Lesson 3
Do people have a real choice?
The Position
God draws every person genuinely. The response is genuinely the person's own. The refusal is genuinely the person's own. Grace initiates. The will responds or refuses. Both are real.
Acts 17:30
“God...now commandeth all men every where to repent.”
A command issued to a will that cannot genuinely respond is not a command. It is a verdict. God commands all men everywhere, which means every person has genuine capacity to respond. That capacity comes from God's enabling grace, not from human strength. But the response, or the refusal, is real.
Supporting Verses
John 5:40
“ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.”
Jesus does not say ye cannot. He says ye will not. The barrier is refusal, not inability.
Acts 7:51
“ye do always resist the Holy Ghost.”
Stephen says this to people actively resisting the Spirit in real time. A grace that cannot be resisted and Acts 7:51 cannot both be true at the same time.
John 6:44 and John 12:32
“No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him... And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”
The Greek word helkuo (draw) appears in both verses. John 6:44: the drawing is necessary. John 12:32: 'And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.' Same word, same author, one chapter apart. If the drawing is irresistible in 6:44, it must be irresistible in 12:32, which produces universalism. The drawing goes through hearing and learning (John 6:45) and can be refused (Acts 7:51).
Revelation 22:17
“whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
The word whosoever is not decoration. It is the point. The will is the hinge.
What They Will Say
“But man is totally depraved. He cannot choose God on his own.”
What You Say Back
Depravity is real. Man cannot save himself. But God's grace is not absent from the equation. He draws. He enables. He commands. The drawing is real. The command is real. The invitation is genuine. The question is not whether man can save himself. He cannot. The question is whether God genuinely offers salvation to every person. The Bible says yes. When John 6:44 is pressed further, the discourse answers in its own verses. The next verse gives the scope and the mode: they shall be ALL taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me (6:45). All taught; the hearers and learners come. Taught, heard, learned, came: persuasion vocabulary, not installation vocabulary. The same Jesus gives the drawing's reach with the same verb: I will draw ALL men unto me (12:32). And the chapter ends with drawn men leaving: many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him (6:66). The drawing is real, universal, and resistible, or 6:66 could not close the chapter. If the fish-net argument comes, that helkuo drags the net in John 21, finish the word study: the same author uses helkuo for Peter drawing his sword (18:10). What the drawing does depends on what is being drawn, and God names his own cords for persons: with lovingkindness have I drawn thee (Jeremiah 31:3), I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love (Hosea 11:4). And the direction question, whether men hear because they are sheep or are sheep because they hear, Jesus answers in sequence form: If any man WILL DO his will, he SHALL KNOW of the doctrine (John 7:17). Willing first, knowing follows. John 8 runs the experiment: the men not of God in 8:47 are the audience of which verse 30 says, as he spake these words, many believed on him. Men on the wrong side of the line crossed it mid-sermon. Allegiance language diagnoses the present; it does not seal the future. You do not lock a door that cannot open.
The One Line to Remember
“Not whosoever was selected. Whosoever will. The will is the hinge.”