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John 6:35-40 The One Who Comes To Me…
John 6:35-40 MKJV And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes on Me shall never thirst. (36) But I said to you that you also have seen Me and do not believe. (37) All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will in no way cast out. (38) For I came down from Heaven, not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me. (39) And this is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all which He has given Me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day. (40) And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes on Him should have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the last day.
Today we will pick up the last verse from yesterday (v.35) and go on to look at some of the Bible’s most interesting verses about our common salvation.
Eternal life requires an infinite resource to sustain it and faith in Christ will give us the spiritual resources (bread of life) that will sustain us for eternity. All other sources of power will fade away or be limited in some way. All complexity requires maintenance, or it falls into decay – and life is complex! So God sustains the believer through Christ who works in us for our good.
In verse 36, Jesus then accuses the crowd of unbelief, of being cynical spectators in the salvation story wanting “one more sign” before they will believe – and thus never believing! They actually saw Jesus do the miracles – and yet still did not believe!
Verse 37 says: “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will in no way cast out.” Salvation is like a train to Heaven. Anyone who wants to can get on the train, and no one who gets on the Salvation Train will ever be thrown off. And everyone who the Father wants on the Salvation Train will be aboard. The Salvation Train is Christ and all who are “in Him” (through grace, by faith) are on the path to salvation – and will arrive, for the train is safe.
Verse 38 tells us that Jesus came not to do His own will – which is also in line with the prayer in Gethsemane: Matthew 26:39 MKJV And He went a little further and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.
Some create great problems for the doctrine of the Trinity in this supposed conflict between the will of Jesus Christ and the will of the Father. They ask: “How can one God have three separate wills, that is a will for each of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit?” An analogy might be a perfect marriage, which does not stifle individuality, but still makes the two people into one. It is in the nature of personality to want to unite with another, and it is also the nature of personality to exercise free will. Jesus Christ would not be a full person if He did not possess a free will – and neither would the Father! But the will of Jesus Christ is a freely surrendered will. God is complicated and in His complexity He is a Trinity of three eternal persons in one essential and unified Being. Each person has utterly and totally free will, but that free will is exercised in harmony and grace and perfect unity.
The last two verses tell us about the sureness of our resurrection glorification: (39) And this is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all which He has given Me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day. (40) And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes on Him should have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the last day.
Not all who thought they followed Jesus were those “which He has given Me I should lose nothing.” Those who followed for bread, or to make Jesus a political Messiah or for personal profit like Judas – these fell away. They were followers but not true believers. What then are the characteristics of true believers who will be raised on the last day? “That everyone who sees the Son and believes on Him should have everlasting life.” They see (Literally behold, gaze continually at) Christ and believe in Him. Jesus’ words are taken with utmost seriousness by true believers - they obey His commandments and love His righteousness.
False followers have a strong personal agenda that is primary and which God must fit into – bread, political power, money, and various personal desires. When God offends their personal agenda, and asks for Isaac to be put on the altar, they turn back from the faith. On the other hand true believers can sing “All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give” and truly mean it.
We need to spend much time beholding Jesus and believing Him. The verbs are present participles “who is seeing the Son and who is believing on Him” – and this implies continuous action, it is not a one off spiritual experience but a daily habit of faith in Jesus the Son of God.
In the end it must be God’s will, not our will and God’s ambitions and interests, not our ambitions and interests, and to such folk, the true believers salvation is safe and sure and guaranteed.
Jesus Christ the Son of God will come in glory and power and will raise true believers on the Last Day. We will have both eternal life and a glorious, eternal and immortal resurrection body (1 Corinthians 15:35-58) and become like the angels in Heaven. Luke 20:35-36 CEV But in the future world no one who is worthy to rise from death will either marry or die. They will be like the angels and will be God's children, because they have been raised to life.
That is worth sacrificing our personal desires for!
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