Sunday, November 6, 2022

William W. Klein on Corporate Election in John 6:37-40

  

 

In [John 6:37] Jesus asserts that the Father gives certain persons to Jesus, that these persons come to Jesus, and that Jesus will never reject those who come to him. He adds that God wills that Jesus lose none of those the Father has given to him, but raise them all up at the Last Day (vv. 39–40). We will enquire what it means for God to “give” people to Jesus, and how this giving relates to what John already teaches about God’s will. We consider the role of the Father’s will in giving salvation to those who believe in Jesus (v. 40). We will ask when this “giving” occurs in the process of salvation, and consider whether these people are “given” to Jesus in order that they may believe.

 

Immediately we note the force of Jesus’ statement in verse 37: “all those the Father gives [present tense] me will come to me.” The first words are intriguing, for the words the NIV translates as “all those” (Greek, pan ho) are neuter in gender, not masculine. Barrett says about the initial neuter phrase: “pan ho is used collectively where the masculine pantes hous would be expected. Cf. 3:6; 6:39; 10:29; 17:2, 24; see also 17:21. The effect of the neuter is to emphasize strongly the collective aspect of the Father’s gift of believers.” In the second clause of Jesus’ statement, he uses the masculine singular substantive participle (ton erchomenon), translated, “whoever comes,” indicating Jesus’ acceptance of all those who come.

 

Barrett’s comment and the subsequent use of the masculine participle alert the reader to a tension in understanding didōmi. Some interpreters find here the teaching that God grants the capacity to come to Jesus only to some, the elect. Leon Morris, for example, comments, “Before men can come to Christ it is necessary that the Father give them to him.” So, he suggests, when some so-called disciples later decide to leave Jesus, it is because “they were not among those whom God gives Him.” According to Morris, then, a person cannot or will not truly believe unless God first “gives” that person to Christ. Morris abdicates any attempt to reconcile this with the latter part of v. 37, which affirms that Jesus rejects none and welcomes all.

 

But Barrett’s comment and Morris’s difficulty with 6:37 suggest another understanding, one which meshes with Jesus’ statements about God’s will (6:40). Both the affirmation that Jesus welcomes all, and the criterion of faith for anyone who wishes to obtain life, evidently weigh against putting “give” (didōmi) into a predestinarian framework. Certainly God “gives” only one group (of people) to Christ. We know that God sends his Son, who alone can grant life. This is the divine initiative in salvation. However, when Jesus explains the basis for the place of persons in that “given” group, it turns out to be their faith. Nowhere in this passage does Jesus intimate that God gives faith only to some select group. Jesus affirms that people are given to him, but the requisite faith must come from those who hear Jesus. This opens wide the invitation, as we will see: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:37–38).

 

The text gives no warrant for reading a prior divine determination of who will be saved. Lindars agrees we should not see here “a rigid doctrine of predestination,” since “we know from 3:17 that it is the desire of God that all men should be saved.” He goes on, “The point is that all those who do respond to the Father (or are “drawn” by him [verse 44]) come to Jesus, because of the unique prerogatives which he has from the Father (cf. 5:20–3).”

 

Jesus teaches here that a group of people (the “all those”; pan ho) are headed for a grand and glorious destination—resurrection to life everlasting. The Father has them in his care, and he has entrusted them to Jesus. They come to Jesus, and he will not tum them away. Jesus assures his disciples that he will not lose any of these special ones; they will all attain to resurrection. This is assured and even (pre)destined—in the sense that God’s will has determined it all. But when we ask who is in this favored group, Jesus responds, “everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life” (v. 40). This means that God gives to Jesus the company of believers. Jesus will never reject one who comes to him in faith. This is God’s will, and he implements his will by giving to Jesus those who respond to God’s gospel in faith. In summing up Jesus’ intentions in this passage, Dongell states: “The first aspect of Jesus’ teaching on this issue centered on a denial. Jesus in effect declared, ‘Your unbelief is not my fault.’ No one should imagine that persons refused to believe in Jesus because Jesus was turning their hearts away, because Jesus was blocking their approach, or because Jesus was selecting whom He would receive, rejecting those He judged unfit.”

 

However compelling the case against predestination may be, there remains in John a tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. On the one hand, there is no salvation apart from God’s gracious provision, but on the other, people must heed the warning to believe in order to apprehend God’s gracious provision. For John, none can save themselves, and apart from believing in Jesus, none attain eternal life. God’s sovereign provision of salvation effected through his Son is paramount and precedent. Yet human response to God’s grace secures God’s provision. Whitacre draws out the theological implications of this dynamic: “It is God’s gracious action in our lives that saves us from beginning to end. God’s choice has been fundamental from the beginning, starting with the act of creation itself and continuing through the acts of redemption from the Fall through the call of Abraham, Jacob/Israel and so forth. The biblical teaching is not, however, mere determinism.” That is, the tension must be preserved: God’s sovereign will is to save all, and faith is required to embrace this salvation. (William W. Klein, The New Chosen People: A Corporate View of Election [rev ed.; Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf & Stock, 2015], 110-13)