Jesus
states: “All that the father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out.” (John 6:37) We first need to determine who it
is that the Father gave to Jesus to aid our understanding of the overall
passage, Calvinists need those that the Father gave Jesus to refer to the
“elect,” but that is not the case. This phraseology is repeated several times
in John 17, all part of Jesus’ highly priestly prayer, where the context
reveals that Jesus has his disciples during his earthly ministry in mind.
John
17:1 These words speak Jesus, and
lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy
Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: 2 As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given
him . . . 6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me
out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept
thy word . . . 9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them
which thou hast given me; for they are thine . . . 20 Neither pray I for
these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.
In
saying the Father gave these people to Jesus, the text is not speaking of
salvation. For the text plainly says in 17:6 that these were regenerate people
(“thine they were, and thou gavest them me”) before they were given to Jesus.
Moreover, the group of people given to Jesus is necessarily limited to people
alive during his earthly ministry who interacted with Jesus (“I have manifested
thy name [to them]”). Of course, by use of “thy name” Jesus is saying he
manifested the Father to those regenerate people the Father gave him, just as
he said to Philip: “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not
known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest
thou then, Shew us the Father? The group also cannot include future saints
since it says, “they have kept thy word.” And in John 17:20, Jesus says:
“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me
through their word.” Jesus distinguishes in his prayer between those given to
him by the Father and those who would believe in the future “through their
word.” Accordingly, those given to Jesus cannot possibly be the ”elect” as
Calvinists employ the term.
We
have to keep in mind that there were many Jewish believers in Israel prior to
the formal beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry. We may think of them as Old
Testament believers, looking forward to Messiah, much as we would think of
Abraham, Moses, or even John the Baptist. We should also recall that the
ministry of John the Baptist was not done in a corner. This was a time of great
Messianic expectation and, after John the Baptist formally announced Jesus as
“the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” and as Jesus traveled
about doing signs and miracles, many Jewish believes came to accept the
additional revelation that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah they had been
looking forward to. We see this early in John’s Gospel with Philip, Nathanael,
Andrew, Peter, and likely the apostle John as well. Many of these believers
spent significant time with Jesus, and some even followed him from place to
place for a time, and some Jesus picked as apostles. These regenerate Jews were
the Father’s, but when Jesus began his earthly ministry, the Father gave them
to him (John 10:1-5). There is not one example of a Jewish believer rejecting
the revelation of John the Baptist or of Jesus.
Returning
to verse 37, the point Jesus is making is that the regenerate Jews that the
Father gives him will come to him and he will not cast them out. We sometimes
speak of “coming to Jesus” in a figurative/spiritual sense and might also
assume that being cast out is also a spiritual reference. But Jesus is speaking
to a group of disciple “wannabe’s” about literally coming to him and whether
they will be sent away, which is exactly what he does as the chapter unfolds.
The next three verses further confirm that Jesus has his earthly ministry in
focus in this passage:
John
6:38 For I came down from heaven, not
to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 39 And this is
the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I
should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. 40
And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son,
and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the
last day.
Jesus
is plainly dealing with two groups of people, genuine disciples and the wannabe
disciples looking for another meal or sign. Jesus will not lose any of the
disciples given to him by the Father, and he will resurrect them at the last
day. But what about the lost people in the crowd? They also can be a part of
the resurrection, for Jesus will give everlasting life to everyone that
“believeth on him.”
At
this point, there is no confusion in his audience and some are murmuring about
his earlier statement that he is “the bread which came down from heaven.” (John
6:41) In response to this murmuring, Jesus makes the statement that Calvinists
use to support total depravity and irresistible grace: “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 6:44) Calvinists understand the drawing to mean that all
people drawn by God get saved. For this reason, they understand the passage to
speak of the “elect” even though that term is not used. To get to the proper
meaning of the text, we need first to consider the meaning of the word “draw.”
As
with other key terms, Calvinists front load their doctrine into the word “draw”
(Greek helkuô) by saying it means to drag, to the picture is of God
spiritually dragging the lost person to Jesus by an efficacious or irresistible
call. While the term can have the meaning “to drag” when the context shows it
is physical exertion or compulsion at issue, the lexicon BDAG says it can also
mean “to draw a person in the direction of values for inner life.” Liddell and
Scott include the definition, “draw to oneself, attract.” The sense of the word
is to attract or woo someone to oneself. The term is used exactly that way in
the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, and other Greek
literature. For instance, in Jeremiah 31:3, we read: “The LORD hath appeared of
old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love:
therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” This is being drawn by God’s
love (Hebrew chesed), not dragged. Likewise, in Song of Solomon 1:4, we
read: “Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his
chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more
than wine: the upright love thee.” This is Solomon drawing his wife, obviously
not dragging her. Moreover, in John 12:32, we read that Jesus “will draw all
men unto me” and we know that not all men are dragged to salvation because that
would be universalism. The picture in John 12:32 is that the cross will draw
all men to Christ, but that does not guarantee their salvation. When used of
physical objects, “draw” means drag, but when where no physical exertion or
coercion is involved, that meaning does not work.”
Returning
to v. 44 then: “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.” The phrase “come to me”
mirrors verse 37, where Jesus spoke of the regenerate Jews that the Father gave
to him to be true disciples during his earthly ministry. To the wannabe
disciples in the crowd, looking for the next meal or miracle, Jesus makes an
implicit contrast between being attracted to him based on physical versus
spiritual matters. Thus, Jesus says that disciples are drawn by the father, and
not by the fleshly desire to see another sign or get another meal. So the question
becomes how does the Father draw people to Jesus? What is obvious is that
physical compulsion is not in view, so that the notion of anyone being dragged
does not fit here. At this point, many Calvinists try to conflate the different
definitions of helkuô in the context where physical compulsion or
coercion is not at issue has the sense of attracting or wooing people. And it
should not surprise us that the Father attracts or woos people by His Word.
To the would be disciples who just quoted from Psalm 78 to demand another sign, Jesus quotes from the Old Testament to support his statement that those who would come to him as true disciples must be drawn by the word of God: “It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. Not that any person hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” (John 6:45-47) Jesus is quoting from Isaiah 54:13: “And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.” This passage from Isaiah speaks of the redeemed Jewish people in the Millennium who are attracted or drawn to Messiah as the Lord teaches them. So also in Jesus’ earthly ministry, Jesus’ true disciples had accepted the Old Testament teaching concerning Messiah and responded to Jesus when he presented himself as Messiah. But making application to the non-regenerate wannabe disciples in the crowd, Jesus said, “every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.” (Hutson Smelley, Deconstructing Calvinism: A Biblical Analysis and Refutation [3rd ed.; 2019], 241-45)
