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Verse 44. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
Verses 60-65/ When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" But Jesus , knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father."
Since there is controversy over the meaning of particularly verse 44, as to what being drawn to Jesus means, I will present my interpretation and would like to hear other interpretations that refute the one I give. I say if we get 44 right the entire chapter will be clear, and verses 60-65 will take on a true meaning and the revealing of a wonderful truth.
To grasp the meaning of draw here, if we define the meaning of "No one can," and "And I will raise him up on the last day." according to their plain meaning, we will have our answer to what draw means. No one can obviously means no one has the ability. We learned that at our mother's knee, every time she corrected our "can I" question with "may I." What is it they cannot do? Come to Jesus. Preceding the "Father who sent me draws him" is the word "unless." So something must happen before anyone can come to Jesus and that is that the Father draws Him.
So, then we have the Father drawing people to Christ and this is often said that He does this for all people, those who believe Him and those who reject Him. But is that true? Not if you take the plain meaning of "And I will raise Him up on the last day." Those who reject Him are not raised up on the last day so it cannot be applied to them. So only those He elects or chooses are drawn to them as we see in Acts 13:47-48 For so the Lord has commanded us saying, "I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth." And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed."
And we have the testimony of Jesus in John 6:25-30 when the Jews refused to believe Him. "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one."
If we get that right then verses 60-65 shed even more light on who does this drawing and how it comes about. "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all." If we are reading through John chronologically, we have already learned in John 3 that unless a man is born again by the Spirit He cannot even see (understand) the things said about the kingdom of heaven, let alone inherit the kingdom. So it is the Spirit who gives life to the dead in tresspasses (Eph 2) so that they can understand spiritual things. "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life."
Jesus goes on to say, "But there are some of you who do not believe." and that he knew who they were from the beginning. He then repeated the early statement of being drawn to Jesus adding even a stronger wording of the same thing. "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father." Drawn and granted mean the same thing in these passages. This is a resounding declaration of the absolute sovereignty of God in every aspect of salvation, including who He chooses to draw to the Son.
Verses 60-65/ When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" But Jesus , knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father."
Since there is controversy over the meaning of particularly verse 44, as to what being drawn to Jesus means, I will present my interpretation and would like to hear other interpretations that refute the one I give. I say if we get 44 right the entire chapter will be clear, and verses 60-65 will take on a true meaning and the revealing of a wonderful truth.
To grasp the meaning of draw here, if we define the meaning of "No one can," and "And I will raise him up on the last day." according to their plain meaning, we will have our answer to what draw means. No one can obviously means no one has the ability. We learned that at our mother's knee, every time she corrected our "can I" question with "may I." What is it they cannot do? Come to Jesus. Preceding the "Father who sent me draws him" is the word "unless." So something must happen before anyone can come to Jesus and that is that the Father draws Him.
So, then we have the Father drawing people to Christ and this is often said that He does this for all people, those who believe Him and those who reject Him. But is that true? Not if you take the plain meaning of "And I will raise Him up on the last day." Those who reject Him are not raised up on the last day so it cannot be applied to them. So only those He elects or chooses are drawn to them as we see in Acts 13:47-48 For so the Lord has commanded us saying, "I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth." And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed."
And we have the testimony of Jesus in John 6:25-30 when the Jews refused to believe Him. "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one."
If we get that right then verses 60-65 shed even more light on who does this drawing and how it comes about. "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all." If we are reading through John chronologically, we have already learned in John 3 that unless a man is born again by the Spirit He cannot even see (understand) the things said about the kingdom of heaven, let alone inherit the kingdom. So it is the Spirit who gives life to the dead in tresspasses (Eph 2) so that they can understand spiritual things. "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life."
Jesus goes on to say, "But there are some of you who do not believe." and that he knew who they were from the beginning. He then repeated the early statement of being drawn to Jesus adding even a stronger wording of the same thing. "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father." Drawn and granted mean the same thing in these passages. This is a resounding declaration of the absolute sovereignty of God in every aspect of salvation, including who He chooses to draw to the Son.