Articles
Spiritual Suicide
In John 5 Jesus is in Jerusalem to attend “a feast of the Jews.” While there He healed a man who had been afflicted for 38 years. When the Jews learned of this, they “sought to kill Him because He had done these things on the Sabbath” (5:16). Their opposition to Jesus intensified when He said, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working” (5:17). John records that the Jews desired to kill Jesus for breaking the Sabbath and making Himself equal with God (5:18). Nothing changed these Jews attitude toward Jesus, not the miracle or the statement of Jesus’ relation to the Father. After citing the witness of John, Jesus cites the Old Testament as bearing testimony to His deity. “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and they are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life” (5:39-40).
Did you notice the tragic words “You are not willing to come to Me” in verse 40? These words are addressed to those who had seen Jesus and knew He performed miracles. Yet they deliberately refused to come to Jesus. These words reveal the perversity of man. Here we see the truth that man is a free moral agent and can, if he so desires, say “No” to His Creator. By his rebellious obstinacy man can defeat all of God’s provisions for his salvation. Free will also allows man to submit to God’s will and be saved.
Notice that Jesus did not say these Jews could not come to Him. Jesus said they were “not willing to come” to Him. The responsibility for their not coming was with them: their own unwillingness. So it is today with all who having heard the truth of the gospel and refuse it. Matthew 23:27 also illustrates this truth: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem … how often I wanted to gather your children together … but you were not willing.” Jesus was not unwilling to save; Jerusalem was unwilling to be saved.
God is not charged in Scripture for the eternal ruin of the disobedient. God wants all to be saved (I Tim. 2:4). God so loved the world that He sent His Son to taste death for every man (John 3:16; Heb. 2:9). Everything that God can do, separate from human free will, has been done and He invites “Come, for all things are now ready” (Lk. 14:17b). This is the heavenly invitation extended to sinful man. The initiative is now with man. God is “… not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9b). The doctrine that God has unchangeably and unconditionally predestined certain ones to be lost is viciously anti-scriptural.
When we consider what Jesus has done for the sinner, it is sad that the sinner will not come to Him. “You are not willing to come to Me that you may have life” contain all the elements of eternal tragedy. Do not allow this to be true for you. Come to Jesus and obey Him.
