Effectual Calling

Because human beings are constantly changing in tastes, emotions, and even convictions, it might seem that faith itself is insecure and that salvation could be lost as easily as it is gained; but this fear rests on a false assumption that salvation depends on man. Scripture teaches instead that faith is not a human achievement but a gift of God, and therefore cannot be undone by human changeability. If salvation depended on our ability to keep believing, it would never be secure; but because it rests on God’s sovereign act, it is firm and inalienable. Effectual calling means that God Himself calls, regenerates, justifies, adopts, sanctifies, and preserves His people, giving them a new heart and a new will by His Spirit, so that their salvation is God’s work from beginning to end. As a result, believers partake now of justification, adoption, and sanctification, not because of their constancy, but because God works in them “both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”