John 6:45Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"And I will raise him up on the last day" (v. 39). No small dignity of the Son is indicated here. If the Father draws, then He raises up.

But by this He does not separate His works from the Father. How could that be? He only shows equality of power.

In that other place, after saying, "The Father Who sent Me has borne witness to Me" (Jn 5:37), He immediately referred the Jews to Scripture.

He did this so that none of them would labor in vain over the interpretation of His words. So also here, lest they suspect Him as before, He refers them to the Prophets.

He often cites the Prophets in order to show that He is not an adversary of the Father.

What then, you ask? Were those who lived before that time not taught by God? What, then, is distinctive here?

Then men were taught divine truths through men. Now they are taught through the Only-begotten Son of God and the Holy Spirit.

What then? Were they not taught by God before this in the Old Testament? They were, but not in this way. For here, in the New Testament, there is something distinctive.

Then they learned knowledge of God through men. But now, when the Only-begotten has become incarnate, knowledge comes from the Father Himself in the Holy Spirit.

Thus the prophetic word is fulfilled: "In Your light, the Father, that is, in the Spirit, we shall see Light," Who is the Son (Ps 35:10).

Truly, all of us who have received faith in Christ are now taught by God.

He speaks ineffably with each one, and in a manner befitting God He grants understanding concerning Him.

In the earlier words, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him," He did not mean a compulsory and violent drawing.

He makes this clear by adding, "Everyone who has heard from My Father and has learned comes to Me."

Where there is hearing and teaching, there is also the good fruit of instruction. This fruit is plainly faith by persuasion, not by compulsion.

Understanding concerning Christ is given by the Father to worthy men out of love. It is a helpful understanding, not a coercive one.

For the dogmatic foundation requires that self-mastery and free choice be preserved for the human soul.

Then the soul may justly claim rewards for virtues. If it falls away from duty and through negligence departs from the Lawgiver's will, it may justly undergo condemnation to punishment.

One must also know this. If the Father is said to teach someone the mystery concerning Christ, He will not act in this alone.

He will accomplish it through the Son as through His own Wisdom. For one must understand that the revelation of understanding in anyone comes from the Father, not apart from Wisdom.

The Wisdom of the Father is the Son. Therefore, through His own Son as through Wisdom, the Father will accomplish revelation in the worthy.

In general, and with complete truth, one will not err in saying that all the works or intentions of God the Father belong also to the whole Holy Trinity.

They belong equally to the Son Himself and to the Holy Spirit.

For this reason, I think, when God the Father is said to reveal His Son and call to Him those most fit to believe, the Son Himself is also shown to accomplish this.

The Holy Spirit accomplishes it likewise. Thus, to blessed Peter, who confessed faith in the Savior with good boldness, He says, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.

For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven" (Mt 16:17).

In other cases He is shown to accomplish this Himself. Thus Paul says of himself with great solemnity, when proclaiming the mystery of Christ,

"For I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but through a revelation of Jesus Christ" (Gal 1:12).

So also wise John writes in the Epistle: "And the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you.

But as His anointing teaches you concerning all things" (1 Jn 2:27).

The Savior Himself says in one place concerning the Comforter, that is, the Spirit, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will declare to you the things to come" (Jn 16:12-13).

Being the Spirit of truth, He will illumine those in whom He dwells and guide them toward receiving the truth.

We say this not because we wish to divide the Father from the Son or set Him wholly apart. Nor do we wish to divide the Son from the Father, or the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son.

But if the Godhead is truly one, and is proclaimed as contemplated in the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity, then what is attributed to each divine Person is defined by us as the purposes and operations of the whole Godhead.

This is because the Divine and Indivisible Nature must act indivisibly through itself, insofar as the unity of the Godhead is concerned.

Yet each of the Persons exists in His own hypostasis. For the Father is what He is, and so also is the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Besides what has been said, this also must be considered. Names that have some relation to something are known through one another.

In the designation of one, the designation of the other can be seen. Thus there is complete necessity that the Son be revealed through the Father, and the Father again likewise through the Son.

One is necessarily introduced together with the Other. If anyone sees the Father, God by nature, he will certainly understand the Son begotten from Him.

And the reverse is also true. For the one who confesses the Son is not ignorant of the Begetter.

Therefore, since God is Father, and is understood and proclaimed precisely as such, He implants in His hearers the knowledge corresponding to His own Offspring.

And since He is called Son from Him by nature, and truly is such, He proclaims the Father.

For this reason He says to Him, "I have manifested Thy name to men" (Jn 17:6). Since the Son was known by those who believed, He says, the name of the One who begot Him was manifested.

Nevertheless, God the Father may be understood as placing in us knowledge of His Offspring.

This is not as though a voice sounded from heaven and, like thunder, filled the universe. Rather, it is plainly the Divine illumination shining in us, bringing us to understand the God-inspired Scripture.

Again, in this respect you will find the Son acting in us. For in one place it is written of the holy disciples that "then He opened their eyes" (Lk 24:45), plainly to understand the Holy Scriptures.

But how is it that men did not see the Father as Teacher, while they did see the Son? The Son spoke, but the Father taught.

Therefore, if I, being a man, teach the one who hears my word, the Father also teaches the one who hears His Word.

He continually repeats what we might have thought: not that anyone has seen the Father, except Him who is from God. He has seen the Father.

"Therefore, when I say to you, everyone who has heard from the Father and learned, do not say among yourselves, 'But we have never seen the Father.

How could we have learned from the Father?' Hear from Me Myself: I know the Father. I am from Him.

But I am from Him as a word is from the one whose word it is. Not the word that sounds and passes away, but the Word that remains with the speaker and draws the hearer."

It is written in the prophets: "And they shall all be taught by God." "Why have I said this, O Jews? The Father has not taught you. How then can you know Me?

All men in that kingdom will be taught by God, and they will not hear from men. Even if they hear from men, what they understand is given to them inwardly.

It sparkles inwardly and is revealed inwardly. What do men do when they teach outwardly? What do I do when I speak now? I bring to your ears the sound of words.

So then, if the One who is within does not disclose this, what am I saying, and of what am I speaking?

The one who tends a tree is outside, but its Creator is inside. The one who plants and the one who waters act outside. This is what we do.

But neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who gives the growth (1 Cor 3:7).

That is, all will be taught by God. Who are all? Everyone who has heard from the Father and learned comes to Me.

Behold how the Father draws. He fills with joy by teaching, not by compelling. See how He draws: all shall be taught by God.

This is the drawing of God. Everyone who has heard from the Father and learned comes to Me. This is the drawing of God.

What then, brethren? If everyone who has heard from the Father and learned comes to Christ, did Christ teach nothing here?

What about the fact that men did not see the Father as Teacher, but saw the Son? The Son spoke, but the Father taught.

Since I am a man, whom do I teach? Whom, my brethren, if not the one who listens to my word?

If I am a man, I teach the one who listens to my word. Likewise the Father teaches the one who listens to His Word.

If the Father teaches the one who listens to His Word, ask what Christ is, and you will find that He is His Word: "In the beginning was the Word" (Jn 1:1).

It is not, "In the beginning God created the Word," as it is said, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen 1:1).

Therefore He is not a creature. Learn to be one whom the Father draws to the Son. Let the Father teach you. Hear His Word.

"What Word of His," you say, "do I hear?" "In the beginning was the Word." It was not created, but was.

"And the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (Jn 1:1). How can men abiding in the flesh hear such a Word?

Because "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14).

Jesus Christ saw the hardness of their hearts. He now shows why they so stubbornly refuse to believe in Him. No one, He says, can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draws him, as had already been foretold in the Old Testament.

Therefore, because of the hardheartedness and unworthiness of the Jews who heard Jesus Christ, the gracious action of the Father had not yet touched their hearts. This action calls to salvation.

Without it, man, blinded by sin, cannot see the light of truth. But lest anyone misunderstand Isaiah's prophecy (54:13) about direct instruction from God, Jesus Christ speaks further.

This prophecy must not be understood as though any man could ever see God, speak directly with Him, or know the divine essence through immediate sight and contemplation.

God acts upon men invisibly by His grace. The immediate vision of the divine essence belongs only to His Son.

Therefore only through the Son can men receive the full light of the knowledge of God needed for salvation, and through this receive eternal life (17:3).

Therefore: "Amen, amen, I say to you: he who believes in Me has eternal life."

Then the Savior, with irresistible directness and clarity, revealed to them that He is the source of eternal life sent from heaven.

"I am the living bread which came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. And the bread which I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."

By these words, on the one hand, He indicated the approaching great work of redeeming sinful mankind by the offering of the flesh of the Son of Man for the life of the world.

On the other hand, He pre-established the mystery of Communion. It was to serve as the means by which later generations of believers would partake of Christ's redemptive work.

This happens through instruction from God, both immediately, through the gracious illumination of the spirit, and mediately, through instruction in the revealed word of God.

Those who are thus taught by God, or, as is further explained, those who have heard from the Father and learned, come to Christ. By this very instruction they are drawn to Christ.

"But if it is said that all will be taught by God, why, you ask, do many not believe? Because those words were spoken only of the greater part of men.

"Or again, the prophecy does not point to absolutely all, but to all who desire it" (Chrysostom; cf. Theophylact).

"Were they not taught by God before this in the Old Testament? They were, but not in this way.

"Then they learned knowledge of God through men. But now, when the Only-begotten has become incarnate, knowledge comes from the Father Himself in the Holy Spirit" (Theophylact; cf. Chrysostom).

By the words "he who has heard from the Father" is meant the spiritual reception of divine instruction. The essential subject of this instruction, as the whole connection of the discourse shows, is Christ and His work.

The whole word of God contained in Scripture is a testimony to Christ, as Christ Himself said (Jn 5:39). But to understand Scripture in this way, one needs God to open both the mind and the heart of the one studying it.

God must enlighten him and teach him to understand in this way. This depends both on man's desire and on God's mercy.

Thus the one who studies Scripture is a man taught by God. He hears the Father's word and understands it. He will come to Christ, for Christ is the subject of the Scripture he studies.

Applied to the Lord's hearers, who were now murmuring against Him, His words mean the same thing He said in the discourse after healing the paralytic.

"You do not have His word abiding in you" (Jn 5:38), and further: "There is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you hope" (Jn 5:45), and so on.

Their essential sin was that they had become wholly enslaved to a sensual direction of beliefs and hopes. They had stifled in themselves the spiritual needs by whose development God draws man to Christ.

God does this by revealing Christ's meaning in the understanding of the Scriptures and thereby making man taught by God.

Therefore it is natural that learned Jews, and men like Strausses and Renans, do not understand Jesus' teaching. They are occupied with fantasies about their own learning, which do not allow grace into their proud hearts.

Concerning the relation of grace to human freedom, Augustine observes: "Do not think that one will be drawn against his will. He will be drawn by love.

"How shall I believe that it is by will, if I am drawn? I tell you: by will is little; by delight is much.

"What does it mean to be drawn by delight? Open yourself to the Lord, and He will fulfill the petition of your heart (Ps 36:4). There is a certain delight of the heart, for which that heavenly food is sweet."

"It is written in the prophets." In defense of His thought, the Savior bears witness by the prophets. He cited the words of Isaiah, Isa 54:13.

But when He spoke of the prophets, He of course also directs us to seek other testimonies, such as Jer 31:33-34.

After saying that the Father instructs, He adds that these words do not mean that men can see the Father Himself immediately. The divine essence is contemplated only by the Son (Jn 1:2; Jn 3:18).

By this it is made clear that, just as in the Godhead there are Father and Son, so the salvation of men was and is ordered by the Father through the Son.

It is also made clear that, if they wish to know the Father, they must listen to the Son. Otherwise, the order of men's salvation depends not on the will of men, but on the will of heaven.

All these prophecies explained that the Law of God would cease to be external for Israel, merely a ritual law. At last it would be fulfilled according to the will of God by the inner man.

It would be inscribed on the hearts of men. It would not be only abstract knowledge or a thought of the One God.

It would bear fruit in the human soul, reborn by the Spirit of God to a new and holy life. For it is said: "I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh" (Joel 2:28).

But who will be counted worthy of this spiritual joy? The Lord answers this: "Everyone who has heard from the Father and has learned will come to Me."

The Greek μαθὼν is the second aorist participle from μανθὰνω: I assimilate, or I know because I have studied. It means, "having received." The Russian Synodal text gives "having learned." The Biblia Sacra renders it, Quisquis didicit.

Everyone who both hears the Father and has learned comes to the Lord. It is not merely one who hears, for the Jews also heard.

Rather, it is one who receives with the heart and assimilates this merciful voice that calls him. Such a one goes to the Lord.

He is "taught by God," and "the Son will raise him up on the last day" (above, vv. 39, 40, 44).