Visitor: "...the Holy Spirit draws everyone at some point in their life. It is up to man to respond."
Response: Thank you for your comment but it has no biblical basis. I often hear persons appeal to John 6:44 as if the word "draw" somehow means that man is placed in some neutral semi-regenerate state outside of his natural depravity leaving man with a new moral ability to either 1) believe or 2) not believe. But when read in context verse 44 cannot possibly mean that. Jesus leaves no room for such a view. Here's why:
Take the time to read verse 44 in light of verse 37 which uses the same language "come to me", clearly indicating that Jesus is keeping on topic ... Verse 37 reads, "ALL that the Father gives to me will come to me." So according to this verse, HOW MANY of those who the Father gives the Son will come to faith in him? Verse 37 says ALL. It does not say some. It does not say 50. It says all. And it also teaches that the Father giving them to the Son precedes their coming to him. So saving grace is not a reward for faith but the effectual/infallible cause of it.
Jesus is not teaching what you are saying... Instead in light of verse 37 we can only conclude that ALL THOSE whom the Father DRAWS will come. (Also see verses 63 & 65 which teach the same idea).
We are not privileged to know whom God elects. That is not the reason for discussing this subject. This is why we should preach the gospel indiscriminately to all. The Scripture says that God commands all men everywhere to repent and believe the gospel. The purpose of talking about this is not to find out who is elect (which we have no knowledge of) ... rather we discuss it because Jesus and the Bible talks about regeneration and election so frequently. Why does Jesus and the Bible do so? Well ... everything in the Bible is for our benefit... so we ignore it at our own peril. The purpose the bible gives us is that it drives us back to the critical truth that salvation is by Christ alone. Not partly man and partly God... no ... if man believes we ascribe all glory to Christ who not only justifies all who believe, but by his Spirit quickens the dead that they may believe. it is "because of Him that we are in Christ Jesus... so let him who boasts boast in the Lord." (1 Cor 1:29, 30)
But what about John 12:32 which appears to some to be a universal drawing of humanity?
"And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
First, remember that Jesus speaks of John 12 in a completely different context as John 6. Take the time to read that passage and you will quickly discover that it is an entirely different discussion. In John 6 Jesus is speaking to some unbelieving Jews and in John 12 to a group of Gentiles. The emphasis is that Jesus was doing something new... Up to that time only the Jews were privy to God's revelation ... Gentiles were largely excluded. Now Jesus was grafting the gentiles onto the vine ... so in content of John 12... Jesus is not teaching that he is going to draw all men without exception, but all men without distinction - Jews and Gentiles alike.
This concept can be seen by the same author John in chapter 11: "Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish. ... He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on they plotted to take his life.
Notice that Jesus would die, not for all the Gentiles but for the scattered children of God from among the nations.
Revelation 5:9 (also the apostle John) also teaches the same "by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation."
So when Jesus says he will draw all men in John 12 he is referring to all men without distinction. People OUT OF every tribe, language, nation etc.
Also don't forget that the immediate context of John 6:44 makes the "all men without exception" interpretation an impossibility. In verse 37 Jesus excludes it.