What Does THAT Mean?

In John's Gospel we get a lot of difficult sayings from the lips of our Savior. Things like "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3) Wait, what? What do you mean "cannot see"? None of us can physically see it. Do you mean that, in order to have any connection to the kingdom of God you must first be born again? So we puzzle through it. Or "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:5) Okay. So what exactly is this "born of water and the Spirit" thing? Born physically and born spiritually? No, that won't work. Everyone is already born physically. (Hint: Ezek 36:25-27) Some are surprising, like when the woman at the well asked where we should worship and He answered, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:24) Okay, that was unexpected.

But some are really tough.

"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day." (John 6:44)

Okay, fairly straightforward, right? So the Father is wooing people, drawing them, trying to lure them in a sense. You know, like those shops in the mall that blow out good smells or something. "You want to come in here, don't you?" Seems okay. Except it doesn't make sense.

The idea is that this "draw" is universal. The Father draws everyone. It's just up to each individual whether or not he or she will respond. But there's a problem. If the only way to get to Christ is the drawing of the Father and everyone is drawn, what's the point of the statement. "The only way to go swimming is in water." Ummm, yeah ... why are you telling us this? If this "draw" is universal, then everyone can come to Christ and the statement is useless.

The language of the verse adds additional glitches. When it says, "No man can come ..." it includes the Greek word, dunamis -- power. No one has the power to come. No one. Not one. It's not a lack of interest; it's a lack of ability. But the real glitch is in the word, "draw." According to Strong's, the word is helkō and is literally, "to drag (literally or figuratively)." John uses the word in John 21:8 when they dragged the net full of fish ashore or in John 18:10 when Peter drew his sword. "Wooing" doesn't seem to fit with the word.

It only falls apart further if you look at context. This statement from Christ is in the middle of a dialog with people who were fed (John 6:1-15) and wanted more miraculous food (John 6:25-27). So Jesus explains that He is the bread of life (John 6:35). In this, He makes this claim.

"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out." (John 6:37)

Most of us see that as a marvelous promise of eternal life that can't be lost, so the statement itself isn't difficult. It is, however, the context of verse 44. There is a natural connection between, "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me" and "No man can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him." They're like bookends of a single thought, two ways to say the same thing. "The Father draws him" and "the Father gives Me" look like the same group of people. And it's a limited group, not universal.

There is more context. As the conversation goes on, Jesus gets more bizarre -- "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." (John 6:54) This is so disturbing that "many of His disciples" were grumbling about it (John 6:60). Jesus replies, "There are some of you who do not believe. For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father." (John 6:64-65) Some did not believe. Jesus knew that. And He explained why ("For this reason I have said ..."). The reason they didn't believe was "No one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father." You can certainly see the same language here as in the verse 44. "No one can come to Me unless ..." It appears, then, that Jesus is saying the same thing all over again. "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me. No one can come to Me unless the Father draws him. No man can come to Me unless the Father grants it." It seems abundantly clear that Jesus is putting a limit on who can come to Him, who the Father is giving to Him, who can believe in Him. All the same thing. It is limited to God's work. God is the first cause here, the One who gives and draws and grants. Those who are given are drawn and those who are drawn are granted and those who are not are not.

There is an objection to all this. "Doesn't Jesus say, 'Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself'? (John 12:31-32) Doesn't that say that He draws all men to Himself?" Perhaps. Of course, that, once again, makes John 6:44 pointless. But it also makes for a good case for universalism. All are drawn so all are saved. That's problematic. But if you look at the verse, it turns out that the translation puts a word in there that is not in the text. The text does not include "men." Odd, isn't it? He said, "If I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all to Myself." So, Jesus, all what? There are possibilities. Maybe it's all people, although that presents its own problems. The context is "judgment is upon this world," so the "all" in view is not people but judgment ... which He took on the cross ... which was what He was talking about being lifted up on. Or it could just refer to all whom the Father gives, all who are drawn, all who come by faith. If either of those options are true, then we don't have a contradiction and we do have a tough verse to crack there in John 6:44 because that means that not everyone has the ability to come and the work is a work of the Father, not our own.

Is that really that bad?