God’s calling is that He may bring man out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9b). Due to man’s fall, sin and death came upon all men and caused them to fall into darkness. Darkness is a sign of sin and death; it is the expression and sphere of Satan in death. The fact that mankind is in darkness proves that mankind is under the authority of Satan and dead in offenses and sins (Eph. 2:1). When God comes to call man, He opens man’s eyes and turns man from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to Himself. Light is a sign of righteousness and life; it is the expression and sphere of God in life. To be turned to God means to be turned to the authority of God, which is God’s kingdom of light. God has called us that He may deliver us out of the death-realm of Satan’s darkness into the life-realm of God’s marvelous light.
God’s calling is that His chosen ones may be separated and made holy unto God, to be the holy ones, the saints. Both Romans 1:7 and 1 Corinthians 1:2 reveal that the believers are the called saints. The saints are produced through the calling of the sanctifying God, who called them out of the world unto Himself. Hence, God’s calling is a separation and a sanctification. Therefore, not only Peter and Paul were saints, but all God’s called ones are saints, holy ones.
God has called us that we may also enter into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Cor. 1:9), to partake of and enjoy His all-inclusive riches. This all-inclusive Christ is the embodiment of the processed Triune God (Col. 2:9). According to the revelation in 1 Corinthians, Christ is the portion of the saints (1:2); He is God’s power and God’s wisdom as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption to us (1:24, 30); He is our glory (2:7) and the Lord of glory (2:8); He is the depths of God (2:10); He is the unique foundation of God’s building (3:11); He is our Passover (5:7), the unleavened bread (5:8), the spiritual food, the spiritual drink, and the spiritual rock (10:3-4); He is the Head (11:3) and the Body (12:12); He is the firstfruit (15:20, 23), the second Man (15:47), and the last Adam (15:45b); and as such He became the life-giving Spirit (15:45b). We were called by God into the fellowship of such an all-inclusive Christ that we may enjoy Him as our God-given eternal portion.
God not only called us out of darkness into His marvelous light and into the fellowship of His Son, our Lord Jesus, but He also called us to the suffering of Christ. First Peter 2:20 and 21 say, “For what credit is it if sinning and being buffeted you shall endure it? But if doing good and suffering you shall endure, this is grace with God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered on your behalf, leaving you a model that you should follow in His steps.”
For our sake Christ humbled Himself to become a man, being born into a poor family. He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief (Isa. 52:14; 53:2-3). He was without sin and had never sinned (Heb. 4:15; 1 Pet. 2:22), yet He was oppressed and afflicted. Being reviled, He did not revile in return; suffering, He did not threaten (1 Pet. 2:23). He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows; He was wounded for our transgressions and was bruised for our iniquities (Isa. 53:4-5). Finally, He Himself carried up our sins in His body onto the tree (1 Pet. 2:24). He suffered on our behalf and left us a model so that we should follow in His steps.
Literally, the Greek word for “model” means an under-writing. The Lord Jesus has set His suffering life before us as an under-writing for us to copy by tracing that He may be reproduced in us. This is spiritual xeroxing: Christ Himself is the original copy, the Spirit is the light, the divine life is the ink, and we are the paper for Christ to be reproduced in us. While we are bearing sorrows, suffering unjustly, we experience the grace of God, enjoying the motivation of the divine life within us and its expression in our life, that in our behavior we may become a reproduction of Christ, suffering as He suffered and living as He lived. This is God’s calling us to the suffering of Christ.
For the unique Body of Christ God has called us also to the peace of Christ. Colossians 3:15 says, “And let the peace of Christ arbitrate in your hearts, to which also you were called in one Body.” This indicates that for the proper Body life we need the peace of Christ to arbitrate, to adjust, to decide, all things in our hearts in the relationships among the members of His Body. Because the church life has been invaded by the differences of races, religious observances, cultural backgrounds, and classes and by the various philosophies and isms, there is a lack of the peace of Christ in the believers’ experience. They even have disputes with one another and are divided into parties, so that eventually there is a loss of the oneness of the Body of Christ. At this time an arbitrator is needed. This arbitrator is not any brother in the church; it is the very peace of Christ. We should allow the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our hearts. We all must take heed to the word of the arbitrator, allowing the presiding peace of Christ to rule within us and settle all the disputes among us, thus maintaining the oneness of the Body of Christ. This is the peace to which God has called us in one Body.
After Paul wrote in the book of Colossians concerning the all-inclusive Christ and concerning the new man in whom Christ is all and in all and where there is no room for Greek, Jew, or other cultural distinctions, he charged the saints to care for the peace of Christ. This is the peace of which Paul speaks in Ephesians 2:15, where we are told that in Himself Christ created one new man out of two peoples, thus making peace. In the new man there is no Greek, Jew, circumcision, or uncircumcision, and there are no different races, classes, or nationalities. Rather, there is oneness because Christ is all and in all. The peaceful oneness in the new man is simply the peace of Christ.