Article 1. All those whom God has predestined to life, and those only, He is pleased in His appointed and accepted 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. He enlightens their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God, takes away their heart of stone, and gives them a heart of flesh, renewing their wills, and by His almighty power determining them to that which is good. He effectually draws them to Jesus Christ, yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by His grace.
Article 2. This effectual call is of God’s free and special grace alone, not from anything foreseen in man or from any power or agency in the creature. Man 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.
Article 3. Elect infants dying in infancy are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit, who works when, where, and how He pleases. So also are all elect persons, who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word.
Article 4. Others not elected, although they may be called by the ministry of the Word and may have some common operations of the Spirit, yet not being effectually drawn by the Father, they neither will nor can truly come to Christ; they therefore cannot be saved. Much less can men that do not receive the Christian religion be saved, be they ever so diligent to frame their lives according to the light of nature and the law of that religion they do profess.
Article 2. This effectual call is of God’s free and special grace alone, not from anything foreseen in man or from any power or agency in the creature. Man 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.
Article 3. Elect infants dying in infancy are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit, who works when, where, and how He pleases. So also are all elect persons, who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word.
Article 4. Others not elected, although they may be called by the ministry of the Word and may have some common operations of the Spirit, yet not being effectually drawn by the Father, they neither will nor can truly come to Christ; they therefore cannot be saved. Much less can men that do not receive the Christian religion be saved, be they ever so diligent to frame their lives according to the light of nature and the law of that religion they do profess.
Q. What is effectual calling?
A. Effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, He does persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the Gospel.
--The Baptist Catechism, Question 34
