Joh 6:60-63 | KingComments | STEP | The Lord’s teaching reveals what lives in the hearts of His disciples. Many of them oppose His radical words. There is a serious form of unbelief here, this time not among the Jews but among many of His disciples. What is the “difficult statement” to them? That He has said to them that they have no life in themselves unless they eat in the manner He has indicated ( ). They are not free from their national religious feelings which, because of what He has said, are condemned to their roots. This is unbearable for them. In the same way, there are people today who want to accept a kind of ‘Jesus’ that is to their taste, but do not need to know anything about a Jesus Who had to suffer and die for them in order to give them life. It is obvious to them that they have life because they are the people chosen by God, aren’t they? The Lord knows what resistance His words have aroused among the mass of His disciples. In a questioning form, He tells them that they are stumbling over His words, that His words are a stumbling block to follow Him. They cannot bear His teaching about His coming down and dying. In Him God has come to earth, God revealed in the flesh to be able to die. They already reject that simple truth and do not want to believe it. How, then, will they react when they see the Son of Man, a Man, going to heaven, to the place where He was before? He testifies here of Himself that He was with God even before He became Man. He is God and Man in one Person. In fact, they will see as much of it as of the reality of His death. Both His cross and His ascension are beyond their field of vision, limited as that remains to a reigning Messiah. They cannot understand it either because the Spirit did not give them life. And the Spirit cannot give them life because they resist the teaching of the Lord Jesus. With the introduction of the Holy Spirit the Lord concludes His teaching of this chapter. Nothing of the flesh is of any use to understand the things He has spoken. The flesh is utterly incapable to make any contribution to the knowledge of the truth He presents. The Spirit alone can give life, for man is dead by nature. The Spirit is the active power of the triune God. The Father gives the bread, the Son is the bread and the Spirit works the life in those who eat this bread. Everything comes from God and nothing comes from man. The words spoken by the Lord can only be understood in a spiritual way. These words contain the life that becomes part of everyone who believes His words. The Lord knows that there are some among His hearers who do not believe. This is yet another striking testimony that He has complete knowledge of all things. Not only does He know what people think and say, but He also knows “from the beginning” who will not believe and also who will betray Him ( ). Those who do believe do not need to boast about it, for it was the Father who gave it to them. It is the sovereign grace of God. If it depended on the flesh, no man would ever come to Christ. Now the separation becomes visible between those who reject His words and those who accept His words. The separation arises when it comes to His death as a necessity to get life. People don’t want to walk further with Him because He teaches them things they don’t like, they don’t like to hear, they ask too much of them, and cost them too much. It is the people who ‘apologize’ that they cannot accept the invitation to come to the meal because they feel they have more important things to do ( ).

‏ John 6:60-63

A Hard Word for Unbelief

The Lord’s teaching reveals what lives in the hearts of His disciples. Many of them oppose His radical words. There is a serious form of unbelief here, this time not among the Jews but among many of His disciples. What is the “difficult statement” to them? That He has said to them that they have no life in themselves unless they eat in the manner He has indicated (Jn 6:53).

They are not free from their national religious feelings which, because of what He has said, are condemned to their roots. This is unbearable for them. In the same way, there are people today who want to accept a kind of ‘Jesus’ that is to their taste, but do not need to know anything about a Jesus Who had to suffer and die for them in order to give them life. It is obvious to them that they have life because they are the people chosen by God, aren’t they?

The Lord knows what resistance His words have aroused among the mass of His disciples. In a questioning form, He tells them that they are stumbling over His words, that His words are a stumbling block to follow Him. They cannot bear His teaching about His coming down and dying. In Him God has come to earth, God revealed in the flesh to be able to die. They already reject that simple truth and do not want to believe it. How, then, will they react when they see the Son of Man, a Man, going to heaven, to the place where He was before? He testifies here of Himself that He was with God even before He became Man. He is God and Man in one Person.

In fact, they will see as much of it as of the reality of His death. Both His cross and His ascension are beyond their field of vision, limited as that remains to a reigning Messiah. They cannot understand it either because the Spirit did not give them life. And the Spirit cannot give them life because they resist the teaching of the Lord Jesus.

With the introduction of the Holy Spirit the Lord concludes His teaching of this chapter. Nothing of the flesh is of any use to understand the things He has spoken. The flesh is utterly incapable to make any contribution to the knowledge of the truth He presents.

The Spirit alone can give life, for man is dead by nature. The Spirit is the active power of the triune God. The Father gives the bread, the Son is the bread and the Spirit works the life in those who eat this bread. Everything comes from God and nothing comes from man. The words spoken by the Lord can only be understood in a spiritual way. These words contain the life that becomes part of everyone who believes His words.

The Lord knows that there are some among His hearers who do not believe. This is yet another striking testimony that He has complete knowledge of all things. Not only does He know what people think and say, but He also knows “from the beginning” who will not believe and also who will betray Him (Jn 6:71). Those who do believe do not need to boast about it, for it was the Father who gave it to them. It is the sovereign grace of God. If it depended on the flesh, no man would ever come to Christ.

Now the separation becomes visible between those who reject His words and those who accept His words. The separation arises when it comes to His death as a necessity to get life. People don’t want to walk further with Him because He teaches them things they don’t like, they don’t like to hear, they ask too much of them, and cost them too much. It is the people who ‘apologize’ that they cannot accept the invitation to come to the meal because they feel they have more important things to do (Lk 14:16-24).