Joel 2:32 concludes the prophecy of the outpouring of God's Spirit and the coming Day of the LORD with a broad promise of deliverance: everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved. In Joel's immediate setting, the promise is associated with deliverance in Zion and Jerusalem among those whom the LORD calls. Yet the wording "everyone who calls" gives the invitation a breadth that the New Testament later develops explicitly in the proclamation of the gospel.

Romans 10:9-13 applies Joel 2:32 directly to salvation through Jesus Christ. Paul declares that there is no distinction between Jew and Greek because the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call upon Him; he then quotes Joel: "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." This is an especially significant Christological use of the Old Testament, because language in Joel referring to calling upon the name of the LORD is used by Paul in a passage centered upon confessing Jesus as Lord. Acts 2:16-21 also quotes Joel 2:28-32 at Pentecost and presents the outpouring of the Spirit as the beginning of the prophecy's fulfillment. Christians therefore understand Joel's promise as opening into the universal gospel invitation: salvation is offered without ethnic distinction to all who call in faith upon the Lord Jesus.