NOTES for Joh 6:44-51
Jesus' words are entirely unambiguous: only someone led by God himself, his heavenly Father, can come to him. At first glance, the history of Christianity may seem to contradict, if not these words themselves, then at least their unambiguous meaning and the impossibility of coming to Christ without a special revelation. For in the modern world, as in former times, many have come and still come to him, seemingly under the influence of other, human factors.
Someone heard a good Christian preacher; someone read a book containing the testimonies of Christians who had experienced conversion and a personal encounter with the Saviour; someone was drawn by the image of Jesus himself. On closer examination, however, it turns out that none of these cases is quite what the Saviour means. Here Jesus is speaking of following him as sharing in the life of the Kingdom he brought into the world.
This is not about people's testimonies, which may well be attractive in themselves, or the power of tradition, or the beauty of theological argument, or anything else that, at best, forms a beautiful setting for the new life the Saviour brought into the world. It is about the Kingdom itself: entering it and meeting its King there, and, having met him, establishing a relationship with him that will reveal the Kingdom's life in all its fullness to the person who enters. Such entry really is impossible unless God himself leads a person to Christ.
It is impossible simply because otherwise one cannot see what is central in Christ. It is not difficult to see in him a great spiritual Teacher, a witness to the Kingdom, a prophet, even a worker of miracles: many of his contemporaries saw all these things in him. They even saw the Messiah in him, but only an earthly one who would establish a Kingdom on earth. What is central, however, what must be seen in him—the fullness of the Kingdom he has brought and the new life—only God himself can show a person. It is then that the one approaching Christ becomes a Christian. An inhabitant of the Kingdom.