John 6:64, 65 Connection

In my post on John 6:64-65, I showed how the reason Jesus gives for why no one can come to Him unless it has been granted him from the Father, is connected back to verse 64 and unbelief.

John 6:64 (NASB) “But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him.

One of the comments on that post suggested that the connection was not between verse 65 and verse 64, but was between verse 65 and verse 63. Here is the comment that I am responding to in this post:

Sorry, I disagree. Jesus’ statement in verse 65 is referring to verse 63. “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” Verse 64 is simply a narrative of the unbelief of those hearing, because they had not been given life by the Spirit. Then Jesus says in verse 65, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”

John 6:64-65 connection

Here is a screen shot of the sentence structure showing the emphasis.

The phrase between the x marks is called a counterpoint. The counterpoint points to the more important Sentence Point shown between the check marks.

Here is a screen shot of the definition of the Sentence Point and how it is connected to the Counter Point.

Here is a similar Point/Counter Point marked in John 6:44.

Now notice below that in verse 63 there is no Sentence Point showing anything pointing to the phrase “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.”

There are only two Sentence Points between verses 63-65. They are found in verses 64 and 65. These important points are the focus, and they must not be missed. Let’s break this down in the emphatic Greek grammar.

John 6:64 (Point) there are some of you who do not believe – follows the lesser (Counter-point from verse 63) The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

John 6:65 (Point) it is granted him by the Father follows the lesser (Counter-point from verse 65) no one can come to me

Now notice the final connection in John 6:68.

In John 6:68 Peter confesses that the disciples can go to no one else because it is Jesus alone who has the words of eternal life. Peter also confesses in verse 69 that “we have believed.”

“Having believed” is attached to accepting Jesus’ words of eternal life now.  Those having not believed Moses will not accept Jesus’ words now. It is such a key point that Jesus had already said:

John 5:46 (NASB) “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.

Notice that Jesus did NOT say that if you were made unconditionally alive, you would believe Me. He said that belief in Moses leads to a certain belief in Him and unbelief in Moses means a certain unbelief in Him. There is no contradiction in what Jesus said. Unbelievers simply are not given to Him by the Father. They do not belong to the Father because they refuse to believe the Father’s word given thru Moses. Unbelievers will walk away because they are unbelievers.

The commenter from my other blog post said:

That is the logical and clear sequence of thought in those three verses. Your interpretation is twisting what is clear.

Not true. The logical and clear sequence of thought from John 5 through to John 6 is that unbelievers in Moses cannot and will not believe in Jesus. Jesus said in John 6: 64 that some of His followers were unbelievers. Jesus knew that only believers were given to Him from the Father. Jesus also knew that all those who walked away from Him in unbelief had already walked away from the Father in unbelief. Jesus knew.