"All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." (John 6:37)

In this verse and the verses to follow, we find Christ using a marvelous teaching technique. Several times He makes a general, generic statement, but quickly advances from the general and impersonal to the particular and personal.

Note that at the first, Christ tells of an abstract gift to Him from the Father of an entire group, ("all") of which should come to Him for salvation. This is in itself a wonderful truth, for Christ highly values this gift from His Father: "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father . . . gave them |to| me" (10:28-29). The entire group "shall come" to Him.

But Christ switches in mid-sentence from general to specific: "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out," a concrete statement of the effect of this work on an individual. We are part of a group, without doubt, but also each one of us individually is His precious child.

The passage continues in the same vein. "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" (6:39). Again, the impersonal passes into the personal, for "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" (v. 40).

From the mass of created mankind, many have come to Christ for salvation. But each one who has believed and been granted everlasting life has great individual worth in the eyes of the Savior. "The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. . . . I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine" (10:11, 14). JDM