Effectual calling and perseverance

Two callings

In the golden chain of Romans 8, the link after predestination is calling: "those He predestined, He also called" (Romans 8:30). The Reformed confessions speak of two ways God calls. There is the outward call of the gospel, which goes to everyone who hears it preached; and there is the inward, effectual call, in which the Spirit works through that word in the heart. Jesus says, "many are called, but few are chosen" (Matthew 22:14). The same sermon can sound like foolishness to one hearer and be life to another.

but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

1 Corinthians 1:23-24

Matthew Henry says of the calling in Romans 8:30, "It is an effectual call, from self and earth to God, and Christ, and heaven, as our end" Matthew Henry. Lydia shows what this looks like. Among the women listening to Paul at Philippi, "The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message" (Acts 16:14). Paul spoke; the Lord opened. As Matthew Henry puts it, "the Lord alone can open the heart to receive and believe his word" Matthew Henry.

The Spirit persuades and enables

The Westminster Shorter Catechism gives the classic definition: "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" Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q31. Every step — convincing, enlightening, renewing — is the Spirit's work; and at the end it is we ourselves who embrace Christ.

Jesus says, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him" (John 6:44). The verb, helkō (ἕλκω), is a strong one: John uses it again when Peter "dragged the net ashore" (John 21:11). Yet this drawing is not compulsion. Augustine writes, "Behold then how the Father draws; not by laying a necessity on man, but by teaching the truth" Augustine. The Westminster Confession says of those God effectually calls, "yet so, as they come most freely, being made willing by his grace" Westminster Confession 10.1. And the Canons of Dort say that this grace does not treat people "as senseless stocks and blocks", nor take away the will, but spiritually quickens, heals and corrects it, and "sweetly and powerfully bends it" Canons of Dort III/IV.16.

In this calling the Spirit gives new birth. God promised, "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" (Ezekiel 36:26). The Reformed teach that this new birth comes first, and that the one born anew then repents and believes. Faith is truly our own act, and from the first it is God's gift; Augustine taught that even the beginning of faith is a gift of grace Augustine, On the Predestination of the Saints. Arminians and Wesleyans hold that a prevenient grace given to all makes a response possible, and that grace can be resisted; Lutherans confess that conversion is wholly God's work, yet also that his grace can be resisted. The doctrine course's lesson on new birth sets out these views.

Kept to the end

My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.

John 10:27-28

Those God effectually calls, he keeps. The Westminster Confession says that those he has accepted in his Beloved, effectually called and sanctified "can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace; but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved" Westminster Confession 17.1. This perseverance "depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election", on the merit and intercession of Christ, the abiding of the Spirit, and the nature of the covenant of grace. Peter says believers "through faith are shielded by God's power" (1 Peter 1:5), and Matthew Henry comments, "God not only gives his people grace, but preserves them unto glory" Matthew Henry. Nothing in all creation "will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39).

What, then, of the stern warnings? Hebrews warns of those who have shared in the Holy Spirit and then fall away (Hebrews 6:4-6), and Paul writes, "the one who thinks he is standing firm should be careful not to fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12). The Canons of Dort answer that God carries on his work of grace through means: the hearing and reading of his word, meditation on it, its exhortations, threatenings and promises, and the sacraments Canons of Dort, Fifth Head. The warnings do not deny perseverance; they are one of the ways God keeps his people awake.

Believers do fall. The Confession says honestly that through temptation, remaining corruption and neglect of the means of grace they may "fall into grievous sins; and, for a time, continue therein", displeasing God and grieving his Spirit. Peter did. Knowing he would deny him, Jesus said, "I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith will not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers" (Luke 22:32). Theophylact comments, "though the spirit has shed its leaves in temptation, yet the root is firm" Theophylact. David, after his great sin, prayed, "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation" (Psalm 51:12).

Assurance shaken and renewed

Perseverance and assurance are not the same. God's keeping does not change; our sense of it can. The Westminster Confession teaches that a true believer may wait long and wrestle with many difficulties before attaining assurance, and that assurance, once given, may be "divers ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted". Yet believers are never wholly without the seed of God and the life of faith, and by the Spirit their assurance may in due time be revived Westminster Confession, ch. 18. So assurance is both a gift and a duty. "Strive to make your calling and election sure," Peter urges (2 Peter 1:10), and Matthew Henry adds, "let Christians labour to attain assurance of their calling, and of their election, by believing and well-doing" Matthew Henry.

I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

1 John 5:13

Wesleyans and Arminians, Lutherans, Catholics and the Orthodox teach that a true believer can turn away and fall from grace, and can be restored through repentance; the doctrine course's lesson on holiness and perseverance and Can salvation be lost? compare the views. The perseverance the Reformed confess is not a licence to sin but a promise that the way back is open to anyone who has fallen. What holds us is not our grip on Christ but his hand on us. The next unit shows how God gives this salvation in covenant.

Practice