People all the time try to prove that man can come to Jesus by their “free” will. They will quote scripture like, For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13)
People need to understand that you cannot take one or two scriptures out of context filled with emotion and opinions and claim sound doctrine. What does the whole Bible teach?
You have to first start with; God is Holy, Holy, Holy and man is not. God has commands and man has broken them. God is just and will have justice. All have sinned, all have fallen short. None is good.
What does the Bible say about man? What does the bible say the state of man is?
Why does Jesus clearly say, “you must be born again to see or enter the kingdom”? (John 3:3,7)
It’s because fallen man in the state he’s in is hostile towards God, he cannot submit to God (Romans 8:7). Man is not righteous, he is not good, and he does not seek God (Romans 3:10-12). The natural man does not understand the things of God because it is foolishness to him. In fact, he is totally unable to understand the things of God because the things of God is spiritually discerned and the natural man is void of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14). The world cannot receive the Spirit of truth because it neither sees him nor knows him. (John 14:7). The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)
This is why Jesus in John 6:44 clearly says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”.
No one “can”, Jesus is not saying that He is not permitting anyone to come to Him, He is say they cannot, they are not able to because they’re DEAD in their trespasses and sins. They’re following the world, satan, and self. They’re living in the passions of their flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and are by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Ephesians 2:1-3)
That is why you cannot just take Romans 10:13 and run with it. No one would confess Jesus is Lord and be saved unless they are first born again by God! (John 1:13). They do not see a need for God, they are in bondage to sin and satan, in rebellion against God. They have to first be born again by God to see the kingdom (John 3:3,7). The natural man has to have their hard heart of stone that is dead set against God removed and a new heart given to them, a heart that is soft and clean, a heart that now desires God. A heart that now sees a need for God. He has to have his rotten decaying spirit removed and a new spirit put within Him, God has to put His Spirit within them, they then are then made ALIVE in Christ (Ephesians 2:5). God now grants them the gift of faith (Ephesians 2:8) and repentance (2 Timothy 2:25).
Don’t get me wrong, the natural man has a free will but his free will is bent towards his sinful nature. He has all the free will to sin as he is in bondage to sin, a slave to sin, and he cannot do anything to please God (Romans 8:8).
The only way a man will ever confess Jesus is Lord, is if he has already been born again by God.