God Gives Before They Come?

by Terry Wane Benton

Jesus said, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me” (John 6:37). The Calvinist takes this to mean that God arbitrarily chooses a person and programs them with the ability and determination to “come to Jesus” at some point, so that they are “eternally saved.” I heard a Calvinist the other night say that this verse affirms that “giving to Jesus is before they come to Jesus.” In context, God had been teaching people for a long time, and those who received His teaching would be the ones who would come to Jesus. God gives Jesus the ones He had taught. This text does not mean that God arbitrarily predesigned a particular person so that he will come to Jesus and predesigned another particular person so that he cannot be taught, cannot desire Jesus, and come to Jesus.

The Calvinist position does not mesh with God’s desire to save “all men.” Paul said God would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (I Timothy 2:4). If He predesigned or programmed people so that they cannot do so, then He is lying about His desire. Peter said that God “is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (II Peter 3:9). But if God predesigned many so that they cannot repent, then He obviously desires them to perish, and this again becomes a lie from the God that cannot lie. Something is wrong with the Calvinist understanding, rather than a problem with God and His word.

So, what is meant by “all that the Father gives Me will come to Me”? God has foreordained that all who will be taught of God will come to Jesus. Jesus said in the same chapter that “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44). He follows that up by explaining that “they shall all be taught of God” and those who have “heard and learned from the Father comes to Me” (John 6:45). So, God predetermined that those who would hear God’s teaching and learn His teaching would be the ones who come to Jesus. God gives Jesus those who are taught by God.

There were many Jews who did not believe in God's teaching through Moses. Jesus told those Jews that “if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for He wrote about Me” (John 5:46). Those who believed Moses were the ones “taught of God,” and such people would see that Moses wrote about Jesus and therefore would “come to Jesus” to have life. They were not predesigned to hear and learn, and others were not predesigned to, but the problem lay in their willingness and unwillingness to hear and learn. Man has a choice. Calvinism says we do not have a choice. God called for the Israelites to “choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19). He appealed to them to make a choice because they could make the right choice. Jesus told the Jews who rejected Him that “you were not willing” to come to Me (Matthew 23:37). In John 7:17, He said, “If anyone wants to do His will, he will know of the doctrine….” Anyone can desire to do His will, and anyone can close their mind to such a desire. Calvinism says that this is not open to “anyone” but only to certain ones predesigned to have such a desire.

So, yes, God gives Jesus those who are willing to be taught by God, and those who hear from God and learn from God come to Jesus. But that is not the way Calvinism teaches. We must beware of the false teaching of Calvinism. You are not so depraved that God has to do something to change your nature. You can start listening to God’s word, and that word can bring you to Jesus, who gives life. If you “neglect so great salvation” (Hebrews 2:1-4), the responsibility and accountability totally fall on you. You will not be able to say that God did not want you and that if He wanted you, He would have made you change. No, He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Are you willing to listen to God?