READING TIME: 2-3 MINUTES
Feb 28, 2020
Does John 6:37-40 teach “unconditional election” when it says all that the Father gives to the Son?
37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him on the last day” (NASB).
The context of verses 38-39 makes it evident that the ones given to the Son by the Father are the ones who believe in Christ and therefore come to Him in faith. See verse 40.
Those who remained lost may have seen the Lord but did not see and believe in Him. Those who saw and believed received eternal life and a guarantee of a resurrection to life, according to the will of God. While it is very clear that those who are given to the Lord are believers and therefore have come to Christ in faith, it is not clear, as Calvinists want us to believe, that those given to the Son by the Father believed because they were given. Those given to Christ are given to Christ because “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). The reason a lost man can be and is saved is because of who God is, what God is like, and what God did for the lost in the person of His Son. Jesus died for their sins and then rose from the dead to die no more. The God-ordained condition for sal¬vation, or that which a man must do to be saved, is to believe in Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31).
Logically, faith in Christ is necessary to being given to Christ. Chronologically, faith in Christ is simultaneous to coming to Christ. When a lost person believes in Christ in time, He is given to Christ for time and eternity. Otherwise, we have unbelievers given to Christ. It is believers and not unbelievers who come to Christ. It is believers and not unbelievers who are given to Christ. Calvinists go adrift, in part, because they have factored out the all-important faith factor.
None of the above is meant to suggest that an unbeliever does not need supernatural enablement to believe. Only God can and does regenerate the spiritually dead. Only God can and does justify the ungodly.
SUMMARY
All who will ever place with faith/trust in Jesus have been given to Him by the Father. These individuals “will come to” Jesus, that is, they will believe in Him. Jesus clarifies that doing the will of His Father means not losing anybody who places their faith in Him. This promise does away with the false idea that eternal life can be lost. If it can be lost, then Jesus was unsuccessful in doing the will of His Father.
Sources Consulted
Badger, Anthony B. Confronting Calvinism: A Free Grace Refutation and Biblical Resolution of Radical Reformed Soteriology, 185-187.
Bryson, George. The Dark Side of Calvinism: The Calvinist Caste System, 189-191.
Chay, Fred; Anderson, David R.; Dillow, Joseph; Wilson, Ken; Tanner, Paul. A Defense of Free Grace Theology: With Respect to Saving Faith, Perseverance, and Assurance. Grace Theology Press.
ESV Study Bible. Crossway Bibles.
Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Zondervan, 789.
Olson, C. Gordon. Beyond Calvinism & Arminianism: An Inductive Mediate Theology of Salvation. 3rd Edition Expanded, Revised, & Updated. Global Gospel Publishers, chapter 21.
The Ryrie Study Bible. Moody.
Wilkin, Robert N. “The Gospel according to John.” The Grace New Testament Commentary. Ed. Robert N. Wilkin. Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2010. 395.
