Survey of the Westminster Confession of Faith (Chapter 10)

Survey of the Westminster Confession of Faith

Chapter 10

Of Effectual Calling

(Part  1)

This chapter marks the beginning of the Confession’s presentation of an ordo salutis, an order of salvation. In the next few chapters, the writers explain the conversion experience in terms of its various elements and their logical relation to each other. The first item in the ordo salutis is the effectual call. This term refers to the initial operation of God in the heart of a sinner to bring that sinner to saving faith.

The following paragraphs deal with these primary issues: 1) a “diagram,” we might say, of the effectual call, which shows us the components of this act of God; 2) the “cause” of the effectual call which tells us what is responsible for the event of the effectual call; 3) the effectual call and persons of diminished capacity; and 4) the distinction between the effectual call and the general call of the Word.

I. All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, and those only, He is pleased, in His appointed time, effectually to call, by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature to grace and salvation, by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God, taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them an heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and, by His almighty power, determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ: yet so, as they come most freely, being made willing by His grace.

This opening paragraph gives a breakdown of the effectual call. First, the Confession says that the effectual call applies only to the elect of God; that is, only those whom God has chosen for eternal life in His Son are brought to salvation by Him. This qualifier is given at the beginning of this extended definition of the effectual call and it is easy to understand why such a qualifier would exist. The very nature of the effectual call, as this paragraph describes it, necessitates this aspect of particularization. The effectual call, as we will see, is a unique and deliberate operation of God.

Second, the “mode” of the effectual call is God working through His Word and Spirit. The Divines hold the position that God is responsible for the effectual call, yet He executes it through the means of His Word and Spirit. Those appointed unto eternal life are in a state of sin and death. All men, as fallen creatures, share this status; the effectual call of God has to do with delivering men from that state.

By His Word and the operation of His Spirit, God delivers the sinner from the state of death and places him in a state of “grace and salvation” by uniting Him with Jesus Christ. Obviously, we are contemplating the sinner’s standing in relation to God. The Word declares the will of God and His Spirit applies the Word to the sinner.

Third, the effectual call is manifested in the enlightening of the sinner’s mind so that he comes to know God in Christ. The sinner’s heart is brought to life and his intellectual faculties are released from the bondage of sin. This is regeneration. The effectual call means that the Holy Spirit supernaturally imparts life to that which was dead; He restores right thinking and judgment to the object of God’s grace. And fourth, the effectual call does not destroy the sinner’s will, but renews it so that the regenerated sinner comes “naturally” to the Savior.

II. This effectual call is of God’s free and special grace alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man, who is altogether passive therein, until, being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit, he is thereby enabled to answer this call, and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it.

This paragraph identifies the origin of the effectual call. The conversion of the sinner is accomplished by God according to His “free and special grace alone.” The paragraph concentrates, however, not upon this fact, but upon the fact that the sinner, who is the object of God’s free and special grace, has absolutely nothing to do with his conversion.

Two facts in particular are stated about the sinner: First, God does not act according to anything foreseen in man. By this statement, the Divines are referring to the Arminian teaching that God elects and executes election according to foreseen faith in man. Second, far from being active in his conversion or having anything about him taken into account, the sinner is “altogether passive.” This statement emphasizes that salvation is a unique and particular work of God. It also is reflective, of course, of the Confession’s teaching regarding the state of fallen man.

The Divines add that the sinner remains in this passive state until he is “quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit.” Only at that point, that is, only after regeneration has taken place, does the sinner begin to take an “active” part in his conversion. Following his regeneration, the sinner begins to give expression to the seed of new life implanted within by the Holy Spirit. The initial manifestations of this seed include the sinner’s willing response to God’s summons unto salvation.

(To be continued)