The matter of calling of sinners unto salvation is the mystery of God. Two people heard the preaching of the gospel, one believed and the other rejected. The same thing can happen in the Christian family. Two children of the family were nurtured and taught with the same truth, the gospel; one was convicted to believe in Christ but the other chose to reject the truth. The question is raised, why did one person believe and the other not? Were they hearing the same massage? If yes, then what cause one person to believe in Christ Jesus and the other not? The answer to this question is irresistible grace.
In regard to the calling of sinners unto salvation, the Arminians argue that the Holy Spirit cannot convict sinners of their sins. The Holy Spirit can do His own best in persuading and prompting the sinners to hear and receive the gospel but ultimately the sinner himself is the one can decide whether he wants to believe or to reject. “The Holy Spirit cannot regenerate sinners until he believe.” If the person finally rejected the message of the gospel, then the Holy Spirit can not do anything about it.
The Calvinism says that “in addition to the outward general call to salvation which is made to everyone who hears the gospel, the Holy Spirit extends to the elect a special inward call that inevitably brings them to salvation.” When the gospel is preached the Holy Spirit works to convince sinners of their own sins. This is the internal call. The sinners may reject the external call but if the Holy Spirit is working in His heart, soon or later, he cannot help but to submit to the power of the Holy Spirit and confess that Jesus Christ is His Lord and Saviour. Man by nature cannot choose God but rather hates God and His commandment. Only through the working of the Holy Spirit in the heart of sinner, the hardening heart of sinner can melt before God by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. The same person perhaps has rejected the gospel message many times but at last the Holy Spirit “graciously causes the elect sinner to cooperate, to believe, to repent, to come freely and willingly to Christ.” The Bible clearly said, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn. 6:44). Paul also wrote, “Far as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Rom. 8:14).
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