James Foote
We now come to consider another property of effectual calling: it is not according to works, but of God’s sovereign, gracious and eternal purpose. To consider it is necessary to obtain a full, scriptural view of the subject; to receive it rightly is at once most humbling and most encouraging. The ideas expressed in this property are so intimately connected that they will be best understood, and most readily established, by viewing them in connection with each other, or at least in immediate succession.
First of all, observe how explicitly this property, as thus fully stated, is taught in such passages of Scripture as the following: God “hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began”; “called according to His purpose . . . whom He did predestinate, them He also called”; “that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth”; “it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me” (2 Tim 1:9; Rom 8:28,30, 9:11; Gal 1:15,16).
You see then how expressly and fully this doctrine is taught in the Word of God, in immediate connection with effectual calling – not to speak of many other passages, some of which are brief and some long sustained reasonings, where the same doctrine is taught in a more general way. Indeed, the thorough-going doctrine of salvation by grace, or as the result of God’s sovereign, unmerited, eternal, electing love, is just as plainly taught in Scripture as any doctrine whatever. It must be some entire misunderstanding of it, or some unfounded prejudice against it, that can lead anyone who has anything like a due regard to the authority of Scripture to hesitate to embrace it. Passages so direct and so positive ought to satisfy the mind.
Looking more narrowly into the question, anyone who will reflect calmly, and without prejudice, will see that the opposite doctrine involves ideas that contradict the Word of God and each other. If it is true, for example, that before men are effectually called – while they are “in the flesh”, in their natural state – there is “no good thing” in them, how is it possible that they can be called either on account of, or according to, any good works of their own? How can that come into consideration, either as a meritorious cause or as a means, in reference to a time when it does not exist? It is true that men will be judged at the last day according to their works, but that is quite a different matter: the good works of believers will then be fixed on, not as the ground, or means, of their being taken into a state of favour with God, but as a proof that they are already in a state of favour, and as a necessary and divinely-imparted qualification for heaven.
This is one of the many reasons for distinguishing the two leading senses of the word salvation. If by salvation we understand admission into heaven, there must be holiness before that; but if by salvation we understand a state of salvation, or acceptance with God, on earth, holiness is not before that, and it cannot be.
God saves and calls His people, not according to their works, but “according to His own purpose and grace”, or gracious purpose. A purpose is an intention, a resolution. It would virtually amount to atheism to hold that God has no purposes; and it would be blasphemy to say that His purposes, whatever they may relate to, can ever be frustrated. “The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand”. And then, as to the extent of His purposes, we are told He “worketh all things after the counsel of His own will”. Everything therefore relating to that very important matter, the salvation of sinners, must be included in that counsel, unless anything is specially excepted.
So far, however, from anything connected with this part of the divine economy being excepted, everything is expressly said, in the passages just quoted, to be arranged. God’s purpose to save is what is called sovereign. This does not mean that God determines anything blindly, without any reason at all but that, while all His purposes are the wisest and best, He is not moved to save, or to resolve to save, any sinners on account of any goodness foreseen in them. His purpose to save, you will also observe, is not conditional but positive. It is not that He has resolved to save sinners provided they obey the gospel call, but that He has resolved that certain sinners shall obey it and, of course, be saved. It is His purpose that they shall be saved in the way of being called. His purpose too includes all circumstances – the means as well as the end.
This purpose, like all God’s purposes, is from everlasting; for, unless something could occur in time which He did not foresee, and which could not be provided for by God from eternity, there could be no reason for Him forming any new purpose in time. But any such occurrence would argue imperfection in God, which cannot be; therefore all His purposes are eternal.
Moreover, this purpose to save includes the work of Christ, as well as the work of the Holy Spirit. It is according to God’s glorious purpose, “which was given us” (says Paul, in the name of all God’s people) “in Christ Jesus before the world began”. The purpose was “given” to the elect – that is, formed and engaged in their favour – “in Christ Jesus”. This is true in two respects: (1) as He, by way of eminence, is called God’s “Elect”, who was chosen as representing His people; and also (2) as He is the great Covenant-Head, by whom the purpose was to be accomplished in them. Or, in other words still, the purpose includes, in reference to all who shall ever be saved, and in reference to them alone, the purchase as well as the application of redemption (Eph 1:3-12).
Such is the doctrine which the plain and positive language of Scripture teaches: and we have additional confirmation that this is the doctrine really taught there because some at the present day object to it, just as some objected to it in the days of the Apostle Paul. He meets their objections at great length in Romans 9.
Rest assured that the difficulties connected with this doctrine – supposing the inquirer is free from prejudice and the pride of self-righteousness and self-dependence – are only such as unavoidably arise from the limited range of the human faculties. They occur in almost every subject, when its investigation is pushed beyond a certain length; and the difficulties connected with the opposite doctrine, which would set aside the plain meaning of the scriptural language in question are far greater and more numerous, and present themselves at a much earlier stage of the inquiry. There is indeed no just reason for disliking the sound doctrine but quite the reverse. How can there be solid satisfaction in any other way? If you are to be “saved” and “called”, it must be either by God’s grace, or by your own merit; it cannot be by a combination of the two.
You may be inclined to say, I think the safest way for me will be to seek salvation partly by both, and to trust, not to either of them alone, but to both together; for if one is useful, both united will be better. But you would do well to remember that, while two different ways of salvation are described in Scripture – the one by works and the other by grace – it is impossible for you to proceed on these two different ways at the same time. You must have a perfect righteousness either in yourself or in Christ. If you begin in grace and seek to be perfected by your own merit, or imagine that, where you are deficient, He will supply – you mar the whole. Christ will not divide the honour with you. The song of the redeemed is not addressed to Christ as having assisted them, but to Christ as having saved them. The language of the Saviour to all His true disciples is, “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain”.