No One Can Come to Me Unless the Father Draws Him (John 6:44) – Decalvinized!
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44).
Calvinists claim this passage shows that people cannot freely come to Jesus. God must first draw someone, which he only does for a select few (the elect). As for the rest of mankind? Well, God never wanted the rest to be saved—so he doesn’t draw them. These people were “doomed from the womb, Calvin said.”[1]
But is this really what John 6:44 is teaching?
It’s true God must draw people to Jesus. But who does God draw? Believers. The faithful. The repentant. People like John the Baptist. People like the apostles. These are the kinds of people God draws to Jesus.
The Context
When Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44), he was talking with the unbelieving Jews in his day (John 6:41) who were rejecting his claims of being the Messiah. While these Jews professed to belong to God the Father, they really didn’t—which is why they ended up crucifying their long-awaited Messiah.[2] Jesus called the unbelieving Jews of his day “children of the devil” (John 8:44).
Therefore, since these unbelieving Jews didn’t know the Father, they could not hear the Father’s voice; so they weren’t being drawn to Jesus.
Notice what Jesus says next. Right after saying, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him,” Jesus then says:
“Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me” (John 6:45).
In other words, all the righteous remnant of Isreal in that day—those who had “heard and learned from the Father”—came to Jesus. And Jesus gave them everlasting life (John 6:47).
Jesus also talked about these people in chapter 17. While praying to God the Father, Jesus said:
“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me,” (John 17:6).
These people—the righteous remnant of Israel in Jesus’ day—already belonged to the Father, and the Father gave them to Jesus.
Why did the righteous remnant of Israel have to be given to Jesus? Because there was no salvation under the old covenant system. The blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin (Heb. 10:4). So the Father gave them to Jesus in order that Jesus could give them eternal life. In fact, Jesus said exactly that in the context:
“You [God the Father] have given Him [Jesus] authority over all flesh,that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him…They were Yours, You gave them to Me” (John 17:2-6).
So the Father gave the righteous remnant of Israel to Jesus, and Jesus gave them eternal life. These are the ones the Father drew to Jesus—the faithful, the repentant, believers.
And the reason why the unbelieving Jews weren’t drawn to Jesus is not because God didn’t want them to be saved, as Calvinists claim.[3] Rather, it’s because they did not know the Father. Therefore, they couldn’t hear the Father’s voice; so they weren’t drawn to Jesus.
This was Jesus’ point in John 6:44!
By Alex Polyak, Answering Calvinism, 7/19/26
[1] Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 23, Section 6
[2] Technically, the Romans crucified Jesus, but they did it at the behest of the Jews (see Luke 23:21).
[3] God wants the wicked to turn to him (Ezek. 33:11). God wants all to repent (2 Pet. 3:8). God wants all to be saved (1 Tim. 2:3-4).