Christ's paradoxical words in John 6:63-64

When you think of our Lutheran theology, you think paradox. It’s in the straightforward reading of Scriptures that results in this paradox we find in this theology of the cross. A passage like John 6:63-64 is no different. Themes like the hidden will/revealed will distinction and  paradox of monergism and objective grace being for all/you exist there.

Let us first examine John 6:63. Christ stated that the Spirit gives life while the flesh profits nothing. We see here salvation is fully of God. Not one allowance is given for anything in us to will to believe or to be renewed to new life in Christ. Salvation is entirely the work of God. The Spirit converts us by giving us life. That life that He gives us is not something we can self-generate. Nor can we offer anything, however small, of ourselves to will towards conversion. Nothing means nothing, not a little of something. John 6:63 flat out proved monergism.

Now human reason would assume since salvation is all of God and not all are saved, it must mean God’s saving grace is given only to the elect and not all. But that is not what Christ said in the next passage. He said that His words are spirit and life in them. In other words, there is saving power in His words. Yet, despite that, not all believe. Not all receive God Incarnate who had come for them.

Why? The whore of human reason would be tempted to say it is because man has some measure of  freewill to decide for or against God. But Scriptures refute that. Christ said the Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. We did not choose Him but He chose us (John 15:16). God made us alive when we were dead in sins as the grace of God by which we are saved through faith as a gift of God, not of ourselves (Ephesians 2:1-8). None can confess Jesus without the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3). Rebirth is not from human decision  (John 1:13).

The other temptation would be to say that God only desires to save some and not all. But John 6:64 ruled that out. His divine word, with the power to save, was resisted. Christ desired to save many in Jerusalem yet was spurned, and He wept for it (Matthew 23:37). The Holy Spirit can be resisted (Acts 7:51). God does desire to save all (1 Timothy 2:1-6, 2 Peter 3:9, John 3:16).

So why are not all saved if God’s saving grace is given to all and if God’s grace alone converts us, not of anything in us? Scriptures do not say. Do note what John 6:64 did say. It said that Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him.

Jesus was God. He had this power of knowledge of what will happen and in regards to who will be saved and won’t. We don’t have this knowledge. It is hidden to God. It is God’s inscrutable will which we dare not try to peer into. We are not essentially told why some come and some do not, when God wants to save all and comes to all yet grace alone saves us, not of any willpower that we can muster in us.

We see then in the passage that God’s revealed will is for them to be saved. Christ’s word is indeed spirit and indeed life given for even those who resist and reject it. He desired to save them, and they refused to believe.

We are left with a paradox that goes against human reason that desires to force these passages to fit together like a puzzle or some Dutch flowery system. But Scriptures do not let us if we read them as these passages are meant to be read.

So why are we given such a paradox in Scriptures?

The truth is that such paradox is for our assurance. We would not know if Christ died for us and given to us objectively by His word through means of grace for us unless if it is objectively for all He died and objectively offered and worked in all. We can be assured of Christ died for us personally in a real true way only if He indeed died for all. Faith alone looks to this objective fact of what’s given for all means that it is true for us personally. Faith alone receives that objective fact and the benefits that this redemptive work of Christ applied to us. We can be certain of that and look outside ourselves for assurance on this objective truth and fact given to us in Word and Sacrament. No need to look inwards nor at one's own faith. And definitely, no need to look to fruits of faith for assurance. 

The fact God’s grace alone for us, not of ourselves, also give us assurance that as long as in Christ, the same God who converts us, is able to keep us. Again, we do not look to our own selves for assurance nor to keep ourselves. It is in Christ crucified for us that we are saved and in God’s hand. Look outside ourselves to Christ alone given to us in Word and Sacrament, not back at ourselves for assurance. He presented these means of grace to us as indeed His revealed saving will to us. That is where we can be sure that we are elect, when we are in Christ. That is where what is hidden to God becomes revealed to God. It is God Incarnate given to us.

For us and to us we have His forgiveness that He won for us at the cross and which we received (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) in baptism (Acts 2:38, 22:16). And we continue to look to what Christ did to nourish us in the one true faith as His body and blood comes to us in the Eucharist for us to partake of receiving the life that is in Christ’s blood (1 Corinthians 10:16). By grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Here we stand.