John 6:35-48 – This is Jesus: The Savior of Those Given to Him (Part 2)

Preached on June 08, 2008, by Eric Schumacher

Topics: Gospel Of John

© Eric M Schumacher – Preached June 8, 2008 at Northbrook Baptist Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Audio will be available here.

I love John Newton, the Anglican clergyman of the late 18^th century. (One of my sons takes his middle name after him.) I love him for two reasons. First, he was a pastor who loved the doctrine of God’s grace. Newton was a self-described “infidel and libertine” and a “wretch.” As a sailor, he took part in the African slave trade. He knew that salvation was a work of “amazing grace.”

Second, Newton wrote hymns, such as “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken,” “How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds,” and, most famously, “Amazing Grace.” Songs are not sung in the church to entertain the saints. Rather, as Paul writes in Colossians 3:16, they are sung so that we might “teach and admonish one another.” I wish that more of what is sung in churches these days was written by pastors, who are theologians involved in the care of souls in the church, rather than by touring professionals who are often removed from and unaccountable to the life of the church.

We are in the midst of a passage that outlines the doctrine of saving grace—that is, it teaches what God mercifully does on behalf of his people. We are too often prone to think too little of God’s grace. We often define grace as “undeserved favor,” which is a true definition. However, I think that we often take that to mean that God merely has a favorable attitude toward us and therefore, perhaps, offers us something good.

Is that all grace is? Is grace merely and only a favorable attitude that desires and offers something good to sinners, but does nothing more? John Newton did not think so. His hymn, “Amazing Grace,” is a celebration of what God’s saving grace is and does. Listen to what Newton writes:

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.

What is grace to Newton? It is more than a favorable attitude. It is active. It accomplishes something. Grace not only desires but accomplishes the salvation of wretches. They are lost and grace finds them. They are blind, but grace gives them sight.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!

Grace actually teaches the heart to fear God. And then, grace relieves those fears.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

Grace does not merely desire the safe passage of its object, but accomplishes it. Grace brings the wretch safe through life and actually leads him home.

The Lord has promised good to me,
His Word my hope secures;
He will my Shield and Portion be,
As long as life endures.

Grace, which has been personified so far, is now identified as the Lord. He not only promises good, but secures it and shall guarantee it throughout life.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

Grace assures the one who is saved by it that eternal life in the presence of God shall be enjoyed when this mortal life is over.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who called me here below,
Will be forever mine.

Grace—spoken of as the God’s call—guarantees that, even when this earth is destroyed and the sun ceases to shine, the believer will have God as his possession.

Grace for Newton is much more than an attitude which desires something good. Saving grace is sovereign grace. By sovereign, we mean that grace reigns over the person and secures his future. Grace reigns in that person, accomplishing salvation from first to last. From first—in saving, finding and giving sight to a wretch, teaching him to fear and relieving his fears. And, to last—in protecting, securing and preserving that soul into eternity.

That vision of grace fits with doctrine taught by our Lord in these verses in John 6. Grace reigns. It is grace that saves from the beginning, seen in the Father giving wretches to his Son and drawing them to him. It is grace that saves unto the end, seen in the Son receiving those given to him, preserving them in faith, and raising them up on the last day. From beginning to end, the believer finds his security in the amazing grace shown in the work of the Father and the Son.

A Source of Comfort

Last week, we looked at the first half of that statement—grace saves from the beginning—as we examined the doctrine of election as it is presented in the first half of verse 37: “All that the Father gives me will come to me.” We saw that there is a group of particular people, sometimes in Scripture referred to as the “elect,” whom the Father has chosen to give to the Son. Every single one of them, without exception, will come to Jesus.

This morning, we will look at the second half of that equation—grace saves unto the end, as seen in Jesus affirmation, “and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”

As I said last week, this doctrine is troubling for many, and often the source of controversy. But such a vision of grace was not troubling to John Newton.

For Newton, this understanding of grace was both a source of deep and heartfelt praise unto God his Savior and a source of deep comfort. Newton’s foundation of hope for eternity was not founded upon himself. His security was not based upon who he was and what he had done. Rather, when he looked into the eternal future, beyond his mortal life and this present heavens and earth, his confidence rested fully on the grace of God. Newton believed that the God who began a good work in him would be faithful to completion.

That is why I take the time to preach God’s grace to you from these verses. My intention is not to split doctrinal hairs. My intention is to lay for you a foundation of eternal security by the grace of God that will encourage you to persevere in believing when your world falls apart. I want you to have a strong and solid understanding of God’s power in your salvation so that when your heart and flesh may fail—whether through sickness or pain or loss—you may have confidence that the God who called you to his Son when you were a wretch dead in sin will uphold you and secure you in such a way that he will always be yours because he made you his.

I will never cast out

In the first half of verse 37, Jesus said that all those given to him by the Father will come to him. Now, the question might be asked, What will Jesus do with this group that comes to him? Jesus tells us “whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”

“Whoever comes to me,” is more accurately translated “the one that comes” or “him that comes.” Jesus is speaking of those individuals that come to him by virtue of their being given to him.

We know what Jesus means by “come to him.” It is used in verse 35 parrallel to “believe.” Jesus is speaking of those who believe in him. That is what those who are given to him by the Father do.

Jesus uses the word “never.” It is a word of certainty. There is something that Jesus will never do with the one that believes in him.

That one, he will “never cast out.” This is often interpreted to refer to Jesus’ attitude of willingness to receive whoever comes to him. But, Jesus does not say, “the one who comes to me I will always receive.” Such is certainly true. However, that is not the emphasis of this statement.

The word used here for “cast out,” in parallel uses, almost always refers to something that is already in. For example:

Matthew 7:4 Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye?

Matthew 8:16 That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.

In order for a demon to be “cast out,” in must first be “in” the person. In order for a speck to be taken out, it must first be in your eye. In order for a person to be “cast out” by Jesus, he must first be “in” him, “in” his flock.

The force of this statement is of something more than a “receptive attitude.” It is a statement about Jesus’ commitment to “keep” and “preserve” those given to him by the Father.

There is not one whom the Father has given to the Son who will fail to come to him. And, there is not one who comes to him whom the Son will fail to recognize as his own and eject from his fellowship. Rather, he will keep and preserve every last one of them—even, as we shall see, to the point of raising them up on the last day.

Jesus promises to preserve those given to him by the Father.

Perseverance of the Saints

This has application in how we view our security as believers. Some refer to this doctrine as “eternal security.” It is often spoken of as “once saved, always saved.” No doubt, that is true. The one who is drawn by God the Father to God the Son will be preserved, will never be cast out, and will be raised on the last day.

We must be careful, however, when speaking of this doctrine. Some have supposed that it means you can have “eternal security” without believing the Gospel. For example, a young boy “prays to receive Jesus” when he is ten years old at Bible camp—and thus, he is “saved.” When he is 19, he renounces the faith, rejects Jesus Christ, and becomes a professing atheist. Some would argue that such a boy was saved because at one time he made a profession of faith, and “once saved, always saved,” even if he does not believe.

Scripture, including this passage, will not support such errant theology. Scripture teaches that faith must endure to the end if we are to be saved. Jesus says in verse 40 that it is the will of the Father that “everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life;” and Jesus will raise such a one up on the last day. Salvation comes to the one who “believes in him;” not to the one who “believed” and then quits believing. We see this elsewhere in Scripture:

1 Corinthians 15:1-2 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, ² and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you--unless you believed in vain.

You stand in the gospel and are being saved, if you hold fast to the gospel. If you do not hold fast, you have believed in vain.

Colossians 1:21-23 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, ²² he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, ²³ if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

You are reconciled through Christ, if you continue in the faith and do not shift from the hope of the Gospel. If you quit believing, you are not reconciled.

Mark 13:13 And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

If you do not endure to the end, you will not be saved. Professing Christ at Bible camp and renouncing him for atheism is not endurance. It is it perishing plight of those in Christ’s parable who are like the rocky soil which receives the seed of God’s word, those “the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away” (Luke 8:13).

There is no salvation outside of believing in Jesus. The one who will be saved in the end is the one who believes in the end. This then sheds light on what it must mean for Jesus to preserve and never cast out the one who comes to him. For Jesus to “lose nothing” of those given to him means that he keeps us in a saved state, which includes a state of repentance and faith.

It is the doctrine that some have called the “perseverance of the saints.” (By “saints,” we mean those that God has “set apart” for himself and sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ.) Jesus promises to cause those who believe to persevere in their believing unto the end. You see the flow here: The Father gives a gift to the Son, people who will certainly come to him. When they come to him (by virtue of being given), the Son undertakes to keep and preserve them. This is parallel to what Jesus will say in John 10:28-30:

John 10:28-30 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.

And this is what Scripture teaches elsewhere:

Jude 1:24-25 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, ²⁵ to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

It is God, through Jesus, who keeps us from stumbling and presents us blameless in his presence. How are blameless before God? Through faith! Therefore, he will keep us persevering in the faith until the last day.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

Paul prays that we will be “kept blameless” at Christ’s coming. Again, we are blameless through faith. His assurance that this will happen is that “he who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” God called us (he drew us to Christ). In his faithfulness, he will cause us to persevere in that faith until Christ returns.

1 Peter 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

We “are being guarded through faith” for salvation. Notice that—we are guarded “through faith” and not apart from faith. No faith, no salvation. But, we are guarded through faith by “God’s power.” The power which caused us to be born again to a living hope will guard us through faith until that hope becomes sight. God causes us to persevere in the faith.

Philippians 1:6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

God began the good work—“All that the Father gives me will com to me.” God will complete that good work—“Whoever comes to me I will never cast out…I will raise him up on the last day.”

1 Corinthians 1:8-9 [Jesus Christ] will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

God called us into the fellowship of his Son. Entering that fellowship involved faith. And, Jesus Christ will sustain us to the end. He will preserve us so that we persevere in that faith unto the end.

Application

How does this apply to us?

First, this doctrine warns and rebukes the unbeliever. You may be an unbeliever who has never believed. Or you may have once professed faith and have since quit believing. Or you may, like the crowd in John 6, have only a superficial faith that is interested in a full belly and entertaining miracles, but not in the sacrifice provided by God to give life to the world.

You should be warned by this verse. It is only the one who “comes to” Jesus that may find comfort here. Coming to Jesus means believing to him—specifically believing in him as the Christ, God’s chosen King who suffers on behalf of the people to remove their sin and bring them under his saving reign for eternity.

You may not take comfort in these verses in John 6 anymore than the unbelieving Jews to whom they were first spoken. You cannot. They are not for you. Rather, they rebuke you as they did their first audience.

These verses are for the comfort of the one who comes to Jesus and believes in him. There is no assurance of salvation outside of belief in Jesus Christ. You are not believing. You have not come to Jesus. You, therefore, have no reason to believe that you are “in” and therefore will never be cast out. You have no assurance of a last days resurrection unto life.

For you to have comfort this morning, you must come to Jesus and believe in him. Jesus Christ is the “Bread of God” sent from heaven to give life to the world. He gave his flesh as a sacrifice when he was crucified on the cross. He died for sins which were not his own. He endured a punishment that he did not deserve. Rather, we know as Christians that he took our sins upon himself. He paid the penalty that we deserve. He satisfied the wrath of God on our behalf.

Having atoned for sins, he was raised from the dead, guaranteeing the last day resurrection of all those who come to him. Because he has conquered death, he can promise to “raise him up on the last day” who believes in him.

This morning, I call upon you to see who Jesus Christ is, what he has done, and what he offers to all those who come to him and believe in him. Repent! Leave your sin! Trust in Jesus Christ alone, and you shall be saved.

Only then, upon believing the Gospel, will you know that God has given you to the Son and drawn you to him. And then, you may have the confidence and assurance of a salvation that cannot fail for eternity.

Second, this doctrine comforts, assures and humbles the believer.

There are some of you this morning for whom it seems that life is falling a part. The world seems to be out of control. You are in incredible pain. You are seriously entertaining doubts about whether you are saved—not because you do not believe (you do!) but because you wonder if you will have the strength to continue to cling to Christ. For the rest of you, that day is coming. Where can you find hope and assurance of salvation, when you feel that you cannot go on?

This doctrine calls you to present joy, knowing that in all and every circumstance of life Jesus Christ is faithfully working out your salvation.

This doctrine calls you to rely upon and rest in God’s grace, since he promises to complete what he began. If you have fallen into sin, you are not lost and in need of another salvation. Christ will not cast you out. You may continue to trust in him.

This doctrine calls you to quit boasting in your own strength, and to humbly rest in God’s.

It is sad and disappointing the places to which believers sometimes look for their assurance of salvation. I frequently have people tell me of how the “prayed to receive Christ” again and again because they were not certain they are saved. I read once a man’s solution to his struggle with this. He said that having “prayed to receive Christ” multiple times, he finally had to have security. So, he went out into his barn. He took a stake and, with a mallet, drove it into the dirt floor as he “prayed to receive Christ.” He said that, from that day forward, if he ever had a question about whether he was saved that he could go out to his barn, look at that stake and have assurance of salvation because, then and there, he drove a stake into the ground for Christ.

I have seen Bibles for use in child evangelism that have a page in the back where children can record their “decision for Christ.” One such Bible even said something to the effect of, “If I ever wonder if I am saved, I can remember that on this date, I made Christ my Lord and Savior.”

Such stories only serve to illustrate man’s attempt to do something to make peace with God, rather than to rest, trusting in what God has done to reconcile them to him through Jesus Christ.

We do not find eternal security by looking at the stake that we drove into the ground, but by looking to the Son whom the Father had nailed to the cross. Eternal security does not rest on us, but on Christ.

Assurance of salvation rests not on what we have done, but on what God has done for us in Christ. Specifically, in this verse, our eternal security rests on the sovereignty of God the Father and the faithfulness of God the Son. God the Father has given us to the Son. We will even read that he draws us to him. And the Son, who was sent by the Father to lose not one of those given to him, will be faithful to complete his mission.

So, where is our hope of eternal security? Where is our assurance of salvation? Where is our guarantee that we who have believed in Christ shall persevere in believing unto the end?

It is in the fact that God has given us to Christ. It is in the fact that God sent his Son to save us and not lose us. It is in the fact that God the Father has drawn us to the Son. And it is in the fact that Christ will never forsake us who come to him, but will preserve us until the last day, in which we will be raised to live with him forever.

We are not our own.

Herman Ridderbos wrote in his commentary on John (p. 326), “The salvation Jesus brings is no ephemeral [short-lived] thing. It is ultimate and final. This thought is the greatest comfort to believers. Their assurance is not based on their feeble hold on Christ, but on his sure grip on them.” Our hope is not that we have grasped hold of Christ, but that God in and through Christ has grasped hold of us in such a way that we will never be snatched from his hand.

Charles Spurgeon rightly said:

You will not be lost, for he who owns you is able to keep you. If you were to perish who would be the loser? Why, he to whom you belong, and “ye are not your own”, ye belong to Christ. My hope of being preserved to the end lies in this fact, that Jesus Christ paid far too much for me ever to let me go. Each believer cost him his heart's blood. Stand in Gethsemane, and hear his groans: then draw near and mark his bloody sweat, and tell me, will he lose a soul for whom he suffered thus? See him hanging on the tree, tortured, mocked, burdened with an awful load, and then beclouded with the eclipse of his Father's face, and do you think he suffered all that and yet will permit those for whom he endured it to be cast into hell? He will be a greater loser than I shall if I perish, for he will lose what cost him his life: surely he will never do that. Here is your security, you are the Lord's portion, and he will not be robbed of his heritage. We are in a hand that bears the scar of the nail; we are hidden in the cleft of the rock - a rock that was riven for us near nineteen hundred years ago. None can pluck us from the hand that redeemed us; it's pleasure is too warm with love and strong with might for that.

For Spurgeon, assurance of future salvation and perseverance in the faith rested on the fact that we belong to God in Jesus Christ.

Joshua shared with us last Sunday evening the answer to the first question of the Heidelberg Catechism. The question is “What is your only comfort in life and death?” Let me ask you that this morning? In the face of sickness, death, suffering, affliction, and sin—where is your comfort found?

The answer given is this:

That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.

My one comfort in life and death is that I am not my own, I belong entirely to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. And, isn’t that what our faithful Savior teaches us in this passage?

He tells us here that we are never “our own,” but always have been, are now, and ever will be God’s. The first half of this verse tells us that we are “given” by the Father. The fact that he can “give” us shows that we are his to begin with.

Then we learn that we are given to the Son. That shows that we become his. And, he promises never to cast us out, but to preserve us from then on into eternity.

All this means that from beginning to end, we belong to the Lord. From before the foundations of the earth, when God chose us in Christ for adoption as sons, unto eternity future, in which we are raised from the dead to live with Christ forever—from beginning to end, we are his possession.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who called me here below,
Will be forever mine.

We are never our own. We are always God’s people. There is no more secure a place that you can be.