Untitled Sermon (3)
John 6:44
Jesus says that man in his sinful condition not only does not or will not come to him, but cannot come to him
John Calvin referred to the “inner call,” saying that “it consists not only in the preaching of the Word but also in the illumination of the Spirit.”5
The Bondage of the Will. He did not deny that man has a will or that man makes choices. What he denied is that sinful man does so “freely.” For Luther, this was an essential question: “whether sinners are wholly helpless in their sin, and whether God is to be thought of as saving them by free, unconditional invincible grace[;] … whether, in the last analysis Christianity is a religion of utter reliance on God for salvation and all things necessary to it, or of self-reliance and self-effort.”6
Returning to
In applying this passage, let us first consider the implications for our ministry. If no one can come to Christ unless drawn by the Father, then we should commit to those means of grace given and approved by God. We are living in a day of many false conversions, precisely because people have been persuaded to call themselves Christians without having understood the gospel.
Herman Bavinck (1854-1921) wrote, “God produces both creation and new creation by his Word and Spirit. By his speech he calls all things into being out of nothing (
As Samuel Willard (1640–1707) observed, the gospel is God’s appointed means of salvation (
1. God calls sinners through his scriptural word.
John Flavel (c. 1627–1691) said, “The preaching of the gospel by Christ’s ambassadors is the means appointed for the reconciling and bringing home of sinners to Christ.”17 The words translated as “preach” (kēryssō) or “preacher” (kēryx) literally refer to a herald,18 an official of the royal court who raised his voice to publicly “declare official decrees and announcements,” with a message that “does not originate from them,” but “behind it stands a higher power.”19 The call is a message of authority.
Therefore, we may summarize the essential elements of the gospel as follows: (1) the doctrine of the good news, or the facts of the gospel about Christ and redemption; (2) the summons to repent and believe in Christ; and (3) the promise of salvation for all those who, by grace, have repented of sin and trusted in Christ alone.
