From the desk of Pastor Ben
Spiritual Inability

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who has sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”         (John 6:44)

These solemn words of Jesus underscore humanity’s inability and utter helplessness to  respond to Him apart from God’s sovereign call. If God through the Holy Spirit did not draw sinners to Jesus Christ, no person would ever come to Christ on his own strength and will (John 6:37).

There are plenty of scriptural reasons for fallen mankind’s complete inability to come to Jesus by human power or wisdom. The lost are dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1), slaves to unrighteousness (Romans 6:6), alienated from God (Colossians 1:21), hostile to Him (Romans 8:7), spiritually blind (2 Corinthians 4:4), trapped in Satan’s kingdom (Colossians 1:13), powerless to change their sinful natures (Jeremiah 13:23), unable to please God (Romans 8:8), and incapable of understanding spiritual truth (1 Corinthians 2:14).

The human will must be at work in someone’s coming to Christ, because God does not save anyone apart from the person’s believing the gospel (Mark 1:15; Romans 1:16; 10:9-15). But sinners can’t come to Jesus completely of their own free will; the Holy Spirit must draw people to the Son (Ephesians 1:4-5, 11).

Jesus, here again, repeats the marvelous promise that He will raise all the elect on the last day (John 6:39-40, 54). As believers, we can know that as those who have come to Him, the Father will perfectly keep us.

Ask Yourself:
    “The last day” is no vague concept. As sure as “there was evening and there was morning” (Genesis 1:5) — the first day — we are speeding toward a divinely calculated “last day.” How amazing does it feel to know that the “last day” is sure to find you safe in God’s care?