No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
No one can come to Christ unless the Father who sent Him draws him, with the heart enlightened by God's Spirit to feel its need of a Savior. The Father draws by teaching, so that all who hear and learn from Him come to Christ, while mere hearing without learning and doing the truth is not this drawing. He draws all hearts through love by the compelling influence of the Holy Spirit, yet without forcing the will, so the sinner must consent and cooperate and willingly obey. Coming to Him is receiving Him as the bread of life come down from heaven, believing His words that are spirit and life and putting whole trust in Him. Everyone so drawn who comes in true earnest belief has everlasting life, and Christ will raise him up at the last day in deliverance from death and the grave.
Chapter Setting and Occasion
The verse belongs to the chapter that presents Christ as the bread of life come down from heaven to give life to the world. That chapter makes Christ the center of the believer's life, teaching that receiving His words brings spiritual life and lasting satisfaction. Its call to eat His flesh and drink His blood means becoming Christlike, with lives filled with love for God and others, Christ's Spirit, and holy aspirations toward God. It means the spiritual truths of God's Word must be taken into the mind, understood, and practiced so as to shape the whole life.
Jesus spoke it to Jews who murmured at His claim to be the bread come down from heaven, knowing Him only as the son of Joseph. Their minds were opened to deceiving power so that they resisted evidence despite the mighty works they had seen Him perform, and He commanded them not to murmur. The verse thus warns against cherishing such unbelief, for the natural unconverted mind resists His claim to have come from heaven, a darkness present in every age. The chapter is therefore to be learned humbly, like a little child, by receiving instruction from Christ and studying His Word.
It was spoken in the synagogue at Capernaum when He declared Himself the bread come down from heaven. It falls within the lessons He gave after refusing the crowd's attempt to make Him king. It belongs to His teaching after the feeding with the loaves and fishes and His walking on the water, when He told His hearers He was the bread of life.
The chapter expresses God's will for His people and gives the great simple lesson of how to work the works of God. The work God requires is to believe on Him whom He sent, with believing first and then working the works of God, and this answer must be understood or heaven will be missed. Its plain truth tested hearers, leading them to decide for or against Him and revealing the true sentiments of their hearts, for some rejected it when it exposed their lives and turned away rather than accept correction and reform. Jesus spoke this truth about His work to test those who claimed to be His disciples and to prove them before He left them, so that their apostasy would not come as a surprise to the true disciples and make the trial too severe for them, which testing was essential for the safety of His future work, that it should not be swayed into wrong paths.
Many who had followed for material benefits were offended by the bread-of-life teaching about eternal life and entrance into God's kingdom and turned away when they encountered its demands. Some who professed to be His disciples turned away from Him, including some disciples who left after this teaching. While many followers were offended and turned away, the twelve did not leave but remained faithful at that time, with Peter declaring loyalty to Christ.
The lesson gives understanding of the terms of eternal life and is to be read, understood, and clung to by eating Christ's flesh and drinking His blood, which means clinging to the truth of Christ's Word together with those who are faithful and true and who believe and practice the truth. It holds most precious and important lessons for all being educated, giving an education that endures through time and eternity when its wonderful truths are brought into practical life, though it is only faintly understood. It gives spiritual food that builds up men and women from the food they give the mind, and those ministering in word and doctrine must not be dull of understanding toward it but must ask God for clearness of understanding to comprehend it, rather than spending time on books and magazines that hinder spiritual growth. It is to be read and received in good and honest hearts, in its simple sense under the Holy Spirit's guidance, for Christ's words are not an unknowable mystery, and those who claim to be Christians are to study and practice them. The soul needs to hunger for Him, and turning attention to worldly entertainment instead of God can leave the heart without that hunger and weaken its spiritual life.
How the Father Draws
No one can come to Christ unless the Father who sent Him draws him, and that drawing begins when the heart is enlightened by God's Spirit to feel its need of a Savior. God does not teach the way of life by appearing in person, because fallen humanity could not endure the vision of His glory. People come to the Father through the Son as Mediator, so that in seeing and hearing the Son they see and hear the Father. The Father draws by teaching, and all who hear and learn from the Father come to Christ. Mere hearing without learning and practicing the truth is not this drawing, and a form of godliness without living faith does not make one a believer.
God draws all hearts through love, with great mercy and pitying tenderness like an arm reached down, by a compelling influence of the Holy Spirit and by earnest appeals aimed at the affections and the will, and only those who resist refuse to come. That drawing is constant and continues until persistent refusal grieves away God's tender messenger and cuts the person off from blessing. It does not force the will, for the sinner must consent, cooperate with divine agencies, and willingly obey. Man is not passive but must strain every faculty to break through the powers of darkness in the struggle for everlasting life, while God supplies the efficiency to will and to do, for God will not do what must be done by earnest willing cooperation.
Fallen men are in bondage to a degenerating power that has perverted their conceptions of God and brought their minds under its control until every heavenly attribute is well nigh destroyed. Of themselves they have no spiritual thought or impulse and no power to save themselves or to take even one step toward repentance, reform, or salvation. Only as Christ draws them can they move, and He then frees them from Satan's control, imparts the attributes of character lost through sin, and by grace enables them to regain Eden. At every step Christ is to the clinging sinner wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, and as soon as a person takes the first step toward mercy God advances with pardon, takes away sin, and imputes His righteousness.
The sinner's first step comes through the Spirit convicting of sin and inviting repentance, a calling of the sinner distinct from justification. Man cannot produce repentance or prepare himself, but moves toward Christ in order to repent, since man can no more repent without Christ than be pardoned without Him. Repentance is God's gift and evidence that Christ is drawing him, proved when the penitent's cry is answered. Christ draws the sinner before the sinner decides, and His virtue enables the heart to turn from sin and cling to truth. Therefore sinners should come as they are without waiting until they think they have repented or have produced a depth of sorrow or a special impulse, submitting to be drawn while coming and believing in His willingness to save, for contemplating His love brings genuine repentance.
The Father draws sinners through Christ's invitation, with no prior condition to meet in order to qualify. The drawing comes by the life of Jesus from manger to cross as a call to self-surrender and fellowship in suffering. As sinners behold Christ on the cross they recognize God's love and their own sin, learn that sin is transgression of the law, and are led to repentance and faith in His merits for pardon. This drawing convinces people that obedience to God's commandments is a question of life and death. It makes hearers interested in Bible truth so that conscience recognizes it because it rests on Scripture, and it is seen in eager crowds listening, whereas mere hearing of truth and attending meetings alone do not draw.
Human workers can proclaim truth but cannot transform another, and without Christ nothing can be done to reach souls. Christ Himself must draw each soul by grace, with the Spirit impressing every heart that does not stubbornly resist. Workers must therefore trust Christ alone, join Him in drawing, and share His compelling influence, praying for the Spirit to enlighten reason and work with human effort. The drawing reaches even the unrepentant who do not respond and every seeking soul while good and evil strive for mastery and Satan works with masterly power to hold them back, keep them in his army, and drag inquiring souls away from the cross. Some yield and receive Jesus but few accept truth, and how one responds shows on which side he stands, for worshipers of self belong to Satan's kingdom and by attitude toward Christ everyone passes judgment on himself.
Those not drawn have hearts not open to the Spirit, for the natural person cannot receive things spiritually discerned. Only living growing faith kindled by the Spirit sees Jesus' glory and values His holiness unto decisive action, and failure to come reflects lack of awareness of the Father's love. God knows beforehand who under popular influences will respond, and His choice precedes theirs as they choose to become His sheep by receiving Him. The drawing was seen when the Spirit made the message effective in Sister Hanna's heart unto surrender and a transformed life, in the eager crowds listening at Maitland, and in the continued drawing of Albert Harris whom a fellow worker may join Christ in drawing.
Its truths teach accountability and dependence on God by creation and redemption rather than on any human being for power, experience, strength, and guidance. Prayed over and studied, the chapter turns people from looking to humans and human devising, which brings bondage and weakness, to looking to Jesus. People may bring troubles directly to Him who understands their circumstances rather than relying on another to inquire of God for them, and loving and searching the Scriptures to gain their treasures gives assurance He is drawing them. A soul hungry for Christ is filled with His fullness, while choosing what turns the heart from God leaves no appetite for heavenly instruction, and the sinful and guilty respond by repenting, accepting Him as personal Savior, trusting Him for forgiveness and lifting up, and resolving to turn from sin rather than be condemned.
What Coming Means
Coming to Christ is receiving Him as the heavenly bread of life under the figure of eating His flesh and drinking His blood, which is believing His words that are spirit and life and putting whole trust in Him who gave His life to save souls, so that true receivers never hunger and true believers never thirst. It is a spiritual experience and not merely a physical act, in which receiving Him and taking His words into the life brings spiritual life and eternal life. The true bread from heaven cannot be obtained from any human agent but is given by God Himself through the gift of Christ, and is secured by believing on Him whom God sent rather than making perishable bread the chief labor and anxiety.
Eating His flesh and drinking His blood means receiving Bible truth as the flesh and blood of the Son of God into the mind, understanding it, comprehending and appreciating the truth as it is in Jesus, and practicing it for spiritual strength, health, growth, and soundness. It is being doers of the Word of God, with the Bible standing as the great educating book above all other books, and the spiritual truths of God's Word so taken in are to shape the whole life and be brought into daily experience. What the mind feeds on shapes spiritual life, so Christ's Word nourishes and prepares people to stand against evil, and those who feed are taught daily in the school of Christ, making continual growth in grace and seeking this and all other blessings by prayer to God. Believing comes first and then working the works of God, and this way to heaven by faith in Jesus must be understood or heaven will be missed.
Coming means personal faith in a personal Saviour bringing the soul into spiritual union with Christ, personally receiving the Word and making its life-giving message one's own, and mere outward connection with any church will not save. It means studying the Word, praying and communing with God to prove His mind and know His will while striving for eternal life, receiving and assimilating Christ's words until they become part of oneself. They are to be brought home to the soul and into daily life without departing from its precepts, living by every word God has revealed as necessary for salvation rather than the suppositions of men, grasping the mysteries of godliness and revealing truth only as it is known in Christ. It is feeding on the Bible as the bread of life come down from heaven and communing with God in complete self-renunciation and Christlikeness, stripped of own habits, manners and customs. This puts the element of eternal life into preaching, gives a new perception of truth on every side instead of stale oft-repeated ideas, makes the Word shine with clearness and power, and leads to working as Christ worked, respecting varied minds and speaking a word that touches every case and satisfies every soul hunger, so that hearers whose hearts are open to the Holy Spirit's influence feel inner life and have God's love kindled within them.
This inward reception makes a person like Christ in character and brings the life that produces growth in Him, for people cannot have life apart from Him. His attributes appear in words and actions, and lives become channels of living water filled with love for God and others, Christ's Spirit, and holy aspirations toward God, showing whether Christ's or Satan's attributes rule the heart. It is cherishing in the heart the truth that works by love and purifies the soul, bearing the fruit of a good tree, calling the self-confident person in danger of losing his soul to thorough conversion, a new life, and humble Christianity without boasting of personal capabilities. Those who eat this bread have Christ abiding in them and follow Him as the perfect Saviour, giving themselves wholly to the Lord.
Each person must receive and absorb the Word personally, not merely through another person's understanding, and when the Word becomes part of actions and character it gives strength from God, perfects spiritual experience, and brings lasting joy. Those who come to the gospel feast pray for the Holy Spirit to enlighten reason and work with human effort, and place themselves where the light of Christ can be received for sanctification of soul and spirit. The whole provision of the gospel is nothing less than Christ Himself, given at infinite cost through His death out of inexpressible love with unsearchable resources, from whom flow the streams of salvation. To be invited to come is the greatest honor that can be conferred, and refusal on earthly and selfish excuses brings amazement in heaven and grief to angels, while those who come and feed on Christ receive eternal life and will be raised up at the last day.
Those who so come and believe have everlasting life through coming into connection with Christ by receiving the principles of God's Word into the daily life, with His words as spirit and life to be received and assimilated. Eating the bread is believing the Word of God and appropriating that Word to the soul by comparing Scripture with Scripture, believing every word of Christ, being united to Him by living faith, and bringing His requirements into the practical life. It is obeying Christ's words and doing His works, advancing righteousness and restraining unrighteousness, which is essential to happiness and salvation. Those who so eat have the witness of the Spirit that their ways please God, with full assurance of hope and the joy of Christ remaining in the soul.
Such feeding is tasting that the Lord is gracious made a part of actual personal experience, as learning like newborn babes to desire the sincere milk of the word to grow thereby. It is being truly converted and born again to see and discern the spiritual kingdom, opening the mind to the entrance of God's word with determination to practice it so that light and understanding come. It is the very education every student needs that changes the frivolous life, transforms the character under heaven's gaze, forsakes the common level, places the feet on the first round of the ladder which is Christ Jesus, mounts step by step heavenward, and reveals Christ in spirit and words and actions as lively stones built up a spiritual house.
Raised at the Last Day
Christ promises to raise at the last day everyone whom the Father draws who comes to Him in true earnest belief. This raising is His deliverance from death and the grave. Believers have the Saviour's life in them, and He makes them one with Himself in this life and through eternity. The next verse explains the drawing, that those who hear and learn from the Father come to Christ, for the Father teaches people so they can understand spiritual truth and come in faith. This teaching belongs to the chapter that expresses God's will for His people and His instruction about that will.
Everyone who sees the Son and believes receives everlasting life and shall live forever. This is unlike the fathers who ate manna in the wilderness and died, because His flesh is given for the life of the world. Coming to Him is receiving Him as the heavenly bread of life from heaven under the figure of eating His flesh and drinking His blood. That eating and drinking is believing His words that are spirit and life and putting whole trust in Him who gave His life to save souls, so true receivers never hunger and true believers never thirst. It is receiving Bible truth as His flesh and blood and His life-giving word into the mind and practicing it for spiritual strength, health, growth, and soundness. Only those who have heard and learned of the Father come to Him, for all shall be taught of God.
The chapter urges study of this promise, with His words received and assimilated as spirit and life. Here no further explanation is given of how the Father draws people to Christ nor of the details of the raising. Spiritual things are understood through spiritual discernment, and living growing faith sees and values Christ's holiness, awakening decisive action that demonstrates God's power, while failure to come reflects lack of awareness of the Father's love for fallen humanity.
Scripture Links and Prophecy
The promise that all would be taught by God finds its fulfillment in this drawing, for the Father draws by teaching and enlightening the heart through the Spirit to feel need of a Savior. To hear and learn from the Father is to receive knowledge of Him through Christ, since those truly taught recognize Jesus as the one who reveals the Father. God does not teach by appearing in person to show the way of life, because humanity could not endure the vision of His glory, but people come to the Father through the Son as Mediator, so that in seeing and hearing the Son they see and hear the Father. The promise joined to the drawing, that Christ will raise up at the last day those who come, points to the resurrection.
The chapter affirms the sufficiency of the Old Testament Scriptures, so that believing them leads to belief in the New. The New does not replace the Old but sheds light on it and gives significance to the whole Jewish economy. The directions given to Israel carry the spiritual meaning of Christ's flesh and blood as well as practical instruction in obedience, for His work as substitute for sin was the only hope of ancient Israel. His words as spiritual bread are living oracles to be received and lived, so that no one who feeds on them need remain spiritually hungry.
The verse defines the righteousness of Christ that must be accepted in order to have the wedding garment. That garment is the marriage of humanity with divinity and the standard of character each must reach to be counted a fit guest at the wedding. Accepting it requires taking a firm stand for Christ and surrendering to God what is already His, instead of continuing in sin or measuring character by human ideas, and failure here brings loss of the soul.
The teaching means the gospel does not address the understanding alone as mathematics addresses the intellect alone, but aims at the heart, addresses the moral nature, and takes possession of the will. It casts down imaginations and every high thing against the knowledge of God and brings every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Since the wayward heart has dragged down the faculties of the soul, those who yield their will to do His will are trained in Christ's school to do justice to His divinity and disciplined to habits of obedience and service. All who would learn the science of salvation must be submissive students with the soul emptied of proud possessions, that Christ may imprint His image upon the soul and the soul-temple may become the abiding place of the Most High. This life-giving work comes through the Word because God's Word contains the Holy Spirit as its living undying element working life through the Word.
The work God requires is to believe on Him whom He sent. The price of heaven is the only begotten Son of God, and the way to heaven is by faith in Jesus, with believing first and then working the works of God. This answer must be understood or heaven will be missed. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood in this great simple lesson means being doers of the Word, with the Bible standing as the great educating book above all other books.
Living the Bread of Life
The soul needs to hunger for Christ as the heavenly bread, and the chapter containing this verse is to be read for spiritual nourishment. The Lord works by the Holy Spirit to awaken a deep need for Christ and His grace, and a soul hungry for Him is filled with His fullness. Turning attention to worldly entertainment instead of God, and choosing what turns the heart from Him, leaves no appetite for heavenly instruction and weakens spiritual life.
Christ is the same compassionate Saviour today, not unmindful of physical wants, who will impart knowledge whereby His people in different places will be provided with food. Yet the true bread from heaven cannot be obtained from any human agent but is given by God Himself through the gift of Christ, and the spiritual food He provides matters far more than temporal food. People must not make perishable bread their chief labor and anxiety but must secure the living bread that endures to everlasting life by believing on Him whom God sent, for he who so comes to Christ will never hunger and he who believes on Him will never thirst.
People are to receive and obey His words, which are spirit and life, and thereby have eternal life. This calls for faith in the Son of God and reliance on the efficacy of His blood to be kept from Satan's power.
The bread from heaven opened the disciples' work as His representatives to give the bread of life to people who were spiritually hungry. When they felt helpless and had nothing to impart, they were to seek spiritual food from God, who had appointed them to feed others and would supply what His work required. Preaching truth is breaking to others the bread of life, for Jesus is the bread of life and the source of spiritual nourishment.
Those who feed most on Christ are those most ready to do service. Feeding on Christ means reading and studying His Word, drinking in the inspiration of His Spirit, and receiving His grace not to hoard but to give to others. To instruct others, teachers must first be learners of Christ, and even intensely busy workers who do much good in religious activity like Martha need Mary's side of the character, so that the most zealous workers learn at the feet of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit draws people to Jesus, and they are to answer that drawing by believing in His willingness to save them. They must turn from despair and speak in faith and hope, and while the prayers of others may support them, those prayers cannot replace their own response.
No one can come to Christ unless the Father who sent Him draws him, with the heart enlightened by God's Spirit to feel its need of a Savior. The Father draws by teaching, so that all who hear and learn from Him come to Christ, while mere hearing without learning and doing the truth is not this drawing. He draws all hearts through love by the compelling influence of the Holy Spirit, yet without forcing the will, so the sinner must consent and cooperate and willingly obey. Coming to Him is receiving Him as the bread of life come down from heaven, believing His words that are spirit and life and putting whole trust in Him. Everyone so drawn who comes in true earnest belief has everlasting life, and Christ will raise him up at the last day in deliverance from death and the grave.
Chapter Setting and Occasion
The verse belongs to the chapter that presents Christ as the bread of life come down from heaven to give life to the world. That chapter makes Christ the center of the believer's life, teaching that receiving His words brings spiritual life and lasting satisfaction. Its call to eat His flesh and drink His blood means becoming Christlike, with lives filled with love for God and others, Christ's Spirit, and holy aspirations toward God. It means the spiritual truths of God's Word must be taken into the mind, understood, and practiced so as to shape the whole life.
Jesus spoke it to Jews who murmured at His claim to be the bread come down from heaven, knowing Him only as the son of Joseph. Their minds were opened to deceiving power so that they resisted evidence despite the mighty works they had seen Him perform, and He commanded them not to murmur. The verse thus warns against cherishing such unbelief, for the natural unconverted mind resists His claim to have come from heaven, a darkness present in every age. The chapter is therefore to be learned humbly, like a little child, by receiving instruction from Christ and studying His Word.
It was spoken in the synagogue at Capernaum when He declared Himself the bread come down from heaven. It falls within the lessons He gave after refusing the crowd's attempt to make Him king. It belongs to His teaching after the feeding with the loaves and fishes and His walking on the water, when He told His hearers He was the bread of life.
The chapter expresses God's will for His people and gives the great simple lesson of how to work the works of God. The work God requires is to believe on Him whom He sent, with believing first and then working the works of God, and this answer must be understood or heaven will be missed. Its plain truth tested hearers, leading them to decide for or against Him and revealing the true sentiments of their hearts, for some rejected it when it exposed their lives and turned away rather than accept correction and reform. Jesus spoke this truth about His work to test those who claimed to be His disciples and to prove them before He left them, so that their apostasy would not come as a surprise to the true disciples and make the trial too severe for them, which testing was essential for the safety of His future work, that it should not be swayed into wrong paths.
Many who had followed for material benefits were offended by the bread-of-life teaching about eternal life and entrance into God's kingdom and turned away when they encountered its demands. Some who professed to be His disciples turned away from Him, including some disciples who left after this teaching. While many followers were offended and turned away, the twelve did not leave but remained faithful at that time, with Peter declaring loyalty to Christ.
The lesson gives understanding of the terms of eternal life and is to be read, understood, and clung to by eating Christ's flesh and drinking His blood, which means clinging to the truth of Christ's Word together with those who are faithful and true and who believe and practice the truth. It holds most precious and important lessons for all being educated, giving an education that endures through time and eternity when its wonderful truths are brought into practical life, though it is only faintly understood. It gives spiritual food that builds up men and women from the food they give the mind, and those ministering in word and doctrine must not be dull of understanding toward it but must ask God for clearness of understanding to comprehend it, rather than spending time on books and magazines that hinder spiritual growth. It is to be read and received in good and honest hearts, in its simple sense under the Holy Spirit's guidance, for Christ's words are not an unknowable mystery, and those who claim to be Christians are to study and practice them. The soul needs to hunger for Him, and turning attention to worldly entertainment instead of God can leave the heart without that hunger and weaken its spiritual life.
How the Father Draws
No one can come to Christ unless the Father who sent Him draws him, and that drawing begins when the heart is enlightened by God's Spirit to feel its need of a Savior. God does not teach the way of life by appearing in person, because fallen humanity could not endure the vision of His glory. People come to the Father through the Son as Mediator, so that in seeing and hearing the Son they see and hear the Father. The Father draws by teaching, and all who hear and learn from the Father come to Christ. Mere hearing without learning and practicing the truth is not this drawing, and a form of godliness without living faith does not make one a believer.
God draws all hearts through love, with great mercy and pitying tenderness like an arm reached down, by a compelling influence of the Holy Spirit and by earnest appeals aimed at the affections and the will, and only those who resist refuse to come. That drawing is constant and continues until persistent refusal grieves away God's tender messenger and cuts the person off from blessing. It does not force the will, for the sinner must consent, cooperate with divine agencies, and willingly obey. Man is not passive but must strain every faculty to break through the powers of darkness in the struggle for everlasting life, while God supplies the efficiency to will and to do, for God will not do what must be done by earnest willing cooperation.
Fallen men are in bondage to a degenerating power that has perverted their conceptions of God and brought their minds under its control until every heavenly attribute is well nigh destroyed. Of themselves they have no spiritual thought or impulse and no power to save themselves or to take even one step toward repentance, reform, or salvation. Only as Christ draws them can they move, and He then frees them from Satan's control, imparts the attributes of character lost through sin, and by grace enables them to regain Eden. At every step Christ is to the clinging sinner wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, and as soon as a person takes the first step toward mercy God advances with pardon, takes away sin, and imputes His righteousness.
The sinner's first step comes through the Spirit convicting of sin and inviting repentance, a calling of the sinner distinct from justification. Man cannot produce repentance or prepare himself, but moves toward Christ in order to repent, since man can no more repent without Christ than be pardoned without Him. Repentance is God's gift and evidence that Christ is drawing him, proved when the penitent's cry is answered. Christ draws the sinner before the sinner decides, and His virtue enables the heart to turn from sin and cling to truth. Therefore sinners should come as they are without waiting until they think they have repented or have produced a depth of sorrow or a special impulse, submitting to be drawn while coming and believing in His willingness to save, for contemplating His love brings genuine repentance.
The Father draws sinners through Christ's invitation, with no prior condition to meet in order to qualify. The drawing comes by the life of Jesus from manger to cross as a call to self-surrender and fellowship in suffering. As sinners behold Christ on the cross they recognize God's love and their own sin, learn that sin is transgression of the law, and are led to repentance and faith in His merits for pardon. This drawing convinces people that obedience to God's commandments is a question of life and death. It makes hearers interested in Bible truth so that conscience recognizes it because it rests on Scripture, and it is seen in eager crowds listening, whereas mere hearing of truth and attending meetings alone do not draw.
Human workers can proclaim truth but cannot transform another, and without Christ nothing can be done to reach souls. Christ Himself must draw each soul by grace, with the Spirit impressing every heart that does not stubbornly resist. Workers must therefore trust Christ alone, join Him in drawing, and share His compelling influence, praying for the Spirit to enlighten reason and work with human effort. The drawing reaches even the unrepentant who do not respond and every seeking soul while good and evil strive for mastery and Satan works with masterly power to hold them back, keep them in his army, and drag inquiring souls away from the cross. Some yield and receive Jesus but few accept truth, and how one responds shows on which side he stands, for worshipers of self belong to Satan's kingdom and by attitude toward Christ everyone passes judgment on himself.
Those not drawn have hearts not open to the Spirit, for the natural person cannot receive things spiritually discerned. Only living growing faith kindled by the Spirit sees Jesus' glory and values His holiness unto decisive action, and failure to come reflects lack of awareness of the Father's love. God knows beforehand who under popular influences will respond, and His choice precedes theirs as they choose to become His sheep by receiving Him. The drawing was seen when the Spirit made the message effective in Sister Hanna's heart unto surrender and a transformed life, in the eager crowds listening at Maitland, and in the continued drawing of Albert Harris whom a fellow worker may join Christ in drawing.
Its truths teach accountability and dependence on God by creation and redemption rather than on any human being for power, experience, strength, and guidance. Prayed over and studied, the chapter turns people from looking to humans and human devising, which brings bondage and weakness, to looking to Jesus. People may bring troubles directly to Him who understands their circumstances rather than relying on another to inquire of God for them, and loving and searching the Scriptures to gain their treasures gives assurance He is drawing them. A soul hungry for Christ is filled with His fullness, while choosing what turns the heart from God leaves no appetite for heavenly instruction, and the sinful and guilty respond by repenting, accepting Him as personal Savior, trusting Him for forgiveness and lifting up, and resolving to turn from sin rather than be condemned.
What Coming Means
Coming to Christ is receiving Him as the heavenly bread of life under the figure of eating His flesh and drinking His blood, which is believing His words that are spirit and life and putting whole trust in Him who gave His life to save souls, so that true receivers never hunger and true believers never thirst. It is a spiritual experience and not merely a physical act, in which receiving Him and taking His words into the life brings spiritual life and eternal life. The true bread from heaven cannot be obtained from any human agent but is given by God Himself through the gift of Christ, and is secured by believing on Him whom God sent rather than making perishable bread the chief labor and anxiety.
Eating His flesh and drinking His blood means receiving Bible truth as the flesh and blood of the Son of God into the mind, understanding it, comprehending and appreciating the truth as it is in Jesus, and practicing it for spiritual strength, health, growth, and soundness. It is being doers of the Word of God, with the Bible standing as the great educating book above all other books, and the spiritual truths of God's Word so taken in are to shape the whole life and be brought into daily experience. What the mind feeds on shapes spiritual life, so Christ's Word nourishes and prepares people to stand against evil, and those who feed are taught daily in the school of Christ, making continual growth in grace and seeking this and all other blessings by prayer to God. Believing comes first and then working the works of God, and this way to heaven by faith in Jesus must be understood or heaven will be missed.
Coming means personal faith in a personal Saviour bringing the soul into spiritual union with Christ, personally receiving the Word and making its life-giving message one's own, and mere outward connection with any church will not save. It means studying the Word, praying and communing with God to prove His mind and know His will while striving for eternal life, receiving and assimilating Christ's words until they become part of oneself. They are to be brought home to the soul and into daily life without departing from its precepts, living by every word God has revealed as necessary for salvation rather than the suppositions of men, grasping the mysteries of godliness and revealing truth only as it is known in Christ. It is feeding on the Bible as the bread of life come down from heaven and communing with God in complete self-renunciation and Christlikeness, stripped of own habits, manners and customs. This puts the element of eternal life into preaching, gives a new perception of truth on every side instead of stale oft-repeated ideas, makes the Word shine with clearness and power, and leads to working as Christ worked, respecting varied minds and speaking a word that touches every case and satisfies every soul hunger, so that hearers whose hearts are open to the Holy Spirit's influence feel inner life and have God's love kindled within them.
This inward reception makes a person like Christ in character and brings the life that produces growth in Him, for people cannot have life apart from Him. His attributes appear in words and actions, and lives become channels of living water filled with love for God and others, Christ's Spirit, and holy aspirations toward God, showing whether Christ's or Satan's attributes rule the heart. It is cherishing in the heart the truth that works by love and purifies the soul, bearing the fruit of a good tree, calling the self-confident person in danger of losing his soul to thorough conversion, a new life, and humble Christianity without boasting of personal capabilities. Those who eat this bread have Christ abiding in them and follow Him as the perfect Saviour, giving themselves wholly to the Lord.
Each person must receive and absorb the Word personally, not merely through another person's understanding, and when the Word becomes part of actions and character it gives strength from God, perfects spiritual experience, and brings lasting joy. Those who come to the gospel feast pray for the Holy Spirit to enlighten reason and work with human effort, and place themselves where the light of Christ can be received for sanctification of soul and spirit. The whole provision of the gospel is nothing less than Christ Himself, given at infinite cost through His death out of inexpressible love with unsearchable resources, from whom flow the streams of salvation. To be invited to come is the greatest honor that can be conferred, and refusal on earthly and selfish excuses brings amazement in heaven and grief to angels, while those who come and feed on Christ receive eternal life and will be raised up at the last day.
Those who so come and believe have everlasting life through coming into connection with Christ by receiving the principles of God's Word into the daily life, with His words as spirit and life to be received and assimilated. Eating the bread is believing the Word of God and appropriating that Word to the soul by comparing Scripture with Scripture, believing every word of Christ, being united to Him by living faith, and bringing His requirements into the practical life. It is obeying Christ's words and doing His works, advancing righteousness and restraining unrighteousness, which is essential to happiness and salvation. Those who so eat have the witness of the Spirit that their ways please God, with full assurance of hope and the joy of Christ remaining in the soul.
Such feeding is tasting that the Lord is gracious made a part of actual personal experience, as learning like newborn babes to desire the sincere milk of the word to grow thereby. It is being truly converted and born again to see and discern the spiritual kingdom, opening the mind to the entrance of God's word with determination to practice it so that light and understanding come. It is the very education every student needs that changes the frivolous life, transforms the character under heaven's gaze, forsakes the common level, places the feet on the first round of the ladder which is Christ Jesus, mounts step by step heavenward, and reveals Christ in spirit and words and actions as lively stones built up a spiritual house.
Raised at the Last Day
Christ promises to raise at the last day everyone whom the Father draws who comes to Him in true earnest belief. This raising is His deliverance from death and the grave. Believers have the Saviour's life in them, and He makes them one with Himself in this life and through eternity. The next verse explains the drawing, that those who hear and learn from the Father come to Christ, for the Father teaches people so they can understand spiritual truth and come in faith. This teaching belongs to the chapter that expresses God's will for His people and His instruction about that will.
Everyone who sees the Son and believes receives everlasting life and shall live forever. This is unlike the fathers who ate manna in the wilderness and died, because His flesh is given for the life of the world. Coming to Him is receiving Him as the heavenly bread of life from heaven under the figure of eating His flesh and drinking His blood. That eating and drinking is believing His words that are spirit and life and putting whole trust in Him who gave His life to save souls, so true receivers never hunger and true believers never thirst. It is receiving Bible truth as His flesh and blood and His life-giving word into the mind and practicing it for spiritual strength, health, growth, and soundness. Only those who have heard and learned of the Father come to Him, for all shall be taught of God.
The chapter urges study of this promise, with His words received and assimilated as spirit and life. Here no further explanation is given of how the Father draws people to Christ nor of the details of the raising. Spiritual things are understood through spiritual discernment, and living growing faith sees and values Christ's holiness, awakening decisive action that demonstrates God's power, while failure to come reflects lack of awareness of the Father's love for fallen humanity.
Scripture Links and Prophecy
The promise that all would be taught by God finds its fulfillment in this drawing, for the Father draws by teaching and enlightening the heart through the Spirit to feel need of a Savior. To hear and learn from the Father is to receive knowledge of Him through Christ, since those truly taught recognize Jesus as the one who reveals the Father. God does not teach by appearing in person to show the way of life, because humanity could not endure the vision of His glory, but people come to the Father through the Son as Mediator, so that in seeing and hearing the Son they see and hear the Father. The promise joined to the drawing, that Christ will raise up at the last day those who come, points to the resurrection.
The chapter affirms the sufficiency of the Old Testament Scriptures, so that believing them leads to belief in the New. The New does not replace the Old but sheds light on it and gives significance to the whole Jewish economy. The directions given to Israel carry the spiritual meaning of Christ's flesh and blood as well as practical instruction in obedience, for His work as substitute for sin was the only hope of ancient Israel. His words as spiritual bread are living oracles to be received and lived, so that no one who feeds on them need remain spiritually hungry.
The verse defines the righteousness of Christ that must be accepted in order to have the wedding garment. That garment is the marriage of humanity with divinity and the standard of character each must reach to be counted a fit guest at the wedding. Accepting it requires taking a firm stand for Christ and surrendering to God what is already His, instead of continuing in sin or measuring character by human ideas, and failure here brings loss of the soul.
The teaching means the gospel does not address the understanding alone as mathematics addresses the intellect alone, but aims at the heart, addresses the moral nature, and takes possession of the will. It casts down imaginations and every high thing against the knowledge of God and brings every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Since the wayward heart has dragged down the faculties of the soul, those who yield their will to do His will are trained in Christ's school to do justice to His divinity and disciplined to habits of obedience and service. All who would learn the science of salvation must be submissive students with the soul emptied of proud possessions, that Christ may imprint His image upon the soul and the soul-temple may become the abiding place of the Most High. This life-giving work comes through the Word because God's Word contains the Holy Spirit as its living undying element working life through the Word.
The work God requires is to believe on Him whom He sent. The price of heaven is the only begotten Son of God, and the way to heaven is by faith in Jesus, with believing first and then working the works of God. This answer must be understood or heaven will be missed. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood in this great simple lesson means being doers of the Word, with the Bible standing as the great educating book above all other books.
Living the Bread of Life
The soul needs to hunger for Christ as the heavenly bread, and the chapter containing this verse is to be read for spiritual nourishment. The Lord works by the Holy Spirit to awaken a deep need for Christ and His grace, and a soul hungry for Him is filled with His fullness. Turning attention to worldly entertainment instead of God, and choosing what turns the heart from Him, leaves no appetite for heavenly instruction and weakens spiritual life.
Christ is the same compassionate Saviour today, not unmindful of physical wants, who will impart knowledge whereby His people in different places will be provided with food. Yet the true bread from heaven cannot be obtained from any human agent but is given by God Himself through the gift of Christ, and the spiritual food He provides matters far more than temporal food. People must not make perishable bread their chief labor and anxiety but must secure the living bread that endures to everlasting life by believing on Him whom God sent, for he who so comes to Christ will never hunger and he who believes on Him will never thirst.
People are to receive and obey His words, which are spirit and life, and thereby have eternal life. This calls for faith in the Son of God and reliance on the efficacy of His blood to be kept from Satan's power.
The bread from heaven opened the disciples' work as His representatives to give the bread of life to people who were spiritually hungry. When they felt helpless and had nothing to impart, they were to seek spiritual food from God, who had appointed them to feed others and would supply what His work required. Preaching truth is breaking to others the bread of life, for Jesus is the bread of life and the source of spiritual nourishment.
Those who feed most on Christ are those most ready to do service. Feeding on Christ means reading and studying His Word, drinking in the inspiration of His Spirit, and receiving His grace not to hoard but to give to others. To instruct others, teachers must first be learners of Christ, and even intensely busy workers who do much good in religious activity like Martha need Mary's side of the character, so that the most zealous workers learn at the feet of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit draws people to Jesus, and they are to answer that drawing by believing in His willingness to save them. They must turn from despair and speak in faith and hope, and while the prayers of others may support them, those prayers cannot replace their own response.