We all have been called by God, but what is the hope of God’s calling? Some may say that our hope is to go to heaven. But if you read the Bible, you will realize that God desires to come to earth. The heavens may be so precious to you, but the earth is more precious to God. In Matthew 6:10, the Lord Jesus prayed that God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. To God the earth is more important than the heavens. We Christians are always thinking that this earth is hopeless and that we are going to another place. But the Lord prayed that God’s kingdom would come to earth and that His will would be done on earth as it is in the heavens. Even the New Jerusalem one day will come “down out of heaven” (Rev. 21:2). To God, the earth is much more precious than the heavens. Heaven is not the hope of our calling. God has not called us to die and go to heaven. In Psalm 8:1, the psalmist declares, “O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!” Our hope is related to our living on this earth.
This concept of always expecting to go to heaven is from the superstition of Catholicism. Catholicism is a mixture of the truth in the Bible and paganism. In Buddhism there is the teaching that after you die you will go to a good place as a reward, and this kind of thought has been adopted by Catholicism. Many Christians have been indoctrinated with this pagan superstition. Some may be bothered by this word and ask, “After we have been saved, where will we go when we die?” The Bible reveals that Hades, like Sheol in the Old Testament (Gen. 37:35; Psa. 6:5), is the place where the souls and spirits of the dead are kept (Luke 16:22-23; Acts 2:27). However, Hades is divided into two sections: the pleasant section, paradise, where all the saved saints are, awaiting the resurrection (Luke 16:22-23, 25-26), and where the Lord Jesus went with the saved thief after they died on the cross (Luke 23:43; Acts 2:24, 27, 31; Eph. 4:9; Matt. 12:40); and the section of torment, where all the perished sinners are (Luke 16:23,28). As saved ones, we can be at peace. There is a proper place for us, but this is not the hope of our calling.
The hope of God’s calling is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). Christ realized by us, experienced by us, and gained by us to the fullest extent is the hope of our calling. God called us, justified us, and He will glorify us, conforming us to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29-30). One day we will all be absolutely the same as Christ (1 John 3:2). Our hope is not just Christ as our Redeemer or as our life, but Christ as our ultimate manifestation and consummation, as our glory. We are waiting to be fully conformed to the very image of Christ. This is the ultimate consummation of the enjoyment of Christ, and this is the hope of God’s calling.
The second matter Paul prays for us to see is the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints (Eph. 1:18). We are always concerned about our own inheritance, but God wants us to care for His inheritance. God’s inheritance in the saints is Christ. The Christ that has been wrought into each one of us is God’s inheritance. Christ is everything. To us, Christ is our hope, and to God, Christ is His inheritance. There is nothing within us that is worth being God’s inheritance. Only the very Christ who has been wrought into us can be God’s inheritance. We need to ask how much of Christ has been wrought into us. There may not be much in us that is good for God to inherit because very little of Christ has been wrought into us. This is why we need to be transformed, to have a metabolic change (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18), and to be conformed to the image of Christ. We all need more of Christ wrought into our being. The glory of God’s inheritance in the saints is the Christ of glory within us. When we are all transformed and transfigured, conformed to Christ to the uttermost, God will be happy. All the dear saints will be His inheritance, and this inheritance will be Christ Himself wrought into all His believers in full.
The third item that Paul prayed for us to see is “the surpassing greatness of His power” (Eph. 1:19). This is the power which God has wrought into Christ to do four things: 1) to raise Him from among the dead (v. 20); 2) to seat Him at the right hand of God (v. 20); 3) to subject all things under His feet (v. 22); and 4) to make this Christ the Head over all things to the church (v. 22). We all have to see the surpassing greatness of this power which God wrought into Christ. This is the power that overcame death, the grave, and Hades in raising Jesus from among the dead, that seated Christ at God’s right hand in the heavenlies far above all, that subjected all things under His feet, and that gave Him to be Head over all things to the church. This great power is toward us who believe. We need to know this power because the result, the issue, the coming forth, of this power is the church.
It is not merely because we have been saved and meet together that we are the church. We cannot say that this is wrong, but it is a very superficial understanding. We need to see that the normal, genuine, proper, and real church comes out of this great power. If you have the power that raised Christ, that seated Him at God’s right hand, far above all, that subjected all things under His feet, and that gave Him the universal headship, you have the church. This church is the Body of Christ, “the fullness of the One who fills all in all” (v. 23). Christ, who is the infinite, unlimited God, is so great that He fills all things in all things. Such a great Christ needs the church to be His fullness for His complete expression. This church comes into being, not from teaching, not from gifts, not from forms, not from rituals, and not from organization, but from the power of the resurrected, ascended, and enthroned Christ, who is now the Head over all things to the church. Ephesians 1:22 does not say that Christ has been made Head over all things for the church, but to the church. Whatever He is, whatever He has attained and obtained, is to the church. “To the church” implies a kind of transmission. Whatever Christ, the Head, attained and obtained is transmitted to the church, His Body. In this transmission the church shares with Christ all His attainments: the resurrection from among the dead, being seated in His transcendency, the subjection of all things under His feet, and the headship over all things. Such a church is Christ’s Body, His fullness.
We all must realize that nothing of our natural life, nature, or makeup, nothing of our natural being, is a part of the church. Only the very portion of Christ that has been wrought into us is a part of the church. Today Christ is in the heavens, yet He is also here on earth. He is like electricity. At the same time, electricity is in a house at one end and far away in a generator at the other end. All the light and the functions of the appliances in the house come out of this electricity. Today, Christ is the heavenly electricity. He is in the heavens, yet He is also within us as the source for us to have the church life. As the heavenly electricity, Christ is being transmitted to the church. We have to realize that everything God has done for us, with us, and in us is for the church. Regardless of how many years you have been saved, how much you love the Lord, how spiritual you are, or how much growth in life you have, as long as you are not for the church, there is something wrong. God’s intention is not merely to save us, nor is it merely that we be spiritual or love Him. God’s intention is to work the resurrected, ascended, and enthroned Christ, who is the Head over all things, into us to make us a part of the church. We all need to see the church in this way.
In our meetings we need to call on the name of the Lord. To call on the name of the Lord is to receive Him, to breathe Him in as the Spirit (Lam. 3:55-56; John 20:22). This will cause more of Christ to be wrought into us, yet the issue must be for the church. We all must realize that our calling on the name of the Lord, our eating, drinking, and breathing of the Lord, must be for the church. We have to be for the church and in the church. If you are not in a genuine local church, standing on the unique ground of the oneness of the Body of Christ, you cannot be fully satisfied; you cannot have the deep feeling that you are home. Without being in such a local church and living the local church life, you will feel unsettled, as a homeless wanderer. In the church we are home because the church is our destiny and also our destination (Eph. 2:19). This is because the church is also God’s destiny, even God’s destination.
We all need a spirit of wisdom and revelation that we may see these three matters: 1) the hope of God’s calling, which is Christ; 2) the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints, which is also Christ; and 3) the surpassing greatness of the power that produces the church, the power that raised up Christ, that seated Him in the heavenlies, that put all things under His feet, and that gave Him to be Head over all things to the church.
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