However when the Gospel is preached something mysterious and awesome happens. We call this Effectual Calling. Through the spoken word of God, the spirit of God moves in some people and not in others… and regenerates our hearts. He gives us eyes to see and ears to hear and minds/hearts to understand the Gospel.

We see the Gospel as the power of God unto salvation for all that believe… It is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that calls us into a loving relationship with God, it is also in this call that the loving God sends his Spirit to draw men to himself.

When we feel conviction of sin, when we are reminded of his goodness, his loving kindness, when we understand the great salvation in which we have been saved, it is because the spirit of God has changed our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. This is a working of God… the power of God… the grace of God so that we may come freely to him, out of our own free will.

Two important points to note about Effectual Calling:
1) God calls us through the Word and his Spirit. That is why the preaching and teaching of the word is so important. It is through the Word that we see God’s spirit moving to change and draw people to himself.
2) Is God unfair? Some say it is not fair that God chooses some to be saved and others to go to hell. But we know that salvation is grace, which is by definition undeserved. No one deserves it. If we acted in our own free will we would not choose God. If we want fairness, if we want justice, the sinless Christ would not have died and we would be the ones condemned to death. We recognize that salvation is a gift… it is by the grace of God.

Let’s read together Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 10, Section 1. It’s a long section so I encourage you to read this again in your spare time and to mediate on God’s work of salvation:

1. All those—and only those—whom God has predestined to life, he is pleased to call effectually in his appointed and accepted time, by his Word and Spirit. He calls them from the state of sin and death—in which they are by nature—to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ. In this calling, God enlightens their minds spiritually and savingly, so that they understand the things of God. He takes away their hearts of stone and gives them hearts of flesh, renews their wills, and by his almighty power turns them to what is good and effectually draws them to Jesus Christ. Yet he does this in such a way that they come most freely, being made willing by his grace.

Related posts:

1. Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 10, Section 3
2. Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 15, Section 1
3. Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 1, Section 5