Joh 18:10 Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus.
Peter having a sword “drew” it, The text of this verse is what everyone will focus on, that being Christ arrest in the garden and the betrayal of Judas. The fact that Jesus was being arrested falsely, The arrest did not rattle Jesus, He was in complete control and was not surprised by the events. He calmly heals the man’s ear who Peter who lost control in contrast to Jesus, had cut off. I would like to look at it from a different angle. The word “drew” jumps out at me. Could the sword in Peters scabbard have come out on its own? The answer is obviously no. No more than a handgun can shoot someone without the Hand, to pull the trigger. It doesn’t take a college degree to understand that it takes an external force to draw the sword, as well as an external force to make a gun fire. The Greek word “drew, is use in the following verse and has the same word meaning in the following verses. John 6:44, John 12:32, John 18:10, John 21:6, John 21:11, Acts 16:19, Acts 21:30, James 2:4. So we understand the sword is useless and with no power of its own, without someone pulling it out, it would stay in the scabbard forever, Can we agree on that? The meaning of this Greek word is (helkuō helkō) to drag (literally or figuratively). The sword needs to be drawn out, in and of itself it is powerless. In John 6:44 we read; No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. Just like the sword we are powerless in and of ourselves to come to Jesus. Unless a Sovereign God draws us ( same word used in John 18:10) out of the muck and mire we would stay there for an eternity. No man no one can come to Jesus unless an external force is at play. That external force is God the Father, as it says in Ephesians 1:4 According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: (5) Having predestination us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, aaccording to the good pleasure of his will, Ephesians 1:6 To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He has made us accepted in the beloved. Welcome to the Doctrines of Grace. This is the love of God showed to His chosen, and he manifested His love through His Son Jesus the Christ, by sending Him into a dark world, that the chosen from all parts of the world have life through Him (Jesus) The Light shined in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. But to all who receive Him, who believe in His name, He gave the right to become the sons of God, who are born again not of the blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God’s will. Until we realize the pathetic condition mankind is in because of sin, we cannot fully understand the Holy Scriptures. Without the supernatural working of God, by send His Son to die for the sins of depraved men and the Holy Spirits work of quickening the dead, allowing them to see and understand and embrace the truth of the Gospel.
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. (1John 4:9)
Gregory Lane (04/15/2012)
