“The effectual call is not an invitation, but is the actual bestowment of light and life. It is the immediate fruit of God’s wondrous and infinite love to our persons when we are altogether unlovely, yea, the subjects of nothing but what renders us repulsive and hateful (see Ezekiel 16:4-8!). It is then that the Holy Spirit is given to the elect – given to make good in them what Christ wrought out for them. Let it be clearly recognized and thankfully owned that the gift of the Spirit to us is as great and grand a gift as the gift of Christ for us. By the Spirit’s inhabiting us we are sanctified and sealed unto the day of redemption.”
“As the love of the Father is chiefly spoken of under the act of election expressed by Him giving His only begotten Son to be our Head and Mediator, and as the love of God the Son shines forth brightest in His incarnation, obedience, and laying down His life for us, so the love of God the Spirit is displayed in His revealing in the Word the eternal transaction between the Father and the Son by enlightening our minds into a true, vital, and spiritual knowledge of the Father and Son.”
“It is at effectual calling that the Spirit is pleased to make an inward revelation and application of the salvation of Christ to the soul, which is indeed heaven dawning upon us, for by it dead sinners are quickened, hard hearts forgiven, and infinite mercy displayed and magnified. It is then that the Holy Spirit, who is the Lord and Giver of all spiritual life, enables great sinners to know that God is love.”
“By His Spirit Christ is pleased to shed abroad the love of God in the heart, and through the gospel He manifests the knowledge of the Father’s love to us. He gives the Spirit to make a revelation of this to our minds, and thus we are led to know and feel the love of God to be the foundation of all grace and everlasting consolation.” ~ AW Pink
