Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”
Please pay attention to the syntax... Jesus said whoever believes in the Son HAS eternal life. He did NOT say, Whoever believes in the Son will have eternal life. OR Whoever believes in the Son will be given eternal Life.
The point: God giving a man eternal life (saving him) RESULTS in that man believing in the Son. Belief in the Son is a RESULT of God saving a man. Belief in the Son is NOT the CAUSE of being given eternal life. There is NOTHING a man has to do to be given eternal life - God chose His Elect before He created time (Ephesians 1:4), God saves IN time, man now comes to Christ confessing Him as Lord and Savior.
Then Jesus continues and says whoever rejects the Son will not see life because God’s wrath REMAINS on him. We were ALL born under God’s wrath, we were ALL conceived under God’s wrath. There is nothing mankind has to do to go to Hell. Except for One, every man ever born of woman was conceived headed there, we were ALL born headed there. That is why He said God’s wrath REMAINS on him. Now a man who has God’s wrath on him is not going to love Him without God first removing His wrath and saving the man's soul through faith, the faith He gives him (Romans 12:3, Ephesians 2:8). God simultaneously grants him belief (John 6:29; Philippians 1:29), and repentance (2 Timothy 2:25).
The Bottom Line? A lost man will never come to God of his own volition because he hates Jesus (John 3:20), so God saves some - those He chose. God drags them to Jesus and those whom God draws (drags), Jesus raises up - every single one (John 6:44). When God saves through faith those He has chosen, He gives them belief and repentance. The formerly lost man NOW believes because God has changed his natural sinful nature and His wrath NO LONGER remains on him. Just as an Ethiopian can’t change his skin color nor a leopard his spots, neither can a lost man do good when he was accustomed to doing evil (Jeremiah 13:23). Certainly you will agree that believing on Jesus and repenting is considered “doing good.” God did what the lost man could not do - God changed man’s nature. Only NOW will he believe and come to Christ - and come to Christ he WILL (John 6:37).
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