Effectual Calling
Understand how the redemption purchased by Christ comes to be ours: by the Spirit's effectual calling, which frees the bound will, works faith, and unites us to Christ himself.
Christ has accomplished redemption; but how does what he purchased become ours? The Standards answer that it is applied to us by his Holy Spirit, and that the first link in that application is effectual calling. Here the work moves from Christ for us to the Spirit at work within us.
The Spirit applies what Christ purchased
We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ only by the effectual application of it to us by his Holy Spirit. The benefits of redemption do not float free to be seized at will; they are conveyed to particular people by the Spirit, who works faith in us and thereby unites us to Christ in our effectual calling. So the Spirit's work is not an addition to Christ's but the means by which Christ's finished work becomes a present possession.
This is why the Standards treat application before they treat justification or sanctification. Every saving benefit comes to us in Christ, and we come to be in Christ by the Spirit's call.
Calling that takes effect
Effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he persuades and enables us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel. The Standards call it effectual to distinguish it from the outward call of the Word, which many hear and resist. This call is of God's free and special grace alone, not from anything foreseen in us, and it never fails of its end.
Those not elected may be outwardly called and may have some common operations of the Spirit, yet they never truly come to Christ. The difference lies not in them but in the sovereign grace of the One who calls.
The freed will and union with Christ
The Standards are precise about the will. By the fall man wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation, so that a natural man, being dead in sin, cannot by his own strength convert himself or prepare himself for it. When God converts a sinner he frees him from that bondage and enables him freely to will and to do what is spiritually good. Grace does not override the will but renews it.
The end of this calling is union with Christ. By it the elect are spiritually and mystically joined to him as their head and husband, and from that union flow all the benefits of his mediation, justification and adoption and sanctification among them.
Study the full text, Scripture proofs, and commentary on each:
- Read WSC 31 and WLC 67 together and note what the Larger Catechism adds about the nature and means of effectual calling.
- Work through WCF chapter 9 and trace how the will's freedom differs across the states of innocence, sin, grace, and glory.
- Follow the proofs for WLC 66 on union with Christ and consider why the Standards place it at the root of every saving benefit.
See how this doctrine is stated across the Reformed confessions side by side.
Effectual Calling →