After removing the stone, Jesus called with new creation power, “Lazarus, come out.” The heart that stopped four days before pulsed with new life. Lazarus walked out of his grave. Lazarus’s resurrection and gives a picture of what it is like for God to resurrect people who are dead in their sins spiritually. God takes what is dead and morally repugnant from sin and makes it into something alive and beautiful.

Like any other six-year-old, I lived life to the fullest. I climbed the cherry trees, played on the playground with my sister, and built my Legos. One day, a sense of dread and sadness began clouding my carefree days. I didn’t know what was wrong. I explained how I felt to my mom. She gently said, “You need Jesus.” At that moment, something extraordinary happened. I believed in Jesus. I did not have all the theology worked out in that moment of newfound belief. But I knew I needed Jesus. Desperately.
There is nothing more beautiful in the world than a person trusting and clinging to God for grace. True belief is the result of God’s effectual calling. And this effectual call is the dawning of new creation life.
It is often thought that systematic theology is abstract and theoretical. This is far from the case. The great truths of theology help us make sense of everyday life. We experience the truths of theology in life. Theology is systematic because each doctrine is dynamically connected. Effectual calling is organically related to the Trinity, election, creation, the doctrine of sin, atonement, eschatology, and all the other doctrines. Two theological relationships that continue to capture my attention are effectual calling and the new creation.
God’s Call and New Creation
God’s work in the heart is nothing less than a new creation. If God doesn’t do this work, people hear of the death and resurrection of Jesus and respond with anything but saving faith. Apathy, curiosity, mockery, or hostility are common responses to the gospel. But a person will only respond in saving faith if God calls that person and opens the heart to believe.
Just as God spoke and created the universe and everything in it, God speaks to the human heart and creates something new (2 Cor. 4:4). The God who said, “Let there be light!” says, “Let there be faith!” While the gospel is preached or shared, God creates something new in the heart of the person who responds in saving faith.
In systematic theology, the effectual calling, this new creation call, is also known as new birth or regeneration. Jesus taught that people must be born again to believe the gospel with saving faith (John 3:3–8). The Holy Spirit was active in the creation of the world. He formed it, brought order from the chaos, and made it beautiful (Gen. 1:2). The Spirit is also active in the new creation of the believers. Through the power of the gospel, the Spirit causes them to be born again, bringing order to their chaotic and dead hearts and making them spiritually beautiful.
God will one day restore the cosmos and make all things new. This new creation call to the individual through the gospel is the downpayment of resurrection life that will one day overtake all creation.
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Missions is the invitation to participate in the gospel’s advance around the world. It’s the privilege to see God’s Word at work. But you don’t have to leave your country to see and participate in its powerful effect. We might be discouraged when we experience resistance to our witness from family, friends, and society. But the stories of the gospel’s spread in hard places should embolden us to continue sharing the gospel. 

A car pulled up beside me as I briskly walked down a street in East Asia. The driver said, “Get in.” I hesitated a moment. Who was this telling me to get in the car? What would happen if I did? I looked at my translator. She motioned for me to get in. She knew what was happening. Still a little unsure, I opened the car door and sat down.
I was in this country to explore the possibilities of gospel work among an ethnic minority. The government was hard at work to hinder the church’s spread in this region, and it was especially strict with minority groups.
Around the world, resistance to the gospel takes many forms. Governments, religious leaders, extremists, and even family members seek to hinder its advance. The repression can be subtle or intensely violent. But whatever the severity of the persecution, God’s Word isn’t bound. It continues unhindered.
Unhindered Gospel
The book of Acts concludes with Paul under house arrest in Rome, waiting for his trial. Luke, the author of Acts, wanted the reader to see through Paul’s imprisonment and chains. He ends the book with the word “unhindered” (28:31, NASB). Despite resistance and persecution, the gospel spread throughout the known world in the span of one generation. 
This last word in Acts describes the progress of the gospel to the present day. No matter where the resistance or persecution comes from—government, society and family, or local religions—the gospel spreads unhindered.
1. Governmental Repression
When I got in the car that night in East Asia, I was relieved to find out the driver wasn’t an undercover policeman. He was a local pastor. As we drove, he explained the daily pressures his congregation faced from the government. He’d been interrogated and harassed by authorities many times.
You can imagine my surprise when the pastor explained to me through the translator, “Of all the Puritans, the most important to us were those who traveled together on the Mayflower.” The Pilgrims who braved the Atlantic for religious liberty were his heroes. He resonated with their desire to worship God in freedom.
We drove for about an hour to a forested area beyond the reach of surveillance. Worshiping in the woods allowed a measure of freedom. We waited there until church members began to join us.
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