Page 65 - The Gospel of John - Student textbook

assure you: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life in yourselves.
54 Anyone who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day,
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55 because My flesh is real food and My blood is real drink. The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood
lives in Me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so the one who
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feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the manna
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your fathers ate—and they died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.” He said these things while
teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. Therefore, when many of His disciples heard this, they said, “This
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teaching is hard! Who can accept it?” Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples were complaining about
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this, asked them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you were to observe the Son of Man ascending to
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where He was before? The Spirit is the One who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I
have spoken to you are spirit and are life. But there are some among you who don’t believe.”
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Martin Luther engaged in a debate with Erasmus over the doctrine of predestination because Erasmus held on
to the idea that there remains in the soul of fallen man a little island of righteousness by which we can choose to
come to God or reject Him. Luther, picking up on Jesus’ words here, “the flesh profits nothing,” said to Erasmus,
“That ‘nothing’ is not a little something.”

(For Jesus knew from the beginning those who would not believe and the one who would betray Him.) He
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said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted to him by the Father.” From that
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moment many of His disciples turned back and no longer accompanied Him. Therefore Jesus said to the
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Twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?” Simon Peter answered, “Lord, who will we go to? You
have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that You are the Holy One of God!”
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70 Jesus replied to them, “Didn’t I choose you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is the Devil!” He was referring to
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Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son, one of the Twelve, because he was going to betray Him.

John 7:1-53 (HCSB)

The atmosphere around Jesus is becoming increasingly tense. Chapter 6 concludes with the defection of many of
His followers. Chapter 7 opens with the unbelief of His brothers. Numerous times in chapter 7 and 8 hostile
comments are made about Jesus (7:1, 13, 19, 25, 30, 32, 44; 8:6, 40, 59). The debate over His identity becomes
more intense (7:11 – 13, 15, 20, 25, 31, 35, 40 – 43, 45 – 52). Who is He? Does He meet the qualifications to be
the Messiah?

1 After this, Jesus traveled in Galilee, since He did not want to travel in Judea because the Jews were trying to
kill Him. The Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, so His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go to
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Judea so Your disciples can see Your works that You are doing. For no one does anything in secret while he’s
seeking public recognition. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” (For not even His brothers
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believed in Him.) Jesus told them, “My time has not yet arrived, but your time is always at hand.
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John informs the reader that the brothers were in reality taunting Him because they did not believe in Him (7:5).
It must have been painful to Jesus said that His family did not believe in Him. This would likely have brought
comfort to John’s readers as many of them were rejected by family and friends for following Jesus. Many
contemporary followers of Jesus know this reality all too well.

Jesus told his brothers that He was not going to the feast. But a few days later, He did travel to Jerusalem in
secret and did attend the feast. Did Jesus tell His brothers a lie?

Early manuscripts of the Gospel of John, including p66 and p75 (late 2 century), record Jesus saying, “I am not
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yet going up to the feast” rather than “I am not going to the feast”. That’s another way of saying, “Brothers, you
go ahead. I will not be going with you”. In John 7:9 we are told that Jesus stayed in Galilee “for a time”. In
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