joseph: they know as they think, both His father and His mother; and how then can He say He has come down from heaven? Jesus only replies that, except the Father draw him, no one can come to Him; and such an one He will raise up at the last day. Then He explains that this drawing is by divine enlightenment, as the prophets had spoken of being taught of God. Every one who had heard from the Father and learned of Him came to Jesus. And yet, on the other hand, no one had actually seen the Father but Himself, who was of Him.