1) It humbles us. We did not provide the decisive impulse that brought us to Christ. God did. We came because of him. If it weren’t for his drawing, I would utterly lost. God have mercy on me if I am not humble because of this truth.
2) It fills us with thankfulness. Everything I have, including my coming to Jesus, is a gift. O how thankful I am for sovereign grace. Aren’t you?
3) It gives us assurance. For if he drew us to himself freely and omnipotently, then he will keep us to the end. This is the great ground of our assurance. Those whom he called he justified, and those whom he justified he glorified.
4) From this, we get hope for the conversion of the people we love who seem utterly beyond hope. If conversion is decisively dependent on human character and on decades of habit, we would despair over many sinners. But nothing is too hard for God. When God calls the dead, they rise. When God draws his sheep, they come.
5) Finally, all glory goes to God, not to us. This is why God saves the way he does. All glory belongs to him. “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!” (Psalms 115:1).
Jesus does not speak mainly to create controversy. He speaks to call sinners to himself, and to humble the proud, and to glorify his Father. This is why he lived. This is why he died. This is why he rose again. Come to him. Be satisfied in him. Be humbled by him. Give glory to God because of him.
- John Piper
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