CALLING & ELECTION

"Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly, into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." -II Peter 1:10-11 [KJV]

What a very affectionate advice is here given by the apostle; and surely as important as it is tender! Sit down, my soul, this evening, and ponder these words of Peter. The apostle saith, and saith it with great clearness of reason, as well as revelation, that an assurance of being a partaker of grace in this life, becomes as sure and certain an evidence of being made a partaker of glory in another. The question then is, how shall I ascertain, and without the shadow of a doubt, the certainty of my calling and election? Shall I look in the the book of life, to see my name there? That is impossible. "Secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those that are revealed belong unto us, and unto our children, for ever." Is there nothing revealed on this important point in the scriptures of truth? Yes. The apostle to the Romans, was commissioned to tell the church, that whom God the Father did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, "them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified," Romans 8:29, 30.  

Hence, therefore, it must plainly and undeniably follow, that where a soul can fully prove his having been called, his election is included in the discovery; for the one is the result and consequence of the other. If I see a stream of water flowing, there must be a source whence it comes, though the fountain itself be out of sight. The fruit of any tree will of itself ascertain the nature and quality of the tree whence it was gathered, whether the tree be seen or not. And if, my soul, thou possessest clear and unquestionable tokens of thy being called by grace, in the true scriptural evidences which the Holy Ghost hath there marked concerning it, thine election will as plainly be implied.  

See then if this be thy case. If thou hast a conviction of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; if a sense of thy transgressions hath been so marked in thine heart, as to be followed with a sense of thy utterly lost and ruined state by nature, and a total inability on thy part to accomplish any thing towards thine own recovery; and if thou hast been led by the Holy Ghost, to the view of Jesus, as the only One mighty to save; and thou art come to Him, with the awakened cry of the soul, "Lord, save, or I perish!" These are among the first and most striking testimonies of an effectual and saving call by grace.  

And therefore the diligence the apostle so strongly and affectionately recommends, is to look into thy evidences daily, and habitually to live in the enjoyment of them: so that from long and increasing acquaintance with them, all the great and glorious objects connected with our future and eternal state, may be made familiar to the soul. Stedfastly looking to the Lord Jesus by faith, and living by faith upon Him, we may be daily growing up to Him in all things: so that when life comes to be closed, and faith swallowed up in enjoyment, like a rich and deeply laden vessel in full sail, we may then have "an abundant entrance ministered unto us, into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." 

-Robert Hawker (1753-1827 A.D.)