11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.
Verse 11b is the third indictment against mankind.
There is none who seeks after [seeks out] God.
Man is so corrupt that he does not have the desire to seek out God in order to find Him for his or her life. “Seeking out” here is a determined search. People’s interest and priorities are elsewhere. They are determined not to find God. Religious systems are attempts at by-passing the God of the Bible. People seek the god of their own liking. When God takes the initiative, He enables us to find Him.
PRINCIPLE:
Not one person seeks out God naturally of his or her own initiative.
APPLICATION:
Contrary to modern thought, no one seeks out God. Many seek religious experience, but that is not the same as seeking out God for truth. God seeks us, not we Him. To the contrary, men swerve away from God deliberately.
Although people have a sense about God through creation or conscience, their sinful nature blinds them to truth. In themselves, they have no inclination to know God. Their hearts are hardened toward God.
God first takes the initiative so that man might seek the Lord (Ac 15:16-17). God will first draw all men to himself (Jn 6:37, 44). The only people who can seek God are those who respond to God’s seeking them. When Adam sinned he did not seek God but ran from God. God had to seek him by asking him, “Adam, where are you?” (Ge 3:9). The Son of man seeks and saves the lost (Lu 19:10). Paganism does not seek God but pursues demonic systems to avoid the God of the Bible.
Man is spiritually dead in mind and soul. Man may seek spiritual experience, but that is not the same as seeking the eternal God of the universe. There is no exception to this. Every person is spiritually dead to God; thus, there is nothing in him to lead him to God. Unaided free will is not sufficient to come to God.
The African-American spiritual says: “Everybody talkin’ bout Heaven ain’t goin’ there.”
1 Co 2:14, But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Unregenerate people cannot seek God because their capacity for doing so is completely corrupt. Only the grace of God working in their hearts can open their volition toward God. Christ intercedes for those for whom He died.
Jesus intercedes on the behalf of all for whom He died. The range of the intercession is the scope of the atonement; He died for all (1 Jn 2:2). The Spirit of God does not need to “regenerate” the soul before the soul believes. However, the Spirit must “convict” and God draw “all men” to Himself before they can become Christians.
The sinner is not simply sick, he is dead and cannot come to God on his own. Sin so enchains man that he is unable to take the first step toward God. Man is dead to any ability to choose God. God’s grace must precede conviction. There is no efficacy in man toward this end. The big issue is whether we respond to God’s drawing.
Jn 6:63, It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
Jn 12:32, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”
