God created everything, and it is for His pleasure that they were created. Creation does not exist by accident. By an act of His will God spoke everything into existence, including all the laws of nature. God is the lover of His creation. Every human being owes his or her existence to God’s creative work. When we look at the character of God there are only three nouns used of God in the New Testament. God is love (relationship), God is life (spiritual), and God is light (revelation). God wants His very character of love, life and light replicated in our character and in our lives. These three words describe the person of God. It is one thing to say God is loving; it is another to say God is Love. How does God draw us to salvation? He draws us to Himself by His love.
God is Love
In 1 John 4, God is called love not once but twice. God is called “agape,” a very different word for love than the physical or tangible human love we experience. The verbal form of the noun agape is used to say God loves the world of humanity in perhaps the most famous verse in the New Testament, John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
There, we hear about a self-sacrificial God. Clearly enough, the sort of love predicated of God is not any mere human love. No, to say God “is love’ is to say that God is the most self-sacrificial being in the universe. And as such he was prepared to go to incredible lengths to set humankind right. We should have long ago stopped trying to define God and the divine character on our very partial understanding of human love and human feelings.
But there is much more to be said. This love described by the author of 1 John 4 implies something fundamental about the freedom of God. Love cannot be compelled, manipulated, or predetermined if it is to be genuine love. It has to be freely received from God and freely returned. God did not have to love a world full of self-centered and sinful human beings. But he chose to do this – and this accorded with God’s very nature. Even more interesting and surprising is that 1 John 4 also tells us that God’s love comes to its fullest expression not merely in creation, but in the lives of his “beloved humans,” (to love another person is to see the face of God – Les Miserables). Love must be pretty important to understanding God.
How does God draw us?
God desires all men to be saved and draws all people to Himself. We would not have had the desire to trust in Him if His Holy Spirit had not spoken too are hearts and drawn us to Himself with cords of love. God will never force His salvation on those who choose to reject Him. All are given an opportunity to respond to His tug of love on their hearts. Why does God need to draw us to salvation? Simply put, if He didn’t, we would never come.
The natural man has no ability to come to God, nor does he even have the desire to come. Because his heart is enemy of God (Romans 5:10). When Jesus says that no man can come without God’s drawing Him, He is making a statement about the total depravity of the sinner and the universality of that condition. In the conversion of the sinner, God enlightens the mind (Ephesians 1:18), inclines the will toward Himself, and influences the soul, without which influence the soul remains darkened and rebellious against God. All of this is involved in the drawing process.
The Lord is Near to the Broken Hearted
God draws us through His goodness, mercy and lovingkindness (Jeremiah 31:3). “The Lord is near to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Psalms 34:18) “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). It says that no one will come to God unless he pulls on you. In John 6:44 we read, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.” This verse points to God’s sovereign work that brings people to Jesus Christ. From the context of John 6, they evidently believe in Him for eternal salvation. The passage in John 6:44, its context, and other Scriptures help us understand that God can draw people to faith in a number of ways.
Man’s Ability to Respond
God uses man’s ability to respond. This does not diminish God’s sovereignty, but recognizes that He has sovereignly designed man to have free will which allow him to respond to God. Since the Bible teaches that man does not seek God on his own (Romans 3:11). God must take the initiative. He reveals Himself in creation, and though man knows this, he still refuses to honour God (Romans 1:19-21). So God, in His love, seeks us out (Luke 19:10).
The idea of God forcing someone irresistibly is contrary to His loving nature and manner. No man getting married wants to force his partner to the altar, but rather woos and loves her to come willingly. So also God does not force people in a direction they are not already inclined to take. His drawing in John 6:44 is in the context of those who willingly believe. God’s will does not preclude man’s will and freedom to respond, but includes it.
The Cross of Jesus
God uses Jesus’ work on the cross to draw people . Jesus explained his role in drawing people to Himself for salvation: “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself. This He said, signifying what death He would die” (John 12:32, 33). The cross is proof of God’s love, our sin, His righteousness, and the coming judgement (John 16:8-11). A similar reference to Christ being lifted up in John 3:14, 15 refers to the story in Numbers 21:4-9 when those who looked at the bronze serpent on the pole were healed. In both passages, the provision of salvation is available to whoever believes.
The Teaching of God’s Word
God uses the Word to teach. The teaching of God’s Word is designed to draw people to Christ. Following John 6:44, verses 45, 46 say, “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God. Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.” The process is that God teaches, people hear and learn, then people respond by coming to Christ for salvation. Many, however, will reject the truth about Christ just as many rejected Moses’ teaching. Today, the Gospel is the power of God to salvation (Romans 1:16). As we teach and preach it, it draws to Christ those who listen and learn from it.
The Work of the Holy Spirit
God uses the Holy Spirit to convict. According to John 16:8-11, the Holy Spirit convicts of truth (can also be understood as exposes or convince): “And when He (the Holy Spirit) has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” As Christ draws all men through His work on the cross. The Spirit exposes to all the convinces all (“the world”) of that truth as the Word of God is taught. The Spirit uses divine persuasion to convince, reprove, disturb, draw, and love a person. But that does not guarantee that all who are convinced of the truth will receive it. A person can understand the truth, yet reject it (John 5:39, 40). But whoever responds positively and seeks God will be rewarded (Hebrews 11:6).
The Preaching of the Gospel
God uses people as instruments. God has chosen to use people as agents for teaching the Word of God which the Holy Spirit uses to convict the world. The apostle Paul reminds the Corinthian church that the first thing, he made known to them was the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:3). He reasoned with the Romans “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? (Romans 10:14).
God can draw people to Christ using these various means in collusion; they are not in conflict with on another. Before Jesus speaks of the Father’s drawing in John 6:44, He twice says the Father gives people to Him (verses 37, 39). The context suggests that the Father gives people to Christ so that they will be secure. In verse 37 Christ will never cast them out, and in verse 39 Christ will not lose any but guarantees their resurrection at the last day.
A good example of God drawing someone with various means is the story about Lydia in Acts 16:13-15). Lydia goes to a prayer meeting (Is she drawn by her own initiative of God’s – or both together?) and hears Paul teach (the gospel). We read, “The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul” (verse 14). God worked, Paul taught the gospel, the Spirit convinced, and Lydia responded by believing and so was baptized.
Those who Seek will Find
God does not force His salvation on anyone. He uses various means to draw people to respond with faith in Jesus Christ. Ultimately, our seeking after God is our response to Him seeking us. We should therefore preach the gospel of God’s gracious gift of eternal life relying on the Holy Spirit to convince people of its truth and draw them to Christ. God has to draw us. Than we have to long for God. In our heart we want to know him. If the desire of your hear is to know God more intimately, that is a sign that the grace of God is drawing you. Your part is to respond by setting yourself to seek after and pursue Him (Matthew 6:33). Those who seek will find (Jeremiah 29:13; Matthew 7:7).