The elect answered the call after they were made alive by the Holy Spirit.
And
you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body[
a] and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.[
b] 4
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Multi-layered response for me.
I actually don't see any reference to the Holy Spirit here - it would have to be placed in by assumption.
God calls. For a degenerate man to even be able to answer this call - perhaps to even understand it - a measure of faith must be applied, and in this, yes, the Spirit comes to guide the individual. But the Spirit does not force, rather simply gives understanding of the faith and the call. The individual has liberty, a free will to accept or reject the offer. How long this takes, how long is given, who knows? But at some point the individual either accepts the call or rejects it. If he accepts it, then he becomes one of the elect - not the other way around. The elect HAVE accepted Gods call; the elect are not YET to accept the call. The Spirit then comes into the individual and sanctification begins - again, not forced but guided.
If you have any specific questions or points about the bolded verses above, point away.
v1 - yes, we were dead before we were alive.
v4 - God so loved the world that he gave...
v5 - we were dead, and he gave us grace through faith in Christ.
v8 - yes, salvation is only obtained because of the grace of God, calling and giving us faith to respond.
v9 - you can't earn your way to heaven. And no, acceptance of Christ is not such a work, otherwise those who were never called could simply accept Christ and expect salvation.
v10 - verse 8 spoke of salvation through faith....leading to v10 which speaks to the saved. v10 does not speak of some "beforehand" elect, but rather that the "good works were prepared beforehand" for those who would accept and become the elect.
But also, this thread is primarily about Ezekiel 33. Going off somewhere else to prove your belief without somehow answering the points of Ezekiel 33 is disingenuous.
** when I answered Ted, I tried to make it simple. But as I've said in other threads, there are some who God has chosen to be elect or non-elect beyond their choices. I guess the non-elect could simply never be called - like Pharaoh. But I think men like Paul have been "walked thru" the process - his calling and acceptance was foreseen.