Irresistible Grace - Pt 2

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. (John 6:44-47ESV).

Matthew’s experience with Jesus clearly shows the grace of God is inseparable from the saving call of God in Christ. Being more reformed in my personal theology I make a distinction between the two kinds of calls from God. There is the general call of Christ to everyone, irrespective of God’s election (cf. Matthew 11:28; John 7:37). But because of man’s totally depraved state, no one answers this call by his or her own volition. Indeed, no one can. This was Matthew’s situation. For all the many times he had seen and heard Jesus, for all that he had learned about what Jesus was doing, and in spite of even direct appeals to faith that Matthew very well may have heard, his sinful heart was unable to answer the call. That’s the truth found in our reading today (v. 44). The sinful heart is hostile to God and uninterested in His offer of salvation. In fact, on one occasion, when Jesus was describing the impossibility of a rich man ever entering God’s kingdom, Peter asked, “Who then can be saved?” And the answer of Jesus was telling: “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:25-26). R. C. Sproul explains: “The unregenerate experience the outward call of the gospel. This outward call will not effect salvation unless the call is heard and embraced in faith. Effectual calling refers to the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration. Here the call is within. The regenerate are called inwardly. Everyone who receives the inward call of regeneration responds in faith.” As John Murray writes of this saving call of God, “since it is effectual, [it] carries with it the operative grace whereby the person called is enabled to answer the call and to embrace Jesus Christ as he is freely offered in the Gospel. Remember the Century Tree from yesterday. Everything that is necessary for the acorn to become a reproduction of that grand oak is within the acorn. However, all that was not the work of the oak; it was the work of the Creator of the oak. Indeed, without God’s handiwork it is only food for the squirrels. With God’s work and the acceptance of the call to plant, nurture, and tend the seedling it becomes what it was intended to be. The encouraging word in all of this is that God cannot be turned away from his redemptive work. He will bring you to your heavenly home!