THE EFFECTUAL CALL

THE EFFECTUAL CALL See also PBtop: COMPARISON BETWEEN THE EFFECTUAL CALL & THE GOSPEL CALL The effectual call, on the contrary, is not an external appeal to the mind, but an inward creative act in the soul. The effectual call is a call, in Augustine’s words, by "Divine Imperative." It is an act of creation in exactly the same way that the origin of the universe was an act of creation. How did God create the universe? By the sheer power of His command, His creative fiat: "And God said, Let there be..." and there was. "Let there be" is a command, an imperative. In the beginning, "God commanded the light to shine out of darkness." It was a command, a fiat. By the mere utterance of His voice, galaxies, solar systems, planets, oceans, mountains, trees, rocks, air, atoms, and molecules were called into existence out of nothing. What awesome power! The effectual call is also a creation. {Ephesians 2:10;2 Corinthians 5:17} It is the creation of spiritual life where no life existed by the power of God’s command. When He speaks, it is done. When He commands, it stands fast. By the mere utterance of His voice, the dead sinner comes to life. Divine imperative is the thought conveyed in1 Peter 1:23-25, a text frequently employed by those who teach gospel agency: "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever...This is the word, which, by the gospel is preached unto you." When Peter says we are born again by the word of God, does He mean that the gospel is the means God uses to quicken the dead sinner? No. The word by which we are born again is not the Bible, nor the gospel, but the spoken voice, the creative fiat of God. Think of1 Peter 1:23in terms ofPsalms 33:6: "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." Does that mean that the universe was created by the Bible, or by the gospel? No. It means it was created by the sheer power of God’s command. The same God who called the widow’s son, Jairus’ daughter’ and Lazarus to life, still calls sinners who are ‘dead in trespasses and in sins’ to life in Christ. That is the power of Divine imperative. The gospel, then explains what has happened. {1 Peter 1:25}