#DailyDevotion Jesus Will In No Wise Turn You Away
John 6:35–40 35“I am the Bread of Life,” Jesus told them. “Come to Me, and you will never be hungry. Believe in Me, and you will never be thirsty. 36But I have told you, You have seen Me, and you don’t believe! 37All the Father gives Me will come to Me, and anyone who comes to Me I will never turn away, 38because I came down from heaven, not to do what I want but what He wants Who sent Me; 39 and He Who sent Me doesn’t want Me to lose any of those He gave Me but to raise them on the last day. 40Yes, My Father wants everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him to have everlasting life, and He wants Me to raise him on the last day.”
The people who followed Jesus from the wilderness to Capernaum were following him not because he did a miracle but rather because they were fed a free lunch. Jesus says as much in verse 37, “You have seen me and you don’t believe!”
However, and I saw some confusion the other day, when Jesus says, “All the Father gives Me will come to Me, and anyone who comes to Me I will never turn away,” he is not simply speaking of believing in him but rather election. We know people who believe in Jesus who fall away (see parable of the sower). Nevertheless, we should take great comfort in this words of Jesus as we have faith in him.
We have in verse thirty-seven this narrow field of those whom the Father gives to Jesus. Now if you have been baptized, you repent of your sins, you have received absolution from your pastor and you have received the Lord’s Supper, you should consider yourselves as one whom the Father has given to Jesus. You have all the evidence you can possibly have that the Father has given you to Jesus and Jesus promises he will never turn you away from him. You can put your trust in these works of God he has put you in i.e. baptism, absolution, the preached word, the Lord’s Supper and consolation of Christian brothers and sisters. It is through these means Jesus uses to keep you in his hand.
As those whom the Father has given and Jesus has not turned away, you have this promise Jesus will raise you up on the Last Day. Jesus indeed will raise all the dead on the Last Day as promised in Daniel 7, some to everlasting life and some to every lasting perdition. But those whom he preserves in faith through the means of grace he indeed will raise to everlasting life and have them enter into his eternal kingdom where they shall behold the face of the LORD forever and bask in his glory.
Jesus promises us the Father wants everyone who looks at Jesus and believes in him will have everlasting life and he will raise him up on the Last Day. It indeed the will of the Father that everyone would look to Jesus and have faith in him. The Father desires no one to perish but that all would repent and believe in Jesus. He has limited himself to the means of grace to accomplish this. He has limited this salvation to the revelation of Jesus; there is salvation in no other name. You having had Jesus revealed to you in Word and Sacrament can now rejoice in this salvation and place the certainty of your salvation in Jesus’ work and promises. You can trust Jesus’ word here to preserve you in the faith through the means he have given us.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for bringing us to Jesus through the means of grace and we pray you keep us in faith through the same. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.