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What is effectual calling?

A. Effectual calling is the work of God's almighty power and grace, whereby (out of his free and special love to his elect, and from nothing in them moving him thereunto) he doth, in his accepted time, invite and draw them to Jesus Christ, by his word and Spirit; savingly enlightening their minds, renewing and powerfully determining their wills, so as they (although in themselves dead in sin) are hereby made willing and able freely to answer his call, and to accept and embrace the grace offered and conveyed therein.

Deuteronomy 9:5
5 Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

Deuteronomy 30:6
6 And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

Isaiah 45:22
22 “Turn to me and be saved,
all the ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.

Ezekiel 11:19
19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,

Ezekiel 36:26–27
26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Ezekiel 37:9–14
9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
11 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 14 And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.”

Matthew 11:28–30
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

John 3:5
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

John 5:25
25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

John 6:44–45
44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—

Acts 16:14
14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

Acts 26:18
18 to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

Romans 9:11
11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—

1 Corinthians 2:10–12
10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

2 Corinthians 4:6
6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:20
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

2 Corinthians 6:1–2
Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says,

“In a favorable time I listened to you,
and in a day of salvation I have helped you.”

Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

Ephesians 1:17–20
17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,

Ephesians 2:4–9
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Philippians 2:13
13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

2 Thessalonians 2:13–14
13 But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. 14 To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Timothy 1:8–9
8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, 9 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,

Titus 3:4–5
4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

Revelation 22:17
17 The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

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Welcome to the Reformed Standard. I'm Tony. Let's get started. Questions. 67 of the Westminster Larger Catechism reads: What is effectual calling? And the answer is: Effectual calling is the work of God's almighty power and grace, whereby (out of his free and special love to his elect, and from nothing in them moving him thereunto) he doth, in his accepted time, invite and draw them to Jesus Christ, by his word and Spirit; savingly enlightening their minds, renewing and powerfully determining their wills, so as they (although in themselves dead in sin) are hereby made willing and able freely to answer his call, and to accept and embrace the grace offered and conveyed therein. This is one of those questions that unfortunately, the new reformed restless, young Calvinist crowd really needs to understand. I've commented on this podcast and in other podcasts, that there's often this sort of latent, hyper Calvinism that's present in sort of the tool of Calvinist position, where there's a denial of free will, there's a denial that we choose, we choose Jesus, there's a denial that we in any way, engage our will, to bring about or to, to enter into salvation. And this question simply denies that. So it is God's work. It's the work of God's Almighty grace, which he does is free love. And it's nothing in us. So there's a denial there of the the Armenian doctrine of oppressions, or deviant or for knowledge, election. So God doesn't choose us because he looks down the quarter of time and see something in us that he wants or something in us that's lovable. But instead His love is a free and pure Act, which flows from his very nature because he is love. And so there's nothing in the creature that can can motivate or change his love or that would make God dependent on the creature. And then, in in this effectual calling, what it is, is he accepts, in his time in his determined time, he invites sinners and draws them to Jesus Christ by his word and spirit. And so it is God's work, which is is doing the inviting and the drawing. And here's where I think a lot of a lot of young, restless reformed Calvinists can really learn from the Catechism here is that what God does in the effectual calling is, and we could probably talk about this in the same vein as irresistible grace, right. Those are similar categories. They're basically synonymous in a lot of ways. effectual calling and irresistible grace are the same reference. He enlightens their minds. So there's a there's a knowledge component to this. He renews and determines their wills, powerfully determines their wills. So he, what he's doing an effectual calling is he's, he's giving a certain amount of knowledge and assent to the knowledge and an saving knowledge of certain facts of redemptive history. And then he renews and enlivens and determines their wills. And so it's, it's the will which causes the person to act, it's the human will which which motivates and drives our action. And so as a result of this knowledge that he's given us and this will that he has renewed and determined, we are made willing and able to freely answer his call. So it is it is not the case that we do not choose Jesus, I know that you know, the the him I have decided to follow Jesus is like kryptonite to most young Calvinists. They just hate it. But the simple fact is, is that what God does in salvation, is he he causes us to freely choose to answer his call. And so it is it is certainly the case that the elect freely answer his call. And then there's there there could be some discussion about whether the word freely here applies to just the clause answer his call or to the following ones as well. I think it probably applies to all of it. And so we can say he freely answers his call. But then he also freely accepts and embraces the grace offered and conveyed there in. So God is is acting graciously and offering his graceful favor his gracious favor to the to the elect in this call. And because of what he has done in renewing and powerfully determining our wills, enlightening our minds, we are able to freely answer that call, which is to accept and embrace the grace that he's given us.