Reformed Theology and the Doctrines of Grace — Unit 6: Effectual Calling and Regeneration

Key Verse

"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:44, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Distinguish the outward call of the gospel from the inward, effectual call of the Holy Spirit.

2. Explain regeneration, or the new birth, as a work of God alone, and use John 3, Ezekiel 36 and Ephesians 2 to show it.

3. Define monergism and synergism, and say why Reformed teachers hold that God alone begins the new life.

4. Explain what "irresistible grace" means and what it does not mean.

5. State the Arminian objection that grace can be resisted, and give the Reformed answer.

The Voice of This Course

This course is written from inside the Reformed and Presbyterian tradition, for students who belong to it. It is conservative and confessional. When it says "we," it means churches that hold the Bible to be the inspired and inerrant Word of God and that confess the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Canons of Dort, or the Westminster Standards. We state the views of other Christians fairly and then give our answer. Scripture says, "Test all things; hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21). We do not teach that Christians who disagree with us are not Christians. Many of them love the Lord and the Bible as much as we do.

Where We Are in the Course

Unit 3 taught that fallen people cannot save themselves. Unit 4 taught that God chose a people in Christ. Unit 5 taught that Christ died to save that people, and that the gospel is freely offered to all. How does a chosen sinner, who is dead in sin, actually come to Christ? The Reformed answer is that God calls him effectually and gives him new life.

Two Kinds of Call

The Bible uses the word "call" in more than one way. Our confessions help us keep the two ways apart.

The outward call is the gospel message itself. It is preached, read and taught. It goes to all who hear: sinners are told to repent and believe in Christ. This call is sincere. Jesus said, "For many are called, but few are chosen" (Matthew 22:14). Many hear the invitation, and not all respond.

The effectual call (also called the inward call) is the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the elect person. Through the same Word, the Spirit opens the mind, softens the heart and makes the sinner willing to come. Paul describes it in the chain of salvation: "Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified" (Romans 8:30). In this chain, everyone who is called in this sense is also justified. The calling that Paul describes here does not fail.

The Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 10, teaches that God is pleased, in His appointed time, to call effectually by His Word and Spirit all those whom He has predestined to life. The Shorter Catechism teaches the same in its question on effectual calling. The Canons of Dort teach it in the Third and Fourth Heads of Doctrine.

Paul writes, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). The Spirit does not work apart from the Word. He does not give new revelations to take the place of preaching. He uses the Bible preached, read and believed. This is why the Reformed churches give such weight to the faithful preaching of the Word.

The Case of Lydia

Luke's account of Lydia shows both calls in one scene (Acts 16:13-15). Paul spoke to the women gathered by the river at Philippi. That was the outward call. Luke then says that the Lord "opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul" (Acts 16:14). That was the inward call. Lydia did believe and she did heed. But Luke does not say that Lydia opened her own heart, and he does not say that Paul did. He says the Lord did. Human beings hear, repent and believe, and behind each act stands the prior work of God.

Regeneration: The New Birth

Regeneration means being born again. Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). Jesus did not tell Nicodemus, a teacher of Israel, to improve his conduct. He told him he needed a new birth, and no one causes his own birth.

The prophets had promised this change. God said through Ezekiel, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26). The promise is that God Himself takes away the stone and gives the new heart. Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14) teaches the same.

The New Testament tells us who is born again and how. John writes of those who are born "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:13). Paul writes that God, "who is rich in mercy," made us alive together with Christ "even when we were dead in trespasses" (Ephesians 2:4-5). Paul uses the word "dead," and the dead do not help raise themselves. Paul says in Titus 3:5 that God saved us "through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit." Peter says that God "has begotten us again to a living hope" by the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:3). In each passage God is the one who acts.

Regeneration is a change of the whole person at the root. It does not mean that a person becomes sinless. It means that the dominion of sin is broken, and a new love for God, a new hatred of sin and a new desire to obey are planted in the heart. This new life then grows through the rest of the Christian life, which later units and Course 3 take up under the heading of sanctification.

Monergism and Synergism

Two long words help us state the issue exactly.

Monergism means "one working." In the matter of the new birth, God alone works. He gives life, and the person, once alive, believes.

Synergism means "working together." It teaches that God and the sinner cooperate in salvation, so that the sinner's response is a contribution that decides the matter.

The Reformed churches are monergistic about the beginning of the new life. We are not saying that people do not believe. We are saying that they believe because God has made them alive. We also are not saying that Christians do not work later. After new birth, the believer cooperates with God's grace in growing in holiness. Paul says, "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13). The believer works, and God works in him. But the first act, the giving of life, belongs to God alone.

What Comes First: Faith or New Birth?

A question that Reformed teachers discuss is the order of regeneration and faith. John 1:12-13 and 1 John 5:1 are among the verses people cite. Most Reformed theologians say regeneration comes first in logical order, because a spiritually dead person cannot believe until he is made alive. They do not mean that there is a gap of time. A newly regenerated person believes at once, and we cannot see the inward change separately from the faith that follows. The order is one of cause and effect, not of minutes or days.

Some Reformed writers use the word "regeneration" more broadly, and so speak differently, but all agree that the Spirit's work is the cause and our faith is the result. The Westminster Confession teaches that the Spirit enables the called to answer, and that they come most freely.

What Irresistible Grace Means

The Reformed doctrines of grace are often summed up by the letters of the word TULIP. The "I" is usually given as "irresistible grace." Many Reformed teachers today prefer the phrase "effectual grace" or "efficacious grace," because the old word is easily misunderstood.

Irresistible grace does not mean that God drags unwilling people into the kingdom. A person who has been called effectually comes freely and gladly. The Spirit changes the will, so that a person who once hated God now loves Him. He is made willing. The psalmist says of the people of God, "Your people shall be volunteers in the day of Your power" (Psalm 110:3). Volunteers are not forced. What God overcomes is our resistance, and He does it by making us willing.

Nor does the doctrine mean that sinners never resist the Spirit. They do, and this is the whole problem. Stephen told the Jewish council, "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit" (Acts 7:51). Left to ourselves, every one of us resists. The Reformed teaching is that when God intends to save a sinner, His grace overcomes that resistance. He does not fail to save those He has chosen.

The Objection: Grace Can Be Resisted

The Arminian objection should be stated as its holders would state it. Followers of Jacob Arminius and the Remonstrants, and the Wesleyan tradition after them, agree that fallen people cannot save themselves. They teach that God gives all people a measure of grace, often called prevenient grace, which frees the will enough to respond to the gospel. Because love must be free, they say, a person must be able to say no to God. Otherwise the relationship would be mechanical, like a puppet's. They point to Acts 7:51, to Jesus weeping over Jerusalem and saying "you were not willing" (Matthew 23:37), and to the many warnings in Scripture against rejecting grace. They also say that our view makes God the cause of unbelief if He does not give effectual grace to all.

This is a serious objection from sincere Christians, and the Reformed answer should be given with respect. We have six points.

First, we agree on more than is usually admitted. Both sides hold that no one comes to Christ without God's help, and that we may not boast. The question is whether God's help is enough in itself to bring the sinner to Christ, or whether the sinner's response finally decides whether the help works.

Second, Scripture describes the new birth as God's action. John 1:13 says that those born again are born of God and not of the will of man. If the will of man decided whether grace worked, this verse would be hard to explain. Paul's word "dead" in Ephesians 2:1 points the same way.

Third, we deny that making a person willing destroys freedom. A man's choices are free when he chooses what he wants. The Spirit changes what he wants. Augustine, long before the Reformation, taught that grace restores to the will a true freedom. The Westminster Confession, chapter 9, teaches that fallen man has lost the ability to will any spiritual good accompanying salvation, and that God, in conversion, frees him and enables him freely to will and to do what is spiritually good.

Fourth, the Arminian view of prevenient grace makes the final difference lie in the person. Two people hear the same gospel and receive the same help. One believes and one does not. What explains the difference? Reformed teachers answer that it must lie in something in the believer. Paul asks, "For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive?" (1 Corinthians 4:7). We hold that the difference lies in God's gracious choice, and that this leaves us nothing to boast about.

Fifth, Acts 7:51 and Matthew 23:37 describe real human guilt. They do not teach that God's saving purpose can be defeated. Jerusalem was unwilling, and Jesus says so. But Jesus also said, "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me" (John 6:37). Both statements stand together. Human beings are accountable for unbelief, and God is sovereign in salvation. Unit 10 returns to this tension.

Sixth, the charge that our view makes God the cause of unbelief confuses two things. Unbelief comes from the sinner's own heart. The Westminster Confession, chapter 3, says that God is not the author of sin. In passing over the non-elect and leaving them in their sin, God does what is just, and in saving the elect He does what is gracious. Paul asks in Romans 9:19-21 how God can still find fault, and he answers by pointing to God's right as the Creator.

An Honest Note on Historians' Debates

Historians discuss whether the later Reformed orthodoxy, with its "order of salvation," differs in emphasis from Calvin himself. Some see a difference of method. Others reply that the substance is the same, since the Reformers also held that God alone renews the will. We need not settle that discussion here. The confessions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries speak with one voice: the Spirit's call, applied to the elect, brings them to faith.

Pastoral Application

A woman in your congregation has prayed for her husband for twelve years. He is kind, but he refuses to attend church. She comes to you discouraged and says, "If God must do it all, then nothing I do matters. And if he is not chosen, I am wasting my life."

First, remind her that the Spirit uses means. Her prayers, her good life and the Word she shares are the means God commonly uses. We do not know whom God has chosen, and the command to pray and witness is plain.

Second, tell her that she cannot save her husband by her own skill, and that this is a comfort and not a burden. His salvation does not depend on her persuasion. It depends on the God who raised the dead.

Third, encourage her to bring him within hearing of the Word, since faith comes by hearing.

Fourth, pray with her that God would open his heart as He opened Lydia's.

Summary

The gospel is offered to all in the outward call. The Holy Spirit applies it with power to the elect in the effectual call, and the call in Romans 8:30 does not fail. Regeneration, or the new birth, is God's work alone: He takes the heart of stone and gives a heart of flesh, and He makes the dead alive. This is monergism. Reformed teachers hold that regeneration comes first in logical order and faith follows at once. Irresistible or effectual grace does not force the unwilling. It makes sinners willing. Arminian and Wesleyan Christians reply that grace must be resistible and that prevenient grace is given to all. We answer from Scripture that the new birth is God's work, that the Spirit renews rather than destroys the will, and that the final difference between believer and unbeliever lies in God's gracious choice. We hold this doctrine with humility, and it leads us to give thanks.

Further Reading

• Canons of Dort (1619), Third and Fourth Heads of Doctrine.

• Westminster Confession of Faith (1646-47), chapters 9 and 10; Shorter Catechism on effectual calling.

• John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Beveridge translation, 1845), Book III.

• Heidelberg Catechism (1563), on faith and the Holy Spirit.

• Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1872-73), the sections on vocation and regeneration.

• Zacharias Ursinus, Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism.

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