Drawing All to Christ

There’s an attitude that’s pervasive among some Christians that maintains that if non-Christians reject faith, it necessarily means they are resistant to the Holy Spirit and can’t handle the radical demands of the gospel. This gets expressed in many different ways, with some insisting that non-Christians aren’t open to the “straight testimony,” or, within Seventh-day Adventist circles, we might conclude that people are hardened when it comes to our “testing truths.” We therefore feel we have license to present truth without regard to how people respond, concluding that if they reject it, the fault lies with them rather than us.

Of course, we are emboldened all the more when we recall that Jesus said, “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it” (Matt. 7:13), assuming this validates our approaches.

But I’m not so sure these are correct assumptions.

After all, I’ve long been intrigued by a detail that Luke includes when he sets up the scene before Jesus tells His three well-known “lost and found” parables in Luke 15 (the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son). The setting of these three parables has the scribes and Pharisees complaining because Jesus “receives sinners and eats with them” (verse 2). And notice the subtle detail. Luke says a verse before that “all” the tax collectors and sinners drew near to Jesus to hear Him.

All?

All.

This was not an isolated incident, of course. Throughout the Gospel narratives it was those deemed as “outsiders” who were constantly drawn to Jesus, ever eager to be in His presence and hear His words. Indeed, the form of the Greek verb for “drew near” indicates that this was not a one-time event, but a state of being. Thus, these “tax collectors and sinners” were “continuously being drawn to Jesus.” They were attracted to Him, intrigued by Him, curious about Him. There was something about Him they wanted to learn more about; something about Him that caused them to want to be around Him. They felt safe, seen, heard, understood, and loved in His presence.

Whereas the other religious leaders repulsed such people and drove them away, Jesus continuously drew them in—and they thus wanted to be with Him. All of them.

Whereas the other religious leaders repulsed such people and drove them away, Jesus continuously drew them in.

After all, elsewhere Jesus made this promise: “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32).

All?

All.

This isn’t some sort of universalism—as though everyone will be eternally saved. But if Jesus is truly lifted up, everyone will at least be drawn into a full encounter with His love, where they will be able to make an eternal decision—one way or another—with all the necessary information and experience.

Second, for the nonreligious crowd who’ve seemingly “rejected” Christianity: It may not be that they’ve truly rejected Christianity, or truly rejected Christ. It may be that they’ve simply rejected a Christless version of Christianity. Perhaps their experiences with Christianity, and the Christians who bear Christ’s name, have been devoid of the winsome, attractive, compelling, sweet character and love of Jesus—a love that necessarily draws sinners in, causing them to want to find out more and hear the words of Christ.

All this is a sobering—though exciting—invitation for us to reorient our faith around Jesus and to reevaluate how we present and live out His truth. As Ellen White notes in The Desire of Ages: “In Christ is the tenderness of the shepherd, the affection of the parent, and the matchless grace of the compassionate Saviour. His blessings He presents in the most alluring terms. He is not content merely to announce these blessings; He presents them in the most attractive way, to excite a desire to possess them. So His servants are to present the riches of the glory of the unspeakable Gift. The wonderful love of Christ will melt and subdue hearts, when the mere reiteration of doctrines would accomplish nothing.” Indeed, she continues, “Words alone cannot tell it. Let it be reflected in the character and manifested in the life. Christ is sitting for His portrait in every disciple. . . . In every one Christ’s long-suffering love, His holiness, meekness, mercy, and truth are to be manifested to the world.”¹

 Proclaiming and living out such a faith will, I do believe, once again cause all sinners to be drawn to Christ.