atp,
I agree that John 6:44 teaches that people need to be 'drawn' by the Father to receive eternal life. However, does God only draw a select, fixed number of people for salvation?
When I examine the context of 6:37, it states, 'All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out' (ESV). That sounds like predestination, as understood by Calvinism, is signed, sealed and delivered. Only those drawn by the Father will come, but there is a handicap: the language is 'whoever comes'.
However, 6:47 states that 'whoever believes has eternal life'.
Are there limitations on God's drawing power? There certainly are according to the Presbyterian and Reformed standard in the Westminster Confession of Faith:
(2) WCF 3:3-4 – Some are predestined to eternal life, others foreordained to death; this number is fixed.
There is a stumbling block in John 12:32 - so it seems: 'And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself’ (ESV). How can ALL people be drawn to Jesus if only the ones given by the Father - the limited number of the elect - are the drawn ones. That sounds like a contradiction to me.
Don Carson (Calvinistic commentator) gets around it with the interpretation of
Here, ‘all men’ reminds the reader of what triggered these statements,
viz. the arrival of the Greeks, and means ‘all people without distinction, Jews and Gentiles alike’, not all individuals without exception, since the surrounding context has just established judgment as a major theme (v. 31) (Carson 1991:444).
That's a typical Calvinistic technique of making 'all men/people' equal 'all kinds of people and not every person in the world'.
BUT THERE'S A PROBLEM ...
John 6:37 teaches:
- ‘all that’ refers to the mass of people, ‘each individual’;
- The neuter ‘him that’ (‘whoever’ ESV) is ‘the neuter singular and is used as an abstract expression and as such sums up the whole mass of believers of all ages and speaks of them as a unit’ (Lenski 1943:463).
- ‘All believers are regarded as one complete unit’ (Vincent 1887/1946:150).
Lenski considers this passage (John 6:37 ff) teaches, "the gift as having been made once for all and now being permanent as such a gift…. For all that the Father “gives to me,” Jesus says, “shall get to me … because the Father’s gift cannot possibly fail…. In v. 39 the perfect tense, “all that he has given to me,” pictures the gift from the viewpoint of the last day when Jesus will appear and will not have lost any part of the gift" (Lenski 1887/1946:464).
John 6:37 (ESV) states, 'Whoever comes to me...', so it amounts to a personal, voluntary decision, based on God's drawing (v 44) and it is because of God's grace alone. It will be effective and is capable of changing the unwilling person into the willing - not irresistible or by coercion. People can stubbornly refuse to come to Christ. But the one who comes is able to do so because of God's wonderful power of grace: 'For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people' (Titus 2:11 NIV).
John 12:32 is possible because of Jesus' gracious drawing. Everyone is drawn but because of their depraved stubbornness, it nullifies the power of grace and leads to hardening of the heart. Matt 23:37 gives an example of how this happens: 'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!' (NRSVA)
From an examination of these verses, I conclude that the biblical emphasis is that God provides salvation, extends his grace to all people, but they can be stubborn and resist his offer. God does not have a fixed number in the list who are unconditionally elected, the only ones for whom Jesus died, and are irresistibly drawn by Jesus to salvation.
The latter view kills evangelism and makes God into the Almighty who shows favouritism to a certain few.
He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality (Rom 2:6-11 ESV).
Oz
