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the life of sinners, was due to a desire to stress the close connection between the Word of God
and the operation of His grace. And the prevalence of the term “calling” in the apostolic age
finds its explanation and justification in the fact that, in the case of those who were in that
missionary period gathered into the Church, regeneration and effectual calling were generally
simultaneous, while the change was reflected in their conscious life as a powerful calling from
God. In a systematic presentation of the truth, however, we should carefully discriminate
between calling and regeneration.
b. Points of difference between regeneration and effectual calling.
Regeneration in the
strictest sense of the word, that is, as the begetting again, takes place in the sub-conscious life
of man, and is quite independent of any attitude which he may assume with reference to it.
Calling, on the other hand, addresses itself to the consciousness, and implies a certain
disposition of the conscious life. This follows from the fact that regeneration works from within,
while calling comes from without. In the case of children we speak of regeneration rather than
calling. Furthermore, regeneration is a creative, a hyper-physical operation of the Holy Spirit, by
which man is brought from one condition into another, from a condition of spiritual death into
a condition of spiritual life. Effectual calling, on the other hand, is teleological, draws out the
new life and points it in a God-ward direction. It secures the exercises of the new disposition
and brings the new life into action.
c. The relative order of calling and regeneration.
This is perhaps best understood, if we note
the following stages: (1) Logically, the external call in the preaching of the Word (except in the
case of children) generally precedes or coincides with the operation of the Holy Spirit, by which
the new life is produced in the soul of man. (2) Then by a creative word God generates the new
life, changing the inner disposition of the soul, illuminating the mind, rousing the feelings, and
renewing the will. In this act of God the ear is implanted that enables man to hear the call of
God to the salvation of his soul. This is regeneration in the most restricted sense of the word. In
it man is entirely passive. (3) Having received the spiritual ear, the call of God in the gospel is
now heard by the sinner, and is brought home effectively to the heart. The desire to resist has
been changed to a desire to obey, and the sinner yields to the persuasive influence of the Word
through the operation of the Holy Spirit. This is the effectual calling through the instrumentality
of the word of preaching, effectively applied by the Spirit of God. (4) This effectual calling,
finally, secures, through the truth as a means, the first holy exercises of the new disposition
that is born in the soul. The new life begins to manifest itself; the implanted life issues in the
new birth. This is the completion of the work of regeneration in the broader sense of the word,
and the point at which it turns into conversion.