Tong2020 said:
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First the answer to the question “is there any one will of the Father that He commanded of Jesus to do that Jesus had not done or will not be able to do?” is NONE. Is that not true? How could truth be a problem?
Now, let’s go to verse 40. It is clear, Jesus said “the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life,”. This speaks of the will of the Father concerning those who sees the son and believes in Him. It’s basically the same as what He told us in v.39.
At this point let me take you back to verse 37. In v.37, Jesus tells us about those the Father had given Him in v.39, saying “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me”. Now what does Jesus meant in saying “will come to Me”? As per context, it is another way of saying “will believe in Him”. It does not mean going to Jesus and seeing Him. So those whom that Father has given to the Son, Jesus in effect is telling us, that they will believe in Him. Now considering v.65 where Jesus said “no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father“, it means that the coming to Jesus or the believing in Jesus is something no one could do, unless it has been granted to him by the Father.
Having said that, we go back to v.40. We can now tell who the “everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him” refers to them whom the Father had given to the Son in v.39.
Now the question is, did the Father give them to the Son to raise up at the last day because they believe, or did they believe in Him because the Father has given them to the Son? Clearly, it is the latter.
I’d like to draw our attention to the CONTEXT clue given in verse 38.
Everyone whom my Father gives me will come to me. I will never turn away anyone who comes to me, 38 because I have come down from heaven to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And it is the will of him who sent me that I should not lose any of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them all to life on the last day. (John 6:37-39, emphasis added)
Jesus is clearly speaking contextually of what is happening while he is “down from heaven.” While on earth God has clearly sent Christ to accomplish a specific part of His redemptive will. Is that will to be a great evangelist, like Peter in Acts 2, and win thousands to faith? Clearly not. God’s will is for Jesus to come “down from heaven” and train a group of pre-selected Israelites (those given to Him to be apostles) to carry the gospel to the rest of the world and establish His Church after He is raised up (John 12:32; Mt. 28:19).
Jesus, while here on earth in the flesh, is speaking to Israel by means of parables, and they are, generally speaking in spirit of stupor, and he's using provoking language, while only drawing to himself (while on earth) a remnant of Israelite messengers (to carry out the purpose for which Israel was elected from the beginning: to bring the light to the rest of the world – Gen. 12:3; Rom. 3:2).
In other words, Jesus’ audience in John 6 is made up of his apostles from Israel and the already calloused Israelites.
The reason his audience walks away is not because God rejected them from before the foundation of the earth, as Calvinism presumes.
God has consistently expressed his desire for the repentance and faith of the Israelite people (Mt. 23:37; Rom. 10:31; Ezk 18:30-31; 2 Peter 3:9, 1 Tim. 2:4, etc). They are walking away because God has sealed them over in their already rebellious condition for a time in order to accomplish His redemptive plan, as was prophesied (Acts 2:23). Israel is not rejecting God because God rejected them!
Is the intent of John 6 to tell us the narrative of Jesus’ provoking Israel in their hardened unbelief while drawing out for himself a remnant of messengers to take the gospel into all the world, drawing all to himself, after he is raised up?
When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to me. – John 12:32
Yes, no one can come to Christ unless they are drawn by his truth. As Paul states, “How can they believe in one whom they have not heard?” But one must understand that the Jews of that day were “seeing but not perceiving” because of their being temporarily blinded by God (John 12:39-41), not because of a innate disabled nature due to the Fall.
This was their temporary state until the powerful and enabling truth of the gospel is completed in Christ’s resurrection and He is lifted up that He sends that gospel to be proclaimed in all the earth, thus drawing “all men to himself” (John 12:32).
For this people’s [Israel’s] heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ “Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen! (Acts 28:27-28)
Israel has become calloused otherwise they might turn and be healed, but the Gentiles, who have not become calloused, will listen to the message. The means of drawing all men is the gospel and even Calvinists admit that is sent to be proclaimed to every individual. “Faith comes by hearing” and the only reason someone may not “have ears to hear” is if God has blinded them as He did to Israel at that crucial point in history. So, unless you happen to come across someone who is being blinded by God from the truth of the gospel so as to accomplish the redemption of the world through their rebellion, you can assume that the gospel is more than sufficient to enable their response to it’s appeal.
The gospel truth is the means God has appointed to DRAW all men to himself, so preach it boldly and confidently knowing that it is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16). For ALL men.
