JOHN 6:60-69 – When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” 66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

THEME OF THE DAY. THE HARD SAYINGS OF JESUS. Jesus said uncomfortable things in today’s scripture. The disciples called them a “hard saying.” But what they were really saying was “This is painfully uncomfortable.” We know this feeling was the language in their hearts for Jesus says to them, “Do you take offense at this?” Though the Savior’s words were uncomfortable, even hard, they were instructive. As they were long ago for His disciples, so they remain for us. What is here is for our learning.

First, no person comes to Christ for salvation unless God the Father draws the individual – “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” This means no one “decides” to become a Christian. No one. We are saved by the grace of God the Father in Christ because God the Father chose us to be saved by His grace in Christ. The Apostle Paul proclaims this electing grace of God in the opening chapter of his letter to the Ephesians – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will” (Ephesians 1:3-5). Friends, sovereign election of individuals to salvation is a clear Biblical truth. It is not a doctrine to be debated or worse, denied. Yes, it is a human dilemma for every single individual is responsible to God for what he or she does with Christ but no person can come to Christ on his or her own. Is that confusing and seem a contradiction? Yes . . . in the sinful and finite mind of humans. No . . . in the holy and infinite mind of God. Friends, don’t try to understand sovereign election, and don’t dishonor God by denying it. Just leave it alone and rejoice in its comforting truth.

The second lesson from the hard sayings of Jesus is when following the Lord, we are “all in, all the time” – So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. True Christians may fall to sin, but they will not remain in sin. True Christians may fall in their walks with the Lord, but they will not fall away from the Lord. Simon Peter understood discipleship. There is no turning back. Once we start following Jesus, we will continue. For those who seemed to have started but did not continue, they never started. All true believers confess like Simon Peter, “You are God and there is nowhere or no one else to go after.”

Our Lord taught hard things, even uncomfortable things, but if properly understood, they quickly become comfortable things; like elected to be in God’s family and given the spirit of perseverance to never fall away from Him. Rejoice in these eternal truths.

PRAYER: “Father, I honor You for giving me to Your Son as a gift of Your grace.”

QUOTE: “Genuine believers are all in with Jesus, all the time. Their lives revolve around Him entirely.”