Roger Duke
Feb 272 min read
Roger Duke
Feb 272 min read
February 15 - I Believe God Effectually Awakens the Sinner
Roger Duke
“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge”
2 Peter 1: 5
This entry is taken from Daily Readings - John Bunyan a 366 day devotional edited by (and posted with permission from) Roger D. Duke, Scholar-in-Residence at Stage & Story, and published by Christian Heritage Press.
Each month focuses on a different book or writing by Bunyan. For February: My Confession of Faith (or A Confession of My Faith and a Reason of My Practice, or, With Who, and Who Not, I can Hold Church-fellowship, or the Communion of Saints)
An effectual awakening about the evil of sin, and especially of unbelief (John 16: 9). And therefore, when the Lord God called Adam, he also made [known] unto him, an effectual discovery of sin; insomuch that he did strip him of all his righteousness (Genesis 3). Thus, he also served as the healer. It was such an awakening, he saw he was without Christ, without hope, and a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel, and without God in the word (Act 16: 29, 30; Ephesians 2: 12). Oh, the dread and amazement that the guilt of sin brings with it when it is revealed by the God of heaven: [Nothing] like to it is the sight of mercy, when it pleased God, who called us by his grace, to reveal his Son in us.
In effectual calling, there is a great awakening about the world to some, and the glory of unseen things, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgement; the salvation that God hath prepared for them that love him. And the blessedness that will attend us and be upon us at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; are all great things in the soul that is under the awakening calls of God. And hence we are said to be called to glory, to the obtaining of the Glory of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 2: 12: 2; Thessalonians 2:13-14).
In effectual calling, there is also a sanctifying virtue; And hence we are said to be called with an holy calling, with an heavenly calling: Called to glory and virtue. But ye are a chosen Generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (Hebrews 3: 1; 1 Thessalonians 4: 7: 1 Peter 1: 8-9).
John Bunyan was a preacher, theologian and author, whose best-known work, The Pilgrim's Progress, has challenged and influenced readers for almost 350 years.
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