Preach and RL, I have never thought it wise to take a verse and stand it alone like that.
In this passage, Jesus is talking to the Jews in Solomon's Colonnade at the Feast of Dedication. It is near the end of His ministry.
Let's track some of that ministry that might pertain to this passage. We will stay in John for convenience.
The first clue is in the first chapter of John. John is introducing the person of Christ in the first chapter, and in verses 10-12 there is a summary of His ministry:
He was in the world, and though the world was made though him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
Who were these 'own' who refused Him? They were the Jews, those people God refers to as His inheritance (Isaiah 19:5, etc.). Those people He had made for Himself refused Him! This needs to be noted, because it is important here. Even though God made this people for Himself, and spent several thousand years working intimately with them, they refused Him.
John starts the next sentence with 'yet'. "Yet" indicates something perhaps not expected. And what was not expected was that Christ was available to the whole world and not just the Jewish people. And so "Yet, to all who received him..." these people are given an incredible right. Just because they received and believed.
A gift can be offered.....and either received or refused.
In chapter 2, Jesus clears the Temple for the first time -- no doubt alienating a lot of Jewish people! But then, in verse 23, we read,
Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name.
Here we seem to have a cause and effect. The cause being the miraculous signs and the effect being belief for many.
Note this is not in the Temple, but in the city itself. This is going to be important. But the immediate thing to note is that many people responded with belief. This belief is a response from these people to what they have seen Jesus do.
It was probably during this visit to Jerusalem that Jesus had His famous conversation with Nicodemus, a Pharisee, about being born again. Jesus takes a bit of Israelite history to explain something to Nicodemus in verses 14-15:
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
Where is that snake episode? Look at Numbers 21. People could be healed simply by looking at the bronze snake on the pole. Looking is totally a voluntary thing. People could choose to be healed via a voluntary act. Jesus compared Himself to that snake, saying that if anyone believed in Him, the person would have eternal life -- which translates in terms of the snake on the pole as being healed spiritually as the people were then healed physically. As one was a voluntary act, Jesus seems to be indicating that believing in Him is also.
This illustration is followed immediately by the famous 3:16 verse:
For God so loved the world tht he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
In chapter 4, we read of the Samaritan woman -- a despised half-breed Jew who had been married a number of times and now was living out of wedlock with another man. Hardly a credible person, one would think! And yet, after she tells the town about her remarkable conversation with this Man Jesus, we read in verse 39
Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, 'He told me everything I ever did.'
They ask Jesus to stay, and He does, for a couple more days
And because of his words many more became believers. They said to the woman, 'We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.'
There are two reasons given for their believing: the woman's testimony and then Jesus' words.
It is never stated, implied, or hinted at that they believed because they were already His.
In this same chapter, we see that Jesus has finished his trip and arrived in Cana. In verse 48 we see a remarkable statement from Him:
'Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,' Jesus told him, 'you will never believe.'
Again, not a hint that they would be believing because they were already His.
In John 6, a general crowd has gathered and Jesus is asked "What must we do to do the works God requires?"
Jesus answered, 'The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.'
In other words, He is telling them to believe if they want to do what God requires. He does not tell them they cannot believe unless they already belong to Him.
In John 7, we also see these words from Jesus, in verses 16-17:
Jesus answered, 'My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.
If anyone chooses to do God's will....
And what is God's will?
For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
So one can choose to do God's will. And God's will is to believe. It does seem as though, given the multitude of evidences above, that belief in Christ is a choice.
Now, let's go back to that Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, where we started.
Jesus is talking to the Jews again. He is in the Temple. Again. This is precisely where He has antagonized so many in the past. They have already seen Him, heard Him, talked about Him. They have chosen to harden their hearts against Him and not believe. They are not His. They could have been, for He had come to His own -- them -- but they refused Him.
So now let's join the scene:
The Jews gathered around him, saying 'How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.'
Has Christ not told them plainly?
Here is His response:
'I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.
He did tell them.
Their response? Refusal. They chose not to believe. By the time they saw the miracles, their hearts were hardened. They were not His. Therefore they were also not believing.
And yet, even so, at the end of His time of speaking to this group, He is yet pleading with them to believe:
"Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.'
He is not only asking them to believe but He is telling them NOT to believe unless He does what the Father does! Clearly, they have a choice in the matter.
Thus, putting the verse chosen to open this thread back in context, not just of that scene in the Colonnade, but in the context of so much else that He had said and that John has written, one would have to accuse Jesus to contradicting Himself to say that those talking to Him there were non-believers because they were not the elect from before creation, which is exactly what Preach the Word is trying to indicate by taking the verse out of context.
It is so clear through so much of what else is said and written, even in that moment, that people have a choice where believing in Christ is concerned.
