Homilies on the Gospel of John

“And He said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto Me except it were given unto Him from above from My Father.”

3. Here the Evangelist intimates to us the voluntary character of the Dispensation, and His endurance of evil. Nor is the, “from the beginning,” put here without a cause, but that you may be aware of His foreknowledge from the first, and that before the words were uttered, and not after the men had murmured nor after they had been offended, He knew the traitor, but before, which was an attribute of Godhead. Then He added, “Except it be given him from above from My Father”; thus persuading them to deem God His Father, not Joseph, and showing them that it is no common thing to believe in Him. As though He had said, “Unbelievers disturb Me not; trouble Me not, astonish Me not. I know of old before they were created, I know to whom the Father has given to believe;” and do thou, when you hear that “He has given,” imagine not merely an arbitrary distribution, but that if any has rendered himself worthy to receive the gift, he has received it.