The Greek
word translated “draw” has a range of meanings:
·
drag
·
draw
·
pull
·
persuade
·
unsheathe
·
attract
There are
several questions we must address in reference to John 6:44. First, what does
coming to Christ mean? Does it mean putting one’s faith in Christ? Or does it
mean embracing Christ in the sense of establishing a relationship with him
after the exercise of faith? Or does it mean both? The fact is, the text has no
answer. But the surrounding text does give us some clues as to who the Father
draws. In the same chapter, verse 40 reads:
For it is
My Father’s will that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall
eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
Notice the
phrase “and I will raise him up at the last day.” So according to verse 40, the
set of individuals who believe in the Son is equivalent to the set of those who
are raised up at the last day. This means that any reference to those who are
raised up at the last day is automatically a reference to those who believe.
We now
return to verse 44. What phrase do verses 40 and 44 have in common? And I
will raise him up at the last day. Since we have just learned that the set
of people who are raised up at the last day are automatically equivalent to
those who believe, it follows that the set of those the Father draws in verse
44 is equivalent to those who believe. Therefore we can analytically exegete
verse 44 in the following way and remain true to the words of Christ: those
the Father draws are those who believe in the Son. The same is true of
those the “Father gives” to the Son in verse 37 and 39. Verse 39 contains the
same unifying phrase, “raise them up at the last day.”
The next
question is, do individuals believe because the Father draws them, or does the
Father draw them because they believe? Do individuals believe because the Father
gives them to the Son, or does the Father give them to the Son because they
believe? The text does not answer this either. To think it does would betray a
serious lack of analytical skills in exegesis. To assume that all that the
father gives the Son are the ones that the father chose (Calvin style) to be
saved is to beg the question. Nowhere in this passage does it say this. Jesus
specifically said that it is God’s will that those who put their faith in
Christ are the ones who will receive eternal life. So the most natural understanding
of the phrase “all that the father gives me” is those who put their faith in
Christ. Jesus provides the definition of the phrase just a few verses away
in verse 40. It’s right there. All we have to do is read and comprehend it.
Can individuals
resist the Father as he draws them? There is nothing in the text itself to
indicate they can’t. The word translated draw can mean to drag against
one’s will, or it can mean to persuade or attract, or even woo—in which
case the possibility of resistance no doubt exists. So, whether the Father is drawing
people to have faith or is drawing them into a relationship with the Son after
having believed may have an impact on whether people can resist the draw. But
in the final analysis, just as the text does not tell us which comes first—drawing
or believing, it also does not tell us whether people can resist the father as
he lovingly draws them.
It would be
helpful to point out that it’s possible for people to resist God the Holy
Spirit. In case you haven’t ripped the book of Acts out of your Bible yet, look
up Acts 7:51. It reads:
You
stiff-necked people! Your hearts and eats are still uncircumcised. You are just
like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit!
If even the
Holy Spirit can be resisted, why, oh why, would we think another member of the
Godhead (the Father) can’t be resisted as he draws people to himself in
repentance?
Jesus then sumps
up the entire dialog with the following remark in verse 47:
Truly,
truly, I tell you, he who believes has eternal life.
This is the crux of the matter (and it, by the way, most likely what inspired the
apostle Pual to place such a powerful emphasis on having faith in Christ). When
Jesus says, “truly, truly, I say to you,” he is giving us the “sum of the whole”
(as Calvin put it) of his teaching on a given topic. The pivotal issue regarding
who will receive eternal life and who will endure eternal death is the faith of
each individual—or the lack of it, not whether people are pre-programmed for
one or the other.
The text of
John 6 does not support or dismiss a deterministic or a non-deterministic
approach to soteriology. It is neutral in regards to the question of when the
Father draws believers to Christ. (The same is true in verse 65.) What we are
left with is the simple idea Christ was communicating in this dialog: no one
can come to Him—regardless of what that means—without the Father’s influence—regardless
of what that looks like. The glory ultimately belongs to God. He came up with
the entire plan, and man didn’t. This does not mean, however, that man’s
volition plays no role in the formula. John 6 doesn’t say it doesn’t, and in
fact, int indicates the opposite: he who believes has eternal life. If
we focus on what Christ was teaching in this passage rather than how we would
like it to support our favorite soteriological theories, we will have a greater
probability of comprehending his intended meaning without any preconceived theological
bias.
As we learn
from a great many other issues, if we attempt to force the text into primitive cause-and-effect
or force-resistance equations, we will distort its meaning and miss the lessons
it can teach us. It is a dreadful mistake to expect any given verse in the
Bible to marshal a comprehensive soteriological framework for us. These remarks
from Christ in John 6 were not intended to answer the soteriological questions Calvinists
want them to answer. They were intended to teach something else. To insist that
any given passage of scripture must answer every conceivable pet soteriological
question is an abuse of the biblical data rather than a thoughtful and humble
attitude of learning and discipleship. John 6:44 and the surrounding verses
teach us that the only reason people believe in the Son for their salvation is
because the Father is working behind the scenes to influence them in that
direction. If he didn’t, no one would believe. This is a million miles away from
a man-made meat-grinder that chews up the text with question-begging deterministic
blades. (Phil Bair, Calvin’s Desperation: How John Calvin’s Unbiblical
Divine Determinism Destroys the Credibility of the Christian Faith [2023], 235-39,
italics in original)