Effectual Call

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. (John 6:37)

Question 30: What is effectual calling?
Answer: Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit (2 Timothy 1:9) whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, (Acts 2:37) enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, (Acts 26:18) and renewing our wills, (Ezekiel 36:26) he does persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the gospel. (John 6:44,45)
 
In John chapter 6, Jesus makes an amazing statement regarding salvation and how that all takes place.  There he says, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.  For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day” (vv.37-39).  In other words, there are certain ones from eternity past whom God the Father has given to the Son, and Jesus says of all those whom the Father has given to him, they “will come to me.”  Not ‘they might come to me’ or ‘they may possibly come to me’, but they “will come to me.”  This is the effectual calling of God.  That is, when God calls a person to be saved, that person will come to Christ and will be saved.  Why is that?  As Jesus goes onto say, “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me.”  God the Father’s will for Jesus is that he lose not one of all whom the Father has given him.  Jesus will not fail in his mission.  He will complete the task which the Father has given him.  Thus, Jesus did not come into the world simply to make salvation possible or to make salvation available.  He came into the world to make salvation effectual.  He came into the world to definitely save those whom the Father had given him.