This morning I taught a Bible Class centered around John 6:37. I am also in the process of writing a book on the Gospel of John in which I have already commented on this passage. I shall here include a quote from that manuscript with some extra comments inserted. This is a most comforting verse, and yet it is misunderstood by so many who do not want to believe it.
“As Jesus was introducing Himself as the Bread of Life, the people asked Him to give them this eternal life having no clue as to what Jesus was talking about. As He explained to them of their misunderstanding, He spoke the words of verse 37. The Arminian preacher will stress the last part of this verse and they will command their hearers to just come to Jesus; He will not cast them out. They completely ignore the first part of the verse. In the midst of the people's ruin and their not understanding, Jesus said that all that had been given to Him would come to him. Now who are those who had been given to Him? When you say, it is all who come to Him in faith believing. You are wrong! It is the ones given to Him that come. The giving to Him is not dependent on the believer's coming. The coming is dependent on the having been given to Him. This takes us to Eph. 1:4 that God chose His people in Christ before the world was ever created. One may ask how that can be. The answer is because He is God. Verse 37 actually asserts that every one of God's elect will come to Christ. It is on this premise then that He says that every one who comes to Him will be received. The legend is that the great Charles Spurgeon of London, England was once asked by a student what would happen if He preached and got a person saved who was not elected. Spurgeon answered that He was sure God would forgive Him.” That is just the case. If one is not Divinely and Sovereignly chosen, He will have no desire to come to Christ. “Our Lord affirmed that He came down from Heaven to do the Father's will, and He further affirmed that the Father's will was that He would not lose any one of those the Father had given Him. This affirms two things. First that all of God's elect will come to Him and be saved, and second that all those who come and are saved will be eternally saved.”
Many people cannot understand if all of God’s elect will surely come to Christ what does He then mean by “ him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” Jesus said that he that believeth not shall be damned. Faith then is absolutely necessary. Yet the sinner is dead. Christ must quicken the sinner and draw him to Himself. This He will do for every one who has been given to Him, and not one of them will be lost. What a blessed comfort to rest in!
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