Look at these two passages in John’s Gospel. In the first, John 6:37–44, Jesus tells us explicitly that the will of the Father is that he “should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:39–40). Jesus’s argument in these verses must be carefully noted.
In John’s Gospel,
Chapter 6 ,
Chapter 10 and
Chapter 17 divine election is described in terms of God the Father giving certain persons to God the Son. In each of these cases the giving of men to Christ precedes and is the cause of their receiving eternal life. Jesus says it is impossible for someone whom the Father draws not to come to him. He says in verse 37, “All that the Father gives me will come to me.”
To these two impossibilities Jesus adds a third: he says that when people do come through the drawing of the Father, it is impossible for them to be cast out. Look again at verse 37: “And whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” The point is that those that the Father gives to the Son, who therefore come to the Son, will be received by the Son and shall never perish. They have eternal life. The verb translated “cast out” in verse 37 is used several times in John and always means to cast out someone or something already in.
Thus the emphasis here is not so much on receiving the one who comes but on preserving him or her. Who would suggest that Jesus Christ would refuse to accept what his Father has given him? If the Father was pleased to make a gift of certain sinners to his most blessed Son, you may rest assured that the Son will neither despise nor deny his Father’s gracious generosity.
The certainty of ultimate and absolute salvation for those who come to the Son is reaffirmed in John 6:38–40. Their life in Christ is eternal and irrevocable because that is the will of the Father, a will or a purpose that the whole of Christ’s person and work was designed to secure and that shall ultimately be fulfilled.
To deny eternal security means that when Jesus said he will raise up finally and forever all those given to him by the Father, he was misleading us. He should have said, “I hope to do so,” or “I’ll give it my best shot,” but the fact remains that he will raise up all those given to him by the Father.
How can Jesus say he will raise up all the Father gives him if in fact he will not, because some who truly believe in him finally and forever fall away and forfeit eternal life? That would be calling Jesus a liar, when in fact he is the truth.
