The Sinner’s Salvation

We have been considering the riches of salvation that are in Christ Jesus and that become ours in union with him. Christ is the one in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid. We become one with him by faith, which is the graft that joins elect sinners with Christ. All the benefits of salvation are given to them in that union. Among those benefits of salvation is the calling.

Examining the calling in connection with union with Christ refutes every corruption of the calling, especially the corruption of the calling by the false doctrine of the well-meant gospel offer. The well-meant gospel offer teaches that God—in love for humanity in general and with a desire to save humanity in general—offers salvation in the preaching of the gospel to all who hear. In that offer God gives grace to those who hear, so that they are able to respond positively to and accept the offer by faith. This view of the calling is entirely divorced from election. It is a doctrine that stands in complete opposition to predestination, which teaches that God does not love all men but loves his elect alone and that he hates the reprobate. The well-meant offer’s view of the calling is also divorced from the truth of union with Christ. The calling comes to the elect as they are in union with Christ by a true faith. The calling does not create that union but is a fruit of the union and is demanded by the union. The calling is thus for those and those only who are in Christ. They have Christ already, although they are not yet conscious of it. The calling brings to their consciousness the fact and reality of their salvation in Christ, so that by it they come to conscious faith, repent, are justified, sanctified, and glorified—sitting already in Christ Jesus in heavenly places. They come to know their regeneration and are assured of their election.

From this viewpoint the calling is also a simple summary of their salvation in Christ. The calling is not a prelude, a condition, or a way unto salvation; the calling is not a step that man takes after he makes a decision, after which he then proceeds to other steps of salvation. But the calling is the elect’s salvation, for in the calling they come to the knowledge that they belong to Christ, are elect of God, and possess the whole of their salvation in Christ.

That the calling is the instrument to bring to the elect the consciousness of the whole of their salvation, including the assurance of their election, is clear from scripture. So the apostle Paul writes,

28. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.

29. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. (Rom. 11:28–29)

The subject of these verses is God’s love of the Jews. It is not a love for the Jews in general, as though God loved them all head for head. Rather, it is God’s love for the nation of the Jews, or Jewish people, as they are represented in the elect remnant from which God took his people for several thousand years and from which nation he will still draw them. No Christian may be an anti-Semite. God loves the Jews. The ground of God’s abiding love for Jews is that “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” There the apostle speaks of the calling. The simple reference, of course, could be to regeneration as the first calling to life of the dead sinner because scripture does speak of regeneration in terms of the calling. So God calls the dead sinner to life, and in that calling God bestows on him in principle the whole of his salvation.

However, it is better to say that the apostle speaks of the calling of the sinner at the level of his consciousness. This calling brings with it all the gifts of God to the sinner’s consciousness. Those gifts are the knowledge of his whole salvation: election, atonement, reconciliation, regeneration, repentance, faith, justification, sanctification, and glorification. These are without repentance on God’s part. If God gives them to you once, he will always give them to you. The sinner pleads this grace before God when he sins. This grace is the sinner’s confidence to come to God again and again. God will never refuse to receive the elect sinner, for the calling and gifts of God are without repentance. The sinner knows this, for he knows that God has received him in the past, has addressed him in the depth of his being, and has assured him of his salvation. And the sinner knows that God will always do so.

The point here is that calling and the gifts come together, and calling is the means by which God gives these things to the elect sinner in his consciousness and experience. It is not the coming of the sinner to Christ that gives the experience of these things. But it is the calling of God that gives these things to the sinner, so that as fruit and effect he comes to God. If the elect sinner does not know that God has elected him, reconciled him to God, and justified him, then he will never come to God.

Calling—that God speaks to his people in his grace and translates them from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son—is blessedness itself and brings all blessedness with it, so that the rest of the sinner’s conscious knowledge and experience of his salvation is the fruit and work of the calling. By the power of the calling, the elect sinner believes, repents, is justified, sanctified, and in principle glorified.

How do we define the calling?

The calling is that wonderwork of the grace of God, whereby through the preaching of the gospel the triune God in Christ and through the Spirit of Christ addresses the elect, regenerated sinner in the depth of his being and before his consciousness and summons him from darkness to light and from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God’s dear Son, so that the elect sinner infallibly comes to Christ.

The essential elements of this definition are the following: The calling is the work of the triune God in Christ and through the Spirit of Christ. The calling is a wonder of grace. The calling is by means of the preaching of the gospel. The calling is of the elect. The calling is a divine summons that issues infallibly in the sinner’s coming to Christ—from darkness to light and from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of Christ. The calling takes place at the level of the sinner’s consciousness. I will explain briefly each element of the calling.

 

The Work of the Triune God

The calling of the elect sinner is the work of the triune God. I emphasized in the previous article that the calling is the work of God. Calling is not of men, learned or not, speaking about God, but calling is God himself speaking. Really at this point every issue in the controversy over the calling is settled. Because the calling is the speaking of the triune God, the calling is living, sovereign, powerful, efficacious, and irresistible. The calling cannot possibly be an offer. The calling never can wait on the response of man and cannot involve the cooperation of man with God, for then God is not God. In my mind this is the most important point to make about the calling: in the calling God speaks.

That the calling is the speaking of God is not only important regarding the internal address of the elect sinner, but it is also important for a proper view of the instrument by which the calling comes to the sinner: preachers and the preaching of the gospel. The preaching of the gospel is God speaking; preaching is the Word of God; in the preaching Christ himself assumes his place as teacher in the church; through the preaching the Spirit of Christ carries on his work in the church. To despise the preaching is to despise God who speaks therein. To reject the preaching is to reject God who calls thereby. To hate the preaching is to hate Christ who teaches in it. To turn your back on the preaching is to despise the Spirit who works by means of it. The Reformed faith and the Reformed church have the highest regard for the preaching. The Reformed minister may not allow the preaching to be despised, and neither may the Reformed consistory. To do so is to allow God to be ignored, spited, and rejected. So Christ also says that when a town rejected the Word of God that came by the apostles, then they were to shake the dust from them and that it would be worse for that city than for Sodom and Gomorrah:

14. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.

15. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. (Matt. 10:14–15)

Here I emphasize that the calling is the work of the triune God. Each person of the Trinity is involved in the calling. The triune God through Christ Jesus, his Son, and by the power of the Spirit of Christ addresses his elect people in the depths of their beings. Calling, as all the works of salvation, is the work of the triune God.

God in Jesus Christ speaks in the calling. Scripture makes clear that Christ personally speaks in the calling. The writer to the Hebrews says,

25. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

26. Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

27. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

28. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

29. For our God is a consuming fire. (Heb. 12:25–29)

Here is a comparison between the speaking of Christ on the earth at the time of Moses, when Christ’s voice shook the ground at Mount Sinai, and his speaking from heaven now. One did not escape if he refused the one who spoke on the earth. Now that same one, Jesus Christ, speaks from heaven, and with that same voice he will once more shake the very foundations of the universe to reveal God’s eternal kingdom. The point is that Christ speaks from heaven now.

That Christ speaks in the calling is also the teaching of Paul: “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Rom. 10:14). According to the correct translation of the verse, it should read, “How shall they believe in him whom they have not heard?” There is a difference between your hearing about someone and your hearing that person speak. The point in the passage is that we hear Christ himself. Faith comes by hearing. The one whom you must hear is Jesus Christ. You must not hear men merely speak about him, but you must hear him. And such is the power of his voice that he works faith; and believing, you call on him; and calling on him, you are saved!

The apostle teaches similarly in his epistle to the Thessalonians: “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe” (1 Thess. 2:13). The apostle refers to his and the apostles’ preaching. The Thessalonians heard that word, and what they heard was the word of men, inasmuch as the word came through men; yet in truth it was the very word of God that the Thessalonians heard. And we must understand the phrase “word of God” as a reference to Jesus Christ. They heard Jesus Christ. It is only because that word of the apostles was the very Word of God that it worked effectually to cause the Thessalonians to believe. Just as the call of God in Genesis 1 was the Word, which according to John 1 became flesh in time, so also in salvation the calling of God is the living, powerful speaking of Jesus Christ, the Word that became flesh. Jesus Christ is not only the content of the calling, so that the preacher preaches Jesus Christ and him crucified, but Jesus Christ is also the subject of the calling, so that he is the one doing the calling.

The calling is the living voice of God, in Christ, through the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Christ. Calling is a work of the triune God. All of God’s works outside himself in creation, redemption, and sanctification are the works of the triune God, so that each person is involved. So also the calling is a work of the triune God. The calling must also involve the Spirit. The Spirit is the Spirit of Christ who works on Christ’s behalf. The Spirit applies the calling to the heart of the elect, regenerated sinner. Isaiah says, “As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever” (Isa. 59:21). The work of the Spirit never can be separated from the Word, and the Word never can be separated from the Spirit. The Spirit does not speak to men apart from the Word, and the Word always comes in the power of the Spirit to effectually work in the elect hearing, faith, and salvation.

 

Irresistible

Because the calling is the speaking of God, it is powerful, efficacious, and irresistible. If the calling were the mere speaking of men about God, it would have no power. Because the calling is powerful, efficacious, and irresistible, the called, elect sinner is translated out of darkness and into God’s light and from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. This movement of the sinner is not a mere possibility that is dependent on the will of the sinner or that waits until the sinner accepts an offer from God. Such a thought is totally at odds with the truth that the calling is the voice of God. God does not wait upon man. God does not allow man to make the first move and then act in response to man. God speaks, and it is. God speaks, and man comes. God speaks, and man cannot resist him.

This truth is the main thought of Christ’s teaching about the calling: “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44).

The first offensive thing for the Jews in this teaching of Christ was that they supposed that men come to God by the power of their own obedience. The Jews taught that men choose to come to God. God is waiting, as it were, for men to come to him. God makes the offer, and men must accept it. But Christ puts the choice of who comes and the power of their coming in God alone. The second offensive point for the Jews of Christ’s teaching was that Christ made himself the one to whom all must come. Men must cast off all their choices, labors, and activities and rest in Christ alone; they must count all things as loss and dung for the excellency of the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus.

Thus Christ destroys all pretentions of the ungodly and unbelieving. It is he alone to whom men must come. When Christ speaks of the Father’s drawing men to Christ, the word drawing means the irresistible moving of someone by a superior force. In Acts 21:30 the mob drew Paul out of the temple. There was no resisting on his part. So the Father draws men to Christ, and they cannot resist him.

That the calling is irresistible is also the point in comparing the calling to the creation of the world. The mighty God in creation “calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Rom. 4:17). In God’s calling of the elect, he calls with the same irresistibility: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).

It is as absurd to say that the sinner resists God as to say that light resisted its creation. God’s voice is powerful and creative, giving existence to what was not before, and against it there is no resistance. Since God wills the salvation of the elect sinner, the calling accomplishes that saving will of God.

Such is the graciousness of God’s effectual and irresistible call that those who are called come freely and willingly. The calling does not drag the sinner against his will, but the calling makes the sinner willing to come. This is nothing more than to say that the fruit of the calling is the sinner’s real knowledge of God and his real coming to God in his heart, mind, and will. Or in the language of the Canons of Dordt 3–4.12 with regard to conversion:

Whereupon the will thus renewed is not only actuated and influenced by God, but in consequence of this influence becomes itself active. Wherefore also, man is himself rightly said to believe and repent by virtue of the grace received. (Confessions and Church Order, 169)

Applying this thought to the calling, we would say as a consequence—that is the key word—man is rightly said to come to God or to know God. Consequence! The calling of the sinner does not wait on the sinner to come, but the calling produces the coming in the sinner.

 

Conscious

In distinction from the engrafting of the elect sinner into Christ and the regeneration of the elect, the calling takes place at the level of the sinner’s consciousness. This is nothing more than saying that the calling issues in the elect, regenerated sinner’s having the saving knowledge of God as the God of his salvation. Before the calling the sinner was ignorant of God. The sinner through the calling knows God and knows God as the God who saved him with a holy calling. God called the sinner out of darkness into God’s marvelous light.

Concerning this truth the apostle says, “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Pet. 2:9). Darkness is the state of spiritual ignorance and enmity against God that characterizes the natural man. In darkness the sinner is dead. By regeneration God makes the sinner who was dead to be alive. Now we come to the conscious side. That dead sinner was in darkness.  His darkness was not a matter of ignorance only but also of conscious rebellion and hatred against God and deliberate contradiction of God. Knowing that God is and that God must be served and having the work of the law written in his heart, so that he was able to discern right from wrong, the dead sinner held God’s truth in unrighteousness. One could say the same thing in the sphere of the church with all the appropriate changes: the unregenerate in the sphere of the church beholds all the glory of God and consciously rejects that in hatred for God. That one in darkness God translates into light. That light is the glorious knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ. In that light then there is the conscious knowledge of God—an illumination of the mind, so that the translated one knows God and loves him. Then the fruit is that he seeks God as the highest good.

 

By Means

Fitting to the reality that calling takes place at the level of the elect sinner’s consciousness is that calling takes place by means. As insistent as we are that regeneration takes place without means, so insistent are we that in the calling God uses means. We deny that God uses the preaching of the gospel as a means in regeneration. The preaching of the gospel is not the instrument of regeneration. As little as God will use preachers of the gospel to raise the dead at the end of the ages, so little does God use preachers of the gospel to regenerate his elect people. Yet regeneration takes place in the closest connection with the calling, and regeneration itself demands that the raised-from-the-dead sinner be called into God’s light in the sinner’s own mind and conscience. This calling takes place by means. The means is the preaching of the gospel. However, the means is not simply preaching. Many sermons have been preached that do not call anyone. The means is not emotionally moving preaching or intellectually stimulating preaching, which preaching for all its effects on men’s emotions and minds is without the gospel. The means is the preaching of the gospel. The preaching of the gospel is the instrument by which the Holy Spirit addresses the elect sinner in his heart and mind and calls him out of darkness into God’s marvelous light.

Peter says about calling and the preaching,

23. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

24. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

25. But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. (1 Pet. 1:23–25)

The thought of Peter is that the living and abiding Word, Jesus Christ, is that which begat us without the preaching. The Word of God that lives and abides forever is not the preaching but Christ personally. Having begotten us, it is this same living and abiding Word, Jesus Christ, that is also preached to us by the gospel. The gospel is the instrument after our regeneration to bring us the living and abiding Word. The apostle Paul says the same thing to the Thessalonians: “Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 2:14). The gospel is the means by which Christ calls us. All corruption of the content of the preaching is an attack on the calling, and by that corruption God does not call.

 

Internal and External

Because the calling comes by means, we must insist that the calling has two aspects. I emphasize that there are not two callings. There is one calling. That one calling has two aspects to it.

The external aspect is the preaching of the word through the ordained teaching elder or minister of the word. So Paul says,

14.vHow then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

15. And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! (Rom. 10:14–15)

What are the vital elements of the external aspect of the calling?

The preacher must preach Christ. He sets forth the fullness of Christ’s person, natures, and work. The minister sets forth Jesus Christ as God’s salvation for his guilty and damnworthy people and the one in whom God has fulfilled all his promises and through whom God has reconciled his people to himself. In other words, the preacher sets forth Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life, apart from whom no man comes to the Father.

I note that this setting forth of Christ is not simply a setting forth of Christ for sinners, but it is a setting forth of Christ for God’s elect people. The preaching of Christ is election preaching. The apostle Paul shows the way:

18. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

19. To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

20. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.

21. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Cor. 5:18–21)

There is not only the setting forth of Christ as reconciliation in a general sense but the reconciliation of “us.” And that “us” is God’s elect people. It is that very preaching of Christ as the Christ of election that draws the elect to him.

Having set forth Christ, the preacher also summons the whole audience to repent, to believe, and to come to Christ, and the preacher includes the promise that everyone who obeys the summons will be received in mercy. This is not the preaching that points out conditions for coming to Christ or what man must do to experience Christ’s salvation, but it is preaching that points out the characteristics that the preaching works in God’s elect people, whereby through that preaching they are manifest as his people. All hear. But not all are made sorry, and not all believe. This is not a failure of those who hear to fulfill a condition, but it is a revelation that they have no part in Christ and are not God’s people. The preacher then also warns that everyone who refuses to repent and believe falls under the judgment of God and will perish everlastingly. Importantly, in the preaching there is also instruction to those who do believe to obey all God’s commands in his word. Christ made this part of the great commission in Matthew 28:19–20:

19. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 

20. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Those who are made disciples of Christ are immediately called to obey all that Christ commanded as the fruit of faith and conversion.

The internal aspect of the calling is the secret operation of the Spirit in the heart of the elect, regenerated sinner that makes the preached word that falls on the ear effectual in that man’s knowledge of God as his God and in that man’s coming to Jesus Christ in faith. Or, if you will, the secret address of the elect sinner in his heart is by means of the preached word, by which God works faith in the sinner’s heart regarding all that is preached to him. The internal aspect of the calling is distinguished from the external aspect of the calling but is not separated from the external. The internal aspect takes place by the means of the external aspect. There is one call. One of the many fallacies of the well-meant gospel offer is that it posits two calls—one call to all men and another call to the elect. There is one saving calling of God that has two inseparable aspects. The internal has the external as its means. The external has the internal as its secret power. The calling is of the elect and them only, though the preaching comes to all who hear.

The internal aspect is the drawing of the Father that Christ spoke about:

44. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

45. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. (John 6:44–45)

The internal call is what Paul means when he refers to his preaching: “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Cor. 2:13). And the internal call is what Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 4:6: “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

This distinction between the internal and external aspects of the calling implies that the saving calling may not be identified simply with the preaching of the gospel. The preaching of the gospel is not necessarily gracious all by itself. It is gracious according to the election and internal calling of God. This is a confessional distinction, according to Canons of Dordt 3–4.11:

When God accomplishes His good pleasure in the elect, or works in them true conversion, He not only causes the gospel to be externally preached to them, and powerfully illuminates their minds by His Holy Spirit, that they may rightly understand and discern the things of the Spirit of God; but by the efficacy of the same regenerating Spirit pervades the inmost recesses of the man; He opens the closed and softens the hardened heart, and circumcises that which was uncircumcised; infuses new qualities into the will, which, though heretofore dead, He quickens; from being evil, disobedient, and refractory, He renders it good, obedient, and pliable; actuates and strengthens it, that like a good tree it may bring forth the fruits of good actions. (Confessions and Church Order, 168)

God not only causes the gospel to be externally preached, but he also pervades the inmost recesses of the heart. There you have in different words what we mean by the distinction between the internal and external aspects of the calling.

 

Purpose

The purpose of the calling is twofold. This is the teaching of Canons of Dordt 1.6:

That some receive the gift of faith from God and others do not receive it proceeds from God’s eternal decree, For known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world (Acts 15:18). Who worketh all things after the counsel of his will (Eph. 1:11). According to which decree He graciously softens the hearts of the elect, however obstinate, and inclines them to believe, while He leaves the non-elect in His just judgment to their own wickedness and obduracy. And herein is especially displayed the profound, the merciful, and at the same time the righteous discrimination between men equally involved in ruin; or that decree of election and reprobation, revealed in the Word of God, which, though men of perverse, impure, and unstable minds wrest it to their own destruction, yet to holy and pious souls affords unspeakable consolation. (Confessions and Church Order, 156)

God has one purpose, the purpose of predestination, for the gathering of the elect and the hardening of the reprobate. That purpose he reveals through the calling.

The primary purpose of the calling is the gathering of the elect into Christ as those who were chosen as the body of Jesus Christ.

9. Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace:

10. For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city. (Acts 18:9–10)

The Lord appeared to Paul at the beginning of his mission work in Corinth. God’s word to Paul was that he had to stay in Corinth because God had many elect people in the city. God had a church by election there, and Paul had to preach for the gathering of that church. In 2 Timothy 2:10 Paul says, “Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” Paul looks back on his entire ministry and says that the reason that he preached the gospel was for the elect’s sakes, that they might obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. The point of the word “obtain” is not that the elect did not have salvation in election or at the cross, for they were reconciled to God before Paul ever preached. Rather, the point is that through the calling this salvation in its entirety is brought into their conscious possession, and they are brought to glory.

The calling brings the elect to Christ and brings their salvation to them. “[God] who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Tim. 1:9). According to this verse the origin of the call is the grace of God in his eternal, gracious purpose in election. Out of that gracious determination, the call itself is a gracious, saving power that delivers from the greatest evil of darkness, sin, and death. The calling is salvation.

The calling gives eternal life. “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses” (1 Tim. 6:12).

The calling gives liberty. “Brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another” (Gal. 5:13).

The calling brings peace with God. “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful” (Col. 3:15).

The calling brings rest from the toil of sin and guilt and places on our necks the easy yoke of Christ.

28. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matt 11:28–30)

The calling brings us into the kingdom now and in glory. “That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory” (1 Thess. 2:12).

The other aspect of God’s purpose with the calling is to harden the reprobate who hear the preaching in their sin and to render them more without excuse.

In the external call God is serious and unfeigned. God presents Jesus Christ to the reprobate as the only way of salvation and confronts them with their solemn duty to repent and believe. The imperative of the gospel does not reveal God’s purpose regarding the eternal destiny of those individuals. The coming of the gospel and its imperative is not the expression of a sincere desire to save all those to whom the gospel comes. The fallacy of the well-meant gospel offer is that God can only be serious if he sincerely desires the salvation of all those to whom the imperative of the gospel comes. Rather, God is serious in expressing what man’s duty is before the gospel. So much is this true that man aggravates his condemnation when he insults the Son of God and despises the way of salvation that is set before him. This is plain concerning the external call by a study of God’s command to Pharaoh that he let the people go. God was serious in his command, but it was not the will of his decree that Pharaoh let the people go and be saved but that he would aggravate his wickedness and be destroyed.

This purpose of God with the unbelief of the reprobate is the teaching of Peter:

7. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,

8. And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed. (1 Pet. 2:7–8)

Many stumble at the word because they were appointed to stumble at the word. This is the purpose of God with the preaching to the reprobate. It is a clear lie to teach that God has a gracious purpose to all who hear the gospel. He has no gracious purpose toward the reprobate.

The effect of the preaching of the gospel to the reprobate is always the same: they are hardened in their sins. Recognizing that ultimately the reprobate all fall away from the truth, there is room for a distinction in the effect that we see. The parable of the sower in Matthew 13:3–8, 18–23 makes this clear. The sowing of the seed on all the other kinds of soil beside the good soil is always that there is no fruit, but there are some differences in the course to this end. The hard path shows those on whose consciousness the preaching has no effect, but the devil snatches the preaching away. They quickly say that they want nothing to do with the preaching. On the stony ground the seed shoots up in the thin soil but is quickly burned. The same is true for the thorny ground, but the shoot is choked. These both represent nothing more than a temporary, religious emotion and a false, temporary faith, which is no faith at all. In the end all are hardened, and they reject the truth according to the reprobation of God.

The classic text on this is Hebrews 6:4–8:

4. It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

5. And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,

6. If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

7. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:

8. But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

These verses are not teaching losable salvation, but they are a vivid description of apostasy from the truth by those who appeared to hold to it but who, according to the reprobation of God, reject the truth in the end.

Canons of Dordt 3–4.9 speaks of the same reality:

It is not the fault of the gospel, nor of Christ offered therein, nor of God, who calls men by the gospel and confers upon them various gifts, that those who are called by the ministry of the Word refuse to come and be converted. The fault lies in themselves; some of whom when called, regardless of their danger, reject the Word of life; others, though they receive it, suffer it not to make a lasting impression on their heart; therefore their joy, arising only from a temporary faith, soon vanishes and they fall away; while others choke the seed of the Word by perplexing cares and the pleasures of this world, and produce no fruit. This our Savior teaches in the parable of the sower (Matt. 13). (Confessions and Church Order, 168)

Such is the power of the preaching of the gospel that some have an intellectual and emotional apprehension of the glories and message of the gospel. Yet they fall away, ultimately being hardened by that preaching and turning from it in hatred.

It is in this conviction of the calling as strictly controlled by the sovereignty of God that the true church in the world preaches the gospel wherever and to whomever God in his good pleasure sends it, knowing that the effect of the preaching is wholly in the power of God according to his sovereign good pleasure.