A Biblical Reflection On John 6 By John Hendryx
According to Scripture, all persons have a
knowledge of God (Rom
The purpose of this short essay is to show from Scripture a discussion Jesus had in his time on earth where he unequivocally asserts that it is grace alone that makes persons to differ in our response to the gospel; whether we believe it, or reject it. And to drive this point home we will show how Jesus insists that UNLESS God grants His invincible grace no one would ever believe the gospel ... yet ALL persons to whom he grants this same grace will believe unto eternal life.
I have written about this passage before but to those who have not considered Jesus discourse to the Jews in John 6, I would encourage you to take the time to reflect on it today. We find out that, when speaking to the Jews, Jesus uses a syllogism that leaves no room for human boasting. Defined simply, a syllogism is a logical formula consisting of two premises and a conclusion which follows of necessity from them. It is a combination of two judgments infallibly necessitating a third judgment as a consequence of their mutual relation. A simple example of a syllogism is: If all humans are sinners, and all Greeks are humans, then all Greeks are sinners.
You ask, what does this have to do with Jesus?
In John chapter 6, in the context of Jesus’ calling the Jews to believe the gospel about Himself and their resulting unbelief in Him, He presents them with the following two simple yet profound statements, which, when applied together necessitates the conclusion that saving grace is always both invincible and indelible. He claims that those to whom, in due season, the Spirit regenerates will infallibly believe the gospel. Grace and faith, therefore, are not the same thing, and when it comes down to why some have faith and not others, Jesus emphatically comes down on the side of grace. What I call “the Jesus syllogism”, where He authoritatively communicates this truth, should end all arguments about this issue. it can be found in the midst of his discourse with the Jews in John 6:37 & John 6:65 where He says:
“All that the
Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I
will never cast out.” (
”… no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." ( 6:65)
To give context to these texts, just prior to
verse 37 he says, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall
not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But
I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.” Here we observe
that Jesus uses the phrase “believe in me” and “come to me” interchangeably. In
fact this is the case with these phrases throughout Scripture. With this in
mind, In the context of unbelief in John 6:64 Jesus
issues a UNIVERSAL NEGATIVE“... no one can come to me UNLESS
God grants it. Since the phrase "come to Me"
is spoken of all over Scripture as a synonym of believing on him, in John 6:65
Jesus is telling us that “no one can believe on Him
UNLESS God grants it. Only the Spirit gives life (6:63). But in John
So if we look at what Jesus explicitly teaches concening who will believe (by putting these two concepts
together) He says, no one will believe in Me unless God grants it, and
ALL to whom God grants it will believe. Jesus, using a syllogism, is
making sure that no one thinks that anything apart from grace is what saves
them. That even the very desire for faith that we have is a gift of God. This
is profoundly important because it creates the inescapable conclusion that the
quickening grace of God is invincible. This is why just prior to saying “no one
can come to me UNLESS God grants it”, Jesus says, “It is the Spirit who gives
life; the flesh is of no avail.” This means that it is the Spirit who quickens,
raises our dead spirits to life, makes us born from
above (john 3:3, 6). The flesh, not referring to our physical bodies, but to
our bondage to the corruption of our sinful natures, means that the sinful
nature can do nothing of any redemptive good, including believe the gospel. How
do I know this is what it means? Because the entire context
on both sides of this verse is Jesus speaking of the Jews unbelief.
Faith, He is saying, is not a product of our unregenerate human natures. It is,
rather, the Spirit alone who can give life to our dead souls that we may
believe. Jesus is telling the same thing to Nicodemus in John 3, using the same
type of language. In verse 6 Jesus tells him, “That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” And unless one is
born this way he can neither see nor enter the
I have heard preachers say to people, “all you need to do is believe” as if this were the easiest thing in the world, but the natural man is unwilling to submit to the gospels' humbling terms. It is the massive affront to our pride to believe that we have no hope save in Jesus alone. We see this at work in this passage when, at the end of John chapter six many of those who previously were with Jesus left because his teaching was too hard and only the twelve were left. Peter confesses belief however, and Jesus responds, “…have I not chosen you?” But what is so hard about this that everyone else leaves Jesus? Hard because the gospel of grace alone strips man of all hope that he could have to contribute something, be it ever so small, to his own salvation. Never underestimate the reality of our sinful nature deceiving you this way. The gospel forces us to see our own spiritual impotence and bankruptcy in contributing anything or even lifting a finger toward our own salvation. But those who do believe the gospel we can know with certainty that the Holy Spirit has quickened them and is doing a work of grace in them. As John says in his first epistle, trusting Christ is the immediate result ot the new birth, not the cause of it:
“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God” (1 John 5:1)
It is also important to understand that Jesus “will never cast out [those the Father has given Him].” (John 6:37). This is important because those who reject the perseverance of the saints, believing that Christ does not preserve us to the end, are in effect saying that we must somehow maintain our justification before God. This is to believe that Jesus’ atonement for us is not sufficient for salvation. This is a borderline heretical view akin to what Roman Catholics believe because it makes maintenance of justification/salvation the work of man and not Christ.
To conclude, Jesus tells us that all
those whom God gives to the Son will believe in the Son and no one will believe
in the Son whom God does not grant to do so. I bring this passage up
to you because it is one of the most forceful passages in all of Scripture
relating to the invincibility of saving grace. The grace of the Holy Spirit in
regeneration is not only sufficient but efficient, unfailingly bringing about
God’s desired result. We may resist the gospel when hearing the outward call
and even resist stirrings of the Holy Spirit, but no one resists the inward
quickening and call of God (Rom 8:30; 1 Cor 1:22-24).
In the Old Testament sometimes God would discipline
To use some biblical imagery, we cast the seed of the gospel indiscriminately because the Holy Spirit alone can “germinate” the word, so to speak, unto life in Christ. The fallow ground of our hearts must first be plowed up by God, for the soil of our heart is not good by nature, but only by grace. The seed will not find good soil until God makes it so. For Ezekiel the prophet says:
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” (Ezekiel 36:25-27)
Notice that in order for obedience to take place the Lord must first cleanse our hearts, put a new spirit in us and remove our hardened uncircumcised heart. No one believes and obeys while their heart is still stone. Our blind eyes must be opened; our deaf ears unstopped and corrupt nature must be supernaturally changed by the Holy Spirit, for man to begin to have any good thoughts about Christ.
Posted by John on