Introduction⤒🔗

The verb ‘to call’ is common enough. How often have we not heard that we were called? But it makes a difference who calls and for what purpose.

The noun ‘calling’ is much less common, although we can say that we should follow our calling.

In the context of this article, however, ‘to call’ and ‘calling’ is about more than the common meaning. For it is God who calls us.

When you think about the relationship between him and us, this is amazing. God could have left the human race, which had turned its back on him, to its own devices. But in Genesis 3:9 we read: ‘But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”’ This passage reveals that God makes human beings responsible for what they have done. But in light of what follows, it reveals more. The Lord also calls human beings back to him.

He continues to call them earnestly and powerfully. The letters of Paul make very clear what his purpose is: ‘God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful’ (1 Cor 1:9), ‘encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory’ (1 Thess 2:12). This is the theme we want to maintain.

But does God call everyone, even those who have never heard the gospel message? God speaks to all people. Acts 14:16 and 17 says that God has not left himself without testimony among the nations, for he has done good among them.

Much has been written about the ‘general revelation’ that all people receive. No one can say that she is not aware of God in any way. People seek God either intentionally or unintentionally. For there are religions and at minimum there is a perception that there is a higher power with which human beings have to deal.

But to come to know God, we must be called out of darkness into his wonderful light (cf. 1 Pet 2:9). This Scripture passage and quite a number of others refer to the calling to salvation that God grants in Christ. At the same time, it is a calling to proclaim his great deeds. Being called to salvation also means being called to sanctification. Our entire life is dedicated to the calling. We may even be called to a special service.

The Calling in the Old Testament←⤒🔗

Sometimes the main thing is the calling to the service of God. That is especially so in the Old Testament, where we read of the calling of Moses, Samuel, and of the prophets, such as Isaiah and Jeremiah. In response to his calling, Moses responds, ‘Here I am’ (Exod 3:4). The Lord also called Samuel by name, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And Samuel replied, ‘Speak, for your servant is listening’ (1 Sam 3:10).

God speaks with authority and he ensures that people respond to his word and that they enter his service.

On a few occasions the calling is to a person whom God involves in carrying out his plan and to whom he gives a particular task to be carried out in God’s service. The person must obey even if he doesn’t know that he is acting in God’s service. Think, for example, of Cyrus, the king of Persia, of whom the Lord says: ‘I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him. I will bring him, and he will succeed in his mission’ (Isa 48:15).

Israel is the people God has called. No other nation has been called to salvation and to the service of the Lord in the same way. The nation of God’s calling is the nation of God’s choice. The Lord did not choose this nation because of its special characteristics, but because he wanted to demonstrate his love and faithfulness. That is clearly apparent when he speaks to his people, calls them by name, and says to them, ‘you are mine’ (Isa 43:1).

The outstanding example of a person who was called is the servant of the Lord. Of him the Lord says: ‘I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles’ (Isa 42:6). This prophecy is fulfilled in the person of the Messiah, who brings righteousness and salvation on earth.

It is also striking that people can refuse to respond to the call. The Lord has to punish his people because they have not answered him when he called, and did not listen when he spoke to them, but instead did what was evil in his sight and chose to do what displeased him (Isa 65:12).

The Calling in the New Testament←⤒🔗

The New Testament also speak about a calling to a particular service. The Lord Jesus calls his disciples and Paul says of himself that he was called to be an apostle (Rom 1:1).

The emphasis falls on the calling to salvation in Christ. In the gospel it is Jesus who calls sinners to repentance. We saw this already from letters of Paul and Peter. These also say that God calls people to eternal life and to his eternal glory (1 Tim 6:12; 1 Pet 5:10).

The key text is 1 Corinthians 1:9. The fellowship with Christ to which we are called according to this apostolic word is what it is all about. The word ‘fellowship’ (koinonia in Greek) means participation in the first place. We may share in Christ and all his gifts. The apostle is thinking here of an act of God by which he includes people in salvation who were formerly excluded. In the proclamation of the gospel, God calls them to himself. His word is an invitation to seek him and to find salvation with him. But it is actually more than an invitation. Pop says: ‘Since it is God who extends the invitation, the power of his salvific will is also already included in the invitation to those he calls. It is a power that grabs them, wrenches them free from their bonds, and enables them to respond to the call. It is a power that truly delivers them out of the power of darkness and carries them into Christ’s kingdom’.

‘You have been called’ (aoristus, Eph 4:1; 1 Pe 2:21). That points to a decisive event. When the verb is in the present tense, which also happens often, it means that the calling is not something that is a passing phase. God continues to call and we must continue to respond.

How does he call us? By his Word and in particular by the gospel of Christ. He calls us to account in both his promises and in his demands. And by his Spirit he ensures that we listen to his voice and we believe and obey.

When God calls us, the call is an act of his grace and his power. And therefore the calling is not an isolated event, but is included in an all-embracing bond of divine salvific thoughts and actions that Paul describes as an unbroken chain in Romans 8:29-30. ‘The powerful, effective call of God by the proclamation of the gospel’ flows out of God’s eternal election as his first action in time (H. Ridderbos).

In Romans 8 election and calling belong together and that applies also to the reverse, namely, that we must make our calling and election sure (2 Pet 1:10) by means of the gospel and God’s promises and our faithful life, by which we are strengthened in the certain knowledge that God has chosen us.

But what must we think of the words that conclude the parable of the wedding banquet, ‘For many are called, but few are chosen’ (Matt 22:14 ESV)?

There are people who are called, but who are not elect, as is apparent from their reaction to the gospel. In this parable calling is equated with invitation. The New Testament Greek has one word for this (kalein). In the parable it means invited in the first place. See Matthew 22:9: ‘Invite to the banquet anyone you find’’. In verse 14 most translations translate the word as called, but another translation, ‘For many are invited, but few are chosen’ (NIV 1984) is also possible.

Those who were initially invited refused to attend. They have to pay a penalty, for the invitation by the king is not without obligations. So then the king instructs his servants to invite people off the street. The king also grants people who seem not to be entitled to attend a place in the wedding hall. But then it appears that one person sits among the guests who is not wearing wedding clothes. He does not want to wear the garment of the blessed. And so he is cast out of the feast.

Therefore God does not extend his invitation without expecting a response. He has room in his kingdom for people. The gospel is given to all: Come to the wedding feast! But we must take the invitation seriously and may not misuse it. It is irresponsible to refuse to come or to appear in a manner contrary to what the king wants. Unbelief is a great mystery; faith is a great wonder.

A Theological Distinction←⤒🔗

Partly in response to Scripture texts such as Matthew 22:14, Calvin speaks about a two-fold calling (duplex vocationis species). The diverse reactions to the gospel that we constantly observe, caused him and others to draw a distinction between a general and a special calling. Sometimes theologians speak of an external and an internal calling.

These terms have been criticized. The calling through the gospel is not general like the revelation that we can call general. And the term ‘external’ can give the impression that when God speaks to us in the gospel it is merely an outward calling. And, indeed, some have taught that this calling is exclusively external.

The Reformed confession does not use these terms, but says of the so-called general or external calling: ‘God earnestly and most sincerely reveals in his Word what is pleasing to him, namely that those who are called should come to him’. And of the special or internal calling it says: God ‘has chosen his own in Christ from eternity and calls them effectually within time’ (Canons of Dort, III/IV, 8, 10).

To come or not, does that decisive difference depend on the free will of people? Does the gospel suit one person better than another, or when they hear it is the one more receptive to it than another? Some theological theories have sought a solution along these lines, such as synergism and congruism.

But these approaches are wrong. No one whom God calls can truly come to him unless he himself effectuates it by giving him faith and conversion.

The calling that comes to us from God is always earnest, but it is not always so effectual that human beings respond to it. The seed of the gospel does not always fall in good soil. There is a difference in effect, but there is no difference in the content of the calling. To each person God says the same thing: ‘Turn to me and be saved’ (Isa 45:22). ‘Repent and believe the good news’ (Mark 1:15). ‘Come to the wedding banquet’ (Matt 22:4). And so, on Christ’s behalf, the apostle implores people: ‘Be reconciled to God’. (2 Cor 5:20).

That is why the Canons of Dort state that the promise of the gospel ‘ought to be announced and proclaimed universally and without discrimination to all peoples and to all men . . . together with the command to repent and believe’ (II, 5). That means that the promise is not only for those for whom it seems to apply because they are already more or less on the right path. We are called as we are and we may come as we are.

Considering the universal character of the invitation to salvation, we have no reason at all to doubt that God calls us too. The question can arise whether he calls not only others, but also us personally. When we receive baptism as sign and seal of God’s covenant, we are called. When we are baptized, his name is mentioned and so is ours. And when things are right, we will call on him who called us first. Those who call on his name will be saved.

Answering the call does not flow as a matter of course from being called. It is not automatic. The Biblical word ‘calling’ means that God treats us a people with our own personal responsibility. By calling us, he requires us to make a decision.

When God calls us into fellowship with him and into his service, he is very serious. When you desire to walk the way he shows you, but are unable to go as far as you would like, you may believe that the Lord is much more willing than anyone else. By the power of his Word and the work of his Spirit, he will draw us to himself and join us to himself forever.