6:43,44
Jesus, as He did on several occasions, “makes matters worse”, in the sense that He gives no quarter to the perspective of the thinking of the religious leaders. Their thinking was totally wrong. First He tells them to stop grumbling, it was achieving nothing. The basic fact of the matter was that no one could come to Jesus unless the Father drew them. There are two points of offence here. The first is the reiteration of the fact that Jesus was sent by the Father, and the second is that coming to Christ is primarily in God’s hands not ours. Our destiny is in God’s hands. We need to recognise our dependence upon the Lord in all respects. The Father draws men to Christ, and on the last day Christ will raise that person from the dead. Let me note again that this does not obviate us from human responsibility. At the same time the teaching in John does not fit with the concept of “prevenient grace”. This is the concept that grace operates by making it possible for us to believe in Christ, the teaching of Jesus in John is far stronger than that.
6:45
“It is written in the prophets”. The words following are not a direct quote, but Is 54:13 and Jer 31:33,34 contain the idea that we need to be taught by God. Ezekiel also foretells God giving us a new heart. We need to learn from God. The Jewish leaders thought that they knew it all, that they could teach. Many theologians today think that they know the truth, that people need to learn from them, not learn from God. Does this mean we don’t need teachers in the church? Of course not, but if we are involved in teaching it is the word of God that we teach, and we point people to God. And the people have a personal relationship with God, they are not dependent upon us as go-betweens. And the sign that someone has learnt from God is that they come to Jesus, for it is the Father’s will that we put our trust in Christ.
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