He (Jesus) went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.” - John 6:65
As we, as a church, journey through the Gospel of John together, I am in awe of the truths of Jesus that are being revealed to me. This is why this series is called “Revealing Jesus.” These truths and revelations have deepened my faith and trust in God, through the words and actions of His son, Jesus Christ that we read in John.
How this has been working for me is that I am being ever mindful, as a read the passages, to find a verse that speaks to me. Or gets my attention. There are certain passages that make me pause and go back over to reread it. When this happens, I know that the Holy Spirit is prompting me to dig further in understanding the passage.
The passage that “hit” me today is the one above. This one puzzled me or I might even say troubled me. Is it saying that God the Father enables only certain individuals to come into a relationship with Jesus? Does God arbitrarily pick and choose which one of us God wants to be saved? There is a hint of the same thing back in verse 44 of chapter 6 where we read Jesus saying, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him …”
This is a hard passage. So, it was time to pull out the commentaries to understand this passage. What I discovered first, is that most commentaries totally skipped that passage. I guess it was too hard for them as well. But I still had my questions. Does God pick and choose which ones He desires to enable to come to Christ? This was rocking my theology.
However, the New International Commentary on the New Testament came to my rescue. For that verse, it noted, “It is impossible for anyone to come to Christ unless the Father gives the grace to do so. Left to themselves, sinners prefer their sin. Conversion is always a work of grace.”
Bingo. The separation between humankind and God is so vast that God cannot even be in the presence of sin. It is like two magnets of the same poles trying to connect. They are forced away, cannot unite. Here is where that amazing grace comes in. Through the grace from God, and only through the grace of God, can Christ and humankind come together. To open the pathway to salvation that we decide to walk through and accept. And this grace is given to everyone, unconditionally, because of God’s great love for us. “Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.”
Today is the World Day of Prayer, which is celebrated internationally in over 170 countries. During your time of prayer today, pray, giving gratitude to God, that He offers us His grace that allows us to have a life in Christ so that we may live the abundant life, now and forever.