João 6:37

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All that the Father giveth me. — There is something startling in this power of the human will to reject the fullest evidence, and to remain unbelieving, after the proof which it has itself demanded as a foundation for its belief. In that assembly there are representatives of the differing stages of faith and non-faith in Him, which every age of Christianity has seen. Here are men in the pride of human wisdom rejecting Him because He does not fulfil their own idea of what the Messiah should be. Here are men of humble heart finding in Him the satisfaction of the soul’s deepest wants, and believing and knowing that He is the Holy One of God (João 6:69). Here are men of the Nicodemus type, passing from one stage to the other, almost believing, but held back by their will, which willeth not to believe. Here are men, too, of the Judas type (João 6:64; João 6:71), traitors even in the faithful few. For these varying effects there must be a cause, and in the next few verses Jesus dwells upon this. He finds the reason (1) in the eternal will of God, of whose gift it is that man willeth; and (2) in the determination of the will of man, of whose acceptance it is that God giveth. Men have seized now one and now the other of these truths, and have built upon them in separation logical systems of doctrine which are but half-truths. He states them in union. Their reconciliation transcends human reason, but is within the experience of human life. It is, as St. Bernard said, following the words of Jesus, “If there is no free will, there is nothing to save; if there is no free grace, there is nothing wherewith to save; “or, in words more familiar to English ears, “.... the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will” (the Tenth Article of Religion).

And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. — It is not easy to improve the English rendering of this verse, and there is a sacredness in the sound of the old, old words; but still, they convey to few readers the full meaning of the original. The word “come” is made to serve, within two or three lines, for three different Greek words. Literally, we should read, All that the Father giveth Me shall arrive at Me, and him that is on the way I will in no wise cast out: for I am come down.... The present tense of “giveth” should be noted. The giving is not of an act in the past, but of a ceaseless love ever in the present. The word “all” is the neuter of the collective whole, thought of without reference to individual action. It is repeated, and still with reference to the gift in João 6:39; while in João 6:40, with the thought of each man’s coming, it passes to the masculine, which marks out the separate life and faith of every unit in the mass.

It may be that the words “come” (arrive at) and “cometh” (is on the way), contrasted as they are in this verse, refer to the different positions of those who seek Him — to the ninety and nine in the fold, and the one who in the far distance hears His voice and comes in doubt and fear; but the context seems rather to point out the fulfilment of the Messianic kingdom as the Father’s gift, and the individual difficulties of, and individual help given to, those who strive to enter it, and shall in no wise be cast out. There were men among those who heard Him who in darkness and difficulty were feeling their way: these men were guided and strengthened by an unseen hand until they found it; there were men there who were being cast out but not by Him.

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