As God worked out our salvation, in the eternity before time began He determined to know us as His children and to save us forever.  He also placed a mark on us as people destined for eternal life.  In our own experience, in different ways with different people, God has effectually called us to that salvation which He planned for us.

Paul writes in Rom. 8:29-30, "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified."  Thus the entire number of those predestined for eternal salvation are, in time, effectually called to eternal salvation.

The same fact is asserted in 2 Thess 2:13-14: "But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."

We are effectually called by the gospel because we are given ears to hear and understand the gospel and the heart to respond to it.  Paul tells us "but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Cor. 1:23-24).  The same gospel that is a stumbling block to some and foolishness to others is the power and wisdom of God to those God calls, because they can understand it through the power of the Holy Spirit: "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14).

Remember as we examined salvation from man's perspective?  At some point we were aware of God, of how we offended Him, of our desperate need, and of the hope we have in Christ.  When these thoughts stir in the human heart, God's call is being heard.  Now we know the reason!  But there is more that we shall consider in the next few weeks.