Scripture teaches that a person dead in sin will remain dead in sin unless God graciously gives him or her new life in Christ (Eph. 2:5). In theological terms, we say God effectually calls his elect and regenerates them by the power of his Spirit and word. God is the author of this gracious, sovereign, effectual call. John Murray explains it well:
“‘God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9). ‘…[God] …called us with a holy calling’ (2 Tim. 1:8-9). In this respect calling is an act of God’s grace and power just as regeneration, justification, and adoption are. We do not call ourselves, we do not set ourselves apart by sovereign volition any more than we regenerate, justify, or adopt ourselves. Calling is an act of God and of God alone. This fact should make us keenly aware how dependent are upon the sovereign grace of God in the application of redemption. If calling is the initial step in our becoming actual partakers of salvation, the fact that God is its author forcefully reminds us that the pure sovereignty of God’s work of salvation is not suspended at the point of application any more than at the point of design and objective accomplishment. We may not like this doctrine. But, if so, it is because we are averse to the grace of God and wish to arrogate to ourselves the prerogative that belongs to God. And we know where that disposition had its origin.”
John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, p. 110.
Shane Lems
Hammond, WI
The Reformed Reader Blog 
“We may not like this doctrine. But, if so, it is because we are averse to the grace of God and wish to arrogate to ourselves the prerogative that belongs to God.”
Boy, is that ever well said. It always amazes me how people naturally bristle at this doctrine. You would think it’d be just the opposite, wouldn’t you?
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I embrace this doctrine, and am humbled by it. I am grateful that my name was written in the Book of Life even before the foundation of the earth, and solely based on the love and mercy of God. Nothing I brought but sin.
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Amen! Humbling for sure – and comforting. Thanks!
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