#effectualcalling

The idea that God chooses us and not the other way round came up at staff devotions yesterday while discussing this passage:

(Mark 4:10-12 ESV) [The Purpose of the Parables]

[10] And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. [11] And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, [12] so that 

“they may indeed see but not perceive,

and may indeed hear but not understand,

lest they should turn and be forgiven.” 

The good old Westminster Confession of Faith describes this as Effectual Calling. It says:

I. All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, and those only, He is pleased, in His appointed time, effectually to call, by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature to grace and salvation, by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God, taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them an heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and, by His almighty power, determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ: yet so, as they come most freely, being made willing by His grace.

II. This effectual call is of God's free and special grace alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man, who is altogether passive therein, until, being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit, he is thereby enabled to answer this call, and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it. 

(WCOF X.I-II)

The video above is a hymn describing exactly this. It's by Matthew Smith and is a really good summary of the issue.

In light of all this we still describe being saved as "accepting Jesus into your life". There are two dangers here:

We worry that, because we have chosen Jesus, He may one day reject us.

We become prideful. Jesus owes us because we chose Him.