And
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never
hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you
have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to
Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come
down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This
is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the
will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may
have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” The
Jews then complained about Him, because He said, ‘I am the bread which came
down from heaven.’ And they said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose
father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down from
heaven’?” Jesus therefore answered and
said to them, “Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the
Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
It is written in the prophets, ‘And
they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has
heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen the
Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father. Most assuredly, I
say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the
bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This
is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.
I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this
bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which
I shall give for the life of the world.” The Jews therefore quarrelled among
themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I
say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you
have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal
life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food
indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood
abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of
the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread
which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He
who eats this bread will live forever.” (John 6:35-58)
Within this passage the
phrase ‘raise it/him up at the last day’
occurs four times. I suspect there is significance in the word ‘life’ (from ‘bread of life’) when viewed alongside what will happen at the ‘last day’. I am less sure of ‘life’ referring to a present-day ‘inner
life’ than I am of the actual bodily resurrected life that will exist in that
day, and all that pertains to it. Though I agree that the ‘life’ being
spoken of is more than the process that allows a body to breathe (after all,
there is a bodily ‘resurrection to life’
and a bodily ‘resurrection to condemnation’(John
5:29); there is clearly a quality in the former that is not present in the
latter, enough to designate the former as ‘life’
in a unique sense) I am more inclined to understand the word’s usage by Jesus
as eschatological and related to the body.
This
is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. (John 6:39)
The security of one who
belongs to Christ is a highly important doctrine to God’s people, and yet here
is one statement made by the Lord which tells us the event to which a saint is secured:
the resurrection at the last day. The ‘will of the Father’ here does not
express any non-physical future to which the believer is secured. Where is the
passage that says something similar about God’s people going to Heaven?
And
this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes
in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
(John 6:40)
Immediately
following Jesus’ first reference to His followers being raised at the last day (v39)
there follows another reference (v40), this time coupled alongside a mention of
‘everlasting life’. There must be a clear link between the ‘everlasting
life’ and the resurrection at the last day. To me, the most obvious link is
that this ‘everlasting life’ is what the resurrected follower of Christ
will receive at the last day (see Mark 10:30). This is the life that will
animate his dead body though its quality must be very different from those
resurrected to ‘condemnation’ (5:29), so we cannot simply be talking
about ‘life that lasts forever’.
The
literal translation of the Greek suggests that the definition of ‘everlasting life’ specifically regards
something that will be realised at ‘the
last day’:
...and this is the will of Him
who sent me, that every one who is beholding the Son, and is believing in him,
may have life age-during, and I will raise him up in the last day. (John
6:40. Young’s Literal Translation)
ζωήν
αἰώνιον (zōēn aiōniōn)
is translated as ‘life age-during’ in
Young’s Literal Translation. I include it simply to illustrate that ‘eternal’ and ‘everlasting’ are not necessarily the best translations of aiōniōn. In fact, contrary even to
Young’s translation, the word in and of itself does not signify a determined
period of time – it is the opposite. The word ‘age’, and what we each subjectively understand from that word,
could easily mislead our interpretation of aiōniōn
. The word neither limits the period of time nor determines it as everlasting.
It is simply a life that is aiōniōn
(or eonian should we wish to
anglicise it). It is ‘the life of the age’.
The expression denotes a quality of
life not the duration (John 17:3; 1st John 1:1-3).
Nevertheless,
as I understand it, the context in which the expression zōēn aiōniōn is made seems to set it in the future. Though it is a
life that is bestowed by God – the eternal One – and therefore must have
God-given qualities which are unfamiliar to us, I think we are hiding from an
inseparable link when we don’t view zōēn
aiōniōn in the same context as that which transpires at ‘the last day’.
Though this ‘life’ has more to it than simple existence within an
undetermined period of time, it will nonetheless only be experienced at that
time.
No one can come
to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the
last day. (John 6:44)
Once
again, the benefit of being ‘drawn’ to Christ by the Father is resurrection ‘at
the last day’. Am I wrong in saying that there is no biblical statement
that is equally clear about going to Heaven when we die? This clarity is
presented four times in one passage alone!
Whoever
eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at
the last day. (John 6:54)
I refer the
reader back to what I had to say about verse forty as this is yet another case
of zōēn aiōniōn being
linked to the resurrection at the last day.
My only further comment on verse
fifty four is that, even though the exact same Greek expression is used, there
is a tendency for English translators to vary between using ‘eternal’
and ‘everlasting’ as the appropriate adjective. Is this a case of
interpreting rather than translating? Was Aaron’s priesthood eternal or
everlasting (Numbers 25:13)?
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