“no one comes to the father”

            Do you see how the Trinity is at work in redemptive history?  We offended God by our sin and our rejection of his law.  Yet, rather than leave us to our deserved fate, God chose to work in our lives to redeem a people for himself.  God the Son provided a sacrifice to atone for our sins, bridging the chasm of sin between us and the Father.  And God the Holy Spirit regenerates the heart of each member of the elect, and through faith, draws us to God the Son, and through God the Son, we are brought to God the Father.  The symmetry of God’s redemptive plan is a beautiful thing to behold.

            But what is even more beautiful is the face of a believer when he or she truly realizes that they have been redeemed—not that they have earned redemption, but that they have been redeemed by a work of God himself.  In this life, we struggle with a load of burdens and cares, brought on by our fallen state, when Jesus lifts that burden from the shoulders of one who is newly redeemed, oh what a joy does fill their heart.  And the joy does not end there, the angels in heaven rejoice in praise to God as well (Luke 15:10).

            Friends, take the time to remember your own conversion, the time when you finally realized that you could stand before the Father’s throne not on your own flawed righteousness, but in the righteousness that is Christ’s.  Don’t ever forget the joy and the desire to worship that filled your heart on that day.  Some of you may not remember a time when you did not embrace Christ as Lord, and the blessings of a lifetime in fellowship with him have richly blessed your soul.  This is one of the great mysteries of God’s love—that he would choose to redeem a fallen and sinful race—that he would choose to redeem you and me, and that we might have fellowship with him.   I am reminded of the old Bill Gaither hymn:

Shackled by a heavy burden,

Neath a load of guilt and shame—

Then the hand of Jesus touched me,

And now I am no longer the same.

He touched me, O He touched me,

And O the joy that floods my soul;

Something happened, and now I know,

He touched me and made me whole.

Christian, rejoice and praise God for the fact that Jesus has brought you to the Father.