John 6:44 Is Not Teaching Calvinism (Its Real Point Will Also Disturb Some Non-Calvinists)

John 6:44: “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”

The Calvinists take this verse and say: “Look, man has no free will! God unconditionally elects people and irresistibly draws them to Jesus. Why can you not see that?” I’ll tell them why.

We’ll look at John 6:44’s surrounding verses (as should always be done with any Bible verse).

Now we’re reading John 6:41-45: “The Jews then murmured at 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 saith, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.”

We learn by just reading the verse after John 6:44 that one must be taught of God in order to come to Jesus. This is further defined within the very same verse as hearing and learning of the Father.

While stating the obvious that Jesus was not rebuking His naysayers for not being unconditionally elected to salvation before time began (as the Calvinists believe), and considering that the Bible is filled with examples of people resisting God’s grace (John 6:41-45 included), also consider that the Bible says in Isaiah 53:1: “”Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” The chapter of Isaiah 53 then goes on to talk about how Jesus “is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief”- along with many other statements about Him which are not consistent with what the Jews (and people in general) would want their Messiah to be.

When the Apostle Paul went to synagogues preaching Christ he was persuading people to alter their values according to what they ought to be using the Law of Moses and the Prophets; and by proving that Jesus is the Christ foretold in the Old Testament Scriptures who fulfills the hope promised within them which corresponds to those proper values (the Jews were corrupted by a prosperity gospel as is much of Christendom now- the very context of the verses we’re looking at involves Jews with a Prosperity Gospel mentality and Jesus rebuking them for it).

In Jesus’ time there was a small percentage of Israelites who supremely valued redemption from sin and restoration to God’s image (more than deliverance from the Romans, more than bread, more than riches, and more than anything else). These came to Jesus in truth and obtained life from Him. Why? Did God irresistibly compel them? No, they had heard and learned of the Father. How? Through hearing and learning from the Bible and letting it shape their minds (by Bible here I mean the existing Scriptures at that time- known now as the Old Testament or the Tanakh- the first five books of this are known as the Law of Moses or the Torah).

Only a few scenes back in John’s Gospel from the verses considered here in John chapter 6 Jesus said the same thing in different words.

John 5:37-47: “And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not. Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. I receive not honor from men. But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?”

This is related to the real point of John 6:44. Rather than teaching Calvinism, Jesus said what He said there to emphasize to the Jews who were murmuring against Him that, since they were resistant to Biblical truth, then they shouldn’t even bother coming to Him nor bother hoping that He will change to suit their interests.

This all applies just as much today. Many attempt to be Christian preachers who have not learned this lesson. Even their messages on God’s judgment often don’t communicate the wisdom, righteousness, and overall horror of it. They don’t teach people the Gospel of Christ in the context of the entire Bible, they do not adequately set forth God’s nature as it is revealed in the Bible nor His wisdom expressed through the whole Bible; they don’t teach people a thorough understanding of sin which confronts the depths of the heart nor talk about Biblical principles of redemption (which have their foundation in the Law of Moses by the way); and they don’t adequately explain what repentance from sin and Christian discipleship are Biblically (many even altogether separate salvation in Jesus from repentance and discipleship). As a result, there are multitudes of people who have made a profession of faith in Christ which isn’t Biblically authentic (or which they were ill prepared to endure in and thrive in if it was).

In many circumstances and situations, rather than screaming at people or coaxing people to come to Jesus, it would be better to say that if there is light from the Bible that you’re resisting, or if you don’t really want to go forward to be led into all the light of truth from the Bible, then don’t even bother coming to Jesus at all nor think that you are in His grace if you say you know Him.