Jesus Taught the Doctrines of Grace (Conclusion)

          In parts one and two, we demonstrated that Jesus taught the "doctrines of grace."

                                 1. The Sovereignty of God

                                 2. Total Inability of Man

                                 3. Unconditional Election

                                 4. Limited or Definite Atonement

                                 5. Irresistible Grace of God

                                 6. Preservation of the Saints


          We saw that in John 6:37-40, Jesus taught that:

                      God the Father gives the Son certain people for salvation.

                      These people come to Jesus to be saved.

                      Jesus will never cast them out or drive them away.

                      Everyone who believes in the Son receives eternal life,

                      and Jesus will raise them up on the last day.


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          This is the conclusion of the summary of chapter seven of The Potter's
     Freedom, by James White.


                                     "41 Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him,
                                       because He said, 'I am the bread that came down
                                       out of heaven.'

                                       42 They were saying, 'Is not this Jesus, the son of
                                       Joseph, whose father and mother we know?
                                       How does He now say, 'I have come down out
                                       of heaven'?"

                                       43 Jesus answered and said to them, 'Do not grumble
                                       among yourselves.  44 No one can come to Me unless
                                       the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise
                                       him up on the last day.

                                      45 It is written in the prophets, 'AND THEY SHALL
                                       ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.'  Everyone who has
                                       heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me."
                                                                                John 6:41-45


          "The Jews were grumbling by this point.  They rejected His claim to divine
     origin, assuming instead that Jesus was but a mere man, the son of Joseph.

          Jesus instructs them to stop grumbling and then explains their persistent
     unbelief.


                               'No one can come to Me.'

          Literally Jesus says,

                               'No man is able to come to Me.'

          These are words of incapacity and they are placed in a universal context.
     All men share this in common:  they lack the ability to come to Christ in and
     of themselves.  Shared inability due to a fallen nature.

           This is Paul's 'dead in sin' (Ephesians 2:1), and 'unable to please God'
     (Romans 8:8).  [This is] man's inability taught by the Lord who knows the
     hearts of all men.

           If the text ended here there would be no hope, no good news.
     But it doesn't stop there.


                             'No one can come to Me unless the Father
                             who sent Me sent Me draws him.'


           The good news is that there is an 'unless' in John 6:44, just as there is a
     'But God' in Ephesians 2:4.
            In both instances it is not the free will of man that comes to the rescue,
     but the free will of God.  All men would be left in the hopeless position of
     'unable to come' UNLESS GOD ACTS, and He does by drawing men unto
     Christ.

            Outside of this divine enablement (John 6:65), no man can come to Christ.
     No man can 'will' to come to Christ outside of this divine drawing.

            (This is not 'prevenient grace,' where God draws before man can choose to
     believe).

            Remember that these words (v. 44) come immediately after the assertion that
     everyone that the Father gives the Son WILL COME to the Son (v. 37).
            The ones who are drawn are the ones who are given by the Father to the Son:
     i.e., the elect.  But the rest of verse 44 explains why it MUST be so:

                           'and I will raise him up on the last day.'

            Verse 39 says He raises everyone given to Him by the Father; verse 40 says
     He raises everyone who is looking and believing in Him; verse 44 says He raises
     everyone who is drawn by the Father.

            The identity of those raised on the last day to eternal life is absolutely
     coextensive with the identity of those who are drawn!  If a person is drawn,
     he will also be raised up to eternal life.


            Obviously, then, it cannot be asserted that Christ, in this context, is
     saying that the Father is drawing every single individual human being, for

           1) the context limits this to those given by the Father to the Son,
           2) this passage is still explaining the unbelief of the Jews, which
               would make no sense if in fact the Father were drawing these
               unbelievers to Jesus, and
           3) if that were so, universalism would be the result, for everyone
               who is drawn is likewise raised up on the last day.


           John Calvin's comments on John 6:44:

         
                 ' ... we ought not to wonder if many refuse to embrace the Gospel;
                  because no man will ever of himself be able to come to Christ,
                  but God must first approach him by His Spirit; and hence it follows
                  that all are not drawn, but that God bestows this grace on those
                  whom He has elected.

                  True, indeed, as to the kind of drawing, it is not violent, so as to
                  compel men by external force; but still it is a powerful impulse
                  of the Holy Spirit, which makes men willing who formerly were
                  unwilling and reluctant.

                  It is a false and profane assertion, therefore, that none are drawn
                  but those who are willing to be drawn, as if man made himself
                  obedient to God by his own efforts; for the willingness with which
                  men follow God is what they already have from himself, who has
                  formed, their hearts to obey Him.'

                                            

            Jesus continues the thought in verse 45, drawing from a prophecy of Isaiah,
     and says 'Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.'
            To hear and learn from the Father is paralleled with being drawn in verse 44.
     Jesus would later use the same kind of terminology when He taught that only
     those who 'belong to God' can hear (understand) His words (John 8:47).

                                                    ****************

             In sum, then, Jesus surely taught the absolute sovereignty of God, the
     inabilities of  man, the unconditional election of a people unto salvation,
     the efficient grace of God that infallibly brings salvation to the elect, and
     the perseverance of those elect into eternal life."