The second qualification of the people to which this privilege of the text belongs is: they are called God. Every work together for good “for those who have been called”. Although this word? Be put in order according to God’s love, it really comes before. Love is mentioned first, but it is not operated in the first place; we must be called God before we can love God.
The call is designated as the central link of the golden chain of salvation (Romans 8. 30). It is placed between predestination and glorification; and if we have this intermediary company, we’ll have security at both ends of the chain. To better illustrate this statement, there are six things to keep in mind.
There’s a double call
(i) There is an external call, which is nothing more than the blessed offering of God’s grace in the gospel, His argument with sinners, when He invites them to come and accept mercy. On this subject, our Savior says, “Many are called, but few are chosen?(Matthew 20:16) This external call is insufficient for salvation, although it is enough to make men unforgivable.
(ii) There is an inner call, when God wonderfully submits the heart and leads the will to embrace Christ; is, as Augustine says, an effective call. God, by the external call, plays the trumpet in his ears; The inner call opens the heart, as he did with Lydia (Acts 16:14). The external call can lead men to profess Christ, the inner call leads them to possess Christ. The external call sustains the sinner, the inner call transforms him.
(i) We are in a state of slavery. Before God calls a man, he’s under the devil’s call. If he says “Go,” he says: the deceived sinner is like the slave who digs the mine, ties the quarry or pulls the paddle out of the boat. under Satan’s command, just as the donkey is under the command of the one who rides it.
(ii) We are in a state of darkness. ” Have you ever been dark?(Ephesians 5. 8). The darkness is very inconsolable. A man in the dark is full of fear, he trembles with every step he takes. Darkness is dangerous. He who is in darkness can easily deviate from the right path, fall into rivers or swirls, so too, in the darkness of ignorance, we can easily fall into the whirlwind of hell.
(iii) We are in a state of helplessness. ” When were we still weak?(Romans 5. 6). There are no forces to resist temptation or to fight corruption; sin cuts the hair where our strength resides (Judges 16:20). In fact, there is not only helplessness, but also stubbornness: “Do you always resist the Holy Ghost?”(Acts 7. 51). In addition to the indisposition forever, there is also the opposition.
(iv) We are in a state of decomposition. And as I walked by you, did I see you stained with your blood?(Ezekiel 16. 6). Imagination captures the thoughts of the world; the heart is the forge of the devil, from which the sparks of lust emerge.
(v) We are in a state of condemnation. We were born under a curse, and God’s wrath remains upon us (John 3:36). This is our condition before God’s will, through a merciful call, to draw near to Him and free ourselves from the misery in which we were previously immersed.
The ordinary form the Lord uses to call us is not through abductions and revelations, but is:
(i) By His Word, what is the scepter of your power?(Psalm 110. 2). The voice of the Word is God’s call to us; That is why it is said that he speaks to us from heaven (Hebrews 12:25). That is, in the ministry of the Word, when the Word calls us out of sin, it is as if we hear a voice from heaven.
(ii) By His Spirit. It’s the call out loud. The Word is the instrumental cause of our conversion; the Spirit is the effective cause. God’s ministers are but flutes and organs; it is the Spirit who, blowing into them, effectively transforms. Was Peter still speaking these things when the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word? (Acts 10:44). It is not the diligence of the farmer in plowing and sowing that will make the land fertile, regardless of the first and last rain. So neither is the seed of the Word that will be effectively converted, unless the Spirit uses his gentle influence and falls like rain on the heart. Therefore, we must cry out for the help of the Spirit of God, so that He can use His powerful voice and awaken us from the grave of unbelief. If a man knocks on a bronze door, it will not open; however, if you come with a key in hand, it will open. So too, when God, who has the key of David in his hand (Revelation 3. 7), draws near, he opens the heart, although it is still and firmly closed against him.
The Lord does not care in a particular way and does not use the same order with everyone, sometimes he is a serene and soft voice. Those who have pious parents and sit before the warm dawn of religious education often do not know how or when they were called; the Lord has infused grace into their hearts secretly and gradually, as dew falls gently into drops. by heavenly effects, which are called, but time or how they do not know it. The needle moves on the clock, but they don’t know when.
Then God takes care of some. Others are more stubborn and complicated sinners, and God comes to them in a wind of fire. He uses the angles of the law more intensely to break their hearts; It deeply humiliates them and shows them that they are condemned without Christ; then, having plowed the stony land of their hearts for humiliation, he sows the seed of comfort; He introduces them to Christ and mercy, and carries his will, not just to accept. Christ, but to aspire to Him and rest with confidence in Him. That is why he operated on Paul, calling him a persecutor and preacher, this call, though more visible than the other, is by no means more real. sinners may vary, but the effect is always the same.
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