Revelation 22:17 “whosoever will”
Does Revelation 22:17 contradict the multitude of other Scriptures that clearly teach that God and not man does the electing unto salvation? Does the Bible contradict itself by teaching on the one hand that “God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation” (2 Thes. 2:13), and “that He should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him” (John 17:2), and then turn around and teach or imply that it is finally and ultimately up to a man’s individual will and freedom of personal choice that is the determining factor in who gets saved and who doesn’t?
This seems to be the thinking of so many Christians today. They read into verses like Revelation 22:17 what they WANT IT TO SAY, rather than taking the whole counsel of God and putting it together in a consistent doctrine. The Bible does not contradict itself; and the truth is very clear to all whose spiritual understanding God has opened.
John 1:11-13 clearly and unequivocally tells us that the new birth is NOT of man’s will, but of God’s. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Which were born, not of blood, NOR OF THE WILL OF THE FLESH, NOR OF THE WILL OF MAN, BUT OF GOD.”
Words cannot be any clearer. The will of man or of the flesh has no part in the new birth, nor in the receiving of Jesus Christ as Saviour, nor in believing. Faith is a sovereign gift from God given to His elect people and His sheep. Of others the Lord Jesus says: “But ye believe not, BECAUSE ye are not my sheep.” John 10:26.
See the article on The Origin of Saving Faith here:
http://www.oocities.org/brandplucked/faith.html
See also the article about ‘As Many as Received Him’ here:
http://www.oocities.org/brandplucked/receiveHim.html
God further develops the doctrine that the natural will of man has no part in his own salvation when the apostle Paul takes up this theme in the book of Romans. In Romans 9:13-16 we read: “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then IT IS NOT OF HIM THAT WILLETH, nor of him that runneth, BUT OF GOD that sheweth mercy.”
How much clearer can God make it? It is “not of him that willeth”, but of God.
So how then do God’s elect people become “willing” to come to Christ? Well, Scripture also answers this question for us too. In Psalm 110:3 the King James Bible tells us: “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power”, and in Philippians 2:13 we read these wonderful words of truth - “For it is God who worketh in you BOTH TO WILL AND TO DO of his good pleasure.”
God makes us willing to do His will. “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth”. God needs to remove the stony heart and give us an heart of flesh. “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, AND CAUSE YOU TO WALK in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
So when we read a verse like Revelation 22:17 that says: “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely”, it means what it says and nothing more. Man, woman or child, Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, free or bond, black, white, yellow or brown, people of every nation and color, if you are willing to drink, it is because God first made you thirsty and then He made you willing to come.
The same applies to verses like “whosoever believeth”. It means only what it says. The verse cannot have a meaning that goes against all the other verses of Scripture where we are clearly taught that Faith is a gift from God, and the reason some do not believe is because they are not Christ’s sheep and God Himself has blinded their minds that THEY CANNOT BELIEVE. See John 12:39-41.
If you believe that you are a wretched sinner whose heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and you cannot possibly save yourself; if you believe that God Himself took on a human body and went to the cross of Calvary to shed His precious blood as an atoning sacrifice for your sins to save you from an everlasting hell, then the reason you believe these things is because it is God Himself who gave you this faith - “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)
“That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:31
Will Kinney