- Effectual Calling Embraces...

Effectual Calling Embraces Justification, Regeneration and Adoption

RBF: 3. He has issued an effectual calling directly (not through the preaching of the gospel or the ministry of the Word) to all the elects who are justified. The Holy Spirit then regenerated them and imparted to them new life or eternal life (Imputing the right to life must precede the actual imparting of life). Those who are justified and regenerated would remain in the state of sins and trespasses as long as the gospel is not preached to them and when there is no application of faith on their part.

SL: God effectually calls each elect at His own appointed and approved time. He is not dependent upon the preaching of the gospel to execute His gracious work of effectually calling His elect unto eternal life. He does it sovereignly at His own appointed and accepted time, not dependent upon the instrumentality of the preaching of the gospel. Effectual call unto eternal life is always accompanied by justification, regeneration and adoption. Only the adopted are given the gift of repentance and faith to embrace the gospel. Effectual call to life enables an elect to answer to the gospel call. The gospel call to faith in Christ is through the divinely ordained means of the ministry of the word.

The efficacy of God’s effectual call is not conditioned upon the co-operation of spiritually dead sinners. God’s effectual call unto eternal life needs no human aid to make it successful!!! What aid could a spiritually dead elect possibly contribute to God’s sovereign and gracious act of calling him out of his state of sin and death to that of grace and salvation? God’s grace and God’s grace alone is efficacious in calling a spiritually dead sinner unto life without the aid of any one, not even the most eloquent and persuasive preacher who issues the gospel call. Only one whom God has called out of spiritual death in trespasses and sins spiritual life will ever respond to the gospel call. The ‘standard reformed position’ (espoused by the RB Fraternal) claims and insists otherwise – that the divine effectual call is conditioned upon the human gospel call, without which there would be no regeneration, that the effectual call to eternal life is the same as the gospel call made effectual unto conversion! The effectual call is not the same as the gospel call blessed to bring about conversion. This is a fundamental and basic confusion.

The third sentence is a horrible caricature. Those who are effectually called, justified, regenerated and adopted no longer remain in a state of sins and trespasses. How is that possible? God Himself has effectually called them out of that state of sin and death to grace and salvation. That call is efficacious! The effectual call is calling an elect out of that state of sin and death which he is in by nature, to grace and salvation in Jesus Christ, all by the sovereign power of God, without human aid whatsoever. Look closely at Abraham in Gen 12-14. Was he a man who remained in sins and trespasses before his faith in the promised son in Gen 15? Look at that Italian Cornelius, Acts 10. Did he remain in the state of sins and trespasses before the gospel was brought to him? Were these two men in the state of sins before their conversion? Were they still in the state of condemnation? Read the Scriptures please.

The Scriptures declare that such elect – justified, regenerated and adopted, but before they were brought to faith in Jesus Christ by the gospel call, are described variously as those who are ‘devout,’ ‘fear God,’ ‘work righteousness,’ ‘have the law of God written in their hearts,’ ‘have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge,’ etc. No natural man seeks God or is devout to the living God, Rom 3:11. No natural man fears God, Romans 3:8. Only the regenerate elect of God fear God. Why is this so? It is because God Himself said, “I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.” And God does this without human aid at effectual calling unto eternal life. Some ‘reformed’ folks would declare this teaching as heresy. God needs them to assist Him in effectually calling His elect to eternal life. Abraham and Cornelius had works of righteousness before their ‘conversion.’ Faith is not alone in the person justified. They have works of righteousness before their faith is called forth by the gospel call. They have fear of God before they were brought to faith by the gospel call.

You fail to appreciate the radical nature of the effectual call. Look carefully what is said in 1689.1.1. The effectual call to life involve the radical transformation of the whole person:
- The mind is dealt with: "enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God." This enables an elect to receive the things of the Spirit of God, 1Cor 2:14.
- The heart is dealt with: "taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them a heart of flesh."
- The will is dealt with:" renewing their wills, and by his almighty power determining them to that which is good. "

The mind, heart, and will constitute the chief and primary faculties of man. The whole person is dealt with in the effectual call. Such effectually called elect must be reached with the gospel, and made disciples of Jesus Christ; that they may be instructed (the mind) of the salvation God has bestowed upon them by free and sovereign grace, taught to worship (the heart) God in spirit and truth, and exhorted to observe (the will) all things that the Lord Jesus Christ has commanded them.

The Great Commission is to preach the gospel to all men without distinction. Those regenerated elect, the effectually called to eternal life, who hear the gospel of truth – the glad tidings of what God has done for His elect – will be brought to belief in the truth by the gospel call. The gospel is good news of what God has done. Good news is not what man must do to cause something good to happen. Something yet to happen is no news at all, and hardly good news, since man is totally depraved and spiritually dead to do anything to cause the good thing to happen. Believing is evidence of what God has done for His elect. He has effectually called them to eternal life. Whoever believes HAS eternal life. That’s the gospel. ‘Whoever will believe shall have eternal life’ is a big lie. It is a cruel and mocking offer. It mocks at man who is by nature spiritually dead in his sins, who is totally depraved and has utterly no ability to believe. It is only those whom God has bestowed spiritual life at effectual calling, who will believe, thus whoever believes HAS life.