The Effectual Call

“For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” -Romans 11:29

Paul affirms the validity of the covenant promise to (remnant or believing) Israel by use of a merism, a kind of trope called a synecdoche. A merism is a rhetorical device (or figure of speech) in which a combination of two (usually contrasting) parts of the whole refer to the whole. Another example is “heaven and earth,” which meant to imply all of creation.

Another way of understanding what Paul is saying would be to say the gift (or grace) of God’s callings are irrevocable. The Greek word translated irrevocable is ἀμεταμέλητος, which means without regret. This calling that is an irrevocable gift is what theologians have often referred to as the inner or effectual call, “one that pertains only to the elect,” says Hendriksen. 

It is not referring to those special gifts or privileges God grants to the people of Israel, the Jews, as Paul explains earlier (Cf. Romans 3:1-2, 9:4-5). Those gifts pertain to the nation, ethnic Israel.

In his Systematic Theology, Berkhof explains the effectual call: 

It is in its most limited sense a change that occurs in the sub-conscious life. It is a secret and inscrutable work of God that is never directly perceived by man. The change may take place without man’s being conscious of it momentarily, though this is not the case when regeneration and conversion coincide; and even later on he can perceive it only in its effects. This explains the fact that a Christian may, on the one hand, struggle for a long time with doubts and uncertainties, and can yet, on the other hand, gradually overcome these and rise to the heights of assurance.