Or, Why Coming to Jesus Is No Drag
Scripture: John 6:41-46
Date: May 27, 2012
Speaker: Sean Higgins
Jesus promises soul satisfaction, He offers the bread of life, a forever hunger-filling and thirst-quenching unlike any other. He identifies Himself as the bread of life that comes down from heaven. Men don’t need to travel to foreign lands or fight mythical monsters to win this bread. All they need to do is come to Him, believe in Him, and all this eternal life is theirs. And like typical religious empty-hearts, the men in John 6 complain.
So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” (John 6:41–42, ESV)
This group of Jews are Galilean Jews in Capernaum (see verse 59), many of whom pursued Him from the other side of the Sea. They grumbled , one of my all time favorite Greek words. I even had a form of this word as my first AOL email address. It is from γογγύζω (gogguzo), an onomatopoetic word, that is, a word formed from the sound associated with it (for example, “boom,” “pow,” “pop”). Gogguzo means “to express oneself in low tones of disapprobation, grumble, murmur” (BDAG), mutter. So “goggugoggu” or “grrrrrr.” They grumbled about one particular thing that Jesus said: I have come down from heaven . They thought they knew Him. Is not this Jesus, the Son of Joseph? In other words, “We know his daddy. He grew up down the street. He can’t claim to be from heaven.”
So, they would have been fine receiving more miraculous bread from Him as long as it didn’t require submission to Him as God. They understood that Jesus was claiming divinity and that offended them. They don’t have an identity crisis, they have an identity criticism.
Jesus responds in verses 43-51. There is a topic break between verses 48 and 49, as “eat” and “feed” dominate from verse 49 on. Most paragraph breaks appear after verse 51 with a new round of indignation in verse 52. There is a significant amount to cover so we’ll see how far we can get.
Jesus commands them to stop complaining.
Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. (John 6:43, ESV)
Jesus doesn’t simply command them to stop grumbling, He says stop grumbling among yourselves . Look again at verse 41, they grumbled “about Him” not to Him. Look at verse 42, we know His not Your mother and father. “How does He now say” not “how do You say.” They weren’t grumbling to Jesus, they were grumbling about Him.
It’s a classic pattern. We love talking about our complaints to people who can’t do anything about our complaints except listen.
I think this is a key to why Jesus commands them anyway. He’s about ready to say in verse 44 that He knows why they can’t understand. They can’t comprehend and come without the Father drawing them. Why bother telling them to stop grumbling? If He knew why they couldn’t get it, why tell them to stop complaining that they didn’t get it? It is an odd imperative.
Perhaps it’s because He’s graciously and authoritatively directing their focus where it needed to be: on Himself. It’s as if He said, “Stop grumbling among yourselves and deal with Me. I just offered eternal life with guaranteed resurrection and you think that you can sort out what’s going on by fussing to each other about paternity concerns?” Jesus confronts their intellectual pride, as if they had the ability to figure things out on their own. So Jesus isn’t commanding them to calm down, He’s calling them to wake up.
Jesus also confronts their self-determining pride.
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, ESV)
Here Jesus shakes out the corners of the explanation of unbelief He began to unfold in verse 37. He uses many of the same ideas: coming to Him, the Father doing something, and He Himself raising them up on the last day.
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
All — the ones given by the Father — will come. Now, no one — of anyone — can come without the Father drawing. Not only does this explain how the given ones come (the Father draws them), it also removes any hope of human discernment or decisiveness or self-determination. The giving and the drawing only make sense if the Father is selecting.
This isn’t new. John wrote it already in John 1:12-13.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12-13, ESV)
Behind the scenes, God moves. This is the sovereign regenerating work of the Holy Spirit we heard about in John 3:8. We are learning more about the Triune plans here as well.
The “coming” to Jesus was a problem. In this seminar by Jesus, coming is the same as believing, is the same as eating and drinking. All of these are ways to describe someone who identifies with Christ for life. Why weren’t these Jews coming? They saw His miracles. They heard His teaching. Why didn’t they take His offer of eternal life? I mean, it sounds like a good deal? What did they have to lose?
It wasn’t lack of evidence; a baker’s dozen of baskets of loaves and fishes wouldn’t have done it. It wasn’t ignorance of the offer; Jesus keeps repeating it. It wasn’t obscurity of truth, including (for them) full access to Scripture. These are things that we tend to blame, the resources we gather and work to dispense when someone we love isn’t coming to Christ. These Jews could not prove in court that they were missing anything but desire. The reason they didn’t take His offer, the reason that they didn’t come to Him is that they did not want to.
Believing has more to do with the will than with the mind. Both are broken, but one is upstream. We do not have a data problem first, we have a desire problem first. We are not lacking know-how we are lacking want-to.
How can the will be fixed? If right wanting is needed before right thinking, then trying to change thinking first can’t help the wanting. This doesn’t mean that thinking and truth are unimportant. But intellectual assent is not believing for life. Gathering truth nuggets isn’t the same as eating. How can we get someone to want to eat?
We can’t.
This is what the Father does. This is what the Father must do. The Father, through the Spirit, changes desires. That’s what Jesus refers to when He said, “The Father who sent me draws him.”
The word “draws” (ἑλκύσῃ, helkuse) is defined as “to move an object from one area to another in a pulling motion, with the implication that the object being moved is incapable of propelling itself or in the case of a person is unwilling to do so voluntarily, in either case with implication of exertion on the part of the mover” (BDAG), so “pull” or even “drag."1
"Drag” is a word we associate, especially with people, as doing something against their will. “Drag” is an English word with baggage over the weight limit. We drag someone kicking and screaming. We drag teenagers out of bed who don’t want to get up. So how can Jesus say that the Father draws, He actively initiates and pulls toward His Son and yet not say that a bunch of people are in heaven who hate it? Are there are whole group of Christians who “have to be,” who follow Christ who don’t want to?
No! May it never be! Who are the ones the Father draws? The same ones who come, not the ones who kick. Grace overcomes resistance. Believing is voluntary, active, and free, just as healthy babies breath freely once they are born. No one makes them. The Father takes the blinds off our eyes so that we see Jesus as irresistibly attractive.
Don’t miss which comes first: the given come, the drawn come. It does not help to say that a person starts coming and then God gives, or a person starts coming and then God draws (the rest of the way). We could look at any number of other passages but if we want to understand this passage, let’s look here first.
Does the Father draw EVERYONE (making coming possible)? Or, does the Father draw SOME, EVERYONE HE GIVES (making coming actual)?
First, the context: Jesus is explaining their unbelieving. In verses 35-40, they saw and didn’t believe (verse 36) in contrast to those who see and believe (verse 40). The difference is that they are given (verse 37). In verses 41-48, they grumble rather than come (verse 41) in contrast to those who come. The reason that they come is because they are drawn (verse 44).
Second, the cause: Jesus is explaining their incapability. It would have been easy for Jesus to hear them grumbling about Him and say that they were the missing link. “The Father cannot draw anyone to Me unless they come to Me.” That is exactly not His point. The Father is not incapable, the people are incapable. “No one,” not a single person is able to take a step. If the drawing just makes coming possible, no one would come. The same cause reversal comes in verse 37. “All who come to Me the Father gives to Me” is not the order.
There are two perspectives, an earthly and a heavenly. From our perspective, men must come, they must believe and we see that happen. From God’s perspective, He selects and gives and draws. While there are two perspectives on the same activity, there is only one cause. How does someone get from beholding to believing? Beholding — GOD WORKS — then believing.
Third, the covenant: Jesus explains God’s plan.
The need for His initiation is something they should have known.
It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. (John 6:45–46, ESV)
Jesus references the Prophets , a plural, and uses one as His example. “And they will all be taught by God” paraphrases Isaiah 54:13. But Isaiah is not the only one to talk about the glorious day. Jeremiah does (31:31-37), Ezekiel does (36:22-38), Joel does (2:28-32).
Why was the New Covenant so significant? Because the Jews could not perform all the law. They couldn’t perform all the law because they couldn’t change their own hearts. The truth, the knowledge, didn’t do it. Seeing God’s miraculous deliverances and provisions didn’t do it. They needed new hearts if they were going to get it and the New Covenant promise was that God would initiate. God was going to immediately, spiritually give life. God gives enablement. Jesus backs up His statement about the Father drawing by referencing the Father’s promise to draw, to change hearts, to “teach."
"Hearing” and “learning” from the Father happens supernaturally even if He utilizes natural means. I say that because some of the people “heard” and “saw” and still weren’t coming. God must do invisible things, internal things in the hearts. He must change desires. The Old Testament reveals just that prophetic drawing.
Also, He doesn’t do that without reference to Jesus. God teaches through the Word, written and Incarnate. No one can claim that the Father has done such supernatural work who has not come to Jesus. That’s why Jesus adds that He has seen the Father . Being spiritual, claiming divine hearing and learning apart from the Son or with no reference to the one “from God” is a false claim.
Near the end of this discussion, Jesus repeats the point of verse 44.
”It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” (John 6:63-65, ESV)
Jesus knew “the ones not believing” plural and “the one betraying” singular. Judas is an example: “I know Judas doesn’t believe, that’s why I told you that God draws everyone” doesn’t work.
The word “granted” in verse 65 is a different verb but belongs in the sequence. The Father gives to men the desire to come as He draws men as He gives them to the Son. Those who do not want Christ, who do not come to Christ are lost in the dead desires of their sinful souls.
Much still to say, more to come.
Nevertheless, this is exactly what the unbelieving needed to hear. How? Because it is deadly to depend on our own religious discernment and desires. The Jews were not paying attention to Jesus or the life He offered. They were paying attention to their own categories and their own abilities. They needed to come to Jesus but they couldn’t because of their pride. Men depend on their own: discernment, decision, dependence when God must grant them the desire to their delight. Drawing takes the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit according the revelation of the Son giving sight and satisfaction to the believer.
That is why these truths about sovereign, loving grace are so needed. We cannot enjoy life with our pride. We cannot enjoy life with our pessimism. We will not be hungry and thirsty if we depend on ourselves.
No man comes to Christ unless He is drawn changes worship. The Word cuts us up and arranges us as sacrifices:
This is why we pray with hope in God. “Lord, draw them!” This is why we proclaim the gospel with hope in God. The gospel is the power of God to salvation. This is why we persevere with hope in God. “Father, You’ve drawn me to Your Son, don’t let me go!”
The Greek word translated “draw” (a form of ἕλκω) in John 6:44 is also used in John 12:32; 18:10; 21:6; 21:11; Acts 16:19; 21:30, and James 2:6. Of the eight passages, only John 6:44 and 12:32 appear to refer to internal drawing rather than externally moving an inanimate object or dragging persons by force. ↩