THE CALLING OF GOD AND HEAVENLY PLACES
[p. 313] THE CALLING OF GOD AND HEAVENLY PLACES
What is before me, beloved friends, to speak on this evening is the calling of God. It is evidently a very important matter to get a clear idea of. A little later on in the epistle we find the thought of our calling, and there is a shade of difference between the two expressions. The apostle refers to God’s calling in the prayer at the close of the first chapter: “That you may know what is the hope of his calling”; and what I want to unfold a little tonight, as the Lord may enable me, is what is conveyed in the expression “his calling”, and to add a word or two about “the hope” of it.
God’s calling, I need hardly say, must needs be according to His purpose. We read elsewhere, “Who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose”. So, too, we have, in Romans 8, the expression, “The called according to his purpose”. The calling of God is not always identical, and I want to show what is God’s calling for the Christian. We get a reference to it in Philippians 3, where the apostle speaks of pressing on for “the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”. He looks at it there as the end, the prize for which he was striving might and main, the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.
There are three things which come before us in verses 3 - 5 of this chapter: the first is the calling; the second is the state which befits the calling; and the third is the proper scene of the calling. In thus speaking of them I refer to them in the reverse order to that in which they are presented to us in the passage.
[p. 314] The three verses are evidently intimately connected, and the connection is marked in verse 4 by the word ‘according’, and in verse 5 by the “having predestinated”; the three points are thus connected together.
When I read the scripture, I dare say you noticed the recurrence of one expression, that is, “his will”. First you get in verse 5 the good pleasure of His will; then, in verse 9, the mystery of His will; and then, in verse 11, the counsel of His own will. The thought connects itself in my mind very intimately with Hebrews 10, in which, referring to Christ, it says “I come ... to do thy will, O God”; it goes on to say, speaking of the offerings under the law, “He taketh away the first that he may establish the second”. It is very important to apprehend the real line on which Christ came here, namely, to establish the will of God. God does not take counsel with any; there are very few of us who do not take counsel with someone, but God has no one to take counsel with, He works all things after the counsel of His own will. I refer to that, because it makes it so evident that the calling is according to the will of God, what we are called to is the fruit of His counsel. As I was saying at the outset of these lectures, the service I desire to render to the saints is to establish their souls on the ground of divine counsel, for a vast proportion of the people of God, as to the state of their souls, are not beyond the ground of responsibility as men on earth. They do not see that the end of conversion in God’s sight is to set them on the ground of His counsel, and that the work of Christ answers to that, for the clearance is complete: “By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified”. You must not confound ‘sanctified’ and ‘perfected’. ‘Sanctified’ is by far the greater thought of the two. “By the which will we are sanctified”, set apart for God. The pith of that passage in its application to us is, that [p. 315] we are set in the place of priests, having access as sons to God. And then the truth is added that by one offering Christ has perfected for ever — that is as to their conscience — them which are sanctified, so that there is no more conscience of sins. I see more and more how in the gospel the question of man’s responsibility is completely met; but I am sure that no question of man’s responsibility can come up to the will of God; and our calling is according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace. It is not according to our will or our thought, but it is the good pleasure of His will.
Before I dwell upon these verses in detail, I should like to say a word or two about the expression “calling”. It is not the first time that we find a calling in Scripture. I see two callings in Scripture, and there may be more — an earthly and a heavenly calling. If I go back to the beginning, I do not see that Adam had a calling; God put him on the footing of responsibility. He was set up in Eden a perfect creature as God had made him, the head and centre of God’s creation down here; but he had not a calling, his point was to abide in what God had made him in the place of responsibility. That was no question of faith.
Passing on through the history of the Old Testament we come to Abraham. It may seem a curious thing to say, that though Abraham was called out by God, yet no present calling was revealed to him. He was a pilgrim and a stranger, he sought a heavenly country, he looked for Christ’s day. We are told all that, but still I do not think we have the truth of a present calling revealed to Abraham. I do not doubt what the place of Abraham will be in glory. He will find what he sought — “a city which hath foundations”. “He that seeketh findeth”. Abraham sought it according to the instinct given him of God, and you may be sure he will find it. But Abraham received promises rather than a calling.
[p. 316] The beginning of a calling in the Old Testament was in the case of Israel; God revealed His name to them in its import as a name of relationship, and they had a special calling of God, they were Jehovah’s people by calling. In them we see the possession of a calling. We find that they did not abide in the truth of the calling, and therefore they were set aside. But they have not forfeited their calling, for Scripture says that “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance”, and the calling will therefore be yet fulfilled in them.
Now we come to the New Testament, to Christians and the calling of God, I think verse 5 of this chapter makes what the calling is perfectly plain. It is in the greatest possible contrast to what the calling of Israel is. He has predestinated us to sonship to Himself, through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will. That is God’s calling so far as we are concerned, and it is the highest privilege which can be conferred upon us. It has often been said, in regard to union, we are members of Christ; while, in sonship, we are companions of Christ. He is “the firstborn among many brethren”.
I want to enlarge a little upon this latter. We find He has “predestinated us to sonship” — I alter the form of the expression, because “the adoption of children” does not exactly give the sense: it really is “sonship” — He has “predestinated us to sonship through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will”. I think a great many people read that verse and do not apprehend the force of it. People have very vague ideas about sonship. What gives character to sonship in that verse is “through Jesus Christ”. It implies that in order for the accomplishment of the counsel of God, it was needful that Christ should become man, and take His place as man in heaven. We never could have had the place of sonship through Jesus Christ as He was here upon earth, for He speaks of Himself as the corn of wheat [p. 317] that to bear fruit must fall into the ground and die. There was no such thing as His being the firstborn among many brethren, on the footing of what He was after the flesh, not on His account, but on our account. One thing was against it — the judgment of God, death, rested upon every man here in the world when Christ came into it. And therefore to begin with Christ had to remove that judgment, to die, in order that the judgment which rested upon man might be annulled, and that He might take a new place as man in resurrection, and not only in resurrection, but in heavenly glory, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. The truth is, divine righteousness had to have its full display in Christ in His exaltation. He glorified God as man, He bore the judgment which rested upon man down here, “Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead”, and now divine righteousness has its full display and expression in Christ. He is not only raised, but exalted to the right hand of God in the heavenly places, and there it is that He is become “the firstborn among many brethren”, and we are to be conformed to Him, for the calling is to sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself. If you trace it to the beginning, that is, what had to be accomplished in order that the will of God might have its full effect.
There is another point which I think is important, and that is, that in Scripture the expressions ‘children’ and ‘sons’ are not confused. Both expressions are used in regard to Christians. A Christian is a child of God. ‘Child’ is the word which is always employed in reference to the Christian by the apostle John: “Now are we the children of God”. And again, in the first chapter of John’s gospel, “To as many as received him, to them gave he title to take the place of the children of God”. On the other hand, Paul almost invariably uses the word ‘sons’, though he does once or twice say ‘children’, too. A remarkable [p. 318] instance is in Romans 8, where both expressions are employed. I will show you the distinction between the two. You could not speak of the Holy Spirit being the Spirit of children; but He is the Spirit of sonship, and for this simple reason, that the Holy Spirit has come down from Christ glorified, from the Son of God in glory, and is therefore the Spirit of sonship in us. The truth of sonship is this — the calling of the Christian corresponds to what Christ is in glory, not to what Christ was when He was here upon earth, but to what He is now, and therefore the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of sonship. But we are children of God. The idea which children of God conveys to me is that we are the partners of Christ’s rejection. Sonship is that we are the companions of Christ in glory. And both things are perfectly true to the Christian. We have fellowship in the sufferings of Christ, and, as in that place, are the special object of the Father’s affections. That is what Christ was when He was here upon earth; He was suffering and rejected; but He was the unfailing object of the Father’s delight and affections. What characterises a child is this, “If so be that we suffer with him”. But while we suffer with Him, we see “what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God” — mark what follows — “Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not”. It accords with the expression in the first chapter of John’s gospel, “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not”. But what then? “To as many as received him, to them gave he title to take the place of the children of God”. And therefore it is that the world does not know Christians, because it knew not Him.
But as sons we are the companions of a glorified Christ; that is what the Holy Spirit would lead you to. The Holy Spirit not only makes us conscious of the Father’s affections as we go about the world and have to do with things down here, but leads us in spirit to what God has called us to: predestinated us “to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren”. The same thing is brought out in Hebrews 2 — God is “bringing many sons unto glory”. So, too, in Corinthians, He has called us “to the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” — that is the Christian calling again.
But there is another thought connected with the calling, and that is priesthood. The two things are intimately connected, sonship and priesthood. Because the great idea connected with priesthood in Scripture is access, and it is sons who have access. There is a further privilege of sonship — namely, intelligence of the mind and will of the Father. But the other point is equally true, that we have priestly access. Sonship is what God has called us to. How much do we really enter into it? Many Christians rejoice in the thought of children, and I think we ought to rejoice in it. We are the children of God now, the apostle lays special stress upon it in that way: “Now are we the children of God”; but it is none the less true that God has called us to the fellowship of Christ in glory. And what for? Our pleasure? No, for His pleasure, “according to the good pleasure of his will”. Remember this, God’s counsel is for His pleasure. He does not order simply for my pleasure, but He makes me know that what I am before Him is for His pleasure. Your exaltation in the grace of God, whatever you may be called to, is according to His will.
The fact is, everything with God is infinite. I know in the present day plenty of people are dazzled with the discoveries of astronomy, and the vastness of space; but it has not very much effect with me, because, after all, created things are not infinite in the true sense. But when I come to what God is morally,
[p. 320] everything of necessity must be infinite; and therefore it is not very surprising if God makes known what I may call the infiniteness of blessing, for the blessing is according to the infiniteness of what God is. God is love, and God is infinite in love, and if God delights in blessing there is no limit to it; and in that sense it is not wonderful at all. It is limited only in our capacity.
Now one word about “the hope of the calling”. I have heard the question frequently asked, What is “the hope of his calling”? Well, I have no doubt at all “the hope of his calling” is purposely left indefinite; Scripture does not say exactly what it is. But the idea which it gives me is the calling in the consummation of it; I think the point of the prayer is that you should get the present good of it. If God instructs my soul, by the knowledge of Himself in what is the hope of the calling, I get the present good of it. We get as heavenly light what soon will be our part. It is no use attempting to relegate the calling to the future, for the calling is revealed, and the moment it is revealed it is true to faith and good to those who believe. The secret things belong to God, but the revealed things belong to faith. And therefore, if the calling is revealed, though you may not yet have got the actuality of it, the actual condition of it, yet what is revealed is the property of faith, and therefore the calling is as good to me as it will be when I get the consummation of it at the coming of the Lord. I think that is the idea conveyed in the expression.
I pass on now to speak about the state, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love”. I use the word ‘state’ or ‘condition’ in reference to that verse (though, after all, words are poor), because I think the verse describes state or condition. Now, beloved friends, you will think it strange if I say that the verse suggests to my [p. 321] mind a practical state, and yet I do not mean practice exactly, because it is what the person is to be. I know many Christians take refuge in saying, Oh! I am that in nature. But that is not the point of the verse. The verse states that He has “chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love” — that is, we are to be so; it is not simply a nature. I dare say you are that in nature, but I say the verse refers to what God has purposed that you should be. I can understand a person saying, But does it not refer to the future? Well, I cannot say it refers to the future, because it is made known for the present. At all events, it is your standard; it is what God has chosen you for. And it is a practical state. I do not at all like the way in which it is commonly taken up as a mere question of nature, because I do not think that gives the idea of the phrase. The beginning of a Christian is this — that he is in the Spirit. The apostle Paul says in Romans 8, “Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you”. That is Christian state, and, I have no doubt, the secret of everything lies there, in the Holy Spirit in the Christian. But that is the outset. Many a Christian may be said to be in the Spirit, and yet after all Christ may not really be formed in him. The Corinthians were in the Spirit, for they had the Spirit of God beyond all question. No person that has received the Holy Spirit is in the flesh. He is in the Spirit; that is Christian state. In the case of the Galatians — and I doubt if you may not say it in regard to the Corinthians — Christ was not formed in them; at all events the Corinthians were no further on than babes in Christ, and whether Christ was formed in them or not I can hardly say. But with the Galatians it is clear — the apostle travailed in birth again until Christ was formed in them. The fact is, the souls of the Galatians had not got a real view of Christ in glory;
[p. 322] Ishmael was not putout; they had not got a true idea of Isaac the seed of promise; and therefore they wanted to go back to Hagar. What the apostle brings before them is this, that when Isaac was weaned Ishmael had to be put out. Jerusalem above, which is free, is our mother. What I said was the case with the Galatians, and is the case with many Christians at the present day. If you have been brought out of system, you will know there are very few Christians who have any real idea of Christ in glory. Yet they are real Christians, and have the Spirit. But it is one thing to have the Spirit, and another thing for Christ to be formed in you; and the effect of that is that Ishmael, the flesh, is bound to go; the child of flesh must not be allowed to rule in the house. And there is another thing — where Christ is formed in the Christian, the Christian would not allow himself to be put under ordinances, to observe days, and months, and seasons, and years. I have no doubt a great many people are spiritually beyond the system they are in; but if people are intelligently in system, it is clear to me that Christ is not formed in them. It is a great thing when Christ is formed in you. It is then the Christian says, Flesh is no longer to rule here, flesh is to have no quarter, and Christ in glory is to rule supreme.
And then you have to grow up into Christ. Do not suppose people begin to grow up into Christ until Christ is formed in them; but when Christ is formed in them, then they begin to grow. And that is the object and effect of ministry, as the apostle says in Colossians 1, “Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ”. So that it is not one feature or trait of Christ developed, but every trait of Christ having its place in the Christian, so that there be nothing deficient, and each quality balanced. Even with apostolic men, you will see one quality predominant in one man, and another in another.
[p. 323] That may be all well, but the great effect of ministry is that every quality should be in the Christian, and every quality have its right place — that we should be full-grown in Christ.
Now I come back to verse 4. If a person has the Holy Spirit, it is not difficult for me to apprehend that that person is holy and without blame before God in love, so far as he is in the Spirit; but I think the verse gives the standard, and that it is a standard which is to be realised down here. I do not think I can say I am it; I think any person would make a grave mistake who said that; but it is my standard; and if Christ had complete possession of the heart of a Christian, the Christian would be this, he would be “holy and without blame before God in love”. I have no doubt it will be completely realised in glory. The condition is a very blessed one, it is a wonderful thing to be practically holy, so that there is a complete instinctive shrinking from all that is evil. The Christian is to be holy and without blame before God, so that no charge can be laid against him; but then there is another word, that he is to be holy and without blame before God “in love”, that is, in the exercise of spiritual affections. Beloved friends, I do not think a Christian is of himself capable of any spiritual affection, but every spiritual affection in the Christian lies in the power of the Holy Spirit. And so the apostle says of the Colossians that Epaphras had declared to him their “love in the Spirit”. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life in a Christian. I believe the great defect with most of us is that we are not sufficiently under the sense of obligation, for the moment I come under the sense of obligation, the Spirit of life enables me to respond to the obligation. I will explain what I mean. I say, “If God so loved us”, what is the obligation? “We ought also to love one another”. There is the obligation, and the moment that obligation is accepted, the Holy Spirit enables you to fulfil it, and therefore all [p. 324] spiritual affections are in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, and the affections are according to Christ, and in the Christian they lie in the power of the Spirit.
The matter is one of very great moment; for I am sure it is a defect in most of us that our souls are not sufficiently under the sense of obligation. God is never under obligation, save to Himself. And hence love with Him is sovereign. The way obligation works is this. We are set under the greatest obligation. “Hereby perceive we the love, that he laid down his life for us”. There is the ground of obligation. What then? “We ought also to lay down our lives for the brethren”. “Ought” expresses obligation. What does obligation flow from — what the saints are? Not a bit, but from what God is, and what Christ is. “If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another”. I say to the youngest here tonight, let your soul be under the sense of divine love; if you recognise the obligation you will not find difficulty in carrying it out. The more your soul is under the blessed sense of divine love, the more you will find your capability in the Spirit of Christ to walk here in love to the brethren. And on the other hand, if your soul is not under the influence of divine love, I am sure you will not walk practically here in affection towards the brethren. A Christian is never said to be love; but, under the sense of love, we walk here in spiritual affections in the power of the Holy Spirit. That is the way it works. God has called us “that we should be holy and without blame before him” — mark the last expression in the verse — “in love”.
Just one word more, in regard to life. I remember seeing some time since an expression which greatly commended itself to me — that life is that by which a being enjoys the position in which it is placed. You must first discover the position you are placed in, and then you will know something about life. If you had [p. 325] not the state suited to the position in which you are placed, you could not possibly enjoy that position. But if you know anything at all about the position, then you will very soon find out that the state corresponds to it, for otherwise it would not be worthy of God. I have seen people in the world who have not the state to support their position, and it is a miserable struggle; but it is not God’s way. If God has called us to sonship by Jesus Christ to Himself, we have also the state, namely, holy and without blame before Him in love.
Now as to the place of it. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ”. I cannot say much about “heavenly places”, because I really know so little about them myself. A person might very readily say, We must refer all that to the future, because we are not yet in heavenly places. I say that will not do, because I find in the beginning of chapter 2 that Jew and Gentile are made to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And I believe that truth is brought in there in order to show us how we are in heavenly places, so that we may enter as a present thing into the calling. Because if the calling refers to heavenly places — which it does — one would say naturally, I must wait for the enjoyment of the calling until I get into heavenly places. But the mystery is solved — you are in heavenly places now. And it is true in principle of every Christian. It is not a question of his entering into it, but it is all a question of God’s power — that just as surely as Christ is in heavenly places, so every Christian is in heavenly places in Christ. But how did you get there? By union; the gift of the Holy Spirit united you to Christ in heavenly places. But have you got the good of it? That is the point. Do you understand what it is that the apostle says, “You being dead”, and so on, you are quickened and raised up together, and made to [p. 326] sit together in heavenly places in Christ? Oh! a person says, that is what is going to take place. He is going to quicken these mortal bodies and to raise us up: all that is to take place at the coming of the Lord. Perfectly true; but what I find here is that as regards the condition of the believer’s soul God has anticipated that; God has so wrought in the believer that it is effected already in his soul; so that not only are you united — but you have got the good of it. Do you know what the good of union is? You have got to where Christ is. People take union up as a dogma, and say a believer has the Holy Spirit and is therefore united. Perfectly true; but have you reached where Christ is? because that is the idea of union. Chapter 2 reveals to me that it is possible for the believer to see how God has anticipated what will actually take place at the coming of the Lord. It has often been said that in the epistle to the Ephesians the coming of the Lord is not presented to us; because God has anticipated it to us in putting us in Christ in heavenly places. It will be a great thing if we are living on the earth when the Lord comes, but in virtue of what God has wrought in believers’ souls we have already gone to Him; Christ has been so practically formed in my soul in the power of the Holy Spirit that I have got the good of union. I do not simply talk about it, but I am conscious I have really reached Christ in my soul in the place where Christ is. You have got away from earth. Being quickened together with Christ does not take you off earth, but the being raised up together does. You are conscious that all the distinctions which divide men here upon earth are for you abolished for ever; and more than that, you are at liberty in the very place where Christ is. All that is what God had effected in those to whom the apostle wrote here, the Ephesians.
Beloved friends, I do not want to lay too great a strain upon Christians, especially young Christians.
[p. 327] It is all true for you, but the work of God is not done in you in a moment; Scripture never conveys that idea at all. You are in the Spirit if the Spirit dwells in you; but there has to be the renewing of the Holy Spirit; and then there is another thing presented to us — we begin as babes, and have to grow up to men. There is no need to be discouraged; everyone must begin at the beginning. And you have to remember this, that there is no gift given to a believer beyond the gift of the Holy Spirit. You could not have more than divine power in you, and you have that; and the purpose of divine power in you is that you may live by divine power, and that Christ may be formed in you, and you may grow up into Christ. I believe that to be the blessed office of the Holy Spirit in the believer. I thank God life is not left in my power; life in the Christian is in the Spirit of life, who ministers Christ to his soul. God has made my soul alive in His goodness, and what nourishes the soul is the appreciation of Christ. I prefer Christ to myself and to all else. Christ is “chief among ten thousand” and “altogether lovely”. One would sacrifice all, in that sense, for the appreciation of Christ. The Holy Spirit ministers Christ to my soul, and the practical effect of that is not simply that Christ is formed in me, and that Ishmael has been turned out, but it is that I grow up into Christ in all things. Then it is I realise that I am united, for I have got the good of union; I have left the distinctions of earth, I am at home in the scene where Christ is, my soul is at liberty, and in delight there; I become beside myself I am withdrawn in the power of the Holy Spirit from the ordinary circumstances of everyday life into the blessed scene of light where Christ is.
One word more. God has “blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places”; and people have frequently asked, What are the blessings? If you were to ask me what were the temporal blessings [p. 328] with which Israel was blessed in earthly places, I might tell you, but I could not tell you very much about the spiritual blessings in heavenly places. I only tell you this, If you know anything at all about what Christ is the centre of in heavenly places, you will know something about the character of the blessings. “Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God”. If you get an apprehension of the affections, and delights, and joys of which Christ is the centre at the right hand of God, you will then have an idea of what the spiritual blessings in heavenly places are. And that is what we are blessed with. It all depends on the soul really apprehending that God has set us in heavenly places. Now do not be discouraged. I cannot talk much to you experimentally of these things. But I say all these things are possible, because they are what God has effected. It is possible not only to be united to Christ — we are united to Christ — but it is possible as a present thing to get the good of union. Then, if you are conscious of having reached Christ, where He is, you will soon understand what the calling of God is, and you will apprehend the state which is suited to the calling. I am afraid that when the Lord comes, and we are really brought into the actuality of it, some of us will be surprised because we have entered into it so little now. I shall not be sorry to be surprised, but if we knew something more about the hope of His calling, we should not be so very much surprised when the Lord comes. But you must remember this — God works all things after the counsel of His own will. He has not done this or that, or called people to this or that, to please them, but to please Himself — it is “the good pleasure of his will”, and “the counsel of his will”, and with God, of necessity everything is infinite.
May God give our souls to enter into it. I trust I have not brought anything before you which will cause [p. 329] anyone here any kind of difficulty. May God give you to examine everything in the light of His word, and to abandon every thought which will not bear that light, and establish and confirm you in everything which is according to the truth of God.