36
I have told you this explicitly because even though you have seen me in action, you don't really believe me.
37
Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me. And once that person is with me, I hold on and don't let go.
38
I came down from heaven not to follow my own whim but to accomplish the will of the One who sent me.
39
"This, in a nutshell, is that will: that everything handed over to me by the Father be completed - not a single detail missed - and at the wrap-up of time I have everything and everyone put together, upright and whole.
40
This is what my Father wants: that anyone who sees the Son and trusts who he is and what he does and then aligns with him will enter real life, eternal life. My part is to put them on their feet alive and whole at the completion of time."
41
At this, because he said, "I am the Bread that came down from heaven," the Jews started arguing over him:
42
"Isn't this the son of Joseph? Don't we know his father? Don't we know his mother? How can he now say, 'I came down out of heaven' and expect anyone to believe him?"
43
Jesus said, "Don't bicker among yourselves over me.
44
You're not in charge here. The Father who sent me is in charge. He draws people to me - that's the only way you'll ever come. Only then do I do my work, putting people together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End.
45
This is what the prophets meant when they wrote, 'And then they will all be personally taught by God.' Anyone who has spent any time at all listening to the Father, really listening and therefore learning, comes to me to be taught personally - to see it with his own eyes, hear it with his own ears, from me, since I have it firsthand from the Father.
46
No one has seen the Father except the One who has his Being alongside the Father - and you can see me.