I loved this devotional. We recognize who Christ is- the 1 God in the flesh and run to Him for salvation, because us undeserving, wicked sinners are elect. Don't think you are better than anyone. God gets the glory. Man profits nothing. I gain a lot from Bible reading and those calvinist studies just feed water to my parched soul. When you realize you are God's beloved, nothing else truly matters. Truly.
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"Then they said to Him, "Lord, always give us this bread." John 6:34 NASB
This is where we ended last week. The use of "Lord" here simply means "sir," they do not see Yeshua as Lord. The crowd was under the mistaken impression that the true bread from heaven was an actual, edible bread like the manna their ancestors had eaten. They wanted some new type of physical bread from then on that would never spoil. They are saying, "Be like Moses, just keep on giving us the bread of God, the manna that fills our stomachs. Yeshua, however, identifies Himself as this true bread:
Yeshua said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. John 6:35 NASB
The Jews asked for something from Christ: He offers them Himself. "I am the bread of life"—it's not that Yeshua gives the bread of life, but He is the bread of life. He offers spiritual food that will completely satisfy man's hunger. Bread here is metonym for food, nourishing food that gives life and sustenance. Just as physical life depends on food so spiritual life depends on Yeshua.
We'll come back next week and look more in depth at Yeshua's statement here, but for this morning we are going to focus on several statements that are made in the remainder of this chapter that teach the sovereignty of God in salvation.
"He who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst"—what I want you to see here is that "coming to Yeshua" and "believing in Yeshua" are synonymous concepts. These are parallel terms, coming to Christ is the same as believing in Christ and vise versa. This is very important in understanding this text.
"But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. John 6:36 NASB
Don't mistake the crowd's having sought out and followed Yeshua as being an expression of faith in Him. Remember, just moments before the crowd had asked Yeshua for a sign as proof that they should believe in Him in the first place, and that was in response to His having told them they must believe in Him. They have already seen Him in a Messianic function at the feeding, and yet did not see the sign in His miracle, and so did not truly see Him or believe in Him. It's crucial that we remember this as we examine these verses. Yeshua is addressing the crowd's unbelief.
So Yeshua tells them that even though they have seen Him perform miraculous signs, they don't believe in Him. Then He says:
"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. John 6:37 NASB
Remember that two verses earlier Yeshua had connected "coming" to Him to "believing in Him." So, since the crowd does not believe in Him, they have not "come" to Him. It is this unbelief, then, which Yeshua is addressing in this verse. So an unasked question that Yeshua may be answering here is, "Why is it that Jews, the very people of God are not believing in their Messiah." Or, "Is Yeshua's ministry a failure? Since the very people He came to, do not believe in Him." Not at all, Yeshua is in effect saying, "Your unbelief notwithstanding, the Father's will is perfect and undeterred. ALL the Father gives Me WILL come to Me."
David Brown in his commentary on John writes:
"This comprehensive and very grand passage is expressed with a peculiar artistic precision…'ALL THAT THE FATHER GIVETH ME SHALL COME TO ME'—that is, 'Though ye, as I told you, have no faith in Me, My errand into the world shall ino wise be defeated; for all that the Father giveth Me shall infallibly come to Me.'…This 'shall' expresses the glorious certainty of it, the Father being pledged to see to it that the gift be no empty mockery."
Why does any one come to believe in Yeshua? It is only because He was given by the Father to the Son. So the reason that anyone does not believe is because they were not given by the Father to the Son.
Remember "coming to Christ" and "believing in Christ" are synonyms. So who believes in Yeshua? "All that the Father gives to Yeshua"—the ability to believe on Yeshua requires divine enablement. It is only those whom "the Father" enables to believe that "come to" Yeshua in faith. These are "all" the people whom "the Father gives" to the Son as gifts. Yeshua viewed the ultimate cause of faith as God's electing grace, not man's choice.
Arminians, the order here is crucial. "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me"—Yeshua does not say that all who come to Him will then be given to Him by the Father. We do not determine by our response who will be the Father's gift to the Son. Rather our response is determined by the prior election of God.
The word "gives" is a word of destiny. It's divine sovereign election. The concept of the elect being a love gift from the Father to the Son is taught throughout Scripture. Notice what Isaiah writes:
Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. Isaiah 8:18 NASB
Who is speaking here? The Epistle to the Hebrews quotes these words as the distinct words of Yeshua:
And again, "I WILL PUT MY TRUST IN HIM." And again, "BEHOLD, I AND THE CHILDREN WHOM GOD HAS GIVEN ME." Hebrews 2:13 NASB
Speaking of Isaiah 8:18 The IVP Bible Background Commentary states:
"These are not the words of the prophet, speaking of himself and his natural children, nor of his spiritual children, his disciples, called sometimes the sons of the prophets; but of Christ, who has a seed, a spiritual offspring who are given Him of God, in the covenant of grace."[IVP Bible Background Commentary].
The Tanakh Scriptures represent the Father as promising the Son a certain reward for His sufferings on behalf of sinners:
But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. 11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. Isaiah 53:10-11 NASB
"He will see His offspring"—this is a reference to the elect of God. God has given the elect to Christ, we are children of promise. Notice, that it says "He will see it and be satisfied," and not frustrated.
So when Yeshua says, "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me"—He is saying, "Though many may reject me, all that have been given me by my Father will believe in me." How can Yeshua be sure that those who the Father has given Him will come to Him? What if their will is not to come to the Son?
"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:44 NASB
Notice the words "come to me" as we have noted this can be translated, "believe in me." Some have tried to interpret the word "draw" here as "call or invite." Some people would go so far as to say God calls or invites everybody equally and at all times. They would say that the Father draws everybody, and everybody can choose to refuse.
This view distorts the text. If this is all that Yeshua is trying to say, His words make no sense in the context of the discussion in which He spoke them. His words only make sense if the implication is that His objectors may not have been drawn.
There are three things I want to point out here. The first is the phrase "no one." This is a "universal negative." That is to say that the phrase "no one" includes both classes of people, Jews and Gentiles. Second, are the words "can come to Me"—this has to do with the ability of man. Yeshua was saying, "No one, neither Jew nor Gentile, has the ability to come to Me." Lastly, there is the word "unless." This word is a "necessary condition." Yeshua said that the necessary condition for someone coming to Him was God giving it to them. What does God give them? Ability. Simply put, God gives man the ability to come to Christ. Man, on his own, does not have that ability.
Let's look at the word "draws," the Greek word translated "draws" is helkuo, which means: "to drag." It is used eight times in the New Testament. To understand what it means, let's look at a few of its uses:
Simon Peter then, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's slave, and cut off his right ear; and the slave's name was Malchus. John 18:10 NASB
The word "drew" is helkuo; does "call or invite" make any sense here? Did Peter invite or call his sword to come out? No! He grabbed it, and pulled it out. What did the sword have to say about being drawn? Nothing!
But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities, Acts 16:19 NASB
The word "dragged" is helkuo; does "call or invite" make any sense here? They did not invite Paul and Silas to the market place, they grabbed them and dragged them:"
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