The Call That Opens Blind Eyes
Notes
Transcript
We are continuing to work our way through the enormous statement to be found in the 28th verse of Romans chapter 8, in which we read
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.
Thus far, we have worked our way through these first two phrases, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good”, and starting last time we have begun considering the final phrase, “for those who are called according to His purpose”.
And it is important that we give this last phrase as much attention as we gave the first two, for in our effort to fully understand this, we’ve been left with a burning question on account of such a thorough understanding of the nature of the man or woman in their natural state, having been constituted or appointed sinners, according to Romans 5.
Sin has corrupted the perception of the natural person, such that they cannot help but misjudge both good and evil. Oh, a person can tell the difference when it comes to what men think, but God’s definition of good, God’s definition of evil?
Man in his fallen state cannot spiritually appraise, love, and pursue good and evil as God defines them, though he may know and even approve the words.
It is the difference between a person knowing how keys on a piano work, but yet forever being incapable of hearing the beauty of music played by a master.
Sin has not only corrupted our perceptions, but under the realm and dominion of sin, their affections have also been defiled, such that in the natural state men and women love darkness rather than light, their heart despises God – “there is none who seeks for God”, Paul had written in chapter 3 of this epistle.
Within the fallen man or woman, there is no remaining “island of righteousness”, there is no native liberty of our will to turn toward God as He reveals Himself to be in Scripture. In other words, there is within the natural person, no capacity for a person to incline themselves savingly toward God – this, we have well established through Romans 5 and 7, Ephesians 2, John 3, and elsewhere.
But the pressing question, then, becomes if this declaration by God so continually throughout His word is true, how can anyone ever be changed from one who hates God into one who loves God in the manner described here?
How we began answering this question last time was to realize that “those who love God” and “those who are called according to His purpose” are not two separate groups, but the same group of people, a single group that is described from two separate and distinct perspectives. The first perspective is that of human experience, “those who love God” is fundamentally an experiential description, whereas the effectual call by God is the underlying cause for that change.
The idea that fallen man retains some untouched faculty by which a person may decisively choose for God on his or her own cannot finally be reconciled with what Scripture has declared concerning the effects of sin upon the whole person. However sincerely it may be held, it allows our natural judgment of what man must be capable of doing to correct God’s own description of what fallen man actually is. And in that instinct, we hear again an echo of the Fall – the desire to make our own judgment, rather than God’s revelation, the final measure of truth.
To be sure, human willingness in conversion is real – but that willingness is the fruit of God’s gracious action, not the cause of it. Our love for God has its source in God’s effectual call, and that call has its source in God’s eternal purpose – this call’s origin, direction, and certainty are found wholly in God rather than in a person’s willingness, wisdom, or spiritual potential.
But it is precisely here that we must begin making some careful distinctions, lest we ourselves go awry in how we approach Scripture.
Let me show you what I mean really quickly:
First, let’s remember the conclusion of Jesus’ parable of the wedding feast, where He declares in Matthew 22:14,
“For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Here are people who are genuinely called – genuinely invited, you could say – and yet, Jesus here definitively distinguishes between those who are called and those who are chosen. Many received the invitation, but not all who receive it actually participate in the wedding feast.
Now, I am not going to suggest that we simply run to the Greek and leave it at that. In fact, the Greek makes such an escape impossible; the word Jesus used translated as “called” in Matthew 22:14 and the word Paul uses in Romans 8:28 are merely two grammatical forms of the same word, κλητός. Then, down in Romans 8:30, Paul uses the related verb ἐκάλεσεν, from καλέω, where we read of an unbroken chain that not only includes being called, but also much more:
and those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified; and those whom He justified, He also glorified.
And so, we’re left with something of a conundrum: the same word-family describes a call that may be refused in one passage, and then a call that unfailingly results in justification in another. The vocabulary is closely related, yet the results are entirely different.
And that is a very hard thing for us to reconcile in our minds, even we who are in Christ Jesus. It is on account of such things that we wrestle with questions like,
Does the word “called” always mean precisely the same thing?
How do we reconcile 2 very different connotations to this same word “call”?
Is Jesus describing the same calling as Paul?
In reality, the difficulty before us doesn’t really even revolve around the mere question about the meaning of a word, no! Instead, our real question at the end of the day is really about the character of God.
The great difficulty we have is a nagging thought that begins to arise in the back of our minds, thinking that if the call described in Romans 8 is an action of God, and that call is absolutely certain to bring some people to justification, then why does God not call everyone in that same manner?
If God determines who will savingly turn to Him, does that not mean that He chooses some people for heaven and chooses everyone else for hell? If those whom He does not so call are unable to turn to Him unless He first acts within them, how can they justly be condemned for failing to do what they are incapable of doing?
Would that not make God unfair?
No, not at all. Their inability arises from their own sinful nature and voluntary hostility, not from God’s failure to call them effectually.
That objection carries tremendous emotional force. But before we accept its reasoning, we must notice the picture of both man and God it quietly assumes. Such a view makes it appear as though God finds two equally innocent people, admits one into heaven, bars the other from coming, and then condemns that person for failing to enter.
But this is not the view of either God or man that Paul has described throughout this letter to the Romans.
Men and women do not begin as innocent people, no! Every ordinary descendant of Adam – Christ alone excepted – enters this world constituted a sinner in Adam.
God does not stand before willing seekers and refuse to receive some of them, no! Apart from His gracious action, there are no such “willing seekers”. Men and women already stand condemned for their own sin, their own unbelief, and their own willing rejection of the God who made them.
If God left every sinner in willing rebellion, He would do no one an injustice. Condemnation gives sinners the justice their sin deserves; effectual calling gives some sinners mercy they could never deserve on their own.
And we must be absolutely clear: mercy shown to one guilty sinner, does not become injustice toward another.
And into this reality is that general call of God our Lord spoke of in Matthew 22, this is the setting into which we see Paul’s proclamation in the Areopagus of Athens,
“Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now commanding men that everyone everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He determined, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead.”
Notice carefully what Paul says here! It’s not that God merely suggests that men and women repent. Paul isn’t suggesting that God offers repentance as either a mere possibility or even an “improvement” for those who happen to feel some religious interest.
No, there is an immediacy to the command, Paul is not suggesting that God is simply waiting, standing by, hoping to see what fallen man might decide to do as if He set things in motion and is just wishfully hoping that things work out as He passively observes what will become of His creation.
No, God commands repentance.
The word Paul uses here carries the force of an authoritative charge or command. The gospel does indeed contain a gracious invitation, but it is never merely an invitation that fallen man is free to regard with indifference and without consequence.
And notice the scope of this command, it is not limited: everyone, everywhere are commanded to repent.
There is no nation exempted from it, no social class beyond it, no degree of intelligence that removes a person from it, and no religious background that makes repentance unnecessary. Highborn and lowborn, Jew and Gentile, men and women, the outwardly moral and the openly profane all are commanded to repent.
Why does God command this?
Because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through the Man whom He has appointed – Jesus Christ the Righteous.
The general call of the gospel rests upon the universal authority of the risen Christ. Each and every person must repent because each of us will one day stand before Him.
God has furnished proof of this to all by raising Jesus Christ from the dead, Christ died for our sins according the Scriptures, that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.
So, when we speak of the general call of God, we are speaking of this outward proclamation of the gospel by which God commands and invites every hearer to repent, believe, and come to Christ.
This general call isn’t vague or non-specific, and it is certainly not unimportant.
Theologians don’t call it “general” because it is vague or impersonal, and certainly not because it is unimportant.
No, it is “general” because it goes out indiscriminately to everyone; whenever and wherever it is heard, each and every hearer is commanded to repent.
Now this isn’t the general revelation that Paul speaks of in Romans 1 regarding how God’s invisible attributes ought to be understood through what has been made, no – these things in themselves do not contain the gospel message in themselves, commanding repentance and warning of judgement. There is no proclamation of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in nature.
In contrast, the general call comes through the special revelation of the gospel: it names Christ, it commands repentance and faith, it promises forgiveness to those who believe, it warns of judgment through the risen Son.
There is clarity to the gospel message: repent and believe in the name of Jesus Christ.
Peter followed this same pattern at Pentecost. He had not been commissioned to sort his hearers according to God’s secret purpose, no! Instead he proclaimed Christ to the entire crowd and commanded them all to repent.
The command to repent stands, and He truly promises forgiveness and salvation to all who believe . The sinner’s refusal does not expose some insincerity in God; no, it only exposes the unbelief within the sinner.
Jesus Himself declared in John 6:37,
“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out
No sinner will ever come to Christ, only to discover that Christ refuses to receive them, no! No one who repents and believes will find the door barred against them! There is no hidden purpose of God that will exclude a sinner who truly comes to His Son as He demands!
And Christ Himself states this explicitly only a few verses later:
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
Notice that Jesus does not say, “No one may come,” as though willing sinners were being denied permission!
No, the declaration is that “no one can come”, the Greek word here is speaking of ability, it talks about the sufficiency of a person to the task being discussed. Jesus’ declaration here is that no one is sufficiently able to turn to Christ on their own, apart from the necessary and particular action of God the Father.
And that “no one” is a universal statement. It’s not that some can and others can’t, or even that most can’t but a very few can… No, there are no exceptions here; before any sinner can be able to turn savingly to Christ, the Father must first act particularly upon that sinner to draw them to Him.
Nor does the Father’s drawing merely make coming possible while leaving the outcome up for grabs. Notice how Christ joins the Father’s drawing to His own promise with absolute certainty: the one whom the Father draws is the one whom the Son will raise on the last day.
This action of the Father does not result in a person being dragged unwillingly to a Christ he still despises – this is a common objection to the doctrines of election, a mischaracterization that this is to turn people into something of a robot, or an automaton to the bidding of some capricious God.
When a person comes to Christ, their repentance is real. Their faith is real. Their willingness is real.
Such a person truly sees Christ as desirable, truly entrusts himself to Christ, and truly comes to Him willingly and whole-heartedly.
But that willingness is the fruit of God’s gracious action, rather than its cause.
God does not save the sinner by bypassing the mind, affections, and will, but by transforming them. And Paul brings the outward proclamation of the gospel and this inward, effectual calling together in 1 Corinthians 1.
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.
The cross of Christ Jesus is central to the gospel, when Paul is referring to it here he’s invoking in our minds that entire reality. The cross preached to the person who is perishing is the same cross preached to the person who is being saved – the message is no different, there is no alternate view of Christ presented, the facts and history don’t change in the general call.
Paul places before us two radically different responses to the same gospel, and then takes us beneath those responses to identify the difference God has made.
It is imperative that we rightly understand that this gospel can never be received savingly, for what it truly is, by the natural man or woman.
Paul continues:
For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
The Jews expected manifest messianic power; a crucified Messiah appeared cursed and defeated.
On the other hand, the Greeks prized philosophical wisdom and rhetorical excellence; a crucified Savior appeared shameful and absurd to them!
The gospel message is rejected by natural man because it is utter foolishness to some, or a stumbling block to others, and there really is no middle ground, even today.
And this is why it is so important that we recognize what the gospel actually is. Paul warned the Galatians that when the gospel of Christ is distorted, what results is not another saving gospel at all. Very often that distortion does make the message more agreeable to the natural heart by softening sin, or omitting repentance, or preserving some ground for human merit and boasting – as the letter to the Galatians unfolds, we discover that this distortion there included the insistence that Gentile believers must be circumcised.
But although such a message may please men, it has nothing to do with the gospel message from God. Paul explains, “If I were still trying to please men, [meaning, in this gospel message, or any other way], I would not be a slave of Christ.”
No, the message is, “we preach Christ crucified”. The idea that the holy Son of God came to earth in the flesh is foolishness, it is a stumbling-block to natural men and women.
Oh, the natural person can assent intellectually to Christian facts, they can make an outward profession, they can even participate in Christian culture. But what such people will not do, is to repent for their unbelief, turn to Christ in saving faith, never truly believe this gospel message in the manner God demands. This rejection in the heart is the normal, human response to the gospel, and that’s something that we who are in Christ Jesus need to recall – that we ourselves were once this way.
But then, there is this other group, this particular group, this group that didn’t come to the conclusion on their own, but were effectually called by another, have a different result. This group is not any naturally formed group, it didn’t come together on account of any natural superiority, not on account of any occupation, any culture, no! This group was formed solely by the sovereign call of God.
To these people, “those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks…” the same sort of people who reject this one, same gospel message, Christ crucified is both the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
And we need to be crystal clear here, the only difference is not the religious upbringing, the culture, the language, or any other natural factor, no! The difference is specifically this same “calling” Paul is writing of in our verses in Romans 8. Same message, same sort of people by any natural measure… but two vastly different results – results which could not be more different than each other.
And the incredible thing is… we all – every single person aside from Christ Jesus, started out in the group that once rejected this message, this gospel. But some people God called out of one group and over to this other, spiritually-formed group.
So what happened? How did foolishness become wisdom? How did weakness become power? How did the Christ whom the natural heart rejected become the Christ whom that same person now embraces by faith?
Paul explains the action beneath this transformed perception in his second letter to the Corinthians,
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Paul here brings one central aspect of that inability into sharp focus: the spiritual blindness of the unbelieving mind. Let’s go on with what Paul says next, though….
For we do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus. For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
God has always been in the business of bringing something out of nothing.
When God shines into the heart, the mind apprehends the truth, the affections behold Christ as desirable, and the will embraces the One now seen as infinitely worthy.
Saving faith, then, isn’t an alien response forced upon an unwilling person, but the fitting and willing response of a person whose blindness has been removed and replaced with sight.
The sinner believes because he or she now sees Christ for who He truly is.
And all of this brings us back to the language Paul uses in Romans 8:28:
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.
Scripture uses this language of calling in two related, but distinct senses. There is the general call of the gospel, in which Christ crucified is proclaimed indiscriminately to every hearer, yes.
But when Paul speaks of those who are “called according to His purpose”, he is referring to something more than that general, outward proclamation alone.
Through that same proclaimed gospel, God effectually calls the sinner. As the God who in the beginning commanded light to shine out of darkness, He now shines within the darkened heart and opens blind eyes to the glory of Christ.
When God so shines, the mind now apprehends the truth of Christ, their affections now delight in Christ as desirable, and their will now embraces Christ as infinitely worthy.
And so, the sinner comes to Christ; truly, willingly, and believingly.
This is why “those who love God” and “those who are called according to His purpose” are the same people. We love God, because God first acted upon us. We came willingly because He opened our eyes to behold the glory of His Son. As Paul writes elsewhere, “by His doing you are in Christ Jesus.”
That leaves us with no ground for boasting, and simultaneously gives us every ground for assurance.
The call that brought us to Christ did not originate in our wisdom, our willingness, or our spiritual potential. It arose from God’s own eternal purpose. And because its origin is in God, its certainty rests in God; those whom He called, He also justified; those whom He justified, He also glorified.
And for those who remain outside of Christ – if this gospel still appears foolish or offensive, if this gospel message smells of an aroma of death, if you have merely assented outwardly to the facts being possible without having turned to Christ in the manner we’ve been discussing, God’s revealed command is clear:
Repent and believe.
You have not been commanded to discover whether you belong to God’s elect before coming to Christ, no! Rather, every person everywhere has been commanded to repent and believe.
And Christ has promised every sinner who comes, “the one who comes to Me I will never cast out.”
What a glorious ground for assurance and perseverance!
Let us pray!
