From alienation to communion.

Herman Witsius has written:

“The first immediate fruit of eternal election, and the principal act of God by which appointed salvation is applied, is Effectual Calling. Of which the apostle, Rom. viii. 30. “Whom he did predestinate them he also called.” And this calling is that act by which those, who are chosen by God, and redeemed by Christ, are sweetly invited, and effectually brought from a state of sin to a state of communion with God in Christ, both externally and internally.”

“The term from which they are called, is a state of sin and misery, in which all men are involved, ever since the sin of our first parents; “having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart,” Eph. iv. 18. For we are brought to such a pass, that we are wholly excluded from the saving communion of God and Christ. Being sunk in the deep gulf of misery, and having lost all notion of true happiness, we wallow in the mire of the wickedness and vanities of this world without end and without measure, and are enslaved to the devil, to whom we have submitted as conquered captives, “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” Rom. iii. 23. But out of this darkness of ignorance, sin, and misery, God calleth us unto his marvelous light, 1 Pet. ii. 9. and delivers us from this present evil world, Gal. i. 6. And we are never to forget our former state; “remember that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world,” Eph. ii. 12. The meditation of this tends to humble us the more deeply before God, who calleth us; the more to prize the riches of his glorious grace, and the more to quicken us to walk worthy of our calling, and of God, by whom we are called.”

“The term to which we are called, is Christ, and communion with him. For this he calls out, Isa. xlv. 22. “Look to me,” or, Incline yourselves to me, “and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” In this communion with Christ consists that mystical and most delightful marriage of the elect soul with Christ, to which he invites him with all the allurements of his gospel, and whose exalted nuptial song Solomon sung; “Wisdom hath builded her house.—She hath sent fourth her maidens, she crieth upon the highest places of the city, Turn in hither; come eat of my bread and drink of the wine which I have mingled,” Prov. ix. 1-5.”

(Witsius, Herman. The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man, Volume I, Kingsburg, CA: den Dulk Christian Foundation, 1990, pp. 344-345.)