Daily Bible Nugget #203, John 6:63

The Nugget:

John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

My Comment:

The letter of the Scriptures without the spirit killeth. That is the heading in The New Topical Textbook under which this passage (John 6:63) and another similar passage (2 Corinthians 3:6) are given under the general topic of The Scriptures on page 240. It is possible that the compiler understood “spirit” to be the Holy Spirit, though perhaps not, since the small rather than the capital “s” was used for the word “spirit.”

But it is likely that “spirit” has reference to spiritual food, according to Henry Alford, a respected Greek scholar. In this sense, it is the food, the spiritual food, in the words of Christ and the Bible as a whole that brings life. These words awaken spiritual life in the soul. These words continue to sustain life in the believer.

I think many readers have read these words at John 6:63, and especially the words at 2 Corinthians 3:6 to mean that the “letter” which kills is the “letter” represented by the inability of an unsaved person to understand the Bible. It is very likely that the ordinary person in the sense of the “natural man” (1 Corinthians 2:14) cannot understand the Bible in the way that a person who is saved, born again, born of the Spirit, can understand the Bible. It is probably accurate to affirm that those who are caught up in false cults and religions are not able to rightly understand the Bible. But wide experience shows that some who at first do not understand the Bible become enlightened through the work of the Holy Spirit as they continue to read and study the Bible, and come to the point where they understand enough of the Bible correctly to become saved or truly regenerated. The words of the Bible have at last become life giving and life sustaining food for the soul.

But this matter of who can understand the Bible or who does understand the Bible is sometimes on the surface a very subjective thing. It is highly possible that those who are truly saved also misunderstand the Bible at times. Fortunately, the Bible is a self-correcting Book, in the sense that as you continue to read it carefully, important matters and sometimes even minor matters that you at first misunderstood are cleared up by the statements read in other parts of the Bible, or even the immediate context of the verse or passage you misunderstood.

We can be thankful that though we are commanded to “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12), in almost the same breath we are told “For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). This work of God “in you” is called by some “prevenient grace.” The basic idea is that God works in us as we continue to read the Bible and hear His word. This continuing interaction or transaction is an evidence for the doctrine of synergism, which is affirmed by the Bible in the light of Greek grammar in the New Testament. The idea is that God by His Holy Spirit works with us in this matter of salvation and coming to true faith.

Those that hold to a Calvinistic system of belief deny the doctrine of synergism, and argue strenuously for monergism. Monergism is the belief that God does all the work in salvation, and that man has no part whatsoever in his salvation. Not even cooperation with or obedience to God and His command or invitation to believe. But the fact that we are commanded to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved (Acts 16:31; 1 John 3:23) proves monergism wrong. A command appeals to the will and intellect of another person who is responsible to respond with obedience to the command. Man, therefore, is not passive in salvation, but must believe to be saved. Now, Calvinists see that differently. They get the cart before the horse. They argue that a person must first be saved in order to believe. That may be sound Calvinistic logic, but that is not what I read in my Bible!

For those who desire to DIG DEEPER into this subject:

(1) Consult the cross references given in Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible on page 1177 for John 6:63.

(2) Consult the cross references given in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge on pages 1198-1199 or in Logos 5 Bible software for John 6:63.

(3) Lacking access to those two resources, consult the cross references for this passage as I have developed them as given below:

John 6:63. the spirit. Gr. pneuma, +Mt 3:16. Jn 3:5, 6. Ge 2:7. Ro 8:2. *1 Cor 12:13. *1 Cor 15:45. *2 Cor 3:17. Ga 5:25. *1 P 3:18. 4:6. quickeneth. or, giveth life. i.e. the life spoken of in the discourse preceding. See the references to Jn 4:14 (De Burgh, p. 248). Jn 5:21. Ps 119:50, 93, +*Ps 119:150. Ezk 47:9. Ro 4:17. **2 Cor 3:6. Ep 2:5. *Col 2:13. *He 4:12. the flesh. ver. 54. *Ro 2:25, 28, 29. 3:1, 2. 7:18. *1 Cor 11:27-29. 2 Cor 5:16. Ga 5:6. 6:15. *1 Tim 4:8. *He 13:9. 1 P 3:21. profiteth nothing. 1 Cor 13:3. the words. Gr. rhēma, Mk 9:32n. ver. *Jn 6:68. Jn 3:34. 4:41. +*Jn 5:39. 8:47. 12:49, 50. 17:8. *Dt 32:47. Ps 19:7-10. *Ps 119:50, 93, 130. **Is 55:11. *Je 23:29. *Mt 4:4. Mk 2:11. Lk 4:32. 24:32. Ac 5:20. 10:22. **Ac 11:14. Ro 10:8-10, **Ro 10:17. *1 Cor 2:9-14. **2 Cor 3:6-8. **1 Th 2:13. +*2 Tim 3:15. **He 4:12. **James 1:18. **1 P 1:23. spirit. Gr. pneuma, FS121A2, +Mt 26:41n. “Spirit” put for living or life-giving food by the operation of the Holy Spirit (Alford). FS121A1, +Jn 3:34. **2 Cor 3:6. life. ver. Jn 6:53, 68. Pr 16:22. Ac 5:20. 7:38. Phil 2:16. **James 1:21.