Bible Truth #117 - John 17:6

John 17:6

"I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.

Jesus revealed God to the apostles?  Yes, but not only that, Jesus revealed God ONLY to those God gave Him out of the world.  How else can you read that verse?  Those who believe in decisional salvation may think, “Well, Jesus revealed God to all who heard and saw Him.”  

That is not true based on Jesus’ own words in Matthew 13:11.  The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of Heaven were given to you (the apostles) but not to them (those not chosen).  But even if Jesus DID reveal the Father to all,  the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 2:14 says:

the man without the Spirit does not accept the things from the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, for they are spiritually discerned. (Bible Truth #1)

Every lost man lacks the Spirit of God and the only spirit a lost man has is DEAD, that’s why he can’t understand nor accept anything from God.

Next point: He said “...you gave them to me...” God gave them to Jesus?  Gave them to Him out of the world?  They were God’s and He gave them to Jesus?  Yes, yes, and yes.  God can do whatever He wants, to or with, every soul on the planet, right?  Well, because God is sovereign, I believe the answer is yes.  But God does NOT give everyone to Jesus.  He gives to Jesus only the Elect (John 6:37), those chosen in Him before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4).  As a RESULT of the giving by God to Jesus, they (and we) have obeyed His Word.  Our obedience is NOT the cause of God giving us to Jesus because that would be merited grace and makes God a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34).  A lost man hates God (John 3:20), he can’t please God by obedience (Romans 8:8), can do ONLY evil continually (Genesis 6:5), and can do NO righteous act (Romans 3:10) like “accept” Jesus. That is the Total Depravity of man, or what some call the old sinful nature. The apostle Paul calls it the flesh (Romans 7:18).

Please let me say this one more time - before we were saved we hated God (John 3:20) and would NEVER be obedient to Him.  Our obedience is NOT the cause of God giving us to Jesus, it is the RESULT of God saving us.  Because God saved us, we have obeyed Him and will obey Him.