You Can Leap Walls
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. . . . No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 6:37, 44 NIV
Conversion is that change in the mind of a sinner in which he turns on the one hand from sin and on the other hand to Christ. Conversion is the human side of the tremendous transformation that takes place in the divinely wrought “new birth,” or “regeneration.” It is simply man’s turning from sin to Christ.
The Scripture teaches that God turns men to Himself, but men are also exhorted to turn themselves to God. God is represented as the author of the new heart and the new spirit, yet men are commanded to make for themselves a new heart and a new spirit. It is the old paradox of grace and free will.
Simon Peter could not become a disciple until Jesus called him and said, “Follow me.” But others heard the same call and refused it or put it off. One said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Another one said, “Let me first say farewell to those at my home.” These men refused Christ’s call.
This combination of divine calling and the human responsibility of accepting God’s grace runs throughout the Bible and characterizes all God’s dealings with men.
The Bible confronts us with both our independent moral responsibility and our total dependence upon God to save us—a mystery, yet true.
In the picturesque words of Psalm 18:29, David says, “By my God I can leap over a wall” (RSV). A man can jump over some barriers by his own will and effort but some walls are so high that they need more than this.
The Psalmist knew such walls. Those could be leaped only with the help of God. God does not lift a man over. God helps a man when he takes the leap.
Our Father and our God, thank You for seeing my helplessness and reaching down to convict me of my sin and draw me to Christ. I give You all the glory for my salvation and seek to live by Your grace in my life every day. In Christ’s name, Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).