Articles
Have You Been Drawn by the Father?
Have You Been Drawn by the Father?
After many of Jesus’ disciples withdrew themselves from Him because of His hard sayings (John 6.25-60), Jesus told the disciples who remained, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father” (John 6.65). When Jesus spoke these words, He was referring to His earlier statements: “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” (John 6.44-45).
This passage is not without perversion. This author once attended a funeral where the preacher spoke about feeling “the drawing power of God”. He taught it was miraculously done and supposedly felt it during his sermon which was accompanied by stamping and shouting.
While many are emotionally driven, it is imperative that we remain scripturally-focused and allow God’s word to bring forth unmanufactured emotions. Subsequently, this passage does not teach what the emotionally-charged gentlemen thought it did. How, then, does God draw us to Him?
First, the answer to our question is found within the text itself. It is often the case that when we experience difficulty in understanding His word, we find that God has given us the correct understanding within the verse itself or the immediate context. Notice that those who come to Jesus hear and learn from the Father. In other words, “they will all be taught by God”. Therefore, it is only those who hear and learn from the Father (taught by Him) that are drawn to Jesus. This can only be done through the preaching of the gospel. Paul said, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10.17). As one hears the word of God he is called or drawn to Jesus (2 Thess. 2.14) and it is granted by the Father for him to come once he has, in obedience, answered the gospel’s call. Interestingly, it is only when we obey the teachings of Jesus that we can have access to the Father (John 14.6). Thus, one cannot go to the Father except through Christ and one cannot be drawn to Christ except through the Father!
Secondly, consider that everything Jesus accomplished was not His will, but the Father’s. In our text Jesus said that “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him”. If we understand why God sent Jesus, then we can understand how God draws man to Him. In the context Jesus taught, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me… For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6.38, 40). The fact that Jesus did nothing on His own accord is rooted in the book of John. In John chapter fourteen we read, “Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves’” (8-11). Elsewhere Jesus taught, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work” (John 4.34); “If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority” (John 7.17); and “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me” (John 8.28). Therefore, one of the purposes of Jesus was to reveal the Father and His Father’s will, nature, glory, and teachings. No wonder Jesus said, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17.3)! Indeed, Jesus “is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature…” (Heb. 1.3) and God has chosen to speak to us through His Son (Heb. 1.1-2).
This helps us to understand the drawing power of God. It is not some miraculous event in which one is just sitting there and suddenly an irresistible force pulls them from their sinful ways, constraining them to faith and repentance. No! The drawing power of God is Jesus Christ, His beloved Son! Jesus said, “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment isjust, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true… For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5.30-40).
Jesus continued, “But if you do not believe his writings [Moses’], how will you believe my words” (John 5.47)? If the Jews had listened to Moses and the prophets, then they would have been taught by God. They would have understood that the inspired writings pointed them to Jesus and that in Him all Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled! Unfortunately, they were not willing to see the Father revealed in His Son because it was not their will to do the Father’s will. Jesus claimed, “the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me” (John 14.24). How, then, can God draw those to Himself who are not willing to put their trust in Christ?
Have you been drawn by the Father? As noted, it is not some out-of-body experience or an irresistible force. It is simply your faith in Jesus’ teachings. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that he has the words of eternal life (John 6.63), then listen to and believe those words. Take heed to do all that God has taught. Become a child of God today by putting away the sin in your life, confessing your faith in Jesus, and being baptized in His name (Acts 2.38). BG
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