Back up and read the passage completely - as I posted previously and you posted partially before. This is not election, unless you pair it with Chapter 12 and the teaching of election for all. Remember that He is hinting at divinity here, but they don't get that - they are thinking of him as a messenger sent by God - an angel or a super David, perhaps and when He tells them that no one can to Him unless it is granted, they are presented with the claim that this carpenter's son is now claiming to be a messenger favoured of God. He is claiming special privileges that they also reject. The cannibalism scenario got them ready to go; this finished it.
Remember too, that Jesus does not tell anyone of His Divinity until John 8. He's breaking them in slowly and it is too much still for many of them.
What was their former way of life Mark? THE LAW ..salvation by the law.. .... they liked being in charge of their own salvation... men hate to have to let God be God. Just like eve, they want a piece of the divine action ...
Matthew 25 says differently in three different parables.
Revelation 20: 11 9 Next I saw a large white throne and the one who was sitting on it. The earth and the sky fled from his presence and there was no place for them. 12 I saw the dead, the great and the lowly, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. Then another scroll was opened, the book of life. 10 The dead were judged according to their deeds, by what was written in the scrolls. 13 The sea gave up its dead; then Death and Hades 11 gave up their dead. All the dead were judged according to their deeds. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the pool of fire. (This pool of fire is the second death. 12 ) 15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the pool of fire.
John says that as a result of our deeds, we will all be Judged according to our deeds and if the Judge does not write our name in the Book of Life, we will be thrown into the pool of fire.
Romans 14: 9 For this is why Christ died and came to life, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 Why then do you judge your brother? Or you, why do you look down on your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written: "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bend before me, and every tongue shall give praise to God." 12 So (then) each of us shall give an account of himself (to God).
Why do we all give accounts of ourselves?
Matthew 12: 36 25 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will render an account for every careless word they speak. 37 By your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."
Condemned. Not a lessening of rewards in Heaven (find the justification for THAT particular belief if you can), not some fictitious seating arrangement in the stadium of Heaven. Condemned. The Law exists - Jesus has modified it to include the Beatitudes and the Two Great Commandments of Christ. Unless you do not believe that they apply to the Reformed...
Do you know what the book of life was? It was a list of citizens born in a Jewish city .
My name is in that book Mark, because I have been born again.. I am a citizen of heaven
Read your scripture again Mark ..when he said that it resulted in men walking away.. they did not walk away when he told them to eat his body..they understood the metaphor even if catholics do not