This promise contains the doctrine of election: there are some whom the Father has given to Christ. It contains the doctrine of effectual calling: those who are given must and shall come. No matter how fiercely they resist, they will be brought out of darkness into God's marvelous light. And it teaches us the indispensable necessity of faith—for even those given to Christ are not saved unless they come to Jesus. Even they must come! There is no other door to heaven but Christ Jesus.

Everyone the Father gives to our Redeemer must come to him. Therefore, no one gets to heaven except by coming to Christ.

Oh! The power and majesty in those two words: "shall come." He does not say they have power to come. He does not say they may come if they will. He says they "shall come." The Lord Jesus, through his messengers, his word, and his Spirit, sweetly and graciously compels men to come in that they may eat of his marriage supper. And this he does, not by any violation of the free agency of man, but by the power of his grace.

I may exercise power over another man's will, and yet that other man's will may be perfectly free, because the constraint is exercised in a manner accordant with the laws of the human mind. Jehovah Jesus knows how, by irresistible arguments addressed to the understanding, by mighty reasons appealing to the affections, and by the mysterious influence of his Holy Spirit operating upon all the powers and passions of the soul, so to subdue the whole man, that whereas he was once rebellious, he yields cheerfully to his government, subdued by sovereign love.

But how shall those be known whom God has chosen? By this result: that they do willingly and joyfully accept Christ, and come to him with simple and unfeigned faith, resting upon him as all their salvation and all their desire.

Reader, have you thus come to Jesus?