All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out . . . No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:37, 44)
John 6:37, 44 are texts that are often appealed to by Reformed apologists to support both the I and P of the TULIP (Irresistible Grace and Perseverance of the Saints). However, this flies in the face of passages such as John 15:6 that teaches that truly justified believers can lose their salvation. Furthermore, as with many other areas, such as the purported proof-texts for Sola Scriptura, Calvinists are guilty of eisegesis of these texts. As B.J. Oropeza noted:
What is emphasized in 6:37a, at least, is not the individual; neither individualistic election nor individualistic universalism is the central point in this particular thought. The passage recalls a prophetic Isaianic promise: God gives the Son a collective people comprising of various people groups. All people—Jewish outcasts, foreigners and eunuchs in Isaiah; Greek, Samaritans, Galileans in John—will come to Jesus. What is inevitable is the collective whole made up of various people groups coming to Jesus. These groups are destined for salvation, rather than every individual or a preselected number within these groups. They are predetermined in the sense that God, through his prophet, promised that such an event would take place—i.e., that the various peoples would all be saved in the new era—and God’s word would accomplish that what it sets out to do (Isa 55:1-11) . . . Since one of the functions of 6:37 is to provide assurance for the Johannine community, we are not told in the context what happens to a person who does not continue “coming” in or believing. Elsewhere in John’s gospel, we find that believers who do not continue abiding in Christ are cast away from him and forfeit eternal life (e.g., John 15:6; cf. 12:25). When the contexts of 6:37 and 15:6 are read together we either have an irreconcilable tension on our hands or perhaps a fuller picture on Johannine perseverance and apostasy in relation to abiding in Christ. God initiates salvation by giving and drawing people to Jesus; thus “getting in” Christ and the eternal life that he brings is an explicit act of divine grace. The one who continues to “come” to Christ, that is believe in Jesus, will never be rejected by him but will be raised to new life in the last days. But the one who does not remain in Christ will be cut off from Christ (see 15:6). If John 6:37 and 6:44 support the notion of individualistic predestination, which is certainly a possibility in Johannine thought, the predestination seems to find its end at one’s entrance into an abiding relationship with Christ and the Christ community. Once “in” this relationship, oddly enough, it is still possible to find oneself eventually “out” of this relationship and forfeit eternal life. When 6:37 and 15:6 are heard together, and related Johannine passages on both sides of the conundrum, Johannine predestination does not ultimately secure one’s final perseverance. If such a person falls away, that person is held responsible for his or her own failure, and Christ is not to be blamed for that person’s apostasy . . . In a related passage to 6:44 we read that “all” are drawn to Jesus once he is lifted up on the cross (12:32). The uplifted Jesus shows God’s love, which in turn draws all people to him (cf. 3:16; 1 John 3:16; 4:10). They will believe, whether Jews, Samaritans, or Greeks. The passage, however, is not espousing universalism on an individualistic level; it affirms instead that various collective groups of people will come to Jesus. This “post-Easter” perspective of the divine “draw” may help enlighten our understanding to 6:44. In the narrative neither the crowd, nor “the Jews,” nor yet Jesus’ disciples could have possibly understood the eucharistic aspects of Jesus’ sermon without understanding the upcoming crucifixion. It would take the work of the Spirit of Truth in a post-Easter setting to enlighten people and convict the world of sin (16:7-15; cf. 12:16; 20:9). The Spirit, then, will also be involved in drawing people and is perhaps the instrument by which the Father draws (cf. 6:53), but the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus still needed to be “glorified” through his death and resurrection (14:26; 15:26-27; 16:7-15). Part of the mystery of divine drawing in 6:44 is thus centered on Jesus’ crucifixion, without which neither the crowds nor Jesus’ disciples could fully comprehend what he was saying, anymore than Nicodemus was able to understand Jesus’ teaching about the Spirit and being “lifted up” prior to Christ’s crucifixion (3:1-14). They could not be “drawn” to Jesus fully until Jesus’ death and resurrection took place and the Spirit was given. The appointed time of the Father to draw all peoples to Christ according to Isaianic prophecy had not completely arrived in John 6. Jesus speaks about upcoming events, and as to be expected those who listen to him do not comprehend him (3:13-14; 6:62-54; 8:28; 12:32-34). (B.J. Oropeza, In the Footsteps of Judas and Other Detractors: The Gospels, Acts, and Johannine Letters [Apostasy in the New Testament Communities, vol. 1; Eugene, Oreg.: Cascade Books, 2011], 172, 174, 176; emphasis in original)
