Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; What Force There Is In The Promise To Make Them Come To Christ, 259.

 

SECOND, “Shall come to me.” Now we come to show WHAT FORCE THERE

IS IN THIS PROMISE TO MAKE THEM COME TO HIM. “All that the Father

giveth me, shall come to me.” I will speak to this promise, First,

In general. Second, In particular.

[First], In general. This word SHALL is confined to these ALL that are given to Christ. “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.” Hence I conclude,

1. That coming to Jesus Christ aright is an effect of their being, of God, given to Christ before. Mark, They shall come. Who? Those that are given. They come because they were given, “thine they were, and thou gave them me.” Now, it is indeed a singular comfort to them that they are coming in truth to Christ, to think that they come because they were given by the Father before to him. Thus, then, may the coming soul reason with himself as he comes. Am I coming, indeed, to Jesus Christ? This coming of mine is not to be attributed to me or my goodness, but to the grace and gift of God to Christ. God gave first my person to him, and, therefore, he has now given me a heart to come.

2. This word, shall come, maketh thy coming not only the fruit of the gift of the Father, but also of the purpose of the Son; for these words are a divine purpose; they show us the heavenly determination of the Son. “The Father hath given them to me, and they shall; yea, they shall come to me.” Christ is as full in his resolution to save those given to him as is the Father in giving them. Christ prizes the gift of his Father; he will lose nothing of it; he is resolved to save it every whit by his blood, and to raise it up again at the last day; and thus he fulfills his Father’s will, and accomplishes his own desires (John 6:39).

3. These words, shall come, make thy coming to be also the effect of an absolute promise; coming sinner, thou art concluded in a promise; thy coming is the fruit of the faithfulness of an absolute promise. It was this promise, by the virtue of which thou at first receives strength to come; and this is the promise by which thou shalt be effectively brought to him. It was said to Abraham, “At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.” This son was Isaac. Mark! “Sarah shall have a son;” There is the promise. And Sarah had a son; there was the fulfilling of the promise; and, therefore, Isaac called the child of the promise (Gen 17:19; 18:10; Rom 9:9).

Sarah will have a son. But how, if Sarah is past age? Why, still, the promise continues to say, Sarah shall have a son. But how, if Sarah is barren? Still, the promise says, Sarah shall have a son. But Abraham’s body is now dead? Why, the promise is still the same, Sarah shall have a son. Thus, you see what virtue there is in an absolute promise; it has enough in its own bowels to accomplish the thing promised, whether there are means or no means in us to effect it. Wherefore, this promise in the text, being an absolute promise, by virtue of it, not by virtue of ourselves, or by our own inducements, do we come to Jesus Christ: for so are the words of the text: “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.”

Therefore, every sincere follower of Jesus Christ is also called a child of the promise. “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise,” (Gal 4:28); that is, we are the children that God hath promised to Jesus Christ, and given to him; yea, the children that Jesus Christ hath promised shall come to him. “All that the Father giveth me shall come.”

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