John 6:44-65
The word irresistible means simply means something that cannot be resisted. The dictionary puts it into more forceful words: “impossible to refuse, oppose or avoid because it is too pleasant, attractive or strong”. That’s what irrestible Grace is. When God draws us to himself it is too pleasant, attractive or strong to refuse. For all of us who have come to faith in Christ, we can truly say, there was a time, we didn’t love God. Then there was a time our hearts was set on fire to love God.
In the text we read, we see a picture of both Total Depravity, which we have considered already (No one can come to me ) and Irresistible Grace (unless the Father who sent me draws him). That word “draws” is what shows us clearly the doctrine of Irresistible Grace. Irresistible Grace means that God’s elect will eventually come to salvation because God will draw them and they cannot resist. The fact is that by ourselves, if left on our own, we will truly have nothing to do with God. We will be unable by ourselves come to faith in Christ. This is because in our natural state, the Bible describes us as dead in sin. We are dead– a corpse cannot respond to anything. That’s how the Bible describes sinners in their natural state.
None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is pan open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and tthe way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
There is a line in the hymn we sung which portrays powerfully a picture of Irrestible Grace
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light
My chains fell off, my heart was free
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee
These line paints a picture of what the Christian once was and what happened to them. We were once burdened by sin but light was shone into our hearts. In the Bible however, we see instances when God’s Grace was resisted, so what do we make of that? Look at Acts when Stephen was standing trial: “You stiff-necked people, euncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you (Acts 7:51). Observe in this verse why they resist the Holy Spirit: “they were uncircumcised in heart and ears.” What this means simply is that they were in their natural state. They have not been regenerated, so they had no desire for God. There’s an inability on the part of sinners to receive any spiritual truth: The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned (1Corinthians 2:14). Therefore for a natural person to be able to come to salvation, God will have to act. God will have to draw the sinner to himself. And how does he do that?
How Does God Irresistibly Draw Sinners
LBCF 10:1-2
All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, and those only, he is pleased, in his appointed and accepted time, effectually to call, by his Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ: enlightening their minds, spiritually and savingly, to understand the things of God, taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them an heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and by his almighty power determining them to that which is good; and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ; yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by his grace.
This effectual call is of God’s free and special grace alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man, who is altogether passive therein, until, being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit, he is thereby enabled to answer this call, and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it.
We identify two main means by which God calls: The Word and Holy Spirit
The Preaching Of The Gospel
The preaching of the Gospel is the means by which God will draw his elect to himself. The gospel, the good news that Jesus Jesus died and rose again from death the third day so that anyone who believes in him will be saved is God’s means to draw sinners. We preachers have no power in ourselves and our words to change anyone. If it is left to us, nobody will be saved. Paul in Romans 1:16 says he is not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God to save. God has invested his power in the gospel to save and you and I must declare just that: the gospel. Further in Romans 1:17, Paul says “For in it [that is the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith”.
Dear friends, nothing else will save sinners but the gospel. And so we have to preach the gospel and call sinners to repentance
Opening Sinner’s Hearts
Two people can hear the same message but only one of them will respond in faith. It is not because the one who responded in faith is smart. But it is the fact that God opened the heart of the one who responded. God graciously opened their hearts to receive the truth. This is what it means to be born again. God changes our evil desires to align with holy desires. He removes our heart of stone and replace with a heart of flesh that is responsive (Acts 16:14-15, Psalm 110:3, Ezekiel 36:26-27).
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