“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:44)
It hurts our pride and disturbs our notion of “free will,” but Jesus is very clear: if you have any interest in him, it is only because the Father has first drawn you to him. If the Father hadn’t stirred your heart, you would not be attracted to his Son.
You do have to respond by moving toward Christ—by listening to him, talking with him, obeying him, enjoying him—but your actions are secondary to the Father’s. This order is so foundational to your confidence in your relationship with God that Jesus repeats himself, leaving no room for misunderstanding (see John 6:37, 44, 65). If the Father has drawn you, then you can be sure Christ has saved you.
The question, then, is not “How can I know that I’m saved?” but “How can I know that the Father has drawn me?” The answer is found in how you react to Jesus: do you move toward him or away from him?
Jesus told these things to a large crowd that had invested serious time and energy in pursuing him (see John 6:22–24). But it turned out that they didn’t want him as much as they wanted him to make their lives easier. They wanted a free lunch (see v. 26).
Jesus started dialoguing with them, challenging why they were following him so that they could want him for the right reasons. But the people wouldn’t let go of what they wanted, which meant that they became more confused the longer he talked.
Jesus told them that they needed a different kind of food than the kind they were thinking about. They needed bread from heaven. Then he told them that he was that bread and that they would need to eat his flesh and drink his blood if they wanted to have real life (see vv. 32–33, 48–51, 53–58).
This didn’t make any sense to them. A number of them walked away—including some who had considered themselves his disciples (see v. 66). But the twelve apostles didn’t walk. When Jesus asked them if they wanted to, they told Jesus that they had nowhere else to go, because he alone had the words of life (see vv. 68–69).
It’s pretty obvious that they didn’t fully grasp what he was saying until after his resurrection, but they didn’t let their confusion get in the way of pursuing him. Just the opposite—when they were confused about something that he said or did, they asked him about it (see Matt. 13:10; 15:12; Mark 7:17; 9:28; 13:1–4; Luke 8:9; John 11:7–15; 13:24–25, 36–37). They moved closer to him. They came to him and kept on coming to him and stayed with him, because they knew he was the Holy One of God (see John 6:69).
That’s the key to understanding whether or not the Father has drawn you: do you critique and dismiss Jesus, or do you trust and want more of him? Neither the crowd nor the apostles fully understood what he was saying that day, but those whom the Father drew wanted more of him and wouldn’t leave.
CHECK YOURSELF: Have there been times when you were tempted to walk away from Christ but didn’t? What kept you from leaving?
Has the Father drawn you to his Son? Do you still want Jesus? Are you still pursuing him?
If the Father is continuing to draw you, take a moment and thank him for doing so.
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS QUICK REFRESHER.
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PASTOR ANDRA HIGGINBOTHAM