Effectual Calling

Pastor Martin opens a new section on sanctification by considering it in three lights. He first relates sanctification to the human problem of sin, using the illustration of a drunk driver who needs both a lawyer and a physician to show that sin creates both legal and personal problems — justification and adoption address the legal, sanctification the personal. He then traces sanctification as central to the divine plan of salvation in its initial design, actual procurement, powerful application, prolonged interval, and final consummation. He closes by pressing the personal necessity of holiness from Hebrews 12:14, warning against two fatal errors: a salvation that makes sanctification optional, and a sanctification sought apart from union with Christ.

Pastor Martin opens up another dimension of Christ's prophetic office: not only does Christ bring His Word to the outer ear through inspired Scripture and faithful preachers, He also exercises an inward, sovereign ministry by which He opens the eyes of the heart so that men and women savingly perceive the beauty and power of the truth. From Luke 24, the Emmaus account, Lydia in Acts 16, and 1 John 5:20, he demonstrates that Christ alone gives this understanding, and then draws out three practical implications: a spirit of dependence (expressed in prayerfulness), a spirit of fear lest we sever the inward work from the written Word, and a spirit of gratitude when Christ does open our eyes.

Pastor Martin opens the study of the cardinal blessings by establishing the importance of the biblical doctrine of calling. He traces three lines of thought: first, calling's strategic place in the plan of redemption as the nexus link in the golden chain of Romans 8:29-30 that joins eternal foreknowledge and predestination to justification and final glorification; second, its dominant place in the pursuit of Christian maturation as Paul prays the Ephesians would know the hope of their calling and exhorts them to walk worthy of it; and third, its central place as a distinct designation of the people of God — they are 'the called ones.' He illustrates the golden chain with the cables of the George Washington Bridge anchored in the Jersey and Manhattan palisades, and closes appealing to both saints and strangers to give themselves to close, careful thought over this doctrine.

Moving from the exceptional universal call to the normal New Testament usage, Pastor Martin examines the effectual call of God under two heads: its author and its results. From 1 Corinthians 1:9, 2 Timothy 1:8-10, and Romans 8:28-30 he shows that calling is God's activity exclusively and the Father's activity particularly — not God plus the sinner, not loving sovereignty plus moral suasion, but the same raw material of grace and the same hand of loving sovereignty that forged election and predestination. He then lays out the three results of this call: it effects vital fellowship and union with Christ, it always issues in holiness (the called are constituted saints and brought from darkness to light), and it always culminates in glorification. He closes by answering the common objection: calling is God's work, but believing and repenting remain the sinner's responsibility.

Pastor Martin opens his treatment of the doctrine of justification by underscoring its supreme importance. After showing that the doctrine answers the most fundamental of human questions, 'How shall sinful man find acceptance with God?', he argues for its importance on two grounds: the glory of God, since in justifying the ungodly God displays the brilliance of every divine attribute, and the good of the creature, both for the conversion of sinners and the establishing peace, holiness, and joy in believers.

Using the Westminster Larger Catechism's definition as a teaching framework, Pastor Martin opens up the first three elements of justification: God Himself is its author, His free grace its source, and sinners as sinners (not half-reformed sinners) are its objects. He illustrates with a vivid scenario of a condemned criminal receiving a reprieve and presses the parable of the publican and the Pharisee to show that God justifies the ungodly the moment he casts himself on mercy, not after any reformation.