The Bread of Life, Part 2 - All Those the Father Gives Me
John 6v36-42
20th June 2025
We read last time that, after Jesus fed the 5,000, the crowd came to look for Him and He taught them about "food that endures to eternal life" (verse 27). He told them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." (verse 35). Jesus knew they neither understood nor believed Him. He told them:
John 6v36
"But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe."
All Jesus's wonderful promises are for the people who believe in Him. They didn’t. But millions and millions of us do. Jesus said:
John 6v37
"All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never
drive away. "
Isn’t that a wonderful promise? Jesus doesn’t say "all those who choose to come to me"; He says "All those the Father gives me". Jesus must mean there are some people whom God the Father gives to Jesus. You, I and every true believer are gifts that God the Father gives to Jesus. As 1 Peter 2v9 tells us, "You are a chosen people".
That being so, there must be another group of people whom God doesn’t give to Jesus. They are not chosen people. Jesus says, "All those the Father gives me will come to me". Those whom God the Father has chosen to give to Jesus seek Jesus and find Him, and are saved. Their sins are forgiven, they’re adopted as children of God and they inherit eternal life. We have free will, but God will save all the people He’s chosen. God’s saving grace is irresistible. All those God the Father has not chosen won’t come to Jesus.
We chose God because God had already chosen us. He is Lord. The initiative is His. We couldn’t choose God without His help. We were dead in our sins before God called us to come to Jesus (Ephesians 2v1). We were spiritually blind until He opened our eyes (2 Corinthians 4v4-6). We couldn’t understand the Gospel until He explained it to us.
Whether we’re saved, whether we inherit eternal life, depends on the sovereign will of God. God draws some people to Jesus and not others. You might think that’s unfair, but God has the right to do what He wants with each of the people He’s created. As Paul says in Romans 9v18, "God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden". To people who don’t like that idea, Paul writes in Romans 9v20, "who are you, human, to talk back to God?"
And Jesus will never drive away anybody who comes to Him. Not one of us has done things that Jesus won’t forgive, no-one’s past is so scandalous that Jesus won’t accept them, no-one’s problems are so severe that Jesus can’t help. If God the Father has chosen you, you will come to Jesus, Jesus will welcome you, and He will never let you go. Jesus tells us why He makes this wonderful promise:
John 6v38-40
"For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who
sent me.
And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he
has
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."
Jesus delights to do His Father’s will. He’s fully submitted to God the Father and He’ll never reject anybody whom God the Father has chosen. He will not lose one of those who come to him. Once saved, always saved. And Jesus will raise us up on the last day. When He returns to earth, we will receive new, immortal bodies and we’ll be with Him for ever.
What wonderful news! What wonderful promises! What wonderful grace! You’d think the crowd would be pleased. But:
John 6v41-42
At this the Jews there 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'?"
Jesus makes huge claims for Himself. In John’s Gospel alone He says, "I am the bread of life" here, "I am the light of the world" (John 8v12), "before Abraham was born I am" (John 8v58), "I am the door for the sheep (John 10v7)", "I am the good shepherd" (John 10v11), "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11v25), "I am the way, the truth and the life" (John 14v6) and "I am the true vine" (John 15v1). Most of the people who heard Jesus preach were appalled by these claims, but they’re all true – wonderfully, gloriously, life-changingly true.
The people whom the Father has chosen will come to believe what Jesus and the Bible say about Him. Other people won’t. The crowd didn’t.
Do you?