In this lesson we shall continue to see God’s calling.
God’s calling is a holy calling (2 Tim. 1:9a). God has called the believers that He may separate them from all the common things and sanctify them unto Himself for His own purpose. Hence, God’s calling is a holy calling.
God’s calling is a heavenly calling (Heb. 3:1), the high calling (Phil. 3:14). The Greek word for “high” literally means above. Hence, the high calling is the calling from above, from the heavens, by God. It is equivalent to the heavenly calling. God’s calling to the children of Israel was a low calling, an earthly calling, to receive the earthly blessing for the possession of the physical land. God’s calling to the believers, however, is a high calling, a heavenly calling, to receive the heavenly blessing for the possession of the all-inclusive Christ and all His riches.
This heavenly calling is a calling of the divine hope (Eph. 1:18a; 4:4). As God’s called people, we are full of hope. Colossians 1:27 says that Christ in us is the hope of glory. Hence, our hope is Christ Himself. We are called with a calling of the divine hope to possess, partake of, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ, who is the embodiment of the processed Triune God. Today He is our life and hope (Col. 3:4; 1:27; Eph. 4:4); in the future He will be our glory and inheritance (1 Pet. 5:1; 1:4). In this age we live by, experience, and enjoy the life of Christ, and we also pursue diligently the growth and development of life unto maturity. When Christ our hope comes again, He will redeem our fallen and corrupted body (Rom. 8:23) by transfiguring it and making it the same as the body of His glory (Phil. 3:21). He will conform us to His glorious image (Rom. 8:29), making us holy and absolutely like Him in our regenerated spirit, transformed soul, and transfigured body. He will glorify us (Rom. 8:30), immersing us in His glory (Heb. 2:10) that we may enter into His heavenly kingdom (2 Tim. 4:18; 2 Pet. 1:11), the kingdom into which He has called us (1 Thes. 2:12). He will enable us to inherit the inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, kept in the heavens for us (1 Pet. 1:4). He even will cause us to reign together with Him as kings and to share His joy (Matt. 25:21, 23). This is the calling of the divine hope which we have received.
We were called with the heavenly calling to walk worthily in the church (Eph. 4:1). Our walk in the church should be worthy of the calling with which we were called. Hence, we need to be transformed that we may have a proper, normal humanity, living a life of lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, bearing one another in love, and being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace (Eph. 4:2-3). Furthermore, we need to have seven things as the base of our oneness: one Body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God (Eph. 4:4-6). Thus, we can live a life that is worthy of the calling with which we were called.
The heavenly calling also supplies us with the reality of the Triune God, which is the unsearchable riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8b) and His immeasurable dimensions (Eph. 3:18), that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19b) for God’s expression (Eph. 3:21). The riches of Christ are what Christ is to us, such as light, life, righteousness, and holiness. These riches are unsearchable and untraceable. The immeasurable dimensions of Christ are the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth of the universe (Eph. 3:18), that we may experience Christ in His breadth, length, height, and depth, without limit.
To walk in the church worthily of God’s calling, we need to enjoy continually what Christ is and has, allowing Him to impart God’s riches into us, that we may be filled even unto the fullness of God for the expression of God. This is the proper condition of the church; this is also the proper living of the called ones.