Answering Dr. Leighton Flowers pt. 3

For my last response to Dr.Flowers, he responds to John 6:25-71:

"25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 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. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread[c] the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 Jesus[d] said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.

The Words of Eternal Life
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” 70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” 71 He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him."

This was his response:

"At this time the Messiah is “down from heaven” in the flesh to fulfill the will of the Father (vs. 38). While in the world, Jesus is not entrusting himself to everyone (Jn. 2:24). In fact, he has kept his identity somewhat secret for much of his public ministry (Matt. 16:20; Mark 1:24-25, 34, 43-45; 3:12; 8:30; 9:9). God only gave to Christ a few from Israel to serve the noble calling of being his “holy apostles” (Eph. 3:1-11; Jn. 17:6-19). He slowly reveals his identity and his redemptive plan to those set apart for this apostolic calling, but “to those on the outside everything is said in parables…otherwise they might turn and be forgiven” (Mk. 4:11-12).

Christ hid the truth from the “wise and learned”  and revealed it to the weak (Mt. 11:25) so as to fulfill the Father’s purpose of redemption on Calvary. And the leaders of that day would not have crucified Christ if they believed he was the long awaited Messiah (1 Cor. 2:7-8).  Therefore, the reason much of the Jewish audience in John 6 were not enabled to come to Christ was not because they were born hated by God and innately disabled due to the Fall of Adam, as presumed by Calvinists. Not at all!  God loved Israel and genuinely desired for them to repent and be saved (2 Peter 3:9; 1 Tim. 2:4; Rom. 9:1-3; 10:1,21; Matt. 23:37; Lk. 19:42; Matt. 5:44; Hos. 3:1; Ezk. 18:30-32). They were not enabled to come to Christ while down from heaven UNTIL he had fulfilled redemption on Calvary and was “raised up.” Then and only then would Christ commission the gospel to be sent to “every creature” so as to “draw all peoples to Himself” (John 12:32; Acts 1:8; Matt. 28:16-20)."

I am thoroughly impressed with the shear amount of prooftext that Dr. Flowers uses here. But, he doesn't really deal with what was said. His underlying assumption here is that Christ was hiding himself from others, so this text is not applicable in the same capacity today as it was back then before the cross event. So his belief here is that Christ is only revealing himself to his apostles.

All of this is utterly done away with when you remember Nicodemus who was witnessed to by Christ in John 3.
We don't here from Nicodemus, or told his decision, untill John 7 where this is said:

"49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, 51 “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” 52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”"

It is a nice sentiment to think that Jesus' only followers were the 12, but there was someone else who handily knew the truth. So much so that he was requesting Christ's body in John 19. Christ even reveals himself as the Son of God to Nicodemus in 3:16-18.

Much more could be said here but I'm out of room... My point is this. You cannot take the plain meaning out of the text to get around what it says. I'm sure Leighton doesn't deny the necessity of the call of God in 6:44, and no one would expect him to... So why go through such thorough lengths to dismiss this teaching as secretive and introducing other methods of interpretation? Anyways,

Soli Deo Gloria!