6:63
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all”. The Jewish leaders were intent on devising their own ways of being righteous. They had the Law, which was from God, but then they made all sorts of rules and regulations with the intention that this would enable them to keep the Law. This was a futile task, one doomed to failure. The reason was that the root of the problem, the fundamental cause of our inability to keep the Law, lies with our sinfulness, it lies in the heart of man. In Romans 8 Paul tells us that if we try to live by the flesh we cannot please God, it is only by living by the Spirit that we can find life (Rom 8:5-8). So how do we live by the Spirit? We need to listen to the words of Jesus , they are spirit and life.
6:64,65
Jesus knew full well that many of the disciples did not believe. He also “knew from the beginning” that Judas would betray Him. The betrayal by Judas was never a surprise for Jesus, this does not strip Judas of his responsibility. “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.” It is so deeply ingrained in us that we can find our own way to God, that we can please Him by our own efforts. So here even choosing to follow Him for a while achieved nothing. For unless we have been born again, there will come a point before long when something that Jesus says will offend us, as happened to the people here. We need a change of heart, and only God can do that for us.
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