John 6:39 - Printer Friendly

ESV: And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

NIV: And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.

NASB: And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of everything that He has given Me I will lose nothing, but will raise it up on the last day.

CSB: This is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me but should raise them up on the last day.

NLT: And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day.

KJV: And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

NKJV: This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.

The crowds who followed Jesus were attracted to His miracles, but misunderstood them. They are still fixated on free food, entertainment, and the idea that their salvation depends on good works. Jesus has been explaining the truth behind all of these "signs" that He, the Bread of Life, has been sent into the world so that all who believe in Him can have eternal life.

In the prior verses, Jesus has explained that His words and deeds are ordained by God the Father. In particular, Jesus has referred to the idea that God the Father "gives" people to Christ for salvation, and that all such people will be accepted by Jesus (John 6:37). Here, Jesus uses that same concept to claim that those whom God has given to Him will—undoubtedly—see eternal life. This is a crucial statement on the question of eternal security: according to Jesus, those who have come to Him in belief, as given by God the Father, are absolutely guaranteed not to be "lost," and are assured of being [raised] up on the last day."

Put another way, those who come to Christ will be accepted (John 3:16–17), and will see eternal life. They will not be rejected by Christ (Matthew 7:7–8), and they will not fail to maintain that salvation until the end.

John 6:22–40 describes the initial aftermath of Jesus' feeding of thousands the previous day. The crowd's actual desire is for another supernatural spectacle and more free food. In this passage, Christ begins to explain the true meaning behind His miracle and His ministry. This includes the first of seven ''I AM'' statements in the gospel of John—moments where Jesus declares His own divinity. Jesus clarifies that physical things such as bread are meant to be symbols of a spiritual truth. In the following segment, the crowd will stop seeking and start complaining.

In chapter 6, Jesus feeds thousands of people who had been following Him. He does this by miraculously dividing the contents of a small lunch, leaving more left over than He had to begin with. At first, the crowd is amazed and they enthusiastically praise Jesus. After sending the disciples across the Sea of Galilee, and rescuing them from a storm by walking on the water, Jesus once again addresses the crowd. This time, He emphasizes the spiritual lesson behind His prior miracle. In response, most of those who had been praising Jesus turn away from Him in disappointment.

John chapter 6 occurs some months after the events of chapter 5, bringing the narrative to about one year prior to Jesus' crucifixion. As with the rest of the Gospel of John, the purpose is not to repeat information from the other three Gospels, but to focus on Jesus' status as God incarnate. This chapter continues to expand the list of Jesus' miraculous signs and the witnesses to His divine nature. Here, Jesus also gives the first of seven ''I AM'' statements found in this Gospel. Chapter 7 will once again skip ahead to a major public step in Jesus' path to the cross.

The gospel of John was written by the disciple John, decades later than the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The author assumes that a reader is already familiar with the content of these other works. So, John presents a different perspective, with a greater emphasis on meaning. John uses seven miracles—which he calls “signs”—in order to prove that Jesus is, in fact, God incarnate. Some of the most well-known verses in all of the Bible are found here. None is more famous than the one-sentence summary of the gospel found in John 3:16.