2. The tone in which the words are spoken supplies another element in the picture. Jesus seems to pause after saying, " Ye have seen me, and yet believe not." It is a sorrowful fact, and it is very mysterious. Here are His own people rejecting Him, or at any rate coming to Him in such a wrong fashion that He has to discourage them. It looks as though God's plan of salvation were not working out right. Is it going to fail at the outset ? Such questions must crowd into the Saviour's mind, as He faces the fact that these people will not accept Him. But they are not allowed to cloud His faith for an instant. At once the Son acquiesces in the Father's plan. It is all right ; it cannot fail. " All that which the Father giveth me shall come unto me." Nobody will be lost v/hom the Father designed to save. " Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." I am doing My
part correctly. So all must be well.
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262 CHRIST'S DOCTRINE OF ELECTION
II The Commander-in-Chief at the base of operations decides upon the plan of campaign, and entrusts its execution to another General who never doubts the strategy though it does not appear successful immediately, and never doubts His own perfect ful- filment of the plan.^
^ Mark well this passage, " I will in no wise cast him out." Our Saviour doth plainly import that there neither is nor can be devised — no, not by God Himself — any one consideration what- soever which might occasion Him to put off or say nay to any person that doth come. No consideration in the world, I say, can so aggravate a man's condition, could he make it as bad as the devils themselves, yet, if there be a coming to Christ, there can be no consideration in the highest pitch of sinfulness for Christ to reject, or put by, a person coming to Him. For you must know, beloved, Christ is well acquainted with all the objections the heart of man (nay, the devil) can object against the freeness of His grace and life by Him. To save labour, therefore, in this one passage (/ will in no wise cast out) Christ at once answers all the objections that could be made. And I dare be bold to maintain, in the name and stead of Christ, let a person but say and lay down this for granted, that come he would — that he would have Christ rather than his life,— let this be granted for a truth, I will be bold with Christ out of this passage to answer ten thousand objections, even fully to the silencing of every objection that can be made ; " I will in no wise cast him out " ; / will in no wise, that is, I will upon no consideration that can be imagined or conceived.^
I.
The Father's Part.
" All that which the Father giveth me shall come unto me."
At once the question suggests itself. Who are given by the Father to the Son? The context supplies an answer. The charge brought by Jesus against these Jews is, " Ye see and believe not." He has declared already, " This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." It seems evident, therefore, that " that which the Father giveth " includes all who believe on the Son. That may include everybody. " Whosoever will" may believe. But to believe is the essential condition.
» J. E. Roberta. ' Tobias Crisp.
ST. JOHN VI. 37 263
Therefore the great truth of our text is that all who believe are saved. It sounds a commonplace: but consider what it means. Take a few cases. A is a denizen of the slums, poor in pocket and in education; B is a University professor, of high moral instincts and intellectual attainments; C is a Eoman Catholic scientist; D is a cannibal on a mission station on the Congo. Now suppose each of these convicted of sin and desiring to trust Jesus. Their circumstances vary enormously. Coming to Christ and reaching Him mean very different experiences. A never uttered a prayer in his life, and scarcely understands any article of the Christian creed ; B has considered the creed carefully and critically, and has been accustomed to reverent worship; C has to accept dogmas on the authority of the Church, though his reason may contradict them ; D has dim conceptions of God and is governed by savage instincts which cannot be eradicated in a brief time. Does it seem at all likely that four men placed in such different circumstances should ever succeed in finding God in Christ ? Jesus says they shall. " All that which the Father giveth me shall come unto me." No lack of knowledge, no spirit of caution, no church dogma, no savage instinct shall hide the face of God in Christ or keep a seeking soul from the Saviour. Coming from East and West and North and South, the guiding star shall gather them all at the feet of the Son of God.
^ The Christian doctrine of election used to be freely preached ; but it was sometimes mis-stated, and therefore it was misunderstood. So it fell into disuse. Now it seems to be too much neglected. If it means what some people think it means — that God elected a certain number of individuals without re- ference to their moral fitness for salvation and consigned all the rest of mankind to eternal perdition — I do not wonder it is neglected. Such teaching conflicts with our knowledge of God and has no shred of evidence in the Scriptures. Its true meaning is given in this verse. God has elected for salvation not this or that individual, but all people who believe in His Son whom He hath sent. This may be all. God wants it to be all. All who believe are saved. That is, God elects, not the individuals, but the means, and guarantees that all who use the means shall be saved.^