God's Sovereignty

Don't be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Hi, and welcome to Renewed Mind. I'm your host, Roman Kossain, and today we have with us Dr. James White, who'll be discussing with us the very controversial subject of God's sovereignty.

John 6 and the Bread of Life as the Starting Point for God’s Sovereignty

First of all, welcome to the show, James. It's good to be with you. Thank you. Thank you for discussing your insights on these subjects with us. Now, what I would like to talk about specifically today is God's sovereignty, but especially through John 6, the Gospel of John 6.

It's a tremendous passage, and in fact I have used it for many, many years to try to introduce folks to Jesus' own teaching on this subject of the relationship of God the Father's freedom and man's sinfulness.

It seems to communicate to Christians especially because it's Jesus explaining it. I think sometimes there's a hesitancy. You look at Paul and go, well, you know, Paul said some difficult things, or do we really have to delve into Romans chapter 9 or something like that?

But Jesus speaking to the Jews in the synagogue Capernaum seems to be a little bit less difficult for people to accept what Jesus has to say. You remember, of course, it starts off with the story we all love, the feeding of the 5 ,000.

Yes. All of us know that from our youth. At the end of that time, once the people see what Jesus has done, there's some who want to come and make Him king. I mean, that would be a great king. You don't even have to worry about supply lines for your army or anything else.

He can just miraculously feed you. They want to come and make Him king. What does Jesus do? Jesus sends the crowds away, including His disciples. Now, the disciples, what would it have been like to have been one of the disciples that day, as you distributed the miracle bread?

Yes, I'm with Jesus. Yes, I'm one of His disciples. Oh, they would have been so excited. And they must have been rather disappointed, knowing that the crowd wants to make Jesus king. And what does He do?

He sends them all away, and He goes off alone to pray in the mountain, sends them to cross the lake alone. And I wonder what the conversation in the boat was as they were rowing across. As you know, the storm comes up, Jesus comes in, walking on the water, and we're not really certain if a miracle takes place, because it seems that when Jesus enters into the boat, that certainly is a miracle, that the boat's immediately aware it was going.

So was that a miracle? We don't know. But they end up in Capernaum. The next morning, people who stayed in the area where Jesus had performed the miracle, they want to hear more from Jesus. And so they go looking for Him.

They can't find Him. They get in boats, and they row across a lake to find Jesus. Now, I don't know about you, but in most of our churches, it's hard to get people to show up for Sunday morning service, let alone row across a lake to do it.

So these are people that are literally described in John chapter 6 as seeking after Jesus. Most of the time, we see someone like this, and we're like, oh, this is great. This is wonderful. And so when they come and they find Jesus, Jesus' response to them is rather unusual, because He focuses upon their unbelief.

Now these are people seeking after Jesus, and yet He says, you are seeking Me because you saw the signs. He knew what was in the heart of man. And He immediately starts changing the focus from what He had done to who He Himself is.

And this is really what brings out their true heart, where they really are, is Jesus' focus upon Him.

They were following Him perhaps because He had this celebrity status. They were being fed. They were being looked after. And so really, it was what they could get from Him, not who He was.

Not only that, but what they could get from Him, they didn't really understand what they needed from Him. It's one thing to get physical food from Him. What they need is spiritual food, and they don't recognize their spiritual need.

So when Jesus, in verse 35, says, I am the bread of life, the one coming to Me will never hunger and the one believing in Me will never thirst, and He uses, in the original language here, He's talking about one who is coming to Him, present tense, ongoing.

Not the one who just comes for a moment, is satisfied, and then goes off. But the one who is constantly coming to Him will never hunger. The one who is believing, again, present tense, not just a head faith, but a true faith, will never thirst.

And here we have the hungering and thirsting, and yet what kind of hungering and thirsting is satisfied by coming to Jesus and believing in Jesus? It's spiritual hunger. It's spiritual thirst. And Jesus says He and He alone can meet that need.

But then He says something very strange after saying that in verse 36, He says, But I said to you that you have seen Me, and you are not believing. Many times when people look at this text, they don't see that what comes after this is an explanation of Jesus looking at these men who have rowed across a lake to find Him, and they've come into the synagogue, and they want to hear what He has to say, and Jesus looks at them and says, You are not believing.

That part must be allowed to stand, because He's now explaining why is it that you are not believing is what is explained in verses 37 and following, when He says, All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one coming to Me I will never cast out.

He uses what's called the aorist subjunctive of strong denial. It's the strongest way in the Greek language to say it is an impossibility. I will never cast out the one that's coming to Me. That of course is a precious promise that Christians have embraced for many, many generations.

Jesus Himself saying that He would never cast out the one coming to Him. The problem is, and you described it as a controversial belief, the problem is that's the second half of a sentence. Now, you're too young to have teenage children, but mine are grown and married, and I remember very clearly that teenage children have this incredible capacity to hear half sentences.

For example, clean your room, and we'll go to have pizza. In the teenage mind it's murmur, murmur, go to have pizza. It's an amazing capacity that young people have, and unfortunately we sometimes do that to the Bible, because this promise, the one coming to Me I will never cast out, that's the second half of a sentence.

It's based upon what comes in the first half of the sentence, and what does Jesus say? All that the Father gives Me will come to Me. What does that mean? All that the Father gives Me will come to Me. Well, can we determine which action comes first?

Is it the giving of the Father, or the coming to Christ? Well, in the Greek language we can, but I think in any language we can figure this out. If I say to you, all to whom I give a ticket will be able to get into the game, what action comes first?

Obviously, I have to give the ticket, resulting in your getting into the game. In the same way, the Father, and He must have the power and authority and ability to do this, gives someone, it says all, a certain group of people, He gives to the Son.

All that the Father gives Me, well, they will come to Me. The one coming I will never cast out, but why am I or anyone else coming to Jesus? What is the fundamental difference? Why is it that someone who has the same background as I do, the same intelligence as I do, why will I in eternity be bowing in worship before the throne of God, while someone else who had the same background as I will be embroiled in the continued expression of their own detestation toward God while under His wrath?

Why is that? Is it me? Was I more sensitive? Was I more spiritual? Was there something better about my heart? Was I smarter? Was I smarter? Any of those things. I do not believe that any of those is the correct answer.

I honestly believe that the only thing that separates those who surround God's throne in eternity and those who stand upon the parapets of hell screaming their hatred of God, the restraints haven't been removed from them, is one word called grace, a one five-letter word called grace.

And here in John 6, 37, explaining the unbelief, because what's going to happen at the end of this chapter? Let's step back from John 6 for a moment. John 6 starts, over 5 ,000 excited followers. What's the end of John 6?

A lot of people leaving. Twelve confused disciples, one of whom is a devil. As I've said many times, Jesus started the church shrinkage movement in John 6. What happens in between that time? Jesus explains, you are not believers.

You're looking for the outward. You're not looking for the inward. You do not see me as the source of all life. His whole discussion, eating his flesh and drinking his blood, placed within the spiritual context, our soul dependence upon him.

Why do I find my all in all in Jesus Christ? And other people find that message to be foolishness. Well, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1, but as many as are called to the Jew and the Gentile, foolishness, a stumbling block.

But as many as are called, whether Jew or Gentile, Christ the power of God, Christ the wisdom of God. It's that calling of God that makes the difference. It's the fact that he sovereignly reaches in and takes out my heart of stone and gives me a heart of flesh.

The heart of flesh loves Christ. The heart of stone loves itself. But my heart of stone can't change itself. God has to do that. And so he says, all that the Father gives me will come to me. And the one coming to me I will never cast out.

Why? Why will he not cast one out? When we consider as Christians how we so often abuse his gifts, why is it that he would never cast us out? How many times he has given me so many blessings, and yet I have misused them, I've used them upon myself, I've not been thankful of so many things.

Why will I not be cast out? This next section, honestly, is one of those few places in the Bible where for a moment the very veil of eternity is parted and we are allowed into inter-Trinitarian communication, the Father and the Son.

Because notice what he says, because I have come down from heaven not in order to do my own will, but the will of the one who sent me. So he says, you know why I'll never cast anyone out? Because I've not come down to do my own will.

I've come down to do the will of the one who sent me. I am in perfect harmony with the Father, and I am going to do his perfect will. Is it not a basic belief of any Christian that Jesus will always do what is pleasing to the Father?

That's right. If there could ever be a time when Jesus does not do what is pleasing to the Father, the universe would cease to exist. Collapse, yes. There would be nothing, and we would have no reason whatsoever for having confidence in the promises of God.

So he says, I've not come down to do my own will. I've come down to the will of the one who sent me. And then in verse 39 we have one of the most beautiful verses in the Bible, because here Jesus tells us, this is the will of the Father.

This is the will of the one who sent me. In order that of all that he has given me, I lose none of it, but raise it up on the last day. Now it's very interesting because it's difficult, maybe in other languages this comes through, but in English it's difficult to bring this across.

But earlier he used a masculine to talk about the one coming, because that's a personal thing. We come to Christ. I have come to Jesus Christ. I continue coming to him. But here he switches over to a neuter.

And normally what that indicates in the original language is he's now talking about the group as a whole. So he says, in order that of all, of all that group that the Father has given to me, my Father's will is, I lose none of it.

So it's the Father's expressed will for Jesus that he be, well what would we describe that as? A perfect Savior. If he loses none that the Father has given to him, then what is his capacity? What is his ability?

He has to have the capacity in and of himself to save perfectly. Because if it's up to us, if it's a synergistic type thing where it's Jesus doing his best and we've got to do our best, we work together type of a thing, well there's some people who aren't going to do their best.

Do any of us ever do our best?

I can't even keep my own New Year's resolution. Through February. Yeah, let alone try and keep God's standard. Exactly.

So if the Father's will for the Son is that he not lose any of those that have been given to him, then what we're saying is Jesus is a powerful and perfect Savior. Just as the writer of Hebrews says. Because this Jesus will save to the uttermost or completely because he ever lives to make intercession.

He has that power. He has that capacity. And notice he says, I will lose none of them, but I will raise it up on the last day. Now we don't have time to go through it right now, but if you follow this raising up on the last day, it is giving eternal life, raising up on the last day.

Jesus is, could we even for a moment think that Jesus could fail to do the will of the Father? Would we as parents express a will for our child that they could never possibly accomplish? No, we wouldn't.

So how could the Father have as his will for the Son that he'd be a perfect Savior? He gives a specific people to them and he saves them and saves them perfectly and raises them up on the last day. He must have the capacity and power to do so.

But notice it's interesting. He then says, for this is the will of my Father in order that everyone, and here it is gazing upon, present tense participle again. It's an ongoing thing, always looking to Jesus, not looking to this thing over here and that thing over there, but always looking to him as the sole source, the one looking upon the Son and believing, present tense participle again, in him will have eternal life.

And then notice the phrase, and I will raise him up on the last day. Who did he raise up on the last day before? All that the Father gives him. Well, who can we, how can we identify who that is? How do we know?

They're the ones looking. They're the ones believing in Christ. Now, the Jews don't like this. Verse 41. Verse 41 starts off with one of my favorite Greek words that I taught my kids this because I didn't want them to do it in the back seat while we were driving.

It's gungusmu. Isn't that a wonderful word for murmuring in Greek? Gungusmu. It just sounds like murmuring. Don't gungusmu back there. And so the Jews are gungusmu-ing concerning him because he said he was the bread that came down out of heaven.

They would accept him as an earthly prophet. But the idea of the divine nature, the bread that comes down out of heaven, they're saying, isn't this Jesus? We know, isn't he the son of Joseph? And don't we know his father and his mother?

And how does he say he's come down out of heaven? Notice Jesus' answer. He says, don't gungusmu amongst yourselves. Verse 44. And I really want to ask my Christian brothers and sisters whether you really believe what Jesus says here.

He says, no one is able to come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. First few words, no one is able to come. Do we really believe that? Or do we base so much of our apologetics and our philosophy upon the fundamental capacity?

Of course we can come. Of course we have the ability. Jesus says, no one has the ability to come to me unless there is a fulfilled condition, unless the Father who sent me draws him. Now some might say, well, there you go.

John chapter 12, Jesus says, if I be lifted up, I'll draw him into myself. And so that means everyone's drawn to Jesus. Well, being lifted up in John 12 is the crucifixion, being lifted up in death. And we know what the Bible says about the cross.

Does the cross draw all men, or do men find the cross to be a scandal? Something foolishness, this very stench of death. So what is he talking about here? In fact, when we look carefully at the text, notice it says, unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.

We've already seen this raising up on the last day language. It's talking about those who've been given by the Father to the Son. And if we look carefully at the original language, it says, I will draw him, and I will raise him.

It's the same him. You can't have two different groups here. A lot of people want to say, well, what God does is he draws everybody generally, sort of a peanut butter grace. He just sort of spread it all over the place.

And it's just this general calling. But then what you do determines whether you're the one who's going to be raised up. Well, there's only two words between the two hymns in this text. How do you insert that amount of theology between just two words in the text?

The one that the Father draws to Jesus is the one that Jesus raises from the dead. This is an effective drawing. This is a powerful drawing. In fact, it's described in verse 45 when it says, it has been written in the prophets, they shall all be taught by God.

Everyone hearing from the Father and learning is coming to me. Now, who's the one coming to me? Go back to verse 37, the one given by the Father to the Son. Well, how is it that I come, why did I come to Christ?

Even as a young man, a very young child, why was I made concerned about God's wrath on that Sunday afternoon? What was it? The one hearing from the Father and learning is coming to me. There is a process, there is a divine, glorious, divine action that God does in drawing His people unto Himself.

And He chooses a time to do that. I don't know why He did that for me when I was so young. I can only be thankful for it. Those that He does at a much later time in life, He has His purpose for that too.

But I truly believe that just as Lazarus lay in that tomb and could not raise himself until the Son of God came and said, Lazarus, come forth. And I've asked some people, do you think Lazarus could have said no?

Do you think when the Son of God says, come forth, a man could just stay inside and say, no, thank you? I've had some people say, yes, I think He could do that. Can you imagine the Son of God failing to do what He chooses to do in the exercise of His power?

I can't believe that could happen. But at a point in time, we learn from God, we hear from the Father, and as a result, we come to Jesus Christ. Now, if we go through the rest of John 6, we'll get toward the end, and it will actually tell us that He kept repeating this.

He said over and over again, no one can come to Me unless it has been granted Him of the Father. And it's at that that the would-be disciples become offended. They say this is a hard saying, and it says they no longer followed after Him.

And when they walk away, can you imagine what the disciples felt? Only the day before, people are looking to them as His disciples and, oh, the tremendous miracle, and, oh, we want to make Him king. And now they're walking away, and Jesus isn't chasing after them, going, you didn't understand?

You didn't understand? And so Jesus turns to them, and He says, you are not going to go away also, are you? And He actually uses a form, in Greek, you can ask a question and answer it in the way that you ask it.

And He's asking it in such a way that He knows what they're going to say. But Peter says, where are we to go? You have the words of eternal life.

That's right. It's like a rhetorical question.

It was, it was, and yet He still had to ask it because He could see they're confused one day, and all of a sudden they're alone again. Wasn't the Messiah supposed to gather an army and deliver Israel from Rome?

No, not in that way, not in that fashion. And yet, even then, it is said, have I not chosen you, and yet one of you is a devil. There's still a purpose to be fulfilled in the coming crucifixion. And so it was, what were they offended at?

A lot of people think they were offended at Jesus' statement about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. No, what they were offended at was Jesus was repeatedly saying to them, you cannot come to Me unless it has been granted to you by the Father.

And mankind becomes angry at that. Remember in John chapter 8? There were people who decided to believe in Jesus. Not the present tense. It was a point-action thing. And what did Jesus say to them? If you continue in My Word, then you're My disciples indeed.

You shall know the truth. And what will the truth do? It will set you free. And as soon as He said, set you free, what do you mean? Set us free. Are we imprisoned? Are we, we've never been, here are the Jews who are currently under the heel of Rome could actually look at Jesus and say, we've never been enslaved anyway.

Talk about self-deception. But you see, the believer is a person who says, I was set free by Christ. And if that's the case, then that means I was helpless in and of myself.

Human Responsibility, Sovereign Grace, and the Call to Repent and Believe

So then if I could ask, I mean, if we can look at the other side of things, I mean, you're quite familiar with the arguments that are used against. So then how does man's responsibility fit into the picture?

I mean, when you try and explain this truth, of course, this is a truth for those that know the scriptures, but those that look upon from outside, they would presume that, well, look, if God wants me to be saved, well, He's going to bring me into, He's going to usher me into heaven.

So really, I don't need to be worried about anything. What would your response be to someone like that?

The same thing that Jesus said here in John 8 and John 10, He fully recognizes the sovereignty of God in these issues, but that never ever changes the responsibility of the sinner for loving his own sin.

God ordains the ends as well as the means. When God chose to have Joseph sold into slavery so as to save many people alive in Genesis 50, did that mean his brothers were not sinning to do so? Of course not.

It is interesting, if you look at Genesis 50, what did God do with the brothers? He restrained them from killing him. He actually violated their, quote-unquote, free will. They wanted to kill him. He restrained them because he had a purpose to accomplish in sending Joseph to Egypt.

Now, does Joseph, remember after their father dies, the brothers come before Joseph and they're, we're toast now. This is it. He's going to take us out. What does Joseph say to them? He reshows them, yes.

Am I in God's place? He says, but notice, he does not whitewash their sin. He says, you meant this for evil. God meant it for good. In the Hebrew, it's a direct parallel. One action, God's intention's perfectly holy.

Man's intentions are evil. Now, this happens many times. Isaiah chapter 10, you want the greatest example in the world? Acts chapter 4. Christians are persecuted, they come together, they're praying to God and they refer to him as the despotate, the despot, the sovereign Lord.

And they're talking about how all these people came together against his child, Jesus. It was Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Romans and the Jews. Well, think about those four. Boy, they have different motivations.

Herod was just crazy. Pilate was a political coward. The Romans just killed people regularly. It wasn't anything big for them. The Jews hated Jesus because of his exposing of their hypocrisy to Jewish leaders.

All had different motivations. And what does the early church pray? To do whatever your hand and your will predestined to occur. Were these men accountable? Were these men accountable for their sin? You better believe it.

But in one action, the greatest action that brings glory to God, the very crucifixion of Christ, were those men accountable? Yes. But was their action under the sovereignty of God? It most certainly was.

And so when people say, well, I'm just going to be ushered into heaven. No, God uses means. He commands us. He says, repent and believe. The message that we are to go out and deliver to all people is repent and believe.

Now, how was it that I repented and believed and someone else does not? I was removed from the chains of slavery. I was given a heart that desires to do so. The hard heart doesn't want to do that. The hard heart continues in love for its sin.

So are you saying that we can recognize good, we might to a certain degree, but we don't have the power to be able to do the good that God asks of us unless God allows us to?

Unless God frees us from our slavery to sin. What does Paul say in Romans 8? He says, those who are according to the flesh cannot do what is pleasing to God. Now, is repentance pleasing to God? Is faith pleasing to God?

Those who are according to the flesh cannot do so. Well, what's the difference between being the flesh and the spirit? It's regeneration. It's the very work of the Spirit of God in bringing us to spiritual life.

Lazarus couldn't raise himself, but once Jesus said, come forth, there was no power in heaven and earth that was going to keep Lazarus in that tomb. And it's the same thing spiritually with us. It's the valley of the dry bones.

When the wind blew across, can you imagine those dry bones somehow resisting that sovereign power that brings them together and gives them life? Certainly not. And so just as Jesus said, so does those who are born of the Spirit.

The Spirit blows where He wills. We don't control that. God does. It's all a matter of mercy and grace. And so what He does is He takes a rebel sinner who is intent upon continuing in his rebellion and down the road to destruction, and He grabs hold of that rebel sinner, and He removes the chains of slavery.

He gives them a heart of flesh rather than a heart of stone, and He makes them a new creature. And as a result, I run to Christ, and I cling to Christ. And that's why saving faith is faith that continues on, because it has been born by the work of the Spirit of God in my heart.

It's not something I bring up out of myself. It's something that the Spirit of God has accomplished. I think it's a tremendously powerful, powerful message because it emphasizes the fact that all of this is to the glory of God.

It's not to the glory of God and partly to me. It's not that God did 90 of it and leaves 10 to me. There is very clearly, as Jonah said, salvation is of the Lord, and that really is the fundamental message.

The Gospel Call, Divine Hardening, and Final Exhortation

And so I'm sure that there would be some of our viewers who would be watching this, and they would be asking themselves, and I would probably be honing in on a particular word, and that is my responsibility.

If I don't know God, if a person that is watching this episode and they don't know God, what is their responsibility before God?

If they don't know Him savingly, because I would argue that everyone does know that God exists, but they're suppressing that knowledge. It's savingly knowing Him, turning to Him. The message of Scripture is clear.

I don't know who the Father has given to the Son. And so to all of creation, I say, your responsibility before God is to repent and believe. To repent and believe. God then uses that message as it is preached in the lives of His elect people to bring about that saving faith.

In the hearts of many others, it becomes a hardening thing, just as it was in Pharaoh's experience, for example. And God even uses that to His honor and glory. God, the beauty of this is you never preach the gospel in vain.

God will always accomplish His own glory in all of these things.

Thank you, James. This is a tough subject. Thank you. Thank you. To our viewers, we really hope that you've been able to see some clarity in some of the things that we've been able to explain. You are responsible.

You have a responsibility before God. We hope that you would come to know Him savingly. Please stay in tune for the very next episode of Renewed Mind. And may God bless you.