"All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes
1. ACCEPTANCE
"All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away." (John 6:37) You have probably heard the old saying: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Although our journey to Christ need not be a long one, the first step is certainly the most important. It is this initial step that Jesus spoke of in the first of his "I will" promises that we examine in this book. The context of his promise is an interesting one. The sixth chapter of John contains – from a human perspective – both the high point and the low point of Jesus' ministry. At the beginning of the chapter, we see that Jesus was extremely popular and many wanted to make him a king (vss. 2, 14–15). But by the end of the chapter we see that a great many of those who were following him had turned away (vs. 66). It is at this time that Jesus explained to his remaining disciples why so many had deserted him, and gave a promise that he, on the other hand, would never reject those who came to him. There is far more to this statement than first meets the eye. As we will see, John 6:37 is a summary of some of the most important aspects of salvation – the role played by God the Father, our own role, and the role of Jesus himself – with a transcendent promise attached! We can better understand these roles and be greatly encouraged by the promise if we examine each part of Jesus' statement carefully. The Father's Role The first half of Jesus' promise: "All those the Father gives me will come to me" is packed with meaning and significance. In the Greek
in which the New Testament was written, the word "All" is impersonal and signifies a large group, while those who "come" are viewed differently – on an individual level. This shows that although we may be given to Christ as part of a group, without our own will being involved, each individual can, if so minded, refuse to come. All of the twelve disciples were given to Christ, but not all came to him (John 17:12). As Christ told many of the Jews of his day, "you refuse to come to me to have life" (John 5:40). The promise also shows that we can only come to Christ when God the Father draws us and opens our minds to understand the truth of salvation – then we are free to come. This gives us an insight into the unity of the Father and the Son that Jesus emphasized (John 10:30) – the Father is the way to the Son, and the Son is then the way to the Father (John 14:6). Yet the role of the Father remains primary as Jesus also made clear: "My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand" (John 10:29). This is good news in itself! Once God gives us the opportunity to come to Christ, no one and nothing can stop that occurring if we ourselves accept the opportunity. The crucified thief who turned to Christ provides a clear biblical example of this (Luke 23:39-43). Our Role To come to Christ means that we recognize our need of his help and believe that he can help us. It means we come to him understanding that we are sinful, needy, and wretched, and that we cast ourselves on his mercy as the only one who can save us. This is all implied in the simple Old Testament promise "everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved" (Joel 2:32 and see Romans 10:13). But the emphasis there is on "everyone" – the throwing open of the doors of salvation – rather than on what else we may need to do to enter. Jesus referred to this part of our role in the context of his promise: "my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life" (John 6:40).
Here, we see the Father's role in salvation again, but with a clarification regarding our own roles: those who come to Christ must both look to the Son and also believe in him. Many scholars have commented that "looks to" (NIV) and "looks on" (ESV) or "sees" (KJV; etc.) are really not strong enough translations. The Greek word means to look in the sense of "contemplate," and this is our first responsibility in coming to Christ – that we must think through his invitation and our response carefully. Thousands of people saw and heard Jesus during his physical ministry, but few deeply contemplated what he taught (John 6:36). Once we have contemplated what Christ tells us, we must actively come to Christ – seek him and move our will toward his in a repentant attitude. This is what Jesus meant when he said: "Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me" (John 6:45). In fact, the Greek word for "come" in these verses is not the usual one which simply expresses the act of movement toward someone or something, but one which usually denotes coming in the sense of arriving. There is no "partly coming" to Christ, we must set out and arrive! The final part of our responsibility is that we believe in Christ – as he himself said (John 3:15), and as we read continually in the New Testament (John 3:16–18; Romans 10:9; etc.). We will look at this aspect of our role in more detail later in this book (Chapter 5), but for now we can conclude by seeing how Jesus put these two aspects of coming and believing together when he said: "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not be hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty" (John 6:35). Christ's Role The last part of Christ's promise: "whoever comes to me I will never drive away," shows his own role in that he will accept all who come sincerely and – if they continue – never reject them. This is a double promise of amazing implication. It means that our past sins and present condition are no hindrance to his acceptance – that he
will never refuse to save anyone who does turn to him. But notice the repeated emphasis on coming: it is not those who merely profess Christ, but those who actually come to him who he will not reject or cast away. Responding to an altar call to "come to Christ" and saying we will is not the same as actually doing that – just as booking a vacation and actually leaving and going on the vacation are not the same. But when we truly turn to Christ and begin to move our lives toward him, his guarantee of acceptance is absolute! Jesus' words also mean that once we come to him he will not turn from us whatever our failures, as long as we remain repentant and desire to stay with him. This brings us full circle to the will of God that Jesus stressed at the beginning of his promise: "this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me" (John 6:39). And, as he also said, it is the Father's will that he give eternal life to all the Father has given him (John 17:2). This does not mean, of course, that Christians can routinely disobey God because he has guaranteed that we will not be cast away (Philippians 2:12–13). What this promise of Jesus does mean is that God has made salvation available to all those who come to Christ. And those who truly come to him will never be rejected. When we are discouraged because of our past or present failures, we can turn to the words of this promise. There are few more encouraging words in the New Testament than those found in these words: "All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away."