Calvinists tend to proof-text John 6:37, 44 to support determinism. In
reality, however, when read in light of John 6:40, there is a dynamic
relationship between genuine human freedom, God’s salvific will, and God’s
drawing people to Him. Commenting on this dynamic relationship in the Johannine
corpus, Udo Schnelle wrote the following:
If these statements
point in the direction of predestination and determinism, then there are on the
other hand numerous assertions in the Gospel of John that have the character of
demand and decision. Jn 6:27a is formulated imperatively: ‘Do not work for the
food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life.’ The
Johannine Christ can call for faith: ‘Believe me that I am in the Father and
the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works
themselves’ (14:11; cf. 10:38; 12:38; 14:1). Jn 8:12 is a call to decision: ‘I
am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but
will have the light of life’ (cf. also 5:24; 6:35; etc.). The Johannine Revealer
directly invites faith in himself: ‘I have come as light into the world, so
that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness’ (12:46; cf.
3:36). The invitation, as well as the promise or threat, belongs to the basic
form of the εγω-ειμι (“I am”)
sayings (cf. 6:35, 51a; 8:12; 11:25-26; 14:6; 15:5). The entire Gospel can be
understood as a call to faith, for it was written ‘so that you may come to
believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God’ (20:31a).
How are the two series of statements related
to each other? For the fourth evangelist neither faith nor unfaith is simply an
individual decision; rather, their source lies outside the individual. As God
effects faith, so unfaith as imprisonment to the world arises through the work
of the devil (cf. 8:41-46; 13:2) or as God’s act of hardening hearts (cf.
12:37-41). According to John, God alone decides salvation and disaster, and
this preserves the inaccessibility of God’s action. At the same time the
procedural action of God touches human existence, so that decision for faith
and persistence in disobedience as possible subsequent reactions to God’s offer
of salvation are also real for the evangelist. Human beings are supposed to let
themselves be moved to faith, For God’s salvific will does not abolish human
freedom of decision. The tension thus asserted is appropriate, because the two
series of statements cannot be related without contradiction. (Udo
Schnelle, The Human Condition:
Anthropology in the Teachings of Jesus, Paul, and John [Edinburgh: T&T
Clark, 2006], 127)
At first blush, some might think the above is problematic for Latter-day
Saints, but in our theology, faith is not something we generate in and of
ourselves; it is actually a gift from
God. Note the following from Heber J. Grant and George Albert Smith, two past
presidents of the Church:
Faith is a gift of God, and when
people have faith to live the Gospel, and to listen to the counsel of those who
preside in the wards and stakes, and of the General Authorities of the Church,
it has been my experience that they have been abundantly blessed of the Lord,
and that many of them have come out of great financial and other difficulties
in a most miraculous and wonderful way. "Obedience is better than
sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." (Grant, Heber J.
"On Faith." Improvement Era 39 [November 1936)] 659)
Faith, A Gift: Fruit
of Righteousness
We know that faith is
a gift of God; it is the fruitage of righteous living. It does not come to us
by our command, but is the result of doing the will of our Heavenly Father. If
we lack faith, let us examine ourselves to see if we have been keeping His
commandments, and repent without delay if we have not. It has been faith that
the men who have stood at the head of this work have been inspired to give the
instructions that we have needed. It is by faith that we are edified on
occasions, like this, by those who minister in the name of the Lord, and the
Comforter quickens their understanding, bringing things past to their
remembrance and showing them things to come, thus evidencing the spirit of revelation.
(George Albert Smith, Liahona, Vol. 13, p. 330, as quoted in Sharing
the Gospel with Others: Excerpts from the Sermons of President Smith [comp.
Preston Nibley; Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1948], 49)
As for John 6:37, 44 themselves and how they do not support Reformed theology, note the following from B.J.
Oropeza:
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, ad Johannine Letters [Apostasy in
the New Testament Communities, vol. 1; Eugene, Oreg.: Cascade Books, 2011],
172, 174, 176; emphasis in original)
Further Reading
An
Examination and Critique of the Theological Presuppositions Underlying Reformed
Theology