Many hear the gospel, but only those who whom the Father gives to Jesus will come and believe. No one else will. All given to Jesus by the Father come to Jesus. They will never be cast out. The will of the Father is that Jesus will lose none whom were sent to Him. Then there is the wonderful statement, “everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”

1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2 Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; 3 and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 2 Peter 2:1-3 (NASB) 

I worked for many years as a computer programmer. There are many developers who are team guys who are not very creative, but their proficiency at coding makes them very useful in working on very large applications where the work is divided up along functional lines. Then there are the very creative developers who are confined by a highly structured programming environment, which seems, to them, to stifle their creativity. I must confess that I am of the second type. If I can’t be creative, I lose interest. The creative process is what I thrive on.

The problem for creative types is that it is very difficult to “get done.” That means that reaching perfection in the project is really the goal. I would get an application fully functional, but if someone didn’t tear me away from it, I would continue to tweak it to make it “perfect.” No matter how well it functioned, my creative “drive” wanted to make it even more so. This is my confession to you who are reading this that what makes me like this is the very thing that makes people refuse to believe that the simple gospel that we find in the Bible is enough to save anyone. Our natural tendency is to tweak it to match our worldly wisdom. After all, don’t we know what is best?

1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; 2 this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “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.” 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

4 Nicodemus *said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” John 3:1-4 (NASB)

Nicodemus’ response to Jesus’ comment, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” is the response of Man’s wisdom to the gospel. The profoundness of the genuine gospel is lost on Man’s wisdom.

5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:5-8 (NASB) 

When people are born again, is it a work of the person or is it a work of the Spirit? That statement from Jesus, “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit” tells us that salvation is being born of the Spirit and we do not have any control over that process.

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