Drawn By the Father
Studies in John 6:1-51, Part 2
The signs Jesus worked were for the purpose of producing faith – of turning unbelievers into believers (cf., John 20:30-31). Though the Jews witnessed many wonderful works, they continued in their unbelief (John 6:36). Yes, they had sought after him but not because of the testimony of the signs, but because “they ate of the loaves and were filled” (vs. 26). The signs (especially the feeding of the 5,000) suggested they could use Jesus to secure their earthly situation. They were materialists – their minds were set on this life and they sought Jesus not as disciples who desire to imitate their teacher in word and deed, but because they saw in him one who could supply their earthly needs.
In an attempt to elevate their sights Jesus spoke to them about bread which endures to eternal life, about bread which gives life to the world. This bread was his to give, but only to those who worked for it – who “believe in Him” (vss. 27, 29). When they finally asked for this bread Jesus told them: (vs. 35) “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” But then he immediately says they could neither eat nor drink because they did not believe (vs. 36)
Jesus then says: (vs. 37a) “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me ….” This will be explained later in the discourse (vss. 44-46). However this much seems clear: Those coming to Jesus have been given to him by the Father. They are given before they come.
Regarding those who come, Jesus says: (vs. 37b) “… I will certainly not cast [them] out.” This will not happen because he came not to do his own will, but the will of the Father (vs. 38). The will of the Father is this: (vs. 39) “… that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.” In verse 40 Jesus reiterates this and he explains what coming to the Son means. “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” In this context the expression beholds the Son is more than merely looking at him. These people had seen Jesus, but they had not really seen him, they had seen his signs but they had not reflected upon their significance. Leon Morris, quotes R.F. Bailey who argues that the Greek theōrōn (beholds) should be rendered “contemplateth.” He maintains that theōrōn “‘implies not mere vision but grasping the significance of a thing, and so is the precursor of faith.’” (Morris, 369) This, then, is what it means to come to Jesus: to behold him – to grasp the significance of his words and works – and then to believe in Him on account of it. Such people, says the Lord, “will have eternal life, and … I will raise [them] up on the last day.”1
This assurance is meant to encourage his audience to take a closer look at him and to make coming to him appealing. But they would not be moved. These people were not interested in “words of eternal life” (vs. 68) but in temporal things, things of this world. Having their thinking bound by earthly interests they murmured about his words: (vs. 43) “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?” Their earthbound thinking did not allow them to hear or see the Father’s testimony. Jesus tells them to stop their grumbling. How can they learn divine truth in such a condition? If they cannot learn they cannot come!
Earlier Jesus said: (vs. 37a) “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me.” In verses 44-45 this is now repeated and explained: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, 'AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.”
Who will Jesus raise on the last day? All who come to him? But how shall they come to him? No one can come “unless the Father … draws him.” How are they drawn? They are drawn by teaching: (vs. 45) “It is written in the prophets, ‘AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.’” But the men who were listening would not be taught! This was their problem! They heard his words, but they would not learn. “It is not enough to hear God's voice. He must heed it and learn it and do it” (A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures of the New Testament: vol. 5, 109). The individual who does this will come to Jesus. Not some of the time, not most of the time, but all of the time (White, 55).
All the Father gives to the Son shall come to him (vs. 37a). But who are these individuals but all who hear from the Father and learn from Him. These are the ones the Father gives to Jesus. No others are given and no others shall be allowed to come.
How does the God teach them? Jesus says that no one has seen the Father (vs. 46a). This teaching, therefore, is not done in person. How then is it done? Jesus says: no one “seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.” The implication is that God teaches men through Jesus, who is from the Father and has seen Him.
This is not the first time in John’s gospel that we run across this idea. In his prologue, for example, he wrote: (John 1:18 ) “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”2 Jesus explains God. Through him men learn about the Father – who He is and what He requires. Through him one is taught of God hearing the words of God (vss 31-32, 34).
Throughout his earthly ministry Jesus argued that his words (teaching) and works were derived directly from the Father and adequate in leading men to believe in him (Harold Fowler, The Gospel of Matthew, vol 3, 492). In John 5:31-36 he argued:
If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true. There is another who testifies of Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives about Me is true. You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. But the testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was the lamp that was burning and was shining and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish--the very works that I do--testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.
In John 14 he said:
(vss. 10-11) Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.
Through the message Jesus spoke and miracles he worked the Father was testifying – teaching the people (cf., John 10:25). His words and works were adequate in producing faith in those who heard and saw. Otherwise, how could Jesus have said that they would be held accountable for their unbelief?
(John 15:22-24) "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.”
The words and works that Jesus performed were adequate in producing faith in those who heard and saw. Through the message and miracles that Jesus worked God taught the people. The individual who rejects Jesus, in reality rejects the Father. Just my opinion? Listen to Jesus:
(John 12:44-45) … He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me. He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me. … If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.
All who are drawn by the Father are taught by Him through Jesus. To reject the teaching of Jesus is to reject the teaching of the Father. The Father gives those who hear and learn His teaching to Jesus; they will come to him and those who come – who believe – have eternal life.
Though they were resisting, Jesus wanted these Jews to come to him to have eternal life. They desperately needed the bread that was his to give, but they grumbled when he served it. They could not stomach the food that was intended to nourish their souls. But Jesus did not change the menu to keep them there. “If they wanted to eat from his hand, they had to hunger for the true and enduring grain” (Plain Talk, Vol. 7, No. 6 , August, 1970, Jim R. Everett, “My Soul Loatheth Fodder,” 3)
In vs. 47-51 he gives further clarification – further teaching from the Father concerning the “bread of life” metaphor. “At the beginning (vss. 47-48) Jesus combines reality (47) and figure (48), and thus again explains (as in 35 & 40) how one ‘eats’ of him” (Mott, 56) – by believing in him.
Jesus then speaks of the superiority of his bread to the “the manna in the wilderness” that so enamored the Jews. This was the bread they compared all other bread to, but it was deficient. Those who ate it died; every last one of them. But the bread Jesus gives is different. It gives life eternal to those who eat it (vs. 51a). In the latter part of vs. 51 Jesus attempts to take them “to the next stage of understanding with additional clarification of “the bread of life” (Mott, 57). He says: “and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” This metaphor proved too much for these Jews who judged by carnal standards, who would not allow the Father to teach them. They were offended by these words and later they would be even more offended when he said they must eat his flesh and drink his blood or they would never have eternal life (vs. 53). They would say: (vs. 60) “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” As a result of his words “many of his disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore” (vs. 66).
Jesus said: (vs 51b) … the bread also which I give for the life of the world is My flesh.” To those of us who live on this side of the cross Jesus’ meaning should be clear: He was speaking about his sacrifice on the cross. Like the figure, the reality is offensive (cf., 1 Corinthians 1:18-25) to men who are prepared to judge by carnal standards. It makes no sense, it is foolishness. But this is what God has placed on the table, there is no other food! There is no other way to receive eternal life but through faith in the crucified Jesus (cf., 1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
Since the return of Jesus to heaven God draws men to him through the gospel of the crucified Lamb of God. Of this gospel Paul wrote: (Romans 1:16) “… it is the power of God for salvation….” “If man is ever saved, God must save him; and if God saves a man, he will do it with saving power. Think of the many manifestations of God’s power … in the physical world. We call them ‘laws of nature,’ but they are simply various powers of God. But God does not use these physical powers to save man. … [Always] remember that each power has its own sphere of operation, its one end to serve, and you will never make the mistake of thinking that God will save a person any way except through his saving power. That power is the gospel. If we do not let him save us by the gospel, we are doomed.” (R.L. Whiteside, Doctrinal Discourses, 75) For in the gospel, says Paul as we finish reading Romans 1:16, in this gospel “the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to (lit. in order to) faith. In other words, the gospel reveals that God justifies – forgives – the sinner by faith in order to produce faith in the sinner.
How does God declare a sinner righteous – forgiven – through faith? When that sinner turns from his sins in repentance and is baptized. For when believers asked what they must do to be saved (Acts 2:36) Peter said: (vs. 38) “"Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Won’t you receive the word (the teaching) of God so that you will be saved? Won’t you be baptized? For the scriptures says: (vs. 42) “So then, those who received the word were baptized; and there were added that day about 3,000 souls.” Have you been baptized? If not, then you have yet to receive the word.
1 So that there will be no misunderstanding, beholds the Son and believes in Him are present participles indicating on going action. Those, therefore, who have beheld the Son in the past but who do not continue to behold him and those who have believed in him in the past but who do not continued to believe “cannot put a claim on Christ for eternal life” (White, 61). The very idea that it could be otherwise is absurd.
2 The Greek word translated explained is from the same root exegesis is derived from. John is saying that Jesus is the exegesis of the Father.
