Anchor My Faith

Those Given Will Be Raised Up on the Last Day

Scripture: John 6:38-42

In the previous lesson we covered: ^{Jn 6:37} “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” We learned that the Father gives people as gifts to Jesus and everyone, without exception, that the Father gives will come to Jesus and those who come will be accepted with love and will never be rejected.

In this lesson, we will learn more about this as we look at the next three verses: ^{Jn 6:38} “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. ³⁹ And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me but raise it up on the last day. ⁴⁰ 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.”

We are from the earth, we were born here, but Jesus, though born in the flesh, is from heaven. Prior to his virgin birth, Jesus existed as the Word, the Son of God, with the Father. Jesus was sent, on assignment, by the Father, to earth, to live among us as a human and carry out his will. That will relates to those the Father gives as gifts to Jesus that we learned about in verse 37.

Verse 37 contains the promise that all that the Father gives will come and none will be lost on their journey to heaven to be with Jesus.  All who have been chosen by the Father and given by the Father to the Son for salvation will be saved. Those given by the Father are those who believe in the Son and have eternal life and will be raised up on the last day. Here is the promise that no true believer will ever lose his or her salvation but will continue as a believer to the final judgment at the last day, when Jesus will raise up believers into the fulness of eternal life.

As the Jews listen to Jesus claim to be the bread that came down from heaven, they think about him being the son of Joseph and Mary and ^{Jn 6:41} “So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴² They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”’

As the Jews think about this they come to the wrong conclusion because they forget a very important fact. They see Joseph and Mary as the parents of Jesus, which in a legal sense they are, but the fact is the parents of Jesus is God and Mary. Joseph was not the father, God was. Without the virgin birth of Jesus, he was just an ordinary man and not the bread that came down from heaven.

Conclusion

Jesus stands before the Jews, claiming to be the bread that came down from heaven, but the Jews see him as the son of Joseph and Mary. He claims to be the bread that endures to eternal life and all that the Father gives to him will come to him and he will raise them up on the last day. As the Jews grumble among themselves, how will Jesus respond to their grumbling?