John 6:43-46 - Coming to the Father

6:43,44

Or maybe the Jews were just keeping the grumbling among themselves. Either way Jesus commands them to stop grumbling. “No one can come to me unless the Father draws them”. Why did Jesus say this? Is it just a statement of truth explaining why, despite the overwhelming evidence, so many do not believe in Jesus? It is this, but it is also getting the people to stop looking at Jesus from a purely human perspective (cf 2 Cor 5:16). The Jews were just looking at the Jesus from the immediate human context. Likewise today if we view Jesus just as a good man, or just as a great teacher, then we will totally miss the point, we will never realise who He really is, nor ever understand Him. We need to view Jesus from the Father’s perspective. We need to see Him as the One sent by the Father, then we will see who He really is.

Jesus then says again that He will raise us up on the last day if we come to Him. In Jesus we find eternal life.

6:45,46

Jesus knew that He was the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets. Here He quotes from Isaiah 54:13. The context of this this is interesting, for Isaiah 54 comes right after Isaiah 53, the chapter that most clearly predicts the sacrificial death of Jesus, and also the resurrection. Isaiah 54 speaks to an oppressed people, and a people who are in a mess because of their sin. In short, it speaks of God bringing true freedom. The failure to appreciate that sin is our biggest problem is the point of failure for most people to appreciate who Jesus is. Often we speak of Jesus coming to meet our need. Now this is true enough, and He does indeed meet many needs, but we do need to appreciate that our need for forgiveness, justification and sanctification (ie the problems of sin!) are our greatest need.

Now see how Jesus switches again from God’s action to our action. In the previous verse He has said “no one can come to me unless the Father draws him”, stressing the Father’s side. Now He says that everyone who has heard and learned from the Father will come to Jesus. So if someone is not coming to Jesus it is a sure sign that he or she has not learnt from God.

Then we get a warning in verse 46 that no one has seen the Father except the Son. People can be very ready to claim to have seen spiritual visions and the like. Now these sorts of things do happen, and instances are recorded in the Bible, but they do not occur very often, and no one has seen the Father. So if they claim to have done so they are lying, or at least are mistaken.