James Foote
The third thing in the particular description of effectual calling which we are now tracing is “renewing the will”. This might open up the subject of regeneration in all its extent; but it would be out of place in this Treatise to go beyond what bears on the changing and influencing of the will, so as to bring the soul to comply with the invitation of mercy.
It might be thought that all who are in a sinful and perishing condition would be willing to accept – indeed would gladly welcome – the call to come to Christ for deliverance, but it is far otherwise. Men are not naturally inclined to receive Christ and to close with the salvation He offers – to “choose the good” and “refuse the evil”. In consequence of the Fall, the human will, like all the other faculties of the soul, is depraved and perverted. In particular, men are not willing – they are disinclined – to yield to Christ, to submit to Him as their Teacher, to trust in Him as their Redeemer, to obey Him as their Lord. The Lord Himself declares that this aversion is the great obstacle with many, when He says, “Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life” (Jn 5:40).
Emphasis is to be put on the word will in this text. It is not used to throw the word come into the future tense, but it is a separate word altogether: “Ye will not” – that is, ye are not willing; ye are unwilling; ye do not wish; ye do not choose to “come to Me”; ye have no desire to come; ye are averse from coming. Those who were bidden to the wedding “would not come” (Mt 22:3,5); they even “made light of it, and went their ways”.
There is generally a very great delusion on this point. Many are ready to think, and to excuse themselves in their thought, that the sole obstacle to closing with the gospel offer is their lack of power. Now it is very true that they lack the power, but in what sense? And what is the nature of their inability? It is not a physical, bodily inability; nor is it an intellectual inability or the absolute want of mental faculties; for, in either of these cases, there could be no guilt, unless indeed the inability was the result of previous crime. But it is a moral inability, connected with the state of their will and arising from the depravity of their hearts. Therefore it is criminal, indeed highly criminal, and the very essence of their guilt.
Keeping this in mind, it is an awful and very humbling truth which Paul
1Taken with editing from Foote’s Treatise on Effectual Calling. This extract comes from a chapter where Foote follows the pattern of the answer to Question 30 of The Shorter Catechism, “What is effectual calling?” Foote (1781-1856) was a minister in Aberdeen, latterly in the Free Church.
declares to the Romans: “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Those who are not renewed cannot obey or please God. And why? Because of the carnal mind – that is, because of the horrible wickedness of their hearts, their awful aversion to good and their proneness to evil. This lack of will causes the lack of power, because compliance is quite impossible, in the nature of things, till the will is gained. So, in every view, the inability is a heavy aggravation of their guilt instead of extenuating it. It is willfulness; it is obstinacy. They continue “wilfully ignorant” and willfully disobedient. The bias of their will is quite wrong. They “hate knowledge” and do not “choose the fear of the Lord”. We repeat: as long as this criminal unwillingness continues to prevail, it renders submission impossible.
What a mercy that the covenant of grace provides for the removal of this obstacle! In effectual calling, which is not an act but a work, consisting of several actings, the Spirit of God renews the will. Effectual calling is a work, not only on the conscience, of conviction; and on the understanding, of illumination; but also on the will, of renewing, producing a complete change. The will is renewed, not by being made another faculty, but as to its inclination. It is the same faculty differently directed, making a new choice. Its waywardness and obstinacy are overcome. Its aversion from all that is spiritual is gone, and is succeeded by a positive and decided bias in favour of what is good. This is evidently a divine work, influencing the volition and all the affections of the heart as well as the judgement.
The judgement and the heart influence each other, so that it is difficult, at least in many cases, to say which of these two the evil tendency or the good tendency begins with, or which is the more powerful. Doubtless, speaking of adults, the understanding is the leading faculty, and the heart is generally reached through it; but the saving change includes the putting forth of a gracious influence on the heart, as well as enabling the understanding to comprehend the truth. Perhaps the most correct explanation is that both are deranged together, and both are brought right together. A depraved heart darkens the judgement, and an erring judgement makes the heart worse and worse. The Spirit of God, in His work of grace, deals with both. In general, in order that the understanding may be properly enlightened, the heart must be renewed; and the understanding must be enlightened that the heart may be thoroughly renewed.
Accordingly the Lord promises a new heart to those who are to be subjects of His converting grace: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and
cause you to walk in My statutes.” Concerning their will in particular, the Father expressly promises the Redeemer: “Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power” (Ps 110:3). Yet this great change is effected, not by any outward force, not by any violence done to its subject, but in a way quite consistent with man’s rational nature, in connection with the illumination of the understanding, and by the special influence of unmerited grace, neither operating contrary to the will, or apart from it, but acting on the will and carrying the will along with it. When the Holy Spirit thus effectually calls men, He does so in the way of “renewing and powerfully determining their wills” (Larger Catechism, ans 67), “yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by His grace” (Westminster Confession of Faith 10:1).
Reader, do consider this point well and apply it to yourself, before leaving it. Reflect on the natural unwillingness of all to come to Christ for life, and their lack of desire for what can scripturally be called salvation. If you are not, in your heart, complying with God’s call, you are still secretly rebelling against it – although you may not admit that you are making light of it. If you are practically following your own ways, and not actually turning to the Lord, you may be quite sure that you have neither the disposition nor the sincere desire to turn to Him. If you think you have, you are only deceiving yourself – you are disregarding the gospel as well as the law.
Now, as the saving change is a mental and spiritual change, it is clear that, if you are ever to be brought into a state of salvation at all, it must be with your own consent. It is equally clear that, in order to be brought to that consenting frame of mind, you must undergo a complete and radical change – you must be born again and become a new creature “by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour”. How anxious then you should be for grace to renew you and to incline you to yield! How earnestly you should pray, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me;” “incline my heart unto Thy testimonies”. With what intensity (free indeed from self-righteousness and self-dependence, yet fully aware of the necessity of your own exertions) you should strive to overcome the sinful disinclination of your heart to the Saviour, and to fall in with the invitations of His word and the strivings of the Spirit!
Beware lest continued adherence to your original, bad choice and a determined refusal of offered mercy should involve you in the fatal consequences which you may sometimes dread and which the Lord certainly threatens: “Yea, they have chosen their own ways . . . I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer” (Is 66:3,4). Why this disinclination? Why this strange unwillingness to what,
in every view, is so reasonable, so necessary, so desirable; and to what would lead, in every way to your welfare? O foolish immortal, “before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified”, and in whose ears the invitations of divine love are sounding, who or what has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth? What catastrophe has befallen you, what infatuation has seized you, what spell has bound you, that you are unwilling or that you hesitate for a single moment to come Christ for light, pardon, peace, holiness, happiness, heaven?
In the name of the eternal, almighty and ever-blessed Lord God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; in the name of all the evil that may be escaped and all the good that may be obtained; in the name of every sane and just thought that can enter the mind and determine the decision of a rational, accountable and immortal being; in the name of every lovely principle and every sincere feeling that can inhabit the breast of humanity; in the name of all that is dear to you in time and throughout eternity, I beseech you to receive willingly the salvation that is in Christ Jesus.