You cannot deny it.

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:44 ESV)

If you have received salvation through Christ, then you know you have been called. If you do not know Jesus but are here seeking to learn about him, most likely, God is calling you. There is an inner calling of the Holy Spirit, a guiding force that Calvin called sensus divinitatis, an inner sense that God exists, an innate sense of God per se. This is often called an effectual calling, a sign of the Holy Spirit's active role in our lives.

            John recalls Christ's words, which essentially summarize this calling. Jesus tells us that unless we are called by God, we cannot come to Christ and will not receive salvation. John tells us in his gospel that this drawing comes from the Holy Spirit, our divine guide in the process of regeneration. In 3:1-8 John writes, unless we are born again in Spirit, we cannot see or enter the kingdom of heaven. All of this is a part of the process of regeneration.

            From a theological standpoint, we often talk about God's irresistible grace. This is the effectual calling. This calling will eventually come upon those who are God’s elect. Paul writes of this in Ephesians 1:3-6: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us[a] for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” God chose not because of anything in or about us, but because of His sovereign will, which never fails.

If you are here seeking Christ, you cannot avoid it. You can try to deny it, you can try to resist it, but the effectual calling will never go away. You were chosen, and it is God’s will. God will never lose those he has chosen. In this, we can take assurance that our salvation will never end.

Grace and Peace!