In the bible we find God drawing people to himself and find people drawing themselves to God, or drawing God to themselves. I have written on how "drawing" is involved in a person being saved. (See these posts here and here) We will begin by citing some of the verses that speak of God drawing people to himself and to Christ.
God Drawing People To Christ
"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6: 44 nkjv)
“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” (John 12: 34)
This drawing of the Father is by the instrumentality or agency of the Spirit and word of God. The word draw, as used in scripture, means to drag or pull, as fishermen "drew" their nets to the shore (Matt. 13: 48), or as law enforcers arrest and "draw" suspects to magistrates (James 2: 6). We also read of swords being drawn, of drawing water, drawing bows to shoot arrows, etc. Though not exactly the same Greek or Hebrew words are used in each instance, yet the same idea is carried by each word. In every day talk we also hear of drawing blood, of the drawing of magnets, drawing a card in a deck, etc.
There are two major things about God's drawing of people that divides Christians and bible teachers. The first is in regard to whether the drawing is irresistible or resistible. The second is in regard to how God draws sinners to himself and to Christ. I don't want to say a whole lot about that in this post as it is beyond the parameters I have in mind. However, I will make a few observations.
A thing drawn or pulled or dragged will certainly be successfully and irresistibly drawn if the power pulling is greater than the power resisting. A magnet may lack enough drawing power to draw a large piece of steel, but have enough drawing power to pull a smaller piece of steel, such as a nail. In either case there is resistance to being drawn, the weight of the steel and friction acting as the resisting force. This being so, we must recognize that all depraved sinners resist all God's drawing of them. So Stephen said to those "stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart" Jews who were angered at his preaching: "you do always resist the Holy Spirit just as your fathers did." (Acts 7: 51)
In order for any man to be successfully drawn the power exerted in drawing must exceed the power resisting. This is what happens, I believe, when a person is drawn to Christ. This is why we pray for God to save sinners, knowing that he can save anyone by simply increasing his drawing power and overcoming all resistance. So, we may say that in some cases the Holy Spirit or God may be resisted in his drawing efforts, and in other cases his drawing cannot be resisted.
The next question that divides Christians is how God draws them, and one of the texts much disputed is John 12: 32, where we find these words of the Lord Jesus Christ:
"And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” (John 12: 32 nkjv)
Here the debate is over whether God draws everyone or only some. The word "peoples" (or "men" kjv) is not in the original Greek text, but translators have supplied "peoples" and "men" because they think that this is implied. But, that is not necessarily so. The literal text says Christ will "draw everyone," but who is the everyone? My own view is that it cannot mean "everyone who is a human being." Why? For several reasons.
First, the language seems to mean not that Christ will try to draw all but that he actually does draw the ones under consideration. But, all men are not drawn, do not come to God or Christ. Ergo, all were not drawn. In the text at the head of this post, John 8: 44, Jesus says that everyone who is drawn will be saved, which is what Christ means when he says that the drawn ones "will be raised up at the last day." This interpretation is confirmed by what Jesus says in the next verse (John 8: 45). That verse says:
"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."
God draws by teaching and those he draws and teaches "learn from the Father" and "come to" Christ. If his drawing was not always successful, Christ could not say this. He would rather have said - "a few of those whom the Father draws and teaches will come to me." Therefore, the "all" cannot mean every human being, nor everyone who hears the Gospel, for they do not all come to Jesus.
Second, if the drawing is done by means of the gospel or word of God (and it is), then it is self evident that not all men have heard it, and if they have not heard it, then they have not been drawn by it.
So, "all" and "everyone" in the above passages must mean "all that the Father has given to me." This is what he said in verse 37 of that same chapter: "all that the Father gives me shall come to me." So, does God draw every single human being? No. Does his drawing ever fail to draw all those given to him by the Father? No, for the above words of Jesus say otherwise. "Every man who has heard and learned from the Father," or "drawn" in that way, "comes to me."
Though the word "draw" means to pull or drag, they do not necessarily imply that when God draws, and people come to Christ, that they come against their will, kicking and screaming as it were. James spoke, as we saw, about people being "drawn" "before the judgment seats." Some people go without resisting, others resist all the way, which makes the police to charge them with "resisting arrest." No doubt many sinners who feel being pulled by conscience, and by the witness of the word and Spirit, resist being arrested and being drawn. Some translations give a better translation for today's English by saying "drag you to court."
We also see drawing power at work in love attraction. Yahweh said through the prophet:
"I drew them with gentle cords, With bands of love, And I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck. I stooped and fed them." (Hosea 11: 4 nkjv)
Every true Christian who has fallen in love with God, as seen in the person of his only Son, Christ Jesus, knows that something drew their hearts and minds to God, and to the good news of salvation. That something was the power of the word and Spirit of God. Until a person sees the glory, excellence, beauty, holiness, and power of Christ Jesus, he will likely not come with a true heart. Many lovers have said "I fell in love at first sight" when describing their "coming" to woo, and be engaged, and married. This revelation or opening of the eyes of a sinner to see Christ as he is, must precede any coming to Christ. Jesus spoke several times of this revelation.
When Peter said to Jesus (in reply to Christ's asking "who do you say that I am") -- "you are the Christ, the Son of the living God," Christ said -- "flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father." (Matt. 16: 16-17) This revelation by the Father is part of the drawing and teaching that the Father does in causing a sinner to come to Christ. Jesus also said that "no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." (Matt. 11: 27 nkjv) Jesus also spoke of being saved as not only a coming to Christ, or a believing and trusting him, but a "seeing" him. In verse forty of John chapter six, from which we have been citing (vs. 37, 44-45) Jesus says that "everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life" and may expect to be "raised up at the last day.” The "seeing" of Christ, or the revelation of the Father, precedes the believing and the coming.
So, how does what Jesus said about being drawn affect preaching to the lost, of calling upon those not drawn, or who have not come, to nevertheless draw near to God?
People Drawing Themselves to God
James the Lord's brother wrote to sinners:
"Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." (James 4: 8)
Oftentimes in scripture the things that must be done in order to be saved are linguistically framed so as to say that those things are done by God, the one doing the thing (or action), so that the ones being acted upon are passive. However, at other times, the very same things are linguistically framed so as to show that those same things are done by the ones being saved, and shows them as active and not entirely passive. I will give one example. Repentance, or turning to God and away from sin, is a thing that must happen in order to be saved. But, we see how it is described in terms of what God does, and also see how it is described as something that sinners are commanded to do. In one way of looking at it, those repenting are passive in repenting, God making it happen, or God giving repentance. However, in other passages repenting is described as being what is actively done by sinners. Here is a text that describes the former:
"in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth..." (II Tim. 2: 25 nkjv)
Here is a text that describes the latter:
"Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord." (Acts 3: 19 nkjv)
So, we say to every sinner - "draw near to God and he will draw near to you." Or we advise or exhort him to ask God to draw and teach him.
Further, the fact that a sinner is hearing or reading the word of God, particularly the Gospel, is by that fact, in some sense, being drawn, or attracted. So, perhaps we should say that there is a common drawing and a special or particular drawing, just as theologians speak of "common grace" and "special grace." Or perhaps we should say that some are drawn by lesser power while others drawn with superior power. Or perhaps say that there are "common operations of the Spirit" and special operations. Those to whom Stephen was preaching, and who were "resisting" the Spirit of God, were resisting God and his overtures towards them, and they are described as being uncircumcised in heart. Sinners have often felt the word and Spirit of God pulling them away from their sins and to Christ, goading them, through Gospel preaching and exhortation, and have felt themselves stubbornly resisting too.
In the Gospel of Luke we read where "all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him." (Luke 15: 1 nkjv) Something drew them to Christ. Perhaps with some it was mere curiosity. Others were drawn no doubt because they were truly seeking truth and salvation.
You want God to draw near to you? Then draw near to him. Said Paul to lost sinners when he preached in Athens, Greece to the pagans:
"...so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us..." (Acts 17: 27 nkjv)
By saying they should "seek" the Lord, and "grope" for him, he means the same thing as "drawing" near to God.
The Psalmist David said: "But it is good for me to draw near to God." (Psalm 73: 28) Here David speaks of being active in drawing near to God, and choosing to do so. We can say to every man, saved or lost, that it is good for them to draw near to God. The apostle Paul exhorted all to draw near to the Lord. He said:
"let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." (Heb. 10: 22)
He also said in the same epistle:
"Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them." (Heb. 7: 25 esv)
To be saved by drawing near to God requires that God do some drawing, and that the ones drawing near do so "with a true heart in full assurance of faith." They must also come "through him," that is, through Christ. In thus coming we experience cleansing.
Drawing God To Us
"Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." (James 4: 8 nkjv)
We cite these words again, but this time to focus on how our drawing near to God brings God to us. By drawing near to God, or coming to him through Christ, we pull God to us. We, as it were, grabbed hold of the Lord, as the sick woman grabbed hold of the hem of Christ and was healed. So Paul speaks of "laying hold of eternal life" (I Tim. 6: 12) and of laying hold of Christ. (See Phil. 3: 12) In fact, the Greek word "lambano" means to grab a hold of, or to receive by stretching out the hand. You want God to receive, or grab, or lay hold of, you? Then lay hold on him. Receive him willingly. Open your heart to him and he will open his heart to you. Don't let Calvinism or Hyper Calvinism make you think that you must wait for God to drag you, pulling you up by the hair. That may happen, but why wait and hope for it? Just do as James says and take the initiative and "draw near to God," trusting that he will keep his word and draw near to you. Many sinners want to get as far away from God as they can, or else they invent to themselves gods more to their liking.
Drawing Back
"Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul." (Heb. 10: 38-39 nkjv)
There are powers or forces that are at work in pulling people back in their drawing near to God. That is why we need the power of God to keep pulling us towards him. Some who draw near to God do draw back into perdition. These are they who did not draw near for the right reason or in the right way. Perhaps they did not draw near "with a true heart," or in true faith. Perhaps they stopped short of actual coming all the way to Christ.
It is my understanding of the bible's teaching on "apostasy" or "falling from grace," or "losing salvation," that every person who was chosen by God, and predestined to salvation, and are born again of the Spirit, and have believed in and received Christ, cannot so sin so as to lose eternal life, or cease to be saved or a child of God. They will be made by God and his grace and work in them to persevere in faith and holiness. However, that does not mean that they cannot sin, cannot backslide, cannot go astray in some way or to some degree.
All have lapses. They are all like sheep going astray. The good and great shepherd will use his staff and crook to pull the sheep back into the safety of the fold so that they don't go too far. Peter lapsed. He denied three times his Lord, saying he did not know Jesus. Yet, the Lord said he would pray for him so that he would be converted from that apostasy and so that his faith would not fail and which would cause Peter's return from apostasy. (See Matt. 26: 69-75; Luke 22: 31) King David, the "man after God's own heart" (See Acts 13: 22), a godly and holy man, nevertheless went astray when he coveted another man's wife and put her husband on the front lines so to get him killed and have her for his own, and committed one of the greatest adulteries of all time, and a cowardly and sinister murder. Yet, in Psalm 51 he returns in deepest repentance. When David thus fell astray by sin we may say that he drew back. But, thankfully God drew him back to himself by his power.
So, let us keep daily drawing near to God, by prayer, by mediation, by praise and worship, by walking with him when walking by faith. Let us not find excuses for not drawing near to God. We are drawn by and to a thousand other things, but having God to draw us is far greater. Temptation is a drawing away, as James said, "drawn away" by "lust." (James 1: 14) We need the strength of the Lord to resist all drawing of the world and sin. We must resist all efforts trying to tear us away from Christ and holiness.
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