I was reading in John 6 this morning and came to verse 44, where I felt I needed to study it out a little to truly understand the meat of the passage. Here is a Greek-English breakdown of verse 44, followed by my own translation:
no one (οὐδεὶς) has power (δύναται) to come (ἐλθεῖν) to (πρός) me (με) if (ἐὰν) not (μὴ) the (ὁ) Father (πατὴρ) that (ὁ) sends (πέμψας) me (με) draws (ἑλκύσῃ) him (αὐτόν) and I also (κἀγὼ) will raise (ἀναστήσω) him (αὐτὸν) in (ἐν) the (τῇ) end of the days (ἐσχάτῃ ἡμέρᾳ).
No one has power to come to me if the Father, sending me, does not draw him and I will also raise him in the end of days.
The conundrum which the Jews were dealing with had to do with Jesus claiming to have come down from heaven, but they knew him as the son of Mary. Their question is essentially, ‘How could you have been born and raised of Mary and also have come down from heaven?’
Jesus responds with, ‘No one has power to come to me if the Father, sending me, does not draw him and I will also raise him in the end of days.’
Contextually, we see that he is addressing their unbelief. He is, as is fairly obvious by the text, saying that we can only come to Christ if God the Father draws us to Christ. This is the first and foremost proof text for the Calvinistic perspective on election—that God predestined some for salvation and others for condemnation.
My apologies to anyone who is hoping for an argument against it; I need to get back to working on a hermeneutics project for school, but I’ll leave you with one thought: the word of God is true; therefore, this statement is true. If there is to be reconciliation with this passage and arguments for our freedom to choose Christ, I suspect we will only find the answer by doing a lengthy study on dispensational pneumatology—the study of the Holy Spirit’s role and activity in varying dispensations or era.
Clearly the Spirit takes on a different role in the church dispensation than he did in the pre-mosaic era or in the era of Israel. If we are to define a dispensation that ranges from either post-exilic times or from the coming of John the Baptist until the sending of the Spirit at Pentecost, it will be difficult to define the workings of the Spirit for lack of data, but that is probably the only place a valid argument might lay.






Anthony Delgado has a wonderful wife and three children. Anthony directs Youth Ministry at
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Basic Hermeneutics for Youth Workers, written by Anthony Delgado, provides the basic Bible study tools necessary for most youth workers, in a single compact, easy to understand volume. This book will aid busy youth workers in their orthodox understanding of God's word.