The Many Ways Grace Calls People

By this it is clearly shown that God’s “judgments are unsearchable and his ways past finding out,” the ways by which he draws mankind to salvation. We can prove this too from the examples of calls in the gospels. He chose Andrew and Peter and the rest of the apostles by the free compassion of his grace, when they were not thinking at all of their healing and salvation. Zacchaeus, who in his faithfulness was struggling to see the Lord and making up for his small stature by the height of the sycamore tree, he not only welcomed but actually honored with the blessing of staying in his house. Paul he drew to himself even against his will and while he resisted. Another he charged to cling to him so closely that, when the man asked for the shortest possible delay in order to bury his father, he did not grant it. To Cornelius, who was constantly devoted to prayers and almsgiving, the way of salvation was shown as a recompense. By the visit of an angel he was told to send for Peter and learn from him the words of salvation, by which he might be saved with all his household. [a]

So the manifold wisdom of God grants salvation to men with manifold and unsearchable kindness, and gives to each one the grace of his generosity according to his capacity. He wills to grant his healing, not according to the uniform power of his majesty, but according to the measure of faith in which he finds each one, or as he himself has given it to each one. When one man believed that the will of Christ alone was enough to cure his leprosy, he healed him by the simple consent of his will, saying, “I will; be clean.” When another begged him to come and raise his dead daughter by laying his hands on her, he went into his house as the man had hoped, and granted what was asked of him. When another believed that what was needed for his salvation depended on his command, and answered, “Only speak the word, and my servant will be healed,” he restored to their former strength, by the power of a word, the limbs that had been paralyzed, saying, “Go your way, and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” To others, who hoped to be restored by touching the fringe of his garment, he granted rich gifts of healing. To some, when they asked, he gave remedies for their diseases. To others he offered the means of healing without being asked. Others he urged on to hope, saying, “Do you want to be made well?” To others, when they were without hope, he brought help of his own accord. The desires of some he searched out before he met their needs, saying, “What do you want me to do for you?” To another, who did not know the way to obtain the thing desired, he showed it in his kindness, saying, “If you believe, you will see the glory of God.” Among some he poured out the mighty works of his cures so richly that the evangelist says of them, “And he healed all their sick.” But among others the unfathomable depth of Christ’s kindness was so blocked that it was said, “And Jesus could do no mighty works there because of their unbelief.” So the generosity of God is actually shaped to the capacity of man’s faith. To one it is said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”; to another, “Go your way, and as you have believed, so let it be done for you”; to another, “Let it be done for you as you wish”; and again to another, “Your faith has made you well.”