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given Me, but raise them up at the last day. For My Father's will is that everyone who
looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the
last day" (6: 38-40).
We are assured here that the Father and Son and Holy Spirit are engaged in the
salvation of all believers and they will be safely guarded by them until the "last day" and
then the Son, by His divine power, will bring them back to life if they have died. This He
had emphasized before, as we have seen. To a large extent the resurrection of the
believer is ignored today. Death is glamourized and this is what so many Christians are
looking forward to, rather than the life-giving power of the Conqueror of death. "The last
day" occurs four times (6: 39, 40, 44, 54) and is evidently this very time of resurrection,
when "all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come out" (5: 28) with eternal
life ahead of them if they are believers. These are the two things which God has joined
together for the believer's hope and it is sure and certain.
"At this the Jews began to grumble about Him because He said, `I am the Bread that
came down from heaven'. They said, `Is this not Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father
and mother we know? How can He now say, 'I came down from heaven'?'." (6: 41, 42).
The people were well acquainted with His family. He was known as "the son of
Joseph", and in Mark 6: 3 "the son of Mary". How then could He talk of "coming
down from heaven"? They had no conception of Him as the eternal Word.
" `Stop grumbling among yourselves', Jesus answered. `No one can come to Me
unless the Father Who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day'."
(vi.43,44)
In these verses those who come to Christ are described as being drawn to Him by the
Father. In John 12: 32 it is Christ, when He is lifted up from the earth Who draws all
(without distinction) to Himself.
Sin has so blinded the mind, so corrupted the faculties, that if God did not "draw",
men would not respond at all. The Father draws and this may or may not result in
salvation, for the next step is to "hear" and "believe", and in this way such come to
Christ.
As the hymn writer expressed it:
"He loved me ere I knew Him.
He drew me with the cords of love
And thus He bound me to Him."
Christ now quotes Isa. 54: 13 which says that all Israel's children shall be taught of
God, but they have to come to Him first for such teaching. This does not mean that such
will see God. Only the Son is able to do this. But they could see the Father in Him (the
Son) with the eye of faith (John 12: 45; 14: 9). Hence the Lord Jesus stresses its
necessity. He who believes has eternal life (6: 47).
"I am (ego eimi) the Bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet
they died. But here is the Bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and