Why Do I Believe in Jesus Christ?

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms:

The Blessing of Effectual Calling in the Grace of the Redeemer

Good Morning!

This week as we look at the catechism questions as the Divines usually do they take one subject from the previous section and expand on it. When it comes to salvation and how men are saved, and thereby shown to be members of the invisible church, well it needs to be clarified how all that works. As with all questions of doctrine and life the answer that every preacher normally wants when he asks a question is: Jesus. The situation is no different here. Men are dead in sin by the use of their free will and they maintain their place in perdition through the act of that same desire. What changes them to want by nature to no longer be aliens, but friends of the Most High God? Again, the answer is no different: Jesus. For today’s Larger Catechism help we’ll be examining what it is about the second person of the Trinity that makes all the difference when it comes to men and their faith. Here are today’s Q/A’s:

Q. 66: What is that union which the elect have with Christ?
A. The union which the elect have with Christ is the work of God’s grace, whereby they are spiritually and mystically, yet really and inseparably, joined to Christ as their head and husband; which is done in their effectual calling.

Q. 67: What is effectual calling?
A. Effectual calling is the work of God’s almighty power and grace, whereby (out of his free and special love to his elect, and from nothing in them moving him thereunto) he does, in his accepted time, invite and draw them to Jesus Christ, by his word and Spirit; savingly enlightening their minds, renewing and powerfully determining their wills, so as they (although in themselves dead in sin) are hereby made willing and able freely to answer his call, and to accept and embrace the grace offered and conveyed therein.

Q. 68: Are the elect only effectually called?
A. All the elect, and they only, are effectually called; although others may be, and often are, outwardly called by the ministry of the word, and have some common operations of the Spirit; who, for their willful neglect and contempt of the grace offered to them, being justly left in their unbelief, do never truly come to Jesus Christ.

Q. 69: What is the communion in grace which the members of the invisible church have with Christ?
A. The communion in grace which the members of the invisible church have with Christ, is their partaking of the virtue of his mediation, in their justification, adoption, sanctification, and whatever else, in this life, manifests their union with him.

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