John 6:40

And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(40) And this is the will of him that sent me.—Read, For this is the will of My Father. (See John 6:39.) The common text has inserted the opening words of these verses. There can be no doubt that the change indicated gives the original reading, and it will be seen that the relation of “Father” and “Son” is thus preserved.

Every one which seeth the Son.—We pass here to the individuals who compose the great mass of humanity. It is the divine will that no one should be excluded, but that he may have eternal life (comp. John 3:15; John 5:24): this is the Father’s gift in the person of the Son. The exercise of the mental power to see Him, the reception of Him and trust upon Him: this is man’s acceptance of God’s gift. The word rendered “seeth” means to look upon, to contemplate, and is the first step towards a true faith.

The analogy of the previous verse makes it probable that we should render the last clause of this verse, and that I should raise him up at the last day. The difference of tenses is important. The believer has now the principle of eternal life, but this is to be his in its fulness when he shall be raised up at the last day. This thought of the final victory is the joyous refrain of these verses (John 6:39-40; John 6:44; John 6:54). The spirit brought into communion with the original source of life becomes life in itself. This life is greater than death, and cannot be holden by it (comp. John 6:53).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:36-46 The discovery of their guilt, danger, and remedy, by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, makes men willing and glad to come, and to give up every thing which hinders applying to him for salvation. The Father's will is, that not one of those who were given to the Son, should be rejected or lost by him. No one will come, till Divine grace has subdued, and in part changed his heart; therefore no one who comes will ever be cast out. The gospel finds none willing to be saved in the humbling, holy manner, made known therein; but God draws with his word and the Holy Ghost; and man's duty is to hear and learn; that is to say, to receive the grace offered, and consent to the promise. None had seen the Father but his beloved Son; and the Jews must expect to be taught by his inward power upon their minds, and by his word, and the ministers whom he sent among them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him - It was not sufficient to see him and hear him, but it was necessary, also, to believe on him. Many of the Jews had seen him, but few believed on him. Jesus had said in the previous verse that all that the Father had given him should be saved. But he never left a doctrine so that men must misunderstand it. Lest it should be supposed that if a man was given to him this was all that was needful, and lest anyone should say, "If I am to be saved I shall be, and my efforts will be useless," he states here that it is necessary that a man should believe on him. This would be the evidence that he was given to God, and this would be evidence conclusive that he would be saved. If this explanation of the Saviour had always been attended to, the doctrine of election would not have been abused as it has been. Sinners would not sit down in unconcern, saying that if they are given to Christ all will be well. They would have arisen like the prodigal, and would have gone to God; and, having believed on the Saviour, they would then have had evidence that they were given to him - the evidence resulting from an humble, penitent, believing heart - and then they might rejoice in the assurance that Jesus would lose none that were given to him, but would raise it up at the last day. All the doctrines of Jesus, as he preached them, are safe, and pure, and consistent; as men preach them, they are, unhappily, often inconsistent and open to objection, and are either fitted to produce despair on the one hand, or presumptuous self-confidence on the ether. Jesus teaches men to strive to enter heaven, as if they could do the work themselves; and yet to depend on the help of God, and give the glory to him, as if he had done it all.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

40. And this—in the second place.

is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on Him—seeing the Son believeth on Him.

may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day—This is the human side of the same thing as in the foregoing verse, and answering to "Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out"; that is, I have it expressly in charge that everyone that so "beholdeth" (so vieweth) the Son as to believe on Him shall have everlasting life; and, that none of Him be lost, "I will raise him up at the last day." (See on [1793]Joh 6:54).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Our Lord having asserted the will of God, as to the final issue and happiness of believers, goes on to assert the means by which, in this life using, they must obtain this life: those are, seeing the Son, and believing in him; seeing him, not with the eyes of their bodies, or seeing his miraculous operations, both which these Capernaites did, and yet did not believe, (as he told them, John 6:36), but a seeing them with the eye of their minds, discerning him as the Messiah, and Saviour of the world; so seeing him, as to believe on him. As to these, he confirmeth it again to be the will of his Father, that they should live eternally, and that they should be raised again at the last day; and that by him, whom God had enabled to be the Judge both of the quick and the dead, Acts 10:42, which agreeth with what he had before said, John 5:28.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And this is the will of him that sent me,.... The Vulgate Latin adds, "of my Father"; and all the Oriental versions read only, "and this is the will of my Father"; this is his declared, his revealed will in the Gospel, which the sons of men are made acquainted with, as the other was his secret will, which was only known to the Son till he discovered it.

That everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth on him; who so sees him as to believe in him; for this is not to be understood of a corporeal sight of Christ, or of a mere speculative knowledge of him, or historical faith in him; for it is not so to see him, as merely to believe what he is, the Son of God, the Messiah and Saviour of the world, or what he says, but to trust in him for righteousness, life, and happiness. Men are by nature blind, their eyes are shut to all that is spiritually good; it is the Spirit of God that opens blind eyes, and illuminates the understanding: and in his light men see not only themselves, their sin, and want of righteousness, and their lost state and condition, but Christ, and a beauty, glory, and excellency in him, ability and willingness to save, a suitableness in him for them, and a fulness of all grace; they see righteousness, peace, pardon, cleansing, wisdom, strength, grace, life, and salvation, and go out of themselves to him for all: and such a sight, though it may be but glimmering, is saving, and is self-abasing, soul rejoicing, surprising, and transforming; is attended with certainty, reality, and evidence, and is a foretaste of glory; for it is the will of God, and not man, of a gracious Father, of an unchangeable and eternal being, whose will cannot be resisted, and made void, that such

may have everlasting life; which will be a life of glory, and will consist in possessing glory both in soul and body; in beholding glory, the glory of one another, the glory of angels, the glory of divine truths, and mysterious providences, the glory of the divine perfections, and of the Lord Jesus Christ; and it will be a life of perfection, of perfect knowledge, holiness, obedience, love, peace, and joy; a life free from all the miseries and inconveniences of this, both in a natural and spiritual sense; a life of pleasure, and which will last for ever: to which Christ adds,

and I will raise him up at the last day; Christ will be the efficient cause, as well as he is the exemplar, the earnest, and first fruits of the resurrection of the dead; he will indeed raise all the dead by his power, but the saints particularly, by virtue of union to him, as the members of his body, and in the first place; and the very same shall rise, and with the same numerical body, that were given to him, and believe in him: and this will be at the last of the last days, at the end of all things; and is mentioned to show, that length of time will not hinder the resurrection of the dead, and in opposition to a Jewish notion, that the resurrection of the dead would be at the Messiah's coming: it will be at his second coming, but was not to be at his first; there was indeed then a resurrection of some particular persons, but not a general one of all the saints: that the Jews expect the resurrection of the dead when the Messiah comes, appears from their Targums, Talmuds, and other writers; so the Targumist on Hosea 14:8,

"They shall be gathered from their captivity, they shall sit under the shadow of their Messiah, "and the dead shall live", and good shall be multiplied in the land.''

And in the Talmud (p) it is said,

"the holy blessed God will quicken the righteous, and they shall not return to their dust.''

The gloss upon it is,

"the holy blessed God will quicken them "in the days of" the Messiah.''

And so the land of the living is said to be,

"the land, whose dead live first in the days of the Messiah (q).''

And hence R. Jeremiah desired to he buried with his clothes and shoes on, and staff in his hand, that when the Messiah came, he might be ready (r) with which agree others of the more modern writers; so Kimchi on Isaiah 66:5.

"They shall live at the resurrection of the dead, in the days of the Messiah.''

And the same writer on Jeremiah 23:20 observes it is said,

continued...

Geneva Study Bible

And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which {l} seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

(l) Seeing and believing are joined together: for there is another type of seeing which is general, which the demons have, for they see: but here he speaks about that type of seeing which properly belongs to the elect.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

John 6:40. Explanation, and consequently an assigning of the reason for the statement of God’s will, John 6:39; the words τοῦτο, etc., being an impressive anaphora, and τοῦ πατρός μου being spoken instead of τοῦ πέμψ. με, because at the close Jesus means to describe Himself, with still more specific definiteness, as the Son.

ὁ θεωρ. τὸν υἱὸν κ. πιστ. εἰς αὐτ.] characterizes those meant by the ὃ δέδωκέ μοι. There is implied in θεωρ. the attenta contemplatio (τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς τῆς ψυχῆς, Euthymius Zigabenus), the result of which is faith. Observe the carefully chosen word (Tittmann, Synon. p. 121; Grotius, in loc.). The Jews have seen Him, and have not believed, John 6:36. One must contemplate Him, and believe.

ἔχῃ and ἀναστήσω are both dependent upon ἵνα. There is nothing decisive against the rendering of καὶ ἀναστ. independently (Vulgate, Luther, Luthardt, Hengstenberg), but the analogy of John 6:39 does not favour it. Observe the change of tenses. The believer is said to have eternal Messianic life already in its development in time (see on John 3:15), but its perfect completion[234] at the last day by means of the resurrection; therefore ἈΝΑΣΤΉΣΩ after the ἔχειν of the ΖΩῊ ΑἸΏΝ.

ἘΓΏ] from the consciousness of Messianic power. Comp. John 6:44; John 6:54.

[234] Nothing is further from John than the Gnostic opinion, 2 Timothy 2:18, upon which, according to Baur, he is said very closely to border.

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 6:40. In John 6:40 Jesus describes the recipients of salvation from the human side, πᾶς ὁ θεωρῶν τὸν υἱὸν καὶ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτόν, the latter, “believing,” being necessary, as already shown, to complete the former. The neuter πᾶν necessarily gives place to the masculine. καὶ ἀναστήσω αὐτὸν ἐγὼ τῇ ἐσχάτῃ ἡμέρᾳ. This promise recurs like a refrain, John 6:39-40; John 6:44; John 6:54; each time the ἐγώ is expressed and emphatic, “I, this same person who here stands before you, I and no other”. Christ gives His hearers the assurance that in this respect He is superior to Moses, that the life He gives is not confined to this present time. In itself it is a stupendous declaration.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

40. And this is the will of him that sent me] The true reading is; For this is the will of My Father. The opening words of John 6:39-40, being very similar, have become confused in inferior MSS. The best MSS. have ‘Father’ in this verse, where ‘the Son’ is mentioned, not in John 6:39, where He is not. Moreover this verse is explanatory of John 6:40, and opens with ‘for;’ it shews who are meant by ‘all which He hath given me,’ viz. every one that contemplateth the Son and believeth on Him. ‘Seeth’ is not strong enough for the Greek word here used: the Jews had seen Jesus; they had not contemplated Him so as to believe. ‘Contemplate’ is frequent in S. John and the Acts, elsewhere not. Comp. John 12:45, John 14:19, John 16:10; John 16:16; John 16:19. ‘That’ again = in order that.

I will raise him up] The Greek construction is ambiguous; possibly ‘raise’ depends upon ‘that’ as in John 6:39 : and that I should raise him up. ‘I’ is here very emphatic; ‘by My power as Messiah.’

Bengel's Gnomen

John 6:40. Τοῦτο γάρ—Πατρός, for this—of the Father) See notes on John 6:37; John 6:39.—ὁ θεωρῶν καὶ πιστεύων, who seeth and believeth) The Jews were then seeing, but not believing, John 6:36, “Ye also have seen Me, and believe not.” Those who beheld Christ had a great opportunity for believing; and those of them who believed had a pre-eminent degree of blessedness. Matthew 13:16, “Blessed are your eyes, for they see.”—ζωὴν αἰώνιον, everlasting life) even before the last day, of which the mention here follows immediately subsequent: as also at John 6:54, “hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” Human reason transposes the order of these two.—ἀναστήσω, I will raise up again) The Future, as at John 6:44, and ch. John 15:8, “bear much fruit: so shall ye be My disciples.”—ἐγώ, I) This pronoun, which was not employed at John 6:39, is now employed: there the preceding verb is also in the first person [that of all—I should lose nothing]; but here, in the third person [that every one which—believeth—may have everlasting life], as John 6:44; John 6:54.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 40. - For this is the will of my Father (or, of him that sent me), that every one (πᾶς, instead of the πᾶν of vers. 37, 39), treated separately and individually, who beholdeth - i.e. steadily and continuously contemplates - the Son (here he identifies himself with the revelation of the sonship in his own Person) and believeth on him - i.e. entrusts himself in a full moral surrender to the Son (the εἰς αὐτόν must be here especially noticed) as thus revealed - should have eternal life. This is the sublime law of Divine arrangement, and the fullest expression of the will of the Father (comp. 1 John 5:12, "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life"). "Behold and trust." These are the conditions. The steady gaze, the full perception of the Divine Son-ship that is adequately expressed in the Son of man, issues by a Divine arrangement in life eternal. The blessedness of the life of faith, its elevation above the conditions of corruption and decay, are not all which he promises, for he added, And (perhaps the ἵνα is carried on to the ἀναστήσω, and so the word is in subj. aor. rather than fut. indic., and, if so, the sentence may express the fact), that I should raise him (not "it;" cf. ver. 39) at the last day. It is not improbable, as we have seen, that our Lord uttered these verses (37-40) to the innermost circle of his followers. The first discourse closes with ver. 36. The disciples looked with eager and inquisitive glances at each other and at their Lord, and received these teachings of the Lord concerning the relation he was sustaining to the Father, and the claim he made to be the Almoner of the mercy and minister of the judgment of him that sent him. This great utterance corresponds with the celebrated synoptic recital (Matthew 11:26, 27). John 6:40

Vincent's Word Studies

And this (δέ)

The best texts read γὰρ, for. There is a logical connection between the last sentence and the following. The Father's will in preserving and raising up that which he has given to the Son, includes in its fulfillment the believing contemplation of the Son and its issue in eternal life.

Of Him that sent me

The best texts substitute πατρός, you, of my Father.

Seeth (θεωρῶν)

The word is designedly used. The saving vision of Christ is not here seeing, but earnest contemplation. Rev., beholdeth. See on John 1:18. Compare ye have seen me, and believe not (John 6:36).