Walking Through Westminster, WCF 10.1-4 "Of Effectual Calling"

Westminster Confession of Faith 10.1-4

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.

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.

III. Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated, and saved by Christ, through the Spirit, who works when, and where, and how He pleases: so also are all other elect persons who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word.

IV. Others, not elected, although they may be called by the ministry of the Word, and may have some common operations of the Spirit, yet they never truly come unto Christ, and therefore cannot be saved: much less can men, not professing the Christian religion, be saved in any other way whatsoever, be they never so diligent to frame their lives according to the light of nature, and the laws of that religion they do profess. And to assert and maintain that they may, is very pernicious, and to be detested.

Summary

All of God's chosen people, whom He has predestined to life from before the foundation of the world, are called by God to Jesus Christ. He effects this call through His Word and Spirit. This calling is a translation from sin and death, which is man's natural state, into a state of grace and salvation. This calling and translation are holistic, no part of the human person being left out. The mind is enlightened by the Spirit to understand the things of God. The heart of stone is taken away and replaced with a heart of flesh. The will is renewed by the power of God so that, whereas we once only desired to do evil, God now gives us the desire to do good, and to come to Christ. 

Even though it is God who works all of these things in the regenerated soul, yet He does it in such a way that we come freely, not compulsively, because He makes us able and willing by His grace. He does this great work, not because of anything He foresees in us, but only because of His free grace. We passively receive this grace, which then quickens us so that we can respond to the call and embrace the grace. 

Because this work is done entirely by God, and in no way depends on the will of man, even elect infants who die in their infancy are regenerated, saved by Christ through the Spirit. The fact that God's work is done entirely independent of our own will is the only way we can actually have hope for infants and the unborn. Consider that, if salvation in any way depended on the will of man or the ability of man to comprehend and respond to the gospel (in his own power), then the unborn who die or infants who die in their infancy would have no hope. The same would also be true of those with intellectual disabilities. Because salvation is entirely dependent on God's gracious election, and not on man's will, elect infants who die in infancy and intellectually disabled people can still have the sure hope of salvation through Christ.

There are others, not elect of God, but who still hear the outward call of the ministry of the Word, and experience some of the operations of the Spirit common to men. However, if they never truly come to Christ, they cannot be saved. It is not enough to profess Christ only with the mouth; one must also believe on Him in the heart. If those who only profess Christ with their mouths, not believing on Him in their heart, will not be saved, how much less will those who do not even profess Him with their mouth be saved! There is no doubt that sinful men may attempt to outwardly order their lives according to God's naturally revealed Law. They may even be diligent in keeping the laws of their professed religion. However, if a man does not have Christ, then all of his good deeds are tainted by his own sins and he is incapable of standing justified before God. 

+ Blessings in Christ +

Walking Through Westminster, WCF. 9.1-5 "Of Free Will"

Westminster Confession of Faith 9.1-5

I. God has endued the will of man with that natural liberty, that is neither forced, nor, by any absolute necessity of nature, determined good, or evil.

II. Man, in his state of innocency, had freedom, and power to will and to do that which was good and well pleasing to God; but yet, mutably, so that he might fall from it.

III. Man, by his fall into a state of sin, has wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation: so as, a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.

IV. When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, He frees him from his natural bondage under sin; and, by His grace alone, enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good; yet so, as that by reason of his remaining corruption, he does not perfectly, or only, will that which is good, but does also will that which is evil.

V. The will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to do good alone in the state of glory only.

Summary

The human will was created by God and given a natural liberty of will in itself. God, in creation, did not determine the will of man towards either good or evil by absolute necessity. This means that He did not force us one way or the other, nor did He create our will to be predisposed one way or the other. When God created man in Adam, He created him in a state of innocence. Man was created with the ability to do good and to live in a way that pleased God. Yet, man's will was also changeable, such that he might fall from this state of ability to do good.

When God created Adam, He put him into a temporary state of testing. If Adam obeyed God, he would have been confirmed in his state of righteousness and lived in peace with God. However, Adam did not obey God, but fell when Eve offered him the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Sin entered the world when Adam disobeyed God. By way of speculation, we can assume that, had Adam not eaten the fruit when Eve offered it to him, sin still would not have entered the world. Adam, not Eve, is the one held responsible for the fall. If he had reminded Eve of God's commandment and led her away from listening to Satan, we can assume that man would not have fallen into sin, even if Eve had still eaten her portion of the fruit. This is why the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness (Matt 4:1-11) is so fundamental to the Christian faith. Jesus passes the test which Adam failed. When Jesus successfully resists Satan's temptation, He does what no human being has ever done. He restores what it meant to be human; being in a state of peace and love with God, which we enter into only by faith in Jesus.

When mankind in Adam fell into a state of sin, our original state of innocence and ability to do good was totally lost. When Adam disobeyed God, we all fell with him into a state of spiritual death, in which man is now totally unable to do anything good or truly pleasing to God. As Paul says in Romans 3:10-12, "There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one." Even though we can look around and distinguish between what we would call "good people" and "bad people", we are judging with our own fallen judgment. God is all-knowing, seeing into the deepest darkness of the human heart. While certain people might conform more or less to our external, arbitrary standards of "goodness", God is not fooled by pretense or appearances. His judgment on the human soul is that we are all gone astray and that not one of us is truly good.

When the Holy Spirit makes a person born-again, He frees the sinner from his bondage to sin. He graciously enables the Christian to do that which is good. Yet, a Christian in this world still has remaining corruption of sin, so that the good he does is not perfectly done. Even the good things that Christians do are often tainted by sins. So, we might help the old lady cross the street, and we might do it because we love the old lady and want her to be safe, but we also have a certain pride in our good deeds being seen by others. Even if no one is there to see us, we might take pride in our hearts, that, if only someone had been there to see us, they would think what a good person we are. The Christian is also not wholly inclined to do good, and will sometimes willingly do that which is evil (c.f. Romans 7:13-24).

In the eternal state of glory, the Christian's soul will be totally free from the corruption of sin and will be made perfectly able to do only good and no evil. We will then be unable to sin anymore and free to serve God with our whole hearts, made perfectly into the image of Jesus Christ. A helpful way to approach this issue is to break it into phrases and sections:

Before the Fall: Man is able to do good or evil

After the Fall, without the Holy Spirit: Man is unable to do good, only evil

After the Fall, with the Holy Spirit: Man is able to do good or evil

The eternal state of glory: Man is unable to do evil, only good

+ Blessings in Christ +