We would be partly right if we were to read Acts 16:11-15 and to say, ‘Well, what the Lord did was to create the right atmosphere and the right elements necessary for Lydia to make this response.’ But we need to do justice to the text itself, which doesn’t just say that the Lord opened the heart in order to help her become a Christian.
Actually, what was happening is something that’s described in Ezekiel chapter 36, where the Lord promises to give his people new hearts and a new spirit put within them he causes his people to walk in his statutes. So, the Lord didn’t just make Lydia’s response possible—he actually opened her heart, and that is the only reason why she responded.
Otherwise, why would it be mentioned? If this is something that the Lord does every time the gospel is preached, then there’s no need to mention Lydia specifically, because people’s hearts are being opened all the time, if this is what happens every time the gospel is preached. But no—it’s specific to Lydia. The Lord chose her.
And although that may be inconvenient for us, or unpleasant for us to consider, that is what he did. Which is why elsewhere we have faith itself described as a gift—it’s taught in Ephesians 2—faith itself is not our own doing, even the faith we’re given is a gift of God. Philippians 1 is similar— ‘It has been granted to you… that you should believe in him.’ Belief is something that’s granted, given, gifted—not just something that is orchestrated or manufactured. Notice, it is a gift.
So, this returns to what we had the other Sunday. Lydia’s conversion is an example of an effectual call, following the process that Paul sets out in Romans chapter 8—that those whom he predestined, he also called. Lydia was predestined, and therefore she was also called. And once Lydia was called, she was also justified.
As we said, there is a general call, and that general call went out to all the women by the river. But only Lydia was effectually called. We need to see that Lydia would not have been able to respond had it not been for the Lord opening her heart, because, in 1 Corinthians 2, ‘the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God—he is not able to understand them.’
It wasn’t just that Lydia didn’t want to respond before this day—she couldn’t. She was dead. We’ve had it in John 6 already: ‘No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.’ And again, we acknowledge the pain of that, the awkwardness of that, the difficulty with that. But, crucially, ‘all that the Father gives me, that is who will come to me,’ Jesus says in John 6. And Acts 16 is a case study of that actually happening before our very eyes.
So, something like repentance, which was something that Lydia would have been involved with on this day, is granted, as described in 2 Timothy 2: ‘God grants repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.’ And we’ve already had it in Acts 11: ‘The Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.’ It’s all a gift!
