Effectual calling

Question 31 teaches that effectual calling is the Spirit's work, convincing us of sin, enlightening our minds and renewing our wills, so that he persuades and enables us to embrace Christ, freely offered in the gospel. Question 32 names what the called receive in this life.

Caravaggio, The Conversion on the Way to Damascus, 1600–1601 · Source

This week's questions

What is effectual calling? Effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.
Question 31

What benefits do they that are effectually called partake of in this life? They that are effectually called do in this life partake of justification, adoption, and sanctification, and the several benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from them.
Question 32

Last week the Spirit united us to Christ "in our effectual calling". Now the catechism says what that calling is, and Question 32 sets out the next four weeks: justification, adoption and sanctification, and the benefits that flow from them. The library's introduction traces this golden chain of Romans 8:30.

How the Spirit calls

Before the seated Roman governor Festus, with King Agrippa and Bernice standing beside him, Paul in a red cloak raises his hand as he makes his defence. — Hendrick Bloemaert, Paul and King Agrippa, 1635 · Source

The gospel calls everyone who hears it, and not all come: "For many are called, but few are chosen" (Matthew 22:14). The catechism speaks of the inward call, the Spirit's work through that same word, and its first proof text says where it begins: God "has saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but by His own purpose and by the grace He granted us in Christ Jesus before time began" (2 Timothy 1:9).

Each verb of the answer has its text. The Spirit convinces: when Peter preached at Pentecost, his hearers "were cut to the heart" (Acts 2:37). He enlightens: the risen Christ sent Paul "to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light" (Acts 26:18). He renews the will; this is the new heart of Ezekiel's prophecy:

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.
Ezekiel 36:26-27

And so he persuades and enables. "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him," Jesus said, and "Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from Him comes to Me" (John 6:44-45). Lydia at Philippi shows persuading and enabling together (Acts 16:14). The will is not overridden but set free: "it is God who works in you to will and to act on behalf of His good purpose" (Philippians 2:13). The Canons of Dort, of the Dutch Reformed synod of 1618–1619, say that this grace "does not treat men as senseless stocks and blocks, nor takes away their will and its properties, neither does violence thereto" Canons of Dort, III/IV.16.

The Christ we embrace is "freely offered". The same Canons teach that the promise of the gospel, with the command to repent and believe, "ought to be declared and published to all nations, and to all persons promiscuously and without distinction", without sorting the hearers first II.5. Some English hyper-Calvinists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries held that preachers should not urge every sinner to believe. Charles Spurgeon, the London Baptist preacher, answered in the pulpit: "Some hyper-calvinist would tell me I am wrong in so doing. I cannot help it. I must do it" Spurgeon, Compel Them to Come In. He pleaded with all and left the outcome to his Master, trusting that some, "constrained by sovereign grace", had become "the willing captives of the all-conquering Jesus" 227.26.

Question 32's proofs name what the called receive. God calls the unimpressive, for "Not many of you were wise by human standards" (1 Corinthians 1:26), and gives them everything in Christ:

It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God: our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.
1 Corinthians 1:30

Grace that wins, grace that may be refused

The Reformed confess that God calls by his Word and Spirit, "renewing their wills, and by his almighty power determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ" Westminster Confession 10.1. The Remonstrants, the followers of Arminius in the Netherlands, taught in the fourth of their five articles of 1610 that grace goes before every good, yet can be resisted The Remonstrance; they read Stephen's charge, "You always resist the Holy Spirit" (Acts 7:51), so. John Wesley taught that prevenient grace goes out to all, drawing them toward God, and that we may yield to it or not Wesley, The Scripture Way of Salvation. Lutherans, who follow Martin Luther, confess that conversion is wholly the Holy Spirit's work through Word and sacraments, the unconverted will adding nothing, and yet that many are not converted because they despise the Word and shut the way by which the Spirit would work Formula of Concord, arts 2 and 11. The Catholic Church teaches that God's prevenient grace calls without any merit of ours, and that a person freely assents to it and cooperates with it, and can reject it Council of Trent, Decree on Justification, ch. 5. All agree that no one comes to Christ unless grace comes first.

The Reformed Faith course treats this at length in Effectual calling and perseverance; see also New birth and the indwelling Spirit, the glossary's effectual calling and regeneration, and How can I begin to believe?

To ponder this week

A vast hall hung with chandeliers, its floor and three tiers of galleries packed with people, and in the middle a preacher on a platform with his hand raised. — Unknown artist, Spurgeon Preaching in the Surrey Gardens Music Hall, 1858 · Source

Can you trace how God called you, and to whom will you offer Christ freely this week? Some remember a day; many raised in the faith cannot, and that is no cause for worry. Look for the four marks of Question 31: where were you convinced, enlightened, renewed and persuaded? Then, like Spurgeon, offer Christ to someone without first deciding whether they are fit to hear.

Practice

Practice 1 of 6
According to Question 31, whose work is effectual calling?
Practice 2 of 6
What does Question 31 say the Spirit does to our wills?
Practice 3 of 6
Which proof text tells how the risen Christ sent Paul to open people's eyes and turn them from darkness to light?
Practice 4 of 6
How did Spurgeon answer the hyper-Calvinists who said he should not urge every sinner to believe?
Practice 5 of 6
Which pairing of a tradition with its teaching on calling is accurate?
Practice 6 of 6
What do the effectually called partake of in this life, according to Question 32?

Reading to the end marks it read; tap to switch it.

Source

The Remonstrants, The Five Articles of Remonstrance 1610 — The Arminian articles, five in number, presented to the States of Holland in 1610: election in view of foreseen faith, atonement for all, grace that can be resisted; and those grafted into Christ are given power through the Spirit to fight sin and win, while whether they can fall from grace is left to be examined further from Scripture.
John Wesley, The Scripture Way of Salvation 설교 43 / Sermon 43 (1765) — A sermon on prevenient grace, and on justification and sanctification received by faith. Salvation begins with preventing grace: what is often called natural conscience, all the drawings of the Father, the desires after God that grow if we yield to them, the light with which the Son enlightens everyone coming into the world, the first wish to please God and the first conviction of sin. Faith is the condition, and the only condition, of justification and of sanctification. Read
Lutheran churches, Formula of Concord 2, 11 (1577) — 1577. Art. 2, free will: before conversion the human will has no power of its own in spiritual things to cooperate in its conversion; conversion is the work of the Holy Spirit alone, through the Word and the sacraments, and only after it does the renewed will work together with the Spirit. Art. 11: that many are not converted is not because God does not will it, but because they despise the Word and shut the way by which the Holy Spirit would work in them.
Council of Trent, Decree on Justification 5장, 법규 4 / ch. 5, canon 4 — 1547. In adults justification begins with God's prevenient grace, which calls them without any merit of theirs; they turn toward justification by freely assenting to and cooperating with that grace, and are able to reject it (ch. 5). Free will moved and stirred by God cooperates by assenting, and can dissent if it will (canon 4).

Lessons from the Bible, the church's creeds, the Westminster Shorter Catechism and the Reformed confessions, the Fathers and classic commentary. They teach the Catechism as the Reformed churches' own, a week at a time, and present both sides where the Reformed differ, and other traditions' views, fairly. Scripture quotations: BSB.