{"id":37610,"date":"2014-12-19T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-19T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=37610"},"modified":"2014-12-19T21:16:59","modified_gmt":"2014-12-20T05:16:59","slug":"john-6-44-no-one-can-come-to-me-unless-the-father-draws-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/john-6-44-no-one-can-come-to-me-unless-the-father-draws-him\/","title":{"rendered":"What does Jesus mean in John 6:44 when He says, “No one can come to me unless the Father draws him”?"},"content":{"rendered":"
John 6 contains some of the most important texts on the topic of election. It is not uncommon for Calvinists to frequently reference some of the texts of John 6 in their defense of Unconditional Election. Here is what these verses say:<\/p>\n
All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out (John\u00a06:37).<\/p>\n
This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day (John\u00a06:39).<\/p>\n
No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day (John\u00a06:44).<\/p>\n
And He said, \u201cTherefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father\u201d (John\u00a06:65).<\/p>\n
Jesus answered them, \u201cDid I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?\u201d (John\u00a06:70).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
As can be seen, several of these texts seem to pretty clearly state that God sovereignly chooses who will come to Jesus.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
How a Calvinist understands John 6:44<\/h2>\n
John 6:44 is especially strong, for Jesus says that no one comes to Jesus unless it has been granted to him by the Father. Palmer explains these texts in this way:<\/p>\n
It is clearly seen that those who will be raised up at the last day\u2014all true believers\u2014are given to Christ by the Father. And only those whom the Father gives to Christ can come to Him. Salvation lies entirely in the hands of the Father. He it is who gives them to Jesus to be saved. \u2026 This is nothing else than unconditional election\u00a0(Palmer, Five Points of Calvinism<\/em><\/a>, 27).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In a similar vein, though with much stronger words, the Calvinistic author Spencer writes this regarding his belief about what Jesus is saying:<\/p>\n
It is tantamount to blasphemy for anyone to argue that man is capable, of his own free will, to make a decision for Christ, when the Son of God says in words that cannot be misunderstood, \u201cNo man can come to me, except the Father \u2026 draw him\u201d\u00a0(Spencer, TULIP<\/a><\/em>, 42).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
John 6:44 and the Choice of Jesus<\/h2>\n
Despite the risk of being accused of blasphemy for disagreeing with Spencer, there are two strong indications in this text that not all is as clear as the Calvinist would have us believe.<\/p>\n
The first indication is in John 6:66 when some of those who were following Jesus did in fact turn away and stop following. If Jesus loses none of those who come to Him, how is it that some of those who came to Him stopped following Him? Did Jesus lose them or did He not? Or, as a third option, maybe something else entirely is going on in this text.<\/p>\n
The second indication that something else might be going on is found in John 6:70. Calvinists who like to cite John 6:44 and some of the other verses in this chapter as proof for their doctrine of Unconditional Election almost never cite John 6:70.<\/p>\n
If they do quote the verse, they usually only quote the first half of John 6:70. Those who quote the whole verse often do so in an attempt to prove reprobation, that God chooses some for eternal damnation.<\/p>\n