For this reason – John 6:64-65
John 6:64-65 For this reason
For this reason – John 6:64-65. I am jumping ahead in my verse by verse exegesis to John 6:64-65 because these are the verses that give the answer to Jesus’ words in John 6:37, 44-45. I will start with verse 65 first.
For this reason
John 6:65 (NASB) And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”
Here in John 6:65 Jesus is giving a clear reason He said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him,” and “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me.” In John 6:65 Jesus begins his saying with a preposition of causation.
It is for this reason or because of the truth that Jesus had just said.
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.
Unbelief is the reason Jesus gives for the failure of a person to come to Jesus because the Father does not grant unbelievers to Jesus.
Jesus’ knowledge
Jesus knew from the beginning.
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.
Jesus had intimate knowledge of the unbelief of the unbelievers. It did not surprise Him that Judas would betray Him even though Judas did not leave Him in John 6 as did the crowd and the Jews. Judas stayed with Jesus even though he was an unbeliever. Judas had plans to advantage himself. But Judas was never given to Jesus by the Father. Why? Judas was never given to Jesus by the Father because Judas was not a follower of the Father from the beginning. Judas was not a believer.
No unbeliever is given to Jesus
Unbelief is the sole reason Jesus made His statement about the Father not granting people to come to Jesus. Those who did not believe the Father did not fear God. Those who did not believe the Father did not obey God. Those who did not believe the Father did not believe the Scripture, and they did not come to Jesus. Everyone who readily came to Jesus in faith already had been prepared by believing the message of the Father through John the Baptist.
John 1:7 (NASB) He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him.
The message of repentance and faith was crucial to preparing people to give to Jesus. Those who believed were those who repented of their sins, and they received the baptism of John. God set up the testimony of John so that all might believe through John’s message of repentance and faith. And because John was the forerunner of Jesus, no unbeliever would ever be granted entrance to come to Jesus.
A challenge for Calvinists
1. Since Jesus showed that unbelief was the reason the Father did not grant people to come to Jesus, can you show from the context in John 6 where the Father gave unbelievers to Jesus?
2. Can you explain why believing was the condition for coming to Jesus if coming to Jesus was unconditional?
A word to Calvinists
I appreciate the Calvinists who visit my blog. My intent is to provide a focus on Scripture and the inspired words of Jesus that may be outside of your mindset in Calvinism. I do this because I care, and I want to see us come together in unity in Jesus.
7 thoughts on “For this reason – John 6:64-65”
Well done Cheryl. I appreciated the excellent exegesis of this passage. Calvinist often quote verse v65 without even a mention of v64.
Thank you Darrell. Yes we must see verse 64 as the reason because Jesus gives this explanation just before verse 65. I think many Calvinists just gloss over verse 64 and pay no attention. But we cannot afford to ignore what explains the very words that Jesus gave as HIS reason for what He said earlier in this difficult passage.
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.”
Jesus did know who would believe…it would be those who had been given life by the Father. It is the Spirit who gives life. The causation that you refer to Cheryl is the life that Spirit gives resulting in and causing a man to come to Christ.
Of course the Father wouldn’t give unbelievers to Jesus. That goes without saying. That is not what is meant by the statement in verse 65. This is a clear reference to election. You have convoluted the meaning in order to try to disprove sovereign election.
Vs. 63- The Spirit gives life. Jesus has spoken words of life.
Vs. 64 – There were many who did not believe, and Jesus knew who they would be.
Vs. 65 – For this reason (they had not been given life by the Spirit) they did not believe.
That is the logical and clear sequence of thought in those three verses. Your interpretation is twisting what is clear.
Hi Rick, welcome to The Giving blog!
You said “Verse 64 is simply a narrative of the unbelief of those hearing, because they had not been given life by the Spirit.”
That cannot be true because in verse 64 the phrase “there are some of you who do not believe” is marked in the Greek as an important Sentence Point (not a lesser sub point.) In contrast the phrase from verse 63 “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” is marked as a lesser counter-point.
So verse 65 “it is granted him by the Father” is an important Sentence Point as well as verse 64 “there are some of you who do not believe”. It would not be right to connect an important Sentence Point to a previous sub point from two verses before. The sub-point for verse 65 is “no one can come to me”.
I am going to see if I can post the pictures under the comment section here or else I will create a new post to show the important grammar points.
The important thing to note is that I have not “convoluted the meaning” because the emphases in the grammar supports my view.
Another quick point about giving unbelievers. I am thankful Rick that you agree that unbelievers are not given to Jesus. those given to Jesus are already believers in the Father before they are given to Jesus. Secondly the life-giving words that are given are giving life to believers. See verse 68 and 69 where Peter states that they go to Jesus to receive the words of eternal life and that they had already believed Him.
I created a separate post to answer the challenges of Rick Martinez. The new post is here https://www.mmoutreach.org/tg/connect-john-6-64/