THE third and last thing in the text, which I shall but briefly glance at, is the
our liberality, we walk worthy of our high calling.
Here is matter of consolation to you who are effectually called. God has magnified rich grace toward you. You are called to great honour to be copartners with the angels, and co-heirs with Christ; this should revive you in the worst of times. Let men reproach and miscall you; set God's calling of you against man's miscalling. Let men persecute you to death: they do but give you a pass, and send you to heaven the sooner. How may this cure the trembling of the heart! What, though the sea roar, though the earth be unquiet, though the stars are shaken out of their places, you need not fear. You are called, and therefore are sure to be crowned.
Concerning God's purpose
1. God's purpose is the cause of salvation.
THE third and last thing in the text, which I shall but briefly glance at, is the ground and origin of our effectual calling, in these words, "according to his purpose" (Eph. 1:11). Anselm renders it, According to his good will. Peter Martyr reads it, According to His decree. This purpose, or decree of God, is the fountainhead of our spiritual blessings. It is the impulsive cause of our vocation, justification, glorification. It is the highest link in the golden chain of salvation. What is the reason that one man is called, and not another? It is from the eternal purpose of God. God's decree gives the casting voice in man's salvation.
Let us then ascribe the whole work of grace to the pleasure of God's will. God did not choose us because we were worthy, but by choosing us He makes us worthy. Proud men are apt to assume and arrogate too much to themselves, in being sharers with God. While many cry out against church sacrilege, they are in the meantime guilty of a far greater sacrilege, in robbing God of His glory, while they go to set the crown of salvation upon their own head. But we must resolve all into God's purpose. The signs of salvation are in the saints, but the cause of salvation is in God.
If it is God's purpose that saves, then it is not free will. Thus Pelagians are strenuous asserters of free will. They tell us that a man has an innate power to effect his own conversion; but this text confutes it. Our calling is "according to God's purpose." The Scripture plucks up the root of free will. "It is not of him that wills" (Rom. 9:16). All depends upon the purpose of God. When the
prisoner is cast at the bar, there is no saving him, unless the king has a purpose to save him. God's purpose is His prerogative royal.
If it is God's purpose that saves, then it is not merit. Bellarmine holds that good works expiate sin and merit glory; but the text says that we are called according to God's purpose, and there is a parallel Scripture, "Who has saved us, and called us, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace" (2 Tim. 1:9). There is no such thing as merit. Our best works have in them both defection and infection, and so are but glittering sins; therefore if we are called and justified, it is God's purpose brings it to pass.
Objection. But the Papists allege that Scripture for merit: "Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day" (2 Tim. 4:8). This is the force of their argument. If God in justice rewards our works, then they merit salvation.
Reply. To this I answer, God gives a reward as a just Judge, not to the worthiness of our works, but to the worthiness of Christ. God as a just Judge rewards us, not because we have deserved it, but because He has promised it. God has two courts, a court of mercy, and a court of justice: the Lord condemns those works in the court of justice, which He crowns in the court of mercy. Therefore what carries the main stroke in our salvation, is the purpose of God.
Again, if the purpose of God be the spring-head of happiness, then we are not saved for faith foreseen. It is absurd to think anything in us could have the least influence upon our election. Some say that God foresaw that such persons would believe, and therefore chose them; so they would make the business of salvation to depend upon something in us. Whereas God does not choose us for faith, but to faith. "He has chosen us, that we should be holy" (Eph. 1:4), not because we would be holy, but that we might be holy. We are elected to holiness, not for it. What could God foresee in us, but pollution and rebellion! If any man is saved, it is according to God's purpose.
Question. How shall we know that God has a purpose to save us?
Answer. By being effectually called. "Be careful to make your calling and election sure" (2 Pet. 1:10).We make our election sure, by making our calling sure. "God has chosen you to salvation through sanctification" (2 Thess. 2:13). By the stream, we come at last to the fountain. If we find the stream of sanctification running in our souls, we may by this come to the spring-head of