35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; 38 for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.” [John 6:35-40, NRSV]
A friend in coffee-corner discussion wrote and sought clarifications. On his reading, the Father only gave a limited number of people – “a select few” – to Jesus the Son and of these he would not lose any for eternal salvation. His question, then, was: “Since God created all of us, why does He only pick some of us to go to heaven and not the rest?”
We wrote him back:
It is interesting that the reference to your quote is from John 6 which famously features, among other things, the Bread of Life discourse. More precisely, it comes from the section of John 6:38-40. The Gospel of St John, one must know, has a very clear schema: The Son is sent by the Father to do some work, after which he will return to the Father. He came down from above (descent) on a mission; after finishing what he was sent to do, he returned to the Father (ascent). One must read this decent-ascent schema very positively, that is, the Son came down from heaven into this lower world, “not to do mine own will” or to seek any separate interest or glory of my own, “but the will of Him that sent me” Who is loving to everyone, and wills not the death of a sinner.
And this really is the Father’s will — that ALL may be saved. And so the revelation is to be read and understood as that of all whom my Father has given me, I should lose none. To Jesus, then, it is the will of the Father that everything necessary be done, both for the conversion of sinners and for the preservation of those on the paths of righteousness who are already converted. Willing “all men” to be eternally saved, He wishes the whole of humanity to come to the knowledge of the truth, and to persevere in living it. But, and here’s the difficulty when we talk about salvation – as we have written on the 2016 December 16th post on this website, salvation is not entirely the business of God’s. Rather, human subjects, in freedom, have a most serious role to play as well. We are given the freedom; we must, in this sense, will our salvation and actively and positively collaborate with God in Christ on our life journey. It was God who initiated the scheme of salvation for human creatures through Jesus Christ. But God the Father wills these things conditionally, and not absolutely: humanity, through the grace of God universally available to them, must repent, and bring forth fruits of repentance.
- Humanity must believe in Christ, and in the truths and promises of his gospel, with a faith that works by love.
- Humanity must resist the temptations to evil deeds and stay steadfast in the faith, overcome the world, and crucify the flesh as much as they can.
- Humanity is called to persevere unto the end, believing, loving, and obedient to the One who is merciful, compassionate and forgiving.
- Faithful unto death, reflecting in substance a life modeled after the way, the truth and the life of Jesus of Nazareth, humanity is promised the crown of life.
The conditionality in salvation lies in the fact that God the Father has willed that everyone who has seen the Son sees the character and mission of the Son in the miracles that he works, the teachings that he gives, and the way of life by which he conducts himself, and attends to the same consciously in their own lives.
To “see” him then, is to “know” him, which must then follow in cordially believing and having faith in him and, most importantly, doing and living a life that is consistent with this faith. Then, we shall hear Jesus say, “All who carry out my Father’s will, I will raise them up on the last day — I will make them completely happy, both in soul and body, in the enjoyment of a glorious immortality.” None of the purposes or decrees of God is inconsistent with this.
In teaching his hearers, Jesus intends to say that ultimately, of temporal blessings which people expected from him, they would receive none but, what he brought to them were far more superior things, for they were all spiritual and eternal.
And so, in concluding one of our seminars, we gave the people two short quotes.
The first quote is from John Newton’s song “He Died For Me” where we took two stanzas:
- “I saw one hanging on a tree
In agony and blood;
He fixed His [pain filled] eyes on me
As near His cross I stood. A second look He gave, which said,
“I freely all forgive:
This blood was for thy ransom paid;
I die that thou mayest live.”
I die so that you may live! But, how ought we Christians who profess faith in Jesus live?
Our second and final quote is from the Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman:
- “God has created me to do him some definite service;
he has committed some work to me
which he has not committed to another.
- I have my mission…
I have a part in a great work;
I am a link in a chain,
a bond of connection between persons…”
Copyright © Dr. Jeffrey & Angie Goh, August 2022. All rights reserved.
You are most welcome to respond to this post. Email your comments to jeffangiegoh@gmail.com. You can also be dialogue partners in this Ephphatha Coffee-Corner Ministry by sending us questions for discussion.