John 6:68-69: To Whom Shall We Go?
John 6:68-69: Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”[1]
After the compassionate Christ graciously offends the crowd, [2] He asks His disciples if they also want to leave. Peter’s response is a rhetorical question that expresses how the twelve ought to act. [3] By saying Jesus has “the words of life” (i.e. Christ’s teaching [4] leads to eternal life [5]), Peter demands the disciples follow Jesus alone or face spiritual death. [6] When Peter says, “believed” he means a faith that is convinced and trusts in Jesus’ existence, “power,” “nearness to help” and truthfulness. [7] “Know” implies that “the Spirit [has] seal[ed]” on Peter’s heart God’s truth in a way unlike human knowledge. [8]
What about you? Do you follow Christ’s life-giving words, or are you drowning in human inventions? Are you certain of Jesus’ might and ability to help in your life? Do you know the Trinity on His own terms and by His sealing, or do you have a list of demands you want God to meet? Certainly we all struggle with these in some ways. But we all must pray for spiritual growth and/or repentance. For there is no one else to whom we should go.
This blog was written by Seth Dunn
[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (Wheaton, IL: Standard Bible Society, 2016), Logos Bible Software. All Scripture references will be ESV from here on unless stated otherwise.
[2] Please see blog on John 6:66-67.
[3] Wallace, Daniel B. Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament with Scripture, Subject, and Greek Word Indexes. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), 467-68.
[4] Tenney, Expositor’s, 80.
[5] Calvin, Commentary, 278.
[6] Calvin, Commentary, 279.
[7] Walter Bauer, William F. Arndt, F. Wilbur Gingrich, and Frederick W. Danker. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature: A translation and adaptation of the fourth revised and augmented edition of Walter Bauer’s Griechish-Deutsches Worterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments und der ubrigen urchristlichen Literatur, Second Ed. Revised and Augmented by F. Wilbur Gingrich and Frederick W. Danker. (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1979), 661.
[8] Calvin, Commentary, 279.