John 6:44. “No one can come to Me (Jesus) unless the Father Who sent Me draws him…” How does He draw? Through the Gospel, you say? But many are “called” by the Gospel, and many refuse it, because the Gospel message is external only. It cannot penetrate the hard heart of man unless there is a “drawing” that comes from the Father. Internally.

These Pharisees to whom Jesus was speaking, were prime examples of hardness. And Jesus allowed it to be so. He even told His disciples that the Pharisees could not understand parables because it was not “given” to them to do so. It had been “given” to the disciples (Matthew 13:10-17). Why? I have no idea. Nor does anyone, that I know of.

We’re talking grace here. Amazing grace. Made all the more amazing because not founded on our normal expectations. Jesus prayed all night, and the next morning He chose 12 disciples. Why those 12? I don’t know. They seem like ordinary men to me. Oh, we call them saints now, and so they are, but look at them before Jesus. Fishermen. Tax collectors. You know the list. Not random choosing, but surely choosing known only to God. None of them refused the call of God.

Why you? Why me? No clue. But I do remember the time when the Gospel was so clear to me that there was no way I could have refused it! Irresistible. The words came from outside, from the preacher, from the Bible. The “drawing”, the tears, the clear invitation, from within.

The same theme is earlier n John 6: “All that the Father ‘gives’ to Me will come to Me. And Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out!” Just as all those chosen disciples came to Jesus, chosen disciples of all ages still come to Jesus. They can’t help it. They don’t want to help it.

From the foundation of the world, a group of believers has been assigned to Jesus. They will come to Him. Some in tears, some groaning, some jumping for joy, some with serious professions of faith, but they will come. They will come. And they will not be cast out. (More of that concept in the last point.)