All Three Agree

Q

I’ve been reading your answers to questions on Romans 8:29 and 2 Peter 3:9 and they’ve been a BIG HELP! The notes in my Study Bible have been too convoluted for me to figure out what that text is saying! So would it be accurate to suggest that John 6:44 might fit under the umbrella of God’s Foreknowledge?

 

A

Romans 8:29-30 says,

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

This is the most complete sequence of events the Bible gives us concerning a person’s journey to eternal life, and it begins with God’s foreknowledge of our choice. Notice there’s no fallout, which means that everyone who begins the sequence completes it. No one drops out and no one is expelled. In Matt. 7:8 the Lord confirmed this saying “everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds and to him who knocks the door will be opened.”

But in John 6:44 the Lord said, “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 seems to conflict with Romans 8 and Matt. 7 until you realize He was referring to step 3 in the Romans 8 sequence, the Father’s call. No one can come to the Son unless the Father draws Him, but the Father only draws those who have chosen to come. This is the only way all three statements can agree.