(39) And this is the Father's will.--Read, with best MSS., And this is the will of Him that sent Me. Comp. Note on John 6:40. These two verses further set forth the divine will in the mission of Christ, first in relation to the Father's gift, and then in relation to man's acceptance. Both verses make emphatic the expression of that will in the mission, Him that sent Me; both refer its fulfilment to the final victory over sin and death, at the last day. Both state the will of God in a single clause, prefaced by the most signal proof of divine love in God revealed on earth, and followed by its end, in man raised to heaven.

The "all" is here neuter, referring to the whole extent of the Messianic work. (Comp. John 6:37.) Vast as this is, beyond our power of thought, including all times, and all places, and all nations, and it may be other worlds, it is the divine will that nothing should be lost. In the moral, as well as in the physical world, no force can perish.

Hath given me . . .--The past tense here, because the gift is thought of in its completion at the last day. (See John 6:37.)

Verse 39. - And this is the will of him (the Father) that sent me, that (with reference to) all that he hath given me I should not lose (sc. τὶ) anything, any fragment of it; i.e. from the entire mass of humanity thus given to me as the guerdon of my sacrificial work, given by the inward working of Divine grace which issues in their coming and reaching me, no solitary soul should be plucked out of my hand - should be let slip away into perdition or destruction. The claim of a Divine authority and absolute power could not be put more strongly. The care with which the Divine hand can protect every fragment of his universe, and hold it by its everlasting laws and keep it in the career assigned to it from the beginning, illumines this passage. Should the speaker not sustain this stupendous assumption, it is only too certain that he was giving utterance to the most reckless raving. These words cannot be honestly watered down to the language of the influence of an ethical reformer or prophetic messenger. Jesus proceeds to clinch his argument and reassert his claims as follows. But in proof of the very opposite of the supposition that I can drop one atom of this great charge, I will raise it up at the last day. Reuss applies this to the resurrection of each believer on the "last day" of each life, for he seems unwilling to find in the Fourth Gospel any such idea as that of the general resurrection. But cf. John 5:29, and observe the repetition as in a wondrous refrain, vers. 40, 44, 54, in which he again speaks of the "last day" - the final consummation of his redemptive work. The next verse shows that the Lord did discriminate between eternal life already bestowed here and now, and the great consequence of such possession in the complete restoration of body as well as life. It is in the continuity and perpetuity of the eternal life that we find the condition of the resurrection life. The "when" of this "last day" is not positively asserted here.

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.And this is the Father's will which hath sent me,.... This explains both who he was that sent him; the Father of him, and of his people; whose sending of him does not suppose any change of place, or inequality between them, or disrespect unto him, or compulsion of him, but agreement between them, and love to the persons on whose account he was sent; and also what is the will he came to do, and is what was declared by him to Christ, when he gave the elect to him: for this expresses his secret will in the council and covenant of grace,

that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing; that is, that of all the elect which were given to Christ by his Father, in eternal election, he should not lose anyone of them, not the meanest among them, nor anything of theirs, their grace, or glory, or anything belonging to them, either to their souls or bodies, and particularly the latter;

but should raise it up again at the last day; even every part of their bodies, and every dust belonging to them; their bodies being given to Christ, and redeemed by his blood, as well as their souls: so the Jews (o), speaking of the resurrection, and making mention of that passage in Numbers 23:10, "who shall count the dust of Jacob?" add,

"and he (i.e. God) shall order it all, , "and not anything shall be lost", but all shall rise again; for, lo, it is said, Daniel 12:2, "and many of them that sleep in the dust", &c.''

(o) Zohar in Exod. fol. 43. 4.