Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he that is from God, he hath seen the Father.This teaching guards against the notion that one could know God by means of the Old Testament alone. The true revelation of God could come only from one, even from him "that is from God," which is Christ. read more
John 6:44-45. No man can come to me, except the Father—draw him, &c.— In explaining this passage, we will, first, shew the propriety of our Lord's answer; secondly, give a plain and full explication of it; and, thirdly, confirm that explication by some remarks: I. There is some difficulty in perceiving the propriety of the answer which the Lord Jesus here makes. The objection of the Jews was, "How can he say that he came down from heaven, when he was born of earthly parents, whom we know?"... read more
John 6:46-48. Not that any man hath seen the Father,— "When I speak of men's hearing and learning of God, I donot mean that they can see the Deity personally, and be taught of him in the manner that a scholar is taught of his master. No man hath seen the Father personally, except the Son, whom the Father hath sent and whose peculiar privilege it is to have been eternally a full partaker of all the Father's councils. In virtue, therefore, of my intimate union with the Father, and my perfect... read more
43, 44. Murmur not . . . No man—that is, Be not either startled or stumbled at these sayings; for it needs divine teaching to understand them, divine drawing to submit to them. read more
44. can come to me—in the sense of John 6:35. except the Father which hath sent me—that is, the Father as the Sender of Me and to carry out the design of My mission. draw him—by an internal and efficacious operation; though by all the means of rational conviction, and in a way altogether consonant to their moral nature (Song of Solomon 1:4; Jeremiah 31:3; Hosea 11:3; Hosea 11:4). raise him up, &c.—(See on John 6:54). read more
45. written in the prophets—in Isaiah 54:13; Jeremiah 31:33; Jeremiah 31:34; other similar passages may also have been in view. Our Lord thus falls back upon Scripture authority for this seemingly hard saying. all taught of God—not by external revelation merely, but by internal illumination, corresponding to the "drawing" of Jeremiah 31:34- :. Every man therefore, c.—that is, who hath been thus efficaciously taught of Him. cometh unto me—with absolute certainty, yet in the sense above given of... read more
46. Not that any man hath seen, c.—Lest they should confound that "hearing and learning of the Father," to which believers are admitted by divine teaching, with His own immediate access to Him, He here throws in a parenthetical explanation stating, as explicitly as words could do it, how totally different the two cases were, and that only He who is "from God" hath this naked, immediate access to the Father. (See John 1:18). read more
3. The bread of life discourse 6:22-59Jesus proceeded to clarify His identity by teaching the crowds and His disciples. He did so by developing the figure of the Bread of Life, which He claimed to be. Jesus used the feeding of the 5,000 as a basis for explaining His identity to the multitudes. He compared Himself to bread."Again, it was a ministry of ’grace and truth’ (John 1:17). In grace, our Lord fed the hungry people; but in truth, He gave them the Word of God." [Note: Wiersbe, 1:310.] read more
Jesus’ identity as the Bread of Life 6:41-51Jesus’ claim to be the Bread of Life that had come down from heaven was something His hearers found hard to accept. Consequently Jesus clarified what He meant further. read more
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Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - John 6:45
It is written in the prophets, And they shall all be taught of God. Every one that hath heard from the Father, and hath learned, cometh unto me.The prophets ... calls to mind Isaiah 54:13 and Jeremiah 31:31-35; but Jesus' words here seem more reasonably construed as a reference to the general teaching of the Old Testament that in the days of the new covenant men shall receive teaching from God. Those who heed God's word, come to Jesus, being in such a manner drawn to him, and drawn of God. All... read more