Bavinck has been moving through the work of Christ for our salvation, and that the Spirit applies the work to us in The Wonderful Works of God. In the next series of chapters Bavinck will address how the Spirit applies it and the great acts and works of God that produce salvation.
How does one actually come to faith and receive salvation? This the the subject of The Christian Calling. Perhaps this is not clear from the title but this is the calling of the Christian which includes the general call as well as the effectual call that results in faith and conversion.
Word and Spirit
He begins with the close connection between the Word and the Spirit, and the different ways this has been viewed by Christians.
The Pelagians believe that the preaching of the Word is sufficient in and of itself. Christianity is a doctrine and Jesus an example. Christianity becomes a new law.
Others, going by names like zealots, antinomian, enthusiasts or mystics, stress the role of the Spirit in conversion. They underplay the role of the Word. The Spirit works directly upon the hearts of men and women in conversion. Scripture remains unessential in living the life of a Christian. People ask of the Spirit for wisdom without looking to the Word for that wisdom. As the Christian withdraws from the Word he inevitably withdraws from Christ. The mystic unknowingly relies more on him or her self, and, Bavinck argues, develops into a rationalist.
For the Roman Church Word and Spirit are kept together, at least officially. Due to their affirmation of ecclesiastical tradition as equal to Scripture as the source of truth. Grace is not received by faith in what the Word says but through the sacraments.
The Reformation restored faith in the Word to its central place: the Spirit helps us believe the Word and receive Christ. Some of those who left Rome fell into the earlier heresies of Pelagianism, Arianism and mysticism. So the Reformers (and Rome) battled the Socinians and Anabaptists.
In Lutheranism, Bavinck argues, Word and Spirit are so united that they risk losing the distinction between them. The Spirit only comes by the Word.
The Reformed wanted to maintain the distinction between the Word and the Spirit without denying their interdependence in our conversion and consequent Christian life. The Spirit ordinarily works by the Word. The Westminster Confession of Faith makes room for extraordinary works by the Spirit for those who cannot understand the Word (elect infants dying in infancy or the developmentally disabled), and I would include those without access of the Word (for instance people in Muslim nations with no access to the Word or worship proclaiming the Word). Christ lives not in the Word (as in Lutheranism) but in the Church. The Spirit penetrates the deepest parts of us so we’ll believe the Word.
The Material Call or God Speaking Thru General Revelation
Having developed the relationship of the Spirit and the Word in our conversion, he moves to discuss the various callings of individuals. God makes use of the Word as a means. His Word accomplishes His purposes for it. God speaks in Word and creation (Psalm 19), and especially through His Son. We can understand because we are made in God’s image. God has also put the moral law on our hearts as a part of creation. After Adam’s sin, humankind lacked the power to keep this law.
Having covered this ground he moves into the “material call” which seems distinct from the external call in that it is creational and providential rather than through the proclamation of the Word. This is a call through general revelation, not special revelation. As such it is inadequate for salvation. Bavinck ties this to common grace. It is a preaching of the law which convicts.
“God does not leave man to himself, and man cannot get away from God.”
Bavinck indicates that this call while external and objective, it is also internal and subjective in that “it morally obligates each individual person to that revelation.” Through this call God curbs sin.
The Special Call
The material call, or general call, isn’t contrary to the special calling by the word of the gospel. They work in harmony with one another, complement one another.
In this context Bavinck discusses law and gospel as “two component parts”, not the Old and New Testament. They are distinguished but never separated. Both are woven through the whole of Scripture. The Law refers to the covenant of works, and the gospel refers to the covenant of grace.
“The covenant of grace is, however, not the discarding or annihilating, but rather the fulfilling, of the covenant of works.”
The law remains, not that we might earn salvation, but that we might know our sin, guilt and misery, in order that we might seek our refuge in Christ the law-keeper and curse-bearer. It also remains that we might know how to live in the newness of life Christ provides by His resurrection.
The material call, then, is connected to the covenant of works. The general and effectual calls are connected to the covenant of grace. The material or general call (he uses them interchangeably and it seems differently than the English Reformers) comes to all men and the special call (utilizing special revelation) comes in Christendom (where the gospel is known). These calls differ not in degree but in kind. One is by nature, and the other by the Word. The first communicates the law, and the second the gospel.
With 10 pages down and 15 more to go this seems like a very lot to say about the Christian calling.
The special call comes to people who are corrupted by sin and frequently object to its content. History tells us that God separates people. There are those who serve God through Christ and those who don’t. There is the distinction between the world and the church, but also the visible and invisible church.
“Not only is there a sharp contrast between church and world, but in the church there are thousands who indeed hearers of the word but are not doers of it.”
Some have tried to explain this by free will. They either teach a Pelagian free will untouched by sin, or a semi-Pelagian will restored by “prevenient grace” through a universal atonement. Bavinck affirms the counsel of God in election unto salvation. Destroying this for “free will” is a bridge too far for Bavinck. The differences among men are not accounting to the will of man, alone, but the counsel of God accomplished through the will of men. In all of this people have dispositions and previous decisions that affect them and their will. In this Bavinck brings us to the difference between the external and internal calling. Yes, this is seemingly different from the external calling he discusses which is found in the material call.
He doesn’t want to minimize the power and worth of the external call. Referring to the Canons of Dort, God “earnestly and seriously promises” eternal life to all who come to Him in faith. Because the promises of God are being rejected, resisting the external call has consequences in terms of increasing guilt. They reject the gospel because they still think they can, and want to, save themselves. The fault lies in them, not God, for their hard hearts which become increasingly hard.
“Christ who is the content of the gospel leaves no one in a neutral state: He brings a crisis, a judgment, a division of into the world, and by His word, which penetrates to the inmost being of man, He reveals the inclinations and thoughts of the heart.”
To explain the insufficiency of the external call Bavinck discusses the darkened mind of man, that we are slaves to sin as well as dead in sins and trespasses. The difference between the external and internal call is the operation of the Spirit in addition to the Word. This happens at the time of conversion since an elect person may hear the gospel many times before conversion.
“… the Reformed church confesses that when God carries out His good pleasure in the elect and works the true repentance in them, He not only has the gospel externally preached to them, and not only powerfully enlightens the mind through the Holy Spirit, in order that they may rightly understand and discriminate the things that are of the Spirit of God, but He also penetrates to the inner man with the powerful operation of the same regenerating Spirit.”
Regeneration
Bavinck takes an unexpected turn in all of this as he discusses regeneration. He talks about Hindus (he says “Indians”) and reincarnation. People are reborn as new people with new lives in accordance with karma rather than becoming a new creation via grace in Christ. Biblical regeneration grants us a renewed ability and desire to embrace Christ as He is presented to us in the gospel.
In the Old Testament regeneration is spoken of by “circumcision of the heart” so they are no longer stiff-necked. This is an act of God upon them. In the New Testament Paul speaks of the regeneration was washing by the Word. Regeneration creates a break with the old way of life, and the old ways of seeking salvation. The old mode of existence ends and spiritual life begins.
Saving Faith & Repentance
He shifts to a discussion of saving faith which includes an explanation of the the Parable of the Sower. Some have a historical faith: a moment they look back to in the past but no living faith in the present. Some have a superficial faith that gains no root in their heart. It is temporary. He calls another category the miraculous which isn’t about the reality of their faith but their focus on the miraculous whose life is choked out by the cares of the world since they never bear their cross. These are common grace gifts, not the gifts of saving faith. They are given to natural men, not spiritually reborn men.
Faith includes knowledge, for something must be believed, that is personal (it is about us and for us), profound, absorbing and practical. It is a knowledge that changes how one views life and lives life. It works in those who receive it, driving them to Christ. One receives Him, not just the the message.
“Historical faith stops at the external report and does not penetrate further. Temporal faith sees a certain beauty in the report, and delights in it, but really refuses acknowledgement to its real content and meaning. And the miraculous faith attaches oneself to the signs and wonders, but is essentially indifferent to the One who works them. … saving faith cannot leave us empty and fruitless.”
Saving faith seeks Jesus in the Word. The Spirit continues to reveal Christ to them in the Word. Apart from the Word we have no norm for testing any message or thought we have about Christ. We continue to need the Scripture
Repentance is part of the practical response of faith. The Lord sent His servants the prophets to call Israel to repentance: to turn from wickedness, trust in Him and walk in His ways as revealed in the Law. While some repented, some didn’t repent with their whole heart, and others didn’t even pretend to repent. The internal change of regeneration produces the external change of life. They were meant to go together.
As with Israel, the visible church has its share of false professors, strugglers and steadfast believers. To deal with the continuance of sin the sacrament of penance emerged. Repentance was externalized by the Roman Church. Faith and repentance were separated. Luther kept a separation between faith and repentance, according to Bavinck. As Luther expressed it repentance had regard to the Law, and faith came by way of the gospel. Reformed Theology connects both faith and repentance to the mercy of God revealed in Christ.
“We should not dare to turn around towards God if we did not trust inwardly in our souls through the Holy Spirit that as a Father He will accept our confession of sins and forgive us. The true repentance stands in inseparable connection with the true, saving faith.”
Faith and repentance are inevitably expressed by one who is reborn by the Spirit. They are distinct but inseparable fruits. A person cannot have one without the other. One of the practical realities is that having received this gift of spiritual, not simply eternal, life “we do away with the practice of judging others according to our puny measure.” Odd that he puts that in there, but alas ’tis true.
Cavman Considers 
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