We can get closer to God if He wants him

It is we who truly approach God with our free will? The Bible says no. This concept is nowhere to be found and originates from Arminius' doctrines of human free will, thus denying the sovereignty of God who is portrayed as “unable” to save everyone, and invalidates the sacrifice of Jesus Christ who would have died to save everyone. In reality, God did not want to save everyone, because if he wanted to, he would do it without any ifs and buts, He being the sovereign God. In reality, Jesus did not die for everyone understood as all the men of this world, but for God's elect so that they draw near to Him after the preaching of the Gospel.

So too Christ, after being offered only once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, sinless, to those who await him for their salvation. (Jews 9:28)

A fundamental doctrine for understanding the biblical doctrine of salvation is the effective grace, che significa che gli uomini che sono morti spiritualmente e lontani da Dio, they regenerate effectively when called by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works in the soul immediately before conversion by infusing a new spiritual life and a “new heart” in the faithful (Ezekiel 11:19), thus modifying the predisposition of the person who is oriented towards Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit persuades people to embrace Jesus Christ. This thing is called effective grace and this special grace produces the effect willed by God: the salvation of particular individuals, the elected. This special grace was also called irresistible, effective, invincible, indomitable, as it cannot be rejected by the individual as it is God's will that that individual convert and be saved. The rest, once God grants the gift of faith to a person, will this person ever object and say “No, I object and I don't believe it!” when the Holy Spirit has put the seed of faith in him and God has it “replaced the heart of stone with that of flesh”? This doctrine logically comes from the situation of total depravity of man totally present in the Bible and from his inability to approach Christ alone. The doctrine of effective grace is intimately linked to the doctrines of regeneration and effective calling. If a person understands the biblical teaching regarding these doctrines, he will also understand effective grace.

The doctrine of effective grace can only be understood if one has a correct understanding of total depravity and the doctrine of regeneration. And what we need to understand first of all is original sin and our nature as sinners unable to get close to God as “spiritually dead”. The man non he is in a state where he can cooperate with the Holy Spirit. The man died spiritually (If 2,1-5). Hates the truth and Jesus Christ (Teacher 3:19-21), dwells in darkness (Teacher 1,4-5), he has an uncircumcised heart of stone (This 11,19), is helpless (This 16 :4-6), cannot repent (Ger. 13,23), he is a slave of Satan (proceedings 26:17-18), and cannot see or understand divine truth (1 Cor. 2,14). Can a spiritually dead body cooperate with God's grace and perfection? Can a person who is “blind and deaf” understand spiritual truth and embrace it? Can someone who hates Jesus Christ because he is in enmity with God, change your nature by yourself and look for it? Can a person of his own free will hate what he naturally loves (that is the world) and love what he naturally hates (that is God)? The Ethiopian can change its skin or a leopard its spots? Then you can also do the good that you are used to doing evil "(Ger 13,23).

Because man is spiritually dead and sin pervades his whole soul and body, only if God will come to put a new heart and by removing the veil from their eyes, they will be able to turn to Christ and embrace him. Because God's grace is effective, that is When he calls he cannot be refused as this is his effective decree, only the power of God that works directly on the human soul can infuse new life. The sinful man does not need any help to save himself, just as he is unable to do it alone and invoke it, but only a spiritual resurrection, an overall work of restoration from God can do it.

Jesus says: No one can come to me unless the Father draws him, who sent me; and I will raise him up on the last day ... And he said: “That is why I told you that no one can come to me, if it is not given to him by the Father ". (Giovanni 6:44;65).

It is Jesus himself who says that we come to seek him only if the Father has decided it and has sent us!

The reason why God's grace is effective and irresistible is because the Holy Spirit confers a propensity for holiness in the human heart. Man's heart has changed in such a way that he can no longer follow his will. His will now will be only to embrace Jesus Christ, and this happens if the Father willed it.

The person who is regenerated by the Holy Spirit, embrace Jesus Christ. God works the will in him:

In fact, it is God who produces will and action in you, according to his benevolent design. (Philippians 2:13).

God is 'strongly determined'. He renews the will and removes his chosen one from the slavery of sin. The Holy Spirit to address God as the supreme good and the supreme end. The old heart that hated Jesus Christ and considered spiritual things insanity (1 Cor. 2,14) it is replaced with a new heart that is spiritual, who is deeply concerned about spiritual things. After a person regenerates, Christ becomes the most important person in his life. The Savior becomes for him like a hidden treasure and the precious pearl (Mt 13:44, 46), for the heart has become spiritual and desires and loves “the things of the Spirit”.

But what the flesh craves is death, while what the Spirit longs for is life and peace; for what the flesh longs for is enmity against God, because he is not subject to the law of God and neither can he be; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God truly dwells in you. If anyone doesn't have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. (Romans 8:6-9).

Faith is a gift from God, it is the result of his Grace towards an individual and it is not our doing as he says Ephesians 2:8-9:

For by grace you have been saved, by fede; and that not of yourselves:; it is the gift of God. It is not by works, lest any man should boast.

And therefore it does not depend on our work and our actions, we are not the ones who draw near to God or decide whether to accept him or not, as taught in the Catholic Church, in several modern evangelical groups and by Jehovah's Witnesses. And it also says why: “so that no one brags”! In fact, we are all equal before God, there is no Christian who is more spiritually predisposed than others to seek him (we are all in our original sin and far from Him), and there is nothing we can do to be saved, not even choose to go to Him or not, because alone we are not capable of it. It is He who decides and gives us faith on the basis of his plan and purposes.

God does not put a gun on man's head forcing him to approach his kingdom, rather, He changes him internally so that he voluntarily chooses Christ.

Returns it to its original state, brings him back to being in his image and likeness so that he can understand spiritual things and be prompted to seek Him. Human will acts always in accordance with the human heart. And with a new spiritual heart we can finally get close to our Creator.