The day after the Lord Jesus fed more than five thousand people with five loaves and two small fish He enlarged upon this miracle in the synagogue at Capernaum by applying its message spiritually. It was here the Saviour titled Himself the Bread of Life, saying, ‘I am the Bread of Life’ and ‘I am the living bread which came down from heaven’. He says, ‘except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life.’

The doctrines of the Bible are not a checklist of what is to be believed to get to heaven. They are much more important than that. Bible doctrine is God’s revelation of who He is, and His explanation of what He has done to accomplish the salvation of His elect and secure their glory. Paul was fully persuaded of his own salvation (and the salvation of others) because God showed him how and by whom it had been obtained. Paul was assured of the church’s inseparable union with Jesus Christ because the Lord explained how it had been achieved.

Throughout this chapter the Apostle Paul has been comforting the hearts and encouraging the faith of the Lord’s people. He has done this by explaining the fulness of the gospel and the work of Christ in salvation. Paul has set before the church the everlasting love of God and all that God has done for us. He has spoken of foreknowledge and predestination, justification, conversion and the glory that awaits God’s elect.

In the opening of this chapter the Apostle insisted that the church of Jesus Christ is under no condemnation for sin because Christ died in our place. Paul wrote, ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus’. God transferred the sin of the elect onto the body of Christ on the cross and condemned it in the flesh of His Son. The sin of all for whom Christ died was laid upon Him, atoned for in Him and carried away by Him. 

Some months ago we spent several weeks considering Paul’s teaching on election and justification in Romans chapter 8:28-32. We learned how covenant grace extends from eternity to eternity, founded on everlasting love and culminating in the saints’ eternal glory. We learned how ‘all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose’. We learned how Christ gave His life ‘a ransom for many’ and how with Him we have been given ‘all things’ needful for our spiritual and temporal good.

In our verses today we are presented with a clear statement of Christ’s will for His people. ‘Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory.’ Some argue that man’s ‘freewill’ should determine who goes to heaven. For our part we are content to accept that the will of Christ the God-man has primacy in such matters. Sovereign divine will has pre-eminence over fallen human will and we believe the Saviour’s good pleasure will not be denied.