jesus picked you

Ver. 44. No man can come to me.—Here: reach Me; in particular: reach an understanding of My nature, apprehend the Spirit in the flesh, Deity in humanity, the Son of God in the Nazarene. Except the Father draw him.—Ἑλκύειν denotes all sorts of drawing, from violence to persuasion or invitation. But persons can be drawn only according to the laws of personal life. Hence this is not to be taken in a high predestinarian sense (Calvin: It is false and impious to say non nisi volentes trahi; Beza: Volumus, quia datum est, ut velimus; Aretius: Hic ostendit Christus veram causam murmuris esse quod non sint electi). Yet on the other hand the force of the added clause, denoting a figurative, vital constraint, subduing by the bias of want, of desire, of hope, of mind, must not be abated. The drawing of the Father is the point at which election and fore-ordination become calling (the vocatio efficax), represented as entirely the work of the Father. Meyer: “The ἑλκύειν is the mode of the διδόναι, an internal pressing and leading to Christ by the operation of divine grace (Jer. 30:3, Sept.), though not impairing human freedom.” The element of calling is added through the word of Christ. Hence: The Father who sent Me. As sent of the Father, He executes the Father’s work and word. The congruence of the objective work of salvation and the subjective operation of salvation in the individual.

[Ἑλκύειν (or ἕλκω, fut. ἕλξω, which is preferred to έλκύσω by the Attic writers), to draw, to drag, to force, almost always implies force or violence, as when it is used of wrestling, bending the bow, stretching the sail, or when a net is drawn to the land, a ship into the sea, the body of an animal or a prisoner is dragged along, or a culprit is drawn before the tribunal (comp. John 18:10; 21:6, 11; Acts 16:19, and the classical Dictionaries, also Meyer, p. 266). It is certainly much stronger than δίδωσι, ver. 37, and implies active or passive resistance, or obstructions to be removed. Here and in 12:32, it does, of course, not mean physical or moral compulsion, for faith is in its very nature voluntary, and coming to Christ is equivalent to believing in Him; but it clearly expresses the mighty moral power of the infinite love of the Father who so orders and overrules the affairs of life and so acts upon our hearts, that we give up at last our natural aversion to holiness, and willingly, cheerfully and thankfully embrace the Saviour as the gift of gifts for our salvation. The natural inability of man to come to Christ, however, is not physical nor intellectual, but moral and spiritual; it is an unwillingness. No change of mental organization, no new faculty is required, but a radical change of the heart and will. This is effected by the Holy Ghost, but the providential drawing of the Father prepares the way for it.—P. S.]¹

But it is God’s sovereign grace that invites us, chooses us, and marks out the way of this pilgrimage into faith. The initiative is His! We respond! As John Calvin has put it, “Faith is not at man’s disposal, so that this man or that may believe indiscriminately and by chance, but that God elects those whom He hands over, as it were, to his Son.” Here we see the perfect harmony of the Father and the Son. Eight times in this chapter Jesus speaks of His having “come from heaven.” The Son is eager to please the Father, for the will of the Father is His will. So whoever the Father draws and gives to the Son, He receives and keeps.

“All” are kept! None is cast out!

The salvation of those who are drawn and believe is assured. In verses 39–54 Jesus speaks of keeping these till the end, of “raising these up at the last day” four times. It is not our feeble hold on Christ that is our assurance of salvation, but His sure grip on those who believe.

The Father is patiently working, gathering His whole family of believers, a complete, inclusive community. This calling together of God’s people is the deepest key to history. “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world… then the end will come” (Matt. 24:14).²

“You want bread? Well, I am the Bread of Life. But you have seen Me, and you do not believe. All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me; and him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out.”

This thirty–seventh verse is a very important verse. There is a theological argument that rages today on election or free will. There are some people who put all their eggs in the basket of election. There are others who put all their eggs in the basket of free will. I’m not proposing to reconcile the two because I have discovered that I cannot. If you had met me the year that I entered seminary, or the year I graduated, I could have reconciled them for you. I never have been as smart as I was my first year and my last year in seminary. I knew it all then. I could reconcile election and free will, and it was a marvelous explanation. Now I’ve even forgotten what it was. It was pretty silly, if you want to know the truth.

Election and free will are both in this verse. “All that the father giveth me shall come to me” states a truth, and that is election. But wait a minute! “And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” is also true, and “him that cometh to me” is free will. I don’t know how to reconcile them, but they are both true. The Father gives men to Christ, but men have to come. And the ones that come are the ones, apparently, whom the Father gives to Him. You and I are down here, and we don’t see into the machinery of heaven. I don’t know how God runs that computer of election, but I know that He has given to you and to me a free will and we have to exercise it.

Because Spurgeon preached a “whosoever will” gospel, someone said to him, “If I believed like you do about election, I wouldn’t preach like you do.” Spurgeon’s answer was something like this, “If the Lord had put a yellow stripe down the backs of the elect, I’d go up and down the street lifting up shirttails, finding out who had the yellow stripe, and then I’d give them the gospel. But God didn’t do it that way. He told me to preach the gospel to every creature that ‘whosoever will may come.’” Jesus says, “… and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” So, my friend, you can argue about election all you want to, but you can come. And if you come, He’ll not cast you out.

Someone may ask, “You mean that if I’m not the elect I can still come?” My friend, if you come, you will be the elect. How tremendous this is!³

Actually, the word translated “draw” is drag. That is divine election. You ask me to explain it? I can’t explain it at all, friend; I just know that you have a free will, and you can exercise it. God holds you responsible for it, and you know you are responsible. You know right now you can come or not come. It’s up to you.⁴

6:43–44 Jesus returns to His message of life. In order for a person to come to the Bread of Life, the Father must draw him. This verb (Gk. helkuō) is also translated “draw” in the sense of dragged (Acts 16:19; 21:30). People cannot be saved at all unless God through the Holy Spirit draws them.⁵

why does God not draw all to get saved?

6:44 unless the Father who sent me draws him. Due to the corruption that human beings inherit by virtue of original sin (Rom. 5:12–21), all people (except Jesus, who was not born in Adam) are born with a moral inability to receive the gospel by faith. This inability must be overcome by the Holy Spirit in His work of regeneration. Since the fall, human beings born in Adam are inclined against the things of God, and they will not and cannot place saving faith in the gospel message unless the Lord first changes their hearts. God must give fallen people the ability to believe, and He does that only for His elect.⁶

You Alone Can’t Bring Them to Jesus

6:44 Do you stagger under a heavy load of expectation that you alone (or that you primarily) are responsible for bringing your friends and coworkers to faith? Do you feel guilty because you can’t get them converted? If so, you may be surprised to discover that not even Jesus felt that kind of load for the lost!

While explaining how people enter the kingdom, Jesus clearly declared that it is God the Father who draws them (John 6:44). That means that people’s response to the gospel does not depend primarily on you or on Jesus. Elsewhere, Jesus taught that:

• “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me” (6:37).

• “No one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father” (6:65).

Clearly, the responsibility for conversion ultimately belongs to the Father. Then is there anything we can do as Christ’s followers to motivate others toward the Savior? Yes, we can give evidence of how God works in our lives as we grow. We can offer clear, truthful information about the gospel as we have opportunity. And we can invite and even urge others to believe.

But the ultimate responsibility for salvation is God’s, not ours. So relax! Live the faith, talk about it, and offer it to others. But let the dynamic of conversion be from God alone⁷

6:44 draws him. Cf. v. 65. The combination of v. 37a and v. 44 indicate that the divine drawing activity which Jesus referred to cannot be reduced to what theologians call “prevenient grace,” i.e., that somehow the power to come to Christ is allegedly dispensed to all of mankind, thus enabling everyone to accept or reject the gospel according to their own will alone. Scripture indicates that no “free will” exists in man’s nature, for man is enslaved to sin (total depravity) and unable to believe apart from God’s empowerment (Ro 3:1–19; Eph 2:1–3; 2Co 4:4; 2Ti 1:9). While “whosoever will” may come to the Father, only those whom the Father gives the ability to will toward Him will actually come to Him. The drawing here is selective and efficacious (producing the desired effect) upon those whom God has sovereignly chosen for salvation, i.e., those whom God has chosen will believe because God has sovereignly determined that result from eternity past (Eph 1:9–11).⁸

6:37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me. This verse emphasizes the sovereign will of God in the selection of those who come to Him for salvation (cf. vv. 44, 65; 17:6, 12, 24). The Father has predestined those who would be saved (see notes on Rom. 8:29, 30; Eph. 1:3–6; 1 Pet. 1:2). The absolute sovereignty of God is the basis of Jesus’ confidence in the success of His mission (see note on v. 40; cf. Phil. 1:6). The security of salvation rests in the sovereignty of God, for God is the guarantee that “all” He has chosen will come to Him for salvation. The idea of “gives me” is that every person chosen by God and drawn by God (v. 44) must be seen as a gift of the Father’s love to the Son. The Son receives each “love gift” (v. 37), holds on to each (v. 39), and will raise each to eternal glory (vv. 39, 40). No one chosen will be lost (see notes on Rom. 8:31–39). This saving purpose is the Father’s will which the Son will not fail to do perfectly (v. 38; cf. 4:34; 10:28, 29; 17:6, 12, 24).⁹

Effectual Calling and Conversion

“Effectual calling” is the title of ch. 10 of the Westminster Confession (1647). The chapter begins:

All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, and those only, He is pleased, in His appointed and accepted time, effectually to call, by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation, by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God, taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them a heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and, by His almighty power, determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ: yet so, as they come most freely, being made willing by His grace.

What is described here is the process of Christian conversion, involving illumination, regeneration, and the transformation of the will. It is a sovereign work of God, “effectually” (that is, effectively) performed by the power of the Holy Spirit. The doctrine corresponds to Paul’s use of the word “call” in the sense of “to bring to faith,” and his use of “called” to mean “converted” (Rom. 1:6; 8:28, 30; 9:24; 1 Cor. 1:9, 24, 26; 7:18, 21; Gal. 1:15; Eph. 4:1, 4; 2 Thess. 2:14). This calling is different from the general invitation, as described in Jesus’ explanation of the parable of the wedding feast (Matt. 22:14). The general, external invitation can fail to be answered, but the effectual calling is a particular act of God resulting in regeneration. It cannot be refused (John 10:3, 4).

Original sin means that all human beings are by nature “dead,” or unresponsive to God. Through the effectual calling, God gives life to the dead. The outward call of God to faith in Christ is communicated everywhere through reading, preaching, and explaining the gospel. In the inner, effectual call the Holy Spirit enlightens the mind and renews the heart of those God has chosen so that the gospel is accepted as the truth of God, and God in Christ becomes the object of love and affection. When once regenerated and having the will set free to choose God and the good, a sinner turns away from the former pattern of living and receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, to start a new life with Him.¹⁰

6:44 No one can come to me means “no one is able to come to me” (Gk. dynamai means “to be able”). This implies that no human being in the world, on his own, has the moral and spiritual ability to come to Christ unless God the Father draws him, that is, gives him the desire and inclination to come and the ability to place trust in Christ (see notes on v. 37; 12:32).

6:46 seen the Father. See note on 1:18.¹¹

1 Lange, J. P., & Schaff, P. (2008). A commentary on the Holy Scriptures: John (pp. 220–221). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

2 Fredrikson, R. L., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1985). John (Vol. 27, pp. 130–131). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

3 McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Gospels (John 1-10) (electronic ed., Vol. 38, pp. 106–107). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

4 McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Gospels (John 1-10) (electronic ed., Vol. 38, p. 109). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

5 Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1999). Nelson’s new illustrated Bible commentary (Jn 6:43–44). Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers.

6 Sproul, R. C. (Ed.). (2015). The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) (p. 1866). Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust.

7 Word in life study Bible. (1996). (electronic ed., Jn 6:44). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.

8 MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Jn 6:44). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

9 MacArthur, J., Jr. (Ed.). (1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed., p. 1591). Nashville, TN: Word Pub.

10 Sproul, R. C. (Ed.). (2005). The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (p. 1747). Orlando, FL; Lake Mary, FL: Ligonier Ministries.

11 Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 2035). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.