First Peter 5:10 tells us that God has called us in Christ. Apart from Christ, or outside of Christ, God will not do anything concerning us. Whatever God does with us, He does in Christ, that is, in Christ as the sphere and element. Christ is the sphere and element in which the believers have been called by God.
Second Thessalonians 2:14 tells us that God has called us through the gospel. No one is called without hearing the gospel. The preaching of the gospel is the sounding of God’s heavenly and eternal call. Whoever would listen to and believe in the gospel receives God’s calling, which is the initiation of God’s full salvation.
God’s calling is also in sanctification. First Thessalonians 4:7 says, “God has not called us for uncleanness but in sanctification.” The Greek preposition translated “for” here, epi, means upon, on condition of. God has not called us on condition of uncleanness, but He has called us in sanctification. This indicates that we must always remain in sanctification. God’s calling has nothing to do with uncleanness. His calling is in sanctification.
In 2 Timothy 1:9 Paul tells us that God has called us with a holy calling. God’s calling is to separate us and sanctify us unto Himself, making us holy unto God. Hence, it is a holy calling, a calling that separates us unto God.
Hebrews 3:1a indicates that, as believers in Christ, we have been called with a heavenly calling. The term “heavenly calling” stands in contrast with the earthly calling. In God’s economy, in His full salvation, we have been called by God from the heavens, and we have been called to everything that is heavenly: the heavenly Christ (Heb. 1:3, 13; 4:14; 6:20; 7:26), the heavenly enrollment (12:23), the heavenly gift (6:4), the heavenly worship (8:5; 9:23-24), the heavenly Jerusalem (12:22), and the heavenly country (11:16). Therefore, our calling is a heavenly calling. As believers, we are partakers of such a heavenly calling.
The heavenly calling is a calling of the divine hope to possess, partake of, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ, the embodiment of the processed Triune God, as the believers’ life and inheritance. The heavenly calling is of the divine hope, and the divine hope is to possess the all-inclusive Christ. Today the processed Triune God embodied in Christ is our life and inheritance. The heavenly calling is a calling to possess the all-inclusive Christ, the embodiment of the processed Triune God, as our life and inheritance.
Ephesians 1:18 speaks of the hope of God’s calling. Before we were saved, we had no hope (Eph. 2:12). Now, as God’s called people, we are full of hope. Our hope is actually Christ Himself. Colossians 1:27 says that Christ in us is the hope of glory, and 1 Timothy 1:1 speaks of Jesus Christ being our hope. Our hope is singly and uniquely Christ. Every aspect of our hope is related to Him. The all-inclusive Christ is the hope of our calling. Furthermore, we have the “one hope” (Eph. 4:4), the hope that one day the Lord Jesus will come as our hope of glory and that through Him our body will be transfigured (Phil. 3:21).
Christ can be our hope of glory because He dwells in our spirit to be our life. According to Colossians 3:4, when Christ our life is manifested, we also shall be manifested with Him in glory. He will appear to be glorified in our redeemed and transfigured body (Rom. 8:23; 2 Thes. 1:10). When Christ comes, we shall be glorified in Him, and He will be glorified in us. This indicates that the indwelling Christ will saturate our entire being, including our physical body. This will cause our body to be transfigured and to become like His glorious body. At that time Christ will be glorified in us. This is Christ in us as the hope of glory.
First Peter 1:3b-4 reveals that, in God’s calling, which is a heavenly calling, the Triune God is our inheritance. In verse 4 three words are used to describe our inheritance: incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading. “Incorruptible” refers to the substance, which is indestructible, not decaying; “undefiled,” to its purity, to its being unstained; “unfading,” to its beauty and glory, to its not withering. Our inheritance is divine and spiritual, altogether incorruptible. Furthermore, this inheritance cannot be defiled; nothing can make it unclean. Finally, it is unfading; its beauty and glory cannot wither. These are the excellent qualities of our eternal inheritance in life.
Peter’s threefold description of our inheritance is actually a description of the Triune God. The word incorruptible refers to the nature of this inheritance. This is God’s nature, signified by gold. The word undefiled describes the condition of the inheritance. This condition is related to the sanctifying Spirit. The word unfading refers to the expression of this inheritance, which has unfading glory. The everlasting expression indicated by the word unfading is the Son as the expression of the Father’s glory. Therefore, here we have the Father’s incorruptible nature, the Spirit’s sanctifying power to maintain the inheritance in an undefiled condition, to keep it holy, clean, and pure, and also the Son as the expression of the unfading glory. This reveals that our inheritance is the Triune God. We have been called with the hope of enjoying Him eternally as our inheritance.
The heavenly calling is also a calling worthy of the walk in the church, the Body of Christ, with the Triune God’s reality, which is the unsearchable riches and the immeasurable dimensions of Christ unto all the fullness of God for God’s expression (Eph. 4:1; 3:21, 8b, 18, 19b; 4:2-6). The heavenly calling is a calling that is worthy of the walk in the church. To walk in the church we need such a calling. This means that the heavenly calling qualifies us to walk in the church, which is the Body of Christ. Such a walk is in the sphere of the Triune God’s reality. We do not walk in the church life by our energy, holiness, or godliness. On the contrary, we walk in the church, in the Body, with the Triune God’s reality. The Triune God’s reality is what the Triune God is, that is, the unsearchable riches and immeasurable dimensions of Christ. We walk in the church with the unsearchable riches and immeasurable dimensions of Christ with the result of being the fullness of God for God’s expression.
Ephesians 4:1 speaks of a walk worthy of God’s calling, a walk in the church, the Body of Christ. God’s glory is wrought into the church and He is expressed through the church. This means that God is glorified in the church (3:21), Ephesians 3:8 speaks of the unsearchable riches of Christ, which include all that Christ is to us. The universal dimensions of Christ are described in 3:18: the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth. These dimensions are immeasurable. The unsearchable riches of Christ and the immeasurable dimensions of Christ constitute the Triune God’s reality with which the believers are filled for God’s expression.
The fullness of God in 3:19 denotes the expression of God. The church is the fullness, the expression, of God in a corporate way. In the church God is expressed corporately through the Body, through the believers who have been filled with the Triune God’s reality. The calling with which God has called us is worthy of the walk in the Body of Christ, the corporate expression of the Triune God.