I remember the look of irritation on the face of the lady who answered the door, and I remember how that same looked eroded into unbridled contempt as her glance took in our bibles. Without even engaging us, she closed the door to go back to whatever slumber we had drawn her out of, raising her voice as she did so (above the voice of my companion's knee-jerk and hasty, would-be sales pitch) to say, "I got my own religion, leave me alone." The fellow I was with turned on the stairs, and with mechanical indifference, we turned our attention to the house next door; but my heart was heavy within me.

I honestly would love to tell you dear reader, and have it be true,that my heart was burdened for this woman's soul, but my heart was not heavy for her soul, it was heavy for my own. Why was I doing this? I had read the scriptures, and I didn't see anything that looked like door to door sales in the scriptures. I wasn't there that morning acting upon some conviction to save the lost; I was there that morning responding to peer pressure and protecting the reputation I wanted to project: "Good and faithful servant."

Can I be straight with you, oh faceless reader of my words? Unlike Moody who quipped, "I like my way of doing evangelism better than your way of not doing evangelism", I actually prefer to not "do" evangelism (insert "shock value" here), if by "evangelism" one is talking about employing any scheme to harvest the lost that, at its heart, denies the sovereignty of God.

I am not suggesting however, that Christians I do not engage in evangelism, I do. Nor am I suggesting that we shouldn't evangelize the lost - we should. Rather my concern is with those who are dressing up as spiritual, what amounts to a numbers racket. Hand out a thousand tracts, and the odds are good that someone will be saved. Knock on a hundred doors, and the odds are good that someone will be polite enough to sit through your "gospel presentation". Learn how to control a conversation, and you will have more opportunity to bypass arguments. Look for "felt needs" in people lives so that you can offer Jesus as the balm. Sell Jesus with love, love, love. People want to be loved, and you can use that as an "in".

I tell you I despise this kind of "evangelism" - the kind that pays lip-service to the saving power of the message itself, and instead relies upon statistics, behavioral sciences, schemes, and human persuasiveness. Paul tossed all that out knowing only Christ and Him crucified in His evangelism. What passes for evangelism these days looks nothing like that. It is human invention dressed up as something spiritual, and the sooner it finds its grave, the better. If you share the news that what was promised in the scriptures by the prophets concerning the coming of God's anointed one has come to pass in Jesus.

If you share that God is reconciling people from all nations to Himself in and through His Christ, and if you share that every sinner who calls upon the name of God will be saved from God's coming wrath through placing your trust in God to provide this promised reconciliation, you are evangelizing. You don't have to cross the world to do it, you probably don't even have to cross the street to do it. All you need to do is surrender yourself in obedience to God, and when an opportunity arises to speak the truth in love, cast your reputation aside, and do it for God's glory.

What God has done deserves to be declared, in fact, is it not a cosmic crime to hold that truth in you hiding it from others when you can freely impart it? Do you make yourself the arbiter of who should receive this information? This one is polite and nice, so I will say something to him if I get the chance, but not that one, look at how she dresses. Listen: Do you really believe that what Christ did was worthy of being told? Then tell it! Not because some guy told you to, but because you have looked at the worth of Christ and understood what that worth demands of all who come into the knowledge of it. Don't evangelize because someone has pressured you, don't ride the coat-tails of someone else's dream - share the truth both because you know it, and especially because God's glory demands it.

If you are engaged in wonky forms of evangelism, may I suggest, Christian, that you get your Head on straight? (you saw what I did there, right?).

Labels: effectual calling, evangelism

In each of the four gospels John the Baptist describes the coming Christ as the one who would baptize, not in water, but in the Holy Spirit. Jesus Himself, at His ascension (c.f. Acts 1:5), remarks that in the same way John baptized people in water, so all of those gathered with Jesus at the time would likewise be baptized in the Holy Spirit -and this, "not many days from now" (ie. at Pentecost).

I should note for some that the word baptize simply means to immerse one thing entirely into another thing. A body was "baptized" in a tomb, a cucumber into brine, etc.. In some contexts it is obviouse what is being baptized into what, but in other contexts these details are supplied.

Believers began to be baptized in the Holy Spirit (by Christ) on the day of Pentecost. This baptism was a new covenant promise (see Ezekiel 36:26-27) and was described by our Lord as a change in the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who formerly was with believers, but would, when the He came (ie. at Pentecost), dwell in belevers. (c.f. John 14:17).

In Galatians 3:27, Paul speaks of believers as being baptized into Christ. In Romans 8:9, Paul writes that anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. In other words every genuine believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. When do we receive the Holy Spirit? We receive Him when we believe.

In Romans 6, Paul tells us that our union with Christ is a product of this same baptism. We who have believed have been baptized in Christ, and through this baptism we are united with Him in His death, burial and resurrection.

This union did two things. It joined Christ to our guilt, and joined us to His righteousness.

It is a mind-blowing thing, but Jesus didn't take our disembodies sins with Him to Calvary tucked away in some sort of separate, spiritual back-pack; The scriptures tell us that Jesus became (our) sin for us. Said another way, He became a partaker of our guilt (condemnation). How did he become a partaker of our guilt? Through our union with Him.

It is just as mind-blowing to think that God did not idly forgive us, as though He saw His own Son destroyed and was so sad He was willing to forgive anything. No, we became partakers of Christ's life - His righteousness. When Christ lay in the tomb, there we were with Him through this same union. In order to raise up Christ from the dead, God had to find us as acceptable as Christ who Himself knew no sin. Christ found favor for us with God (ie. made propitation) through His own life which we became partakers of through this same union.

One might look at the ordinance of the Lord's table - where his blood represents the spilling out of his life that expiates our sin, and his body represents the life he lived that made propitiation on our behalf - all this we take into ourself - picturing our union with Christ, through which the atoning work of Christ has its perfect work.

Labels: Christ, effectual calling, election, Jesus, justification

Preachers long for one Sunday in a thousand: the sermon seems as effective in the pulpit as it was in the study. The tongue doesn’t trip over the lips, illustrations are clear, and the Spirit seems to bless. But when that day comes, nothing happens. The post-church ritual of “Nice sermon, pastor,” is unchanged, and everyone wonders off to the parking lot, and the pastor returns to his routine.

A preacher may have a great burden for one lost sinner in the congregation. He wants that soul to reach heaven, and so he crafts his sermons to touch the precise points which that listener needs to hear. Again, nothing happens. The target audience smiles pleasantly on the way out of church, and the pastor’s heart sinks.

Then one day the preacher leaves the pulpit shame-faced. Such poor preaching must indicate inadequate preparation. The right word constantly eludes him, the illustrations miss he mark, and everything ends in an uncertain muddle. But on this day some timid soul comes quietly and says, “Pastor, I need to sit down and have a talk with you. I need to know the Lord.”

Why are men saved under mediocre preaching while extraordinary preaching so often accomplishes little? The answer is that there are two voices in every true sermon. One is the voice of the pastor, known in Scripture as “the ministry of the Word,” which on its own cannot touch the heart. The other is the voice of Christ, who speaks through preaching, or, to put it another way, “by his Word and Spirit; savingly enlightens their minds, renews and powerfully determines 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.”

Labels: Catechism Buzz, effectual calling, holy spirit, Sermon

It may be tempting to dismiss effectual calling as simply a systematic lugnut that keeps the wheels of Calvinism from falling off.  But when I can look back and see my own sin and the deadness of my heart of stone, I recognize that how far I was from God, and His enemy, not His friend, until He graciously and lovingly directed my path so that I was brought to the end of myself, and the beginning of life with him.

At the risk of turning this answer into “what does it mean to me,” I want to suggest that there’s a real need to understand what’s being said here, even if you’d never call yourself a Calvinist. We are the ones who are forgiven much; we are the ones who see the work of the Triune God to save us.

Effectual calling is that work in great detail, involving all three persons of the Trinity, and rightly understood, it should move us beyond scholastic doctrinal orthodoxy to true love, joy, and affection for our salvation and our Savior.

Labels: Catechism Buzz, effectual calling, grace, salvation

I suppose one of the silliest objections I’ve ever heard to the doctrines of grace is this:

I just don’t think that God would drag anyone kicking and screaming into heaven.

To which I have always wondered, “Why not? Doesn’t He love us enough?”

On one of the worst nights of parenting I’ve experienced yet we had my then two-year-old at the emergency room. He had been sick for days, had not been eating, and that day had refused even to drink. The doctors confirmed that he had become dehydrated, and that this was a potentially dangerous situation. He needed to be rehydrated quickly, and for that he would need an IV.  I suppose I could have respected his free will as an intelligent creature and just let his kidneys fail, but it didn’t seem quite the thing to do.  So I sent my poor wife away to the furthest corner of the ER, and I held him down, kicking and screaming, while the doctors prodded at his arm with a needle and - ultimately - saved his life.

My point is this: if I were dying and going to hell, and if God’s only option to save me were to drag me kicking and screaming into His kingdom, then I sincerely hope that He would do exactly that. Of course, God is not very much like me, and because of that He has more than just one option. I was unable to make my son willing and able freely to accept and embrace the hypodermic needle and the life-saving saline solution conveyed therein. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, when He enlightens our minds and renews our wills, makes us desire salvation, so that we arrive at Heaven’s door not kicking and screaming, but leaping and rejoicing.

Labels: effectual calling, grace, love of God, regeneration, salvation, savior

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. - Paul of Tarsus (Ephesians 5:31-32) [ESV]

Paul is quoting from Genesis 2:24 where two significant things should be addressed: [1] man was to "hold fast" to his wife - meaning that he was to stick with her no matter what.  And [2] the two thus united became one flesh.  Adam and Eve already shared one flesh (she was formed from his rib), becoming one flesh meant to share in the same life together.

When Paul tells us that the marriage of a man to a woman pictures Christ and the church he is telling us [1] that just as the man clings to his wife, so Christ clings to the church - pursuing her, overtaking her, and clinging to her.  He is also telling us that [2] believers and Christ partake of the same life (i.e. the life of Christ).

The union that Christ has with the elect is a spiritual one - we become partakers of Christ's (eternal) life - and this not because we have overtaken Christ but because He has overtaken those he has loved.

Labels: Christ, effectual calling, Ephesians 5, marriage

My son is a perfectly-healthy boy who (let's face it: he's my son) would rather play video games than do anything else.  I mean: rather than eat.

If the house caught on fire while he was playing video games, what would be the most fatherly thing for me to do?

1. Run out of the house and call 911 in order to have my child saved.
2. Call out in a loud voice as I run out of the house, so it is possible that the boy will listen and will be therefore saved.
3. Literally go get him and run him out of the house without regard to whether or not his level is complete?

Labels: effectual calling, election, salvation

Labels: Christ, effectual calling, election, union

I'm sure this statement of the catechism raises ire among all manner of people -- the whole world, in fact.  But it's a pretty limited statement.

Here's some of the things it does NOT say:

• It does NOT say that there are some who will believe who cannot be saved by Christ
• It does NOT say that evangelism is a useless endeavor
• It does NOT say that God is evil because of some post-biblical logical conundrum dreamed up by people who are afraid of God being God and not merely president of all things or some such diminished notion.

What this statement actually says is this: Union with Christ equals God's Grace.  That is: unless God decides to save anyone, and takes action to save anyone (not just in theory, or perhaps even as just one of several possibilities), no one will be saved.

Labels: Christ, effectual calling, election, grace, salvation

I can think of three good reasons why it is impossible for Christ to be frustrated in this way:

Labels: effectual calling, election, salvation