The Westminster Confession reads:

“I. All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, and those only, He is pleased, in His appointed time, effectually to call, by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature to grace and salvation, by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God, taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them an heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and, by His almighty power, determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ: yet so, as they come most freely, being made willing by His grace.”  (Chapter X, Effectual Calling)

If we remove the ‘how’ of effectual calling described above, we are left with this:

“All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, . . .come most freely, being made willing by His grace.”

Therein lies the conundrum for the human brain. How is it possible for someone to have been predestined to come to Christ and completely willing at the same time? If men are ‘made’ willing, how can it be truly ‘willing’? We, in the magnificence of our human wisdom, loudly proclaim that for human will to be truly free, even in choosing Christ, must not be influenced by anything outside of ourselves!

Some of us choose Christ, and gain eternal life, while some of us reject Christ, and gain eternal torment. This is done because we have been presented the options and, all on our own, come to the proper decision. Our ‘free will’ is intact and we have a home in Heaven for eternity. We have also removed the conundrum from our thoughts. It’s a win/win situation!

So I will offer a lightly different conundrum. Assuming that choosing Heaven over Hell is in fact the best possible decision that we could make, and assuming that we made the decision  all on our own, do we not have the right to boast a bit about our ‘wise’ decision? Whether or not we do in fact boast about it, cannot we also justifiably be very proud?

The conundrum:

What do the ‘yes’ answers to the rhetorical questions presented above mean in light of Ephesians 2:8-9??

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Food for thought. . .