While John 3:16 Appears All-Inclusive,
Do John 6:37, 44, 65 Indicate a Restriction?

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him
shall not perish but have eternal life."John 3:16

"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out." John 6: 37

"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

"He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him." John 6:65

John 3:16 and John 6:37, 44, 65 draw our focus on two seemingly contradictory, but radically important principles of the gospel, when rightly understood.  God’s sovereignty whereby He infallibly and efficaciously brings people into a relationship with Himself and man’s personal responsibility to trust in Christ’s person and work.  Some evangelicals refer to this as an antinomy or something well beyond our ability to comprehend in this life, so they throw their hands in the air and say both election and natural man’s ability to turn in faith to Christ are both true. But this is a fairly serious theological error and misunderstands a key element of the gospel.

We agree that we must keep both elements in mind: the sovereignty of God, His efficacious work to infallibly bring His people to faith, and man’s responsibility to believe and respond to the grace of God.  Instead of considering from scripture how both can be true, too many evangelicals just take the easy way out by using human reason and conclude that man’s responsibility necessarily implies ability thereby negating the doctrine of election.  In other words many believe that “ought” necessarily implies “can”.  But this was the error of Pelagious who was battling with Augustine over whether fallen man had a free will.  Of course our will is free, argued Augustine, but it is limited by its nature and a fallen nature will always choose what is contrary to God. 

So the question is, how can human responsibility and divine election both be true without compromising either and how does this relate to the gospel?  We agree that God commands all men everywhere to repent and believe the gospel.  This is man’s responsibility and this repentance is the free act of man’s volition based on his desires.  Whosoever believes will be saved. So far all evangelicals are in agreement here.  But so far in our presentation the Bible has nowhere taught that natural man has a free will to believe, only that man has the responsibility to do so.  But the element that, unfortunately, divides evangelicals is that there is an additional truth that must be presented in any gospel presentation because the apostles and Jesus himself taught it.  That is, because of man’s broken fallen nature, he has no desire to repent and thus will not repent.  He is morally unable to do so.  Moral inability is vastly different than a physical inability, as we shall see.  Our “free will” is always disinclined from God, not because He, in any way, constrains us, but because we just plainly do not want Him.  Each part of our nature actively opposes God and is hostile to the gospel. We don’t blame God or Adam if we are caught when robbing a bank do we?.   In other words, man naturally loves sin more than he loves God and will not come into the light.  If we only preach man’s responsibility without also clearly preaching man’s desperate condition of moral inability then, at best, we are only preaching a half-gospel. 

Hhow can this be good news, however, when men are never found naturally willing to submit in faith to the humbling terms of the gospel of Christ? (Rom 3:11; John 6:64,65; 2 Thessalonians 3:2) Answer: Because God gives to us freely, what He demands from us.  In the gospel God reveals the same faith and righteousness for us that God demands from us. What we had to have, but could not create or perform or supply (faith and holiness), God grants us freely, namely, his own righteousness and the gift of faith secured by Christ’s finished work on the cross. He reveals, as a gift in Christ Jesus, the faith and righteousness that was once only a demand.

This gives all glory to God for our salvation because it brings us to an end of ourselves.  The Holy Spirit brings us to a grave understanding that there is nothing we can do, in our unregenerate nature, to come to Christ.  The command of God to repent and believe on Christ brings us to despair, which was what it was intended to do. "But what is impossbile with man is possible with God."  Now God puts us in a position where we can actually receive the gospel because it is regenerative grace itself that even gives us the very desire and will to believe.  After the law brings its hearers to despair we then can preach the new birth as Jesus did in both John chapter’s 3 and 6.  Now these verses and the formerly apparent contradiction begin to make sense. Only those and all those the Father has given the Son will come to Him. 

How does this take place since the unregenerate are incapable of creating a right thought, generating a right affection, or originating a will to obey? Well, apart from the new birth they cannot (Rom 3:11, 8:7; John 3:3, 6)? So after we preach repentance, faith and man’s inability (sin and depravity) we also preach the new birth, that salvation is a work of God alone.  Even the very desire to believe is a work of God's grace. 

When spoken in the power of the Holy Spirit, the word of God has the power to graciously open people's eyes, change the disposition of their hearts, draw them to faith, and save them (James 1:18, 1 Peter 1:23, 25). The gospel declares that repentance and faith (commands of God) are themselves God's working in us both to will and to do (2 Tim 2:25, Eph 2:5, 8) and not something that the sinner himself contributes towards the price of His salvation. Repentance and faith can only be exercised by a soul after, and in immediate consequence of, its regeneration by the Holy Spirit (1 John 5:1; Acts 16:14b; Acts 13:48; John 10:24-26; Ezekiel 36:26-27; John 6:37; John 1:13; 1 Cor. 4:7; 1 Cor. 15:10; Jas. 1:17; John 3:27). God regenerates, and we, in the exercise of the new gracious ability given, repent (A.A. Hodge). God disarms the opposition of the human heart, subduing the hostility of the carnal mind, and with irresistible power (John 6:37), draws His chosen ones to Christ. The gospel confesses, "We love him because He first loved us." Whereas before we had no desire for God, God's regenerating grace gives us desire, willingness and delight in His person and commands. Faith, works, and perseverance, therefore, are the evidence of new birth, not the cause of it.

So John 3:16 is universal in the sense that we preach the free offer of the gospel to all men. "Many are called but few are chosen.". God extends the command to all, but we are obstinate and will not come (Rom 3:11, 1 Cor 2:14). God is not under any obligation to save any and could justly cast us all into the lake of fire, which we all rightly deserve. Yet, God, in eternity, has given a bride to his Son, the church. There He determined to whom the Holy Spirit would apply the benefits of the atonement. What great love God has for His people that, in spite of themselves, that He would be willing to save some. But what of those who don't come to faith in Christ? Think of it this way: if you all agree that it would be just of God to condemn us all to hell due to our sin, then why wouldn't it be just of Him to condemn some? So, as R.C. Sproul often says, "we either get justice or mercy." God gets all the glory either way.

In conclusion, one of the greatest nuggets of wisdom that we should take away from this is that we need to preach the whole counsel of Scripture, not just aspects we feel comfortable with. When we find elements that appear contradictory, look in the immediate context and elsewhere in the Bible to find answers. Both sides are usually there for a reason and should be thought through. We can all agree that some elements of God's will are hidden, "but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever." (Deut 20:29)

  "To suppose that whatever God requireth of us that we have power of ourselves to do, is to make the cross and grace of Jesus Christ of none effect." (John Owen, III:433)

"Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be." Rom. 8:7