John
6:35-40 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of
life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall
never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All
that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by
no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but
the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that
of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the
last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the
Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at
the last day.” NKJV
The most important question that confronts every
person who has ever lived and who will ever live is “Are you saved or lost?”
The career the person pursued, the philanthropy they engaged in, the wealth
they amassed, and what people thought of them will matter nothing on that last
day as they stand before Jesus Christ. How a person is saved has been and
continues to be a hotly debated and contested subject at times in many circles
around the world. The Apostle Paul was the primary teacher in the New Testament
books about how a person’s soul is saved by God from sin and hell. The Apostle
Paul taught that God had an elect group of people that He would save eternally.
The Apostle Paul taught about the foreknowledge of God which means He knows
everything that will transpire in human history before it ever happens,
therefore He already sees every soul that will be eternally saved and eternally
lost.
To us human beings this can sometimes seem unfair,
unkind, or even unloving but because God knows who will truly believe and who
will not truly believe does not mean that He rigged or fixed the outcome. The
responsibility for truly believing still rest upon every individual soul and
therefore God never shows partiality or favoritism to any person, no not one.
Must we human beings forget that it pleased God the Father to bruise His only Son?
He poured out His wrath against sin upon the Lord Jesus Christ. If God the
Father did not spare His only Son from His wrath when sin was upon Jesus, how
does any human being think God the Father will spare them when their sin
remains on them, I tell you He will not.
Isaiah
53:10-11 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He
shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in
His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His
knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their
iniquities. NKJV
The Apostle Paul also taught individual human
responsibility in salvation for every soul. A person cannot go to heaven
because they grew up in Church, their Father was a Pastor or Deacon, or because
they were born here in America, or because they feel they are a good person. The
Apostle Paul taught that every person was responsible for their sin and must
repent/turn from their sin and trust Jesus Christ for their own personal
salvation. The Apostle wrote these words, Romans
10:11-13 “For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever
believes on Him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no
distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all
who call upon Him. For ‘whoever
calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.’” NKJV Where did this man
the Apostle Paul get this understanding and wisdom concerning the salvation
of the souls of men and women? The Apostle Paul tells us that he received these
truths straight from our Lord Jesus Christ and that he was privileged to be
taken into Arabia for 3 years and taught by Christ Jesus as he documents in Galatians 1:11-18.
Before our Lord ever took this man Paul into His
personal school of Apostleship, He taught us from His own lips that salvation
is according to the Sovereign will of God but that every individual person must
come to Him to receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Our Lord Jesus use
the word comes which is a present tense verb and all verbs are action words.
Our Lord is saying that the soul that comes to Him will receive salvation His
life in them which produces new affections, desires, hungers, and thirst that
will be in opposition to the affections, desires, hungers, and thirst longed
for in their souls when He was not present. The word comes He uses also denotes
a continuous coming to Him through His Word to feed, nurture, and sustain this
new life birthed in the soul. Our Lord is teaching in this very text the
responsibility of the hungering soul to act upon this spiritual malnutrition
individually (John 6:35).
Our Lord Jesus cements for us by the very next text
the absolute reality of human responsibility. These Jews saw the Divine Son of
God in the flesh, were eyewitnesses many of them to His numerous miracles, they
like Pilot knew deep in their hearts/inner man there was no fault in Him, none
of them could convict Him of any sin ever, they were also witness to His going
about always doing good and His great heart of compassion as He healed many
people of diseases as well as those who were oppressed by the devil, and yet
despite Him being right before them in grace and truth they did not believe.
Today, especially in this country of America, people are exposed to the gospel
of Christ death, burial, and resurrection from the dead and yet they still
refuse, reject, or resist believing in Him as the only way for salvation (see
the article entitled “Will you Reject, Resist, or Receive Jesus Christ”, http://www.faithwriters.com/article-details.php?id=130955)
(John 6:36).
Isaiah
55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let
him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He
will abundantly pardon. NKJV
It is God the Father who draws (John 6:44) the lost soul to our Lord Jesus Christ. For example it
was the Father who impressed upon heart of the woman in John Chapter 4 to come
to that well at that very time and hour of the day knowing that our Lord Jesus
would arrive at that well also at that time. God the Father had been preparing
her heart and drawing her to the truth maybe for years even before our Lord
Jesus began His earthly ministry for this one moment that would change her
eternal destiny. The Father did the drawing but He did not make her believe and
receive Christ Jesus the Lord, she had to respond to the truth that confronted
her at that very hour (John 6:37).
It was God the Father’s will which directed our Lord
Jesus to go through Samaria and not take the normal route His disciples would
have been accustomed to traveling all because our Lord knew from the Father
that He had an eternal appointment with this one Samaritan woman that could not
be missed (John 6:38). This is one
of the clearest pictures of Sovereign Election plus human responsibility equaling
eternal salvation. Many of the hard hearted stiff-necked Jews during the days
our Lord Jesus walked the earth as the God-Man saw Him but did not believe, but
many common people saw Him and did believe and the same holds true today. The
gospel is preached on radio, the internet, in stadiums, on television, in
churches, on the streets, in jungles, in schools, and everywhere but still all
do not believe. However, the ones the Father draws that do come to our Lord
Jesus and believe will never lose this new life which we have been given
because it did not come as the result of our human effort but simply in our
freely receiving Him forever (John
6:39-40).
2
Thessalonians 2:13-14 But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you,
brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for
salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to
which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord
Jesus Christ. NKJV
“All that feel themselves lost, and follow the
drawings of the Father, He in a peculiar manner giveth to the Son: will come to Me - By faith. And him that thus cometh to Me, I will in nowise cast out - I
will give him pardon, holiness, and heaven, if he endure to the end - to
rejoice in His light.” John Wesley
“Everyone that comes - that is, everyone that comes
in a proper manner, feeling that he is a lost and ruined sinner. This
invitation is wide, and full, and free. It shows the unbounded mercy of God;
and it shows, also, that the reason, and the only reason, why men are not
saved, is that they will not come to Christ. Of any sinner it may be said that
if he had been willing to come to Christ he might have come and been saved. As
he chooses not to come, he cannot blame God because he saves others who are
willing, no matter from what cause, and who thus are made partakers of
everlasting life.” Albert Barnes
If
you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this
from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear
Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I
believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from
the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn
from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control
of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...
Sincerely in Christ,
Clifford D. Tate, Sr.
Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you
Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus
Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and
Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple
I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reader,
Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…
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