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The Call Creates What It Commands

February 11, 2009 |

Sovereignty

This excerpt comes from ‘Finally Alive’ by John Piper

The gospel is preached to all people, yet not all are born again. That’s why we talk about a general call of God through the gospel. The general call - the preached word of God, the gospel - enters the ears of all the hearers who are spiritually dead. But not all live. Why do some live and have faith? Why do some of the blind see, and some of the deaf hear?

The answer is stated in many different ways in the New Testament. One is here in verse 1 Peter 1:23: Some are “born again… of incorruptible seed through the … gospel.” The gospel is preached to all, and the divine seed is implanted in some. That’s one way to say it. Another is to say that some are called. And this calling is not the same as the general call that all receive externally in the preaching of the gospel. Rather, it’s the internal effective call of God’s triumphant word of creation. It’s the call of Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus. He says to a dead man: “Lazarus, come out” (John 11:43). And the call creates what it commands.

That’s the difference between the external, general call that all hear when the gospel is preached and the internal, effective call. The internal call is God’s sovereign, creative, unstoppable voice. It creates what if commands. God speaks not just to the ear and the mind, but he speaks to the heart. His internal heart-call opens the eyes of the blind heart, and opens the ears of the deaf heart, and causes Christ to appear as the supremely valuable person that he really is. So the heart freely and eagerly embraces Christ as the Treasure that he is. That’s what God does when he calls us through the gospel (see 1 Peter 2:9; 5:10).

Perhaps the clearest text of all about the unique power of God’s internal, effective call is 1 Corinthians 1:22-24: “Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” All hear the gospel - Jews and Greeks. But some Jews and some Greeks experience something in the gospel: They stop seeing Christ as a stumbling block and as foolishness. Instead, they now see him as “the power of God and the wisdom of God.” What happened? “To those who are called… he is Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” The sovereign, creative call of God opened their eyes, and they saw Christ for the power and the wisdom that he is.