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"Effectual Calling," A Practical Discourse on the Sovereignty of God (1869)

AUTHOR:

Rowe, John R.

GOD’S ELECT ARE CALLED OUT of darkness into his marvelous light—I Peter ii. 9. In calling, the saints are sanctified, and Christ is formed in them the hope of glory—Col. i. 27, and so Christ is revealed in the saints—Gal. i. 16, and upon evidence of the Spirit the saints believe to the saving of the soul.—Hebrews x. 39. These are the things which are wrought by the Spirit in and upon the elect, by which they repent and follow after righteousness, and that faith as well as sanctification is of the Spirit we also gather from the Scriptures. “For unto you it is given on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.”—Phil. i. 29. “By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”—Eph. ii. 8. Again: “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised him from the dead.”—Eph. i. 18.

So from this Scripture we learn that the eyes of the understanding of the saints were enlightened. This was done by the Spirit’s influence upon them; by this also they knew what was the hope of their calling, and what was the exceeding greatness of God’s power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, according to which also they believed, thus showing that it requires a power corresponding with that which raised Christ from the dead to enable a sinner to believe, and such power we know that men have not; therefore they have not power to believe to the saving of the soul, until faith be wrought in them by the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead; neither is there anything about man, or anything that men can perform, which will induce the Spirit to work faith in them.