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.”
Jesus has just spoken of the will of the One who sent Him. Now He states that will again — this time as an open offer to anyone who looks at the Son and believes. The verse holds together two things people often set apart: God's settled purpose and real human responsibility.
Two Sides of One Will
Verse 39 and verse 40 say "this is the will" of the Father, but they say it from different directions. One commentator sets the pair side by side.
J. N. DarbyBefore, it was the Father's purposes that could not fail. Here it is the Son of God held out as the object of faith. If someone looked through the Lord's lowliness, saw the Son and believed on Him, that person would have everlasting life, and the result would be the same. In the first case it is a matter of the Father's purposes and His acts, and of what Jesus does in raising them: the Father gives them, Jesus raises them, not one of them is lost. Next comes the Son held out to people, along with man's responsibility.
What "Sees" Means
The word "looks on" (older translations read "sees") is not about eyesight. Crowds looked straight at Jesus and saw only an ordinary man.
The Christian's FriendThe first thing is the doorway into eternal life, which is seeing the Son and believing on Him. By "seeing" we mean discernment. It means God has opened a person's eyes, as He opened the eyes of the blind man in chapter 9, to see that Jesus of Nazareth, the Man Christ Jesus, is the Son — the Son of God. Not everyone who met the Son in human form saw this, for the natural eye saw only a lowly Man. The one who saw was the one who received the testimony that Jesus truly was God's Son.
Where does such sight come from? Another writer traces it back to the Father.
An Outline of Sound WordsThere were many who looked at Jesus and did not discern that He was the Son… It was the Father's revelation to Simon Peter that enabled him to say, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." That was a special revelation, no doubt. But in anyone at all, only the Father's work can enable him to see the Son and to discern the glory of Christ's Person, so that he believes on Him.
How Wide "Everyone" Reaches
John's Gospel keeps using words like "everyone," "whoever," "he who." One writer refuses to limit these words to Israel.
C. E. StuartDo these words apply only to people of the family of Jacob? Or do they rightly reach as far as the whole human race?… "Whoever" means whoever. We must take "Every man," "he that," and the like in the widest sense. The Lord Jesus, we now understand, used language that foretold how far-reaching the thoughts of God and His purposes of grace were.
Life Now, Not Only Later
The believer is not promised eternal life some day. He has it now, and the closing promise guards it.
J. N. DarbyHe has everlasting life. Someone may say he could lose it. But the Lord shuts out that way of dodging the truth by adding, "I will raise him up on the last day." That is, He ties the final blessing to having eternal life now.
"The Last Day"
John 6 repeats this promise four times. One writer points out who is in view, and what the phrase does not mean.
W. TrotterIn John 6 our Lord speaks of the resurrection four times, and each time it is the resurrection of His people. The way He speaks shows that this resurrection belongs to them as their own privilege… The "last day" is not, as many suppose, a day of twenty-four hours right at the close of all things. It is the great closing period, when God brings to light the character and results of what man and Satan have done, and of His own eternal purposes.
Why Resurrection Is Needed at All
If the believer already has eternal life, why must anything more happen? Because that life belongs somewhere else.
The Christian's FriendEternal life does not belong to this world. Its home is in heaven, in the Father's house, so its full enjoyment, according to the thoughts of God, is still future… Even now we have the well that springs up inside us, and by the power of the Holy Spirit we can enter into the joy of eternal life and taste it in our measure. But to know it as the Father purposed, we must wait until the Lord Jesus Christ returns as Saviour and changes our lowly bodies.
Summary
- Will. The Father's will appears twice: first as a purpose that cannot fail, then as the Son held out to all. Grace and responsibility stand together, not opposed.
- Sight. "Seeing" is discernment, not eyesight. The crowds saw only a lowly Man. Only the Father's work opens eyes to recognise the Son.
- Reach. "Everyone" is not narrowed to one nation — whoever means whoever, as wide as the human race.
- Life. The believer has eternal life now. The promise of resurrection shuts out the fear of losing it later.
- Raising. The "last day" is the closing period, and in John 6 it concerns His own people only. Then the Saviour changes our lowly bodies, and the life already given is enjoyed in full.