Does John 6 Teach Unconditional Election?

Calvinists believe God has unconditionally chosen which individuals will have faith and which will not. The Bible never teaches this, yet one prooftext to which they appeal is John 6:44: "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day” (NASB). Also, Jesus says earlier, “All that my Father gives me will come to me” (v. 37). Calvinists unjustifiably assume these words of our Lord mean that no one can believe in Christ whom God has not unconditionally chosen. The question must be asked—whom does the text say God gives to Jesus?

In chapter 5, Jesus told the unbelieving Jews that God’s word was not “abiding in them,” and the evidence for this was, “you do not believe Him whom He sent.” In other words, unbelief in Jesus indicated that despite having the word of God in their Hebrew Bible their whole lives, they had not so loved and learned enough to see God in Jesus’ teaching, ministry, and character. Thus we see that not all of natural Israel had faith and within them was a smaller group—those who had God’s word “abiding in them,” that is, in their hearts and minds.

Jesus goes on to rhetorically ask how it was possible for them to believe when they did not seek glory from God (v. 44). Those Jews whose hearts were not interested in the God revealed in their scriptures would not be any more interested in the Son Who was a greater revelation of the same God. This is the same idea in chapter 6 where Jesus says nobody can “come to Him,” that is, believe in Him (compare “come” and “believe” in v. 35) unless the Father gives him. In other words, while the people were Jewish and members of natural Israel, not all of them were true believers in the God of Israel (5:46-47). God wanted those among them who were true believers to be Christ's people, and God would give them into the care, providence, and authority of His Son. However, the text does not say that God determined with individuals would be these true believers.

That there was a smaller group of believing Israelites within the larger nation who would become the people of Christ is a motif in John’s Gospel (see 17:6). Back in chapter 1, John says, [Jesus] came to what was His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (vv. 11-13).

God’s true people among natural Israel were those who believed in Him, and they would by course also believe in Jesus. This brings us to chapter 6:44: "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, 'and they shall all be taught of God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me." A comparison of verses 44-45 and 65 shows that the “drawing” is the same as the “giving” (v. 37). Consistent with the over-all book of John, the Father draws people to Christ through truth. During Jesus’ ministry on earth, those Jews who had learned from the scriptures to fear God were attracted to Jesus’ teaching. They recognized the Father in the Son (vv. 68-69).

We see this drawing demonstrated also in Acts 16 when Paul preaches at Phillipi. We read about Lydia who is called a “worshiper of God,” meaning she had learned about God from Judaism. When Paul preached the Gospel, we are told, “The Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.” There is no need to assume, as do many, that this “opening” was some direct, miraculous work of the Spirit on her heart that enabled her to believe the Gospel. The text does not say this. Rather, it was what she had learned about God from the Old Testament scriptures that prepared her to believe the Gospel. This is how the Lord opened her heart. Her previous knowledge of God from His previous revelation in scripture had prepared her for the Son, just as Paul says in Galatians 3:24: “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.”

Nothing in John 6 teaches Calvinism's Unconditional Election. The truth is that in God’s redemptive plan, those who learned to fear God from scripture and loved the truth believed in the teaching of the Son. This is even more so in the Christian era in which the Old Testament revelation is combined with New Testament revelation to bring lost souls to faith in Christ. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).