John 10:38
John 10:37-38
“If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.”
Jesus had just affirmed that these unbelievers were not His sheep. (John 10:26) But despite this fact, Jesus encourages them anyway. (Conclusion: Not being one of Jesus’ sheep is not a permanent and uncorrectable situation.)
Question: Given that Calvinism teaches that
certain people are given an irresistible grace,
by preemptively being made Born Again, how
is it that although they do not believe in Jesus,
they might well be persuaded to believe in His
works?
Answer: An example is Nicodemus who
ultimately concluded: “Rabbi, we know that You
have come from God as a teacher; for no one can
do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
If they had an Irresistible Grace, then they wouldn’t
need to “believe the works,” as a backdoor, so-to-speak,
to faith in Christ, which just goes to show that what
leads a person to believe in Jesus is not an irresistible
grace, but the sheer force of the compelling gospel
message itself.
Remember that these were not His sheep. Jesus says, “Jesus answered them, ‘I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep.’” (John 10:25-26) And yet, what does Jesus do? Jesus encourages them anyway, to believe in the evidence of the miracles. So what does that tell us? It tells that not being Jesus’ sheep is not a permanent or uncorrectable situation. Anyone can become His sheep through faith in Him.
