THE BELIEVER’S CALLING
Robert I Webster
Hebrews 3: 1-2 (to “him”); 1: 1-5; 4: 14-16; 5: 5-6; 6: 20; 7: 1-28
It is perhaps evident from the scriptures read that I have in mind, with the Lord’s help, to speak of the believer’s calling. I think the thought of a calling would suggest that which properly belongs to a person. Men use that expression in human things - they have found their calling. I think too that the thought of a calling is that which is set before us, so that there might be exercise with us as to how we reach out for it and answer to it.
I began in Romans because it traces our calling to its source. Paul speaks of “those who are called according to purpose”. I feel, certainly for myself, the need to become more established and settled in relation to the purpose of God. I think in many ways our enjoyment of divine things largely rests on our apprehension of how we stand in relation to it. It is immensely settling. It speaks here not only of the source of our calling, but the end God has in view. He takes us up with a definite end in view: He is going to conform us to the image of His Son. You think of that, God will have a universe filled with the glory of His Son that will include a company of persons. Now, I can understand that God would want to have everything speaking to Him of His Son. If any of us have come to an appreciation of that One, we can understand why it is that God is going to have everything, and everyone, conformed to His image. What I cannot explain to you - other than to say it has pleased the heart of God to do so - is that He has chosen you, dear brother, and dear sister, to be amongst that company of persons that are going to shine in His image. I think the wonder of it should bow our hearts.
God has thought of us before the foundation of the world. How great the people of God are! Men try to trace everything back to the foundation of the world; the people of God go back before the foundation of the world. Ephesians brings out that He has chosen us in Christ “before the world’s foundation”, Eph 1: 4. Oh that my affections and spirit might rise to the grandeur of it! How immensely establishing it is. Satan would seek to bring in that which may unsettle us, and perhaps raise questions hard to answer. But lay hold of the fact, dear brother and sister, that you have a place in the purpose of God. It gives you a settled disposition in relation to everything that is of God. “We do know that all things work together for good to those who love God”: what that makes the people of God! You think of the company here: before even God commenced His work in creation, He had us in mind. It is something we must lay hold of because, whatever Satan may do (and we know how active he can be), we can lay hold of this blessed truth: He had us in mind before the foundation of the world to be conformed to the image of His Son.
The scriptures we have read speak of the Lord Jesus as Son; the Son is presented here as God’s ideal, and the thought of conforming would mean there is a work going on with an ideal in view. The moment is soon upon us when that work will be complete; I think that is on the hearts of the brethren. You do not need to speak to a lover of the Lord Jesus for too long before the conversation very quickly turns to His coming. The Lord puts it in the hearts of His own when His coming is near, and when He does come, all that is being worked out will be complete; and it says, “we shall see him”, 1 John 3: 2. We are going to see the One we love. We are actually going to see Him! Then it says that, when we see Him, “we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is”. There were those who saw Him as He was - the One down here as the lowly Man of sorrows (Isa 53: 3), bearing the physical effects of all that He bore in His spirit. We are going to see Him as He is - a glorified Man. God will have completed His work, but in the meantime, He is conforming us to the image of His beloved Son. If we have any sense of what our calling is, let us open ourselves to allow God to work. How He does it is His matter - He may use discipline in it, He may bring in His word, but all with a blessed end in view that He is going to conform us to the image of His Son.
Hebrews 3 brings out the character of our calling; it is a heavenly calling. The writer here was writing to Jewish believers and from what we read in the epistle it seems there was a danger that they were falling back - he uses the word “drawers back” (Heb 10: 39) - into what effectually had become earthly ritualism. He reminds them of the character of their calling. Dear brethren, ours is a heavenly calling. It raises a test with us, does it not, whether we would consign what we think our Christianity to be to purely what is earthly? Perhaps there is a tendency, I know from my own experience, to do that. I am thankful for the care and help that enters into my circumstances and needs here, but our calling goes far beyond that. I often think one way I can measure my apprehension and enjoyment of things is how I speak to God. What do we speak to Him about? Of course we thank Him for His providential blessings; the Lord when He taught His own to pray taught what was of that character in Matthew, chap 6: 9. The Lord there was on earth and He was bringing in the blessed truth of the kingdom; He taught His own to pray in relation to all that they would receive from above. I do not want to be misunderstood - we can be thankful for that, but that Man is now in heaven, and the Spirit has come as witness to that glorious fact; and things now take a heavenly character.
How thankful we can be for what has come to us; I am thinking especially of Paul’s ministry. His prayer in relation to those in Ephesus was that they “should know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of the might of his strength, in which he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead, and he set him down at his right hand in the heavenlies”, Eph 1: 18, 19. Have you ever prayed like that, that you might know those things? It is a test, is it not? Well, if you have not, try it; you will not be disappointed. So the writer in Hebrews calls upon those he wrote to “consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession”. Consider Him. That is not a passing thought or a cursory glance at what we may have presented to us. That is the deliberate application of our minds, because it strikes me that when God wants to attract our hearts in relation to something He has in mind for us, He tells us what Christ is in relation to it. So the writer says, “consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession”.
As I was thinking about this occasion recently, we sang a hymn to the Son of God -
Thou hast come in on God’s behalf
To crown His wondrous ways (Hymn 171).
It occurred to me that what the epistle to the Hebrews presents to us is the crown of God’s ways. The Jewish believers who were accustomed to God’s ways of old would have thought of God speaking in the prophets, then the way in which He would set up the priesthood so that things might be held for Him and that He may be served, and then in relation to the kingdom where His rule and sway would be known. Hebrews appears to present the Son as the One in whom God gathers all those things up. We are to consider Him, and in the consideration of Him no doubt our affections would become engaged as to the character of our calling.
In the first chapter the writer speaks of the Apostle: God always had in His mind to put Himself in touch with His people through His speaking. I am reminded that in the garden of Eden, He provided congenial conditions in which that might be so, because it says of Adam that He heard the voice of Jehovah in the cool of the day. The fall meant that the character of communion which that suggests was all lost to man. God then used intermediaries to convey His word - the prophets, many of them great men of faith. Now faith always connects itself with the crown of God’s ways. Abraham was spoken of as a prophet; he was given the promises, and he laid hold of them. He never came into the full good of them. Hebrews says later on from where we read that he “died in faith, not having received the promises”, chap 11: 13. It brings out the privileged character of the present day; the Holy Spirit now connects itself with what faith lays hold of. So, we lay hold of something in faith, and the Holy Spirit makes it good to us and gives us the present reality of it. We have a great advantage. Think of Abraham; the Lord said he rejoiced to see His day (John 8: 56); he had been given light as to the crown of God’s ways. Why is it he went out not knowing where he was going? He never received the promises, but he held them because he was given precious light as to how they were all bound up in relation to One who was going to come in beyond his own lifetime. What a reward for that man’s faith!
You think of Moses: he was used in an outstanding way by God to speak to His people. He said, “God will raise up unto thee a prophet … like unto me; unto him shall ye hearken”, Deut 18: 15. What blessed light these men of faith had in relation to all that God was going to gather up in His Son. I suppose John the baptist was the last of that long lineage; a faithful man he was, he was one who was going to prepare the way for the One that God was bringing in. He appeared to have some impression of the greatness of the walk of that One who was coming after him: “he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to unloose”, John 1: 27. He had his reward - there was a moment where it says of John the baptist, “looking at Jesus as he walked” (John 1: 36), and I know that was used of God to secure disciples for the Lord, but I love to think of it as a blessed reward for that man’s service. He was given that view, the One in the way which he had prepared. But great as all those men were, they were just men.
Then, “at the end of these days has spoken to us in the person of the Son”. That is God speaking Himself. Does that arouse your interest, dear brother and sister? That God has deigned to speak Himself, and immediately the Son is introduced. The writer here speaks of what is great to convey something of the greatness of all that he was going to set before his readers; he introduces the greatness of the One who speaks using these superlative expressions. He says, “whom he has established heir of all things”. Sonship involves heirship. The title of Son belongs to One - the Son; He inherited that title. We come into sonship by the “spirit of adoption” (Rom 8: 15), but there is one who as Man has that title, it belongs to Him; He inherits that name and as such, everything belongs to Him. You think of the greatness of such a One!
If you want to be enlarged in your thoughts of Him, think of Him in relation to all things. The scripture tells us that He “ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things” (Eph 4: 10): who but God could go beyond the created sphere? Such is the greatness of the Person. Elsewhere it says, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand” (John 3: 35), that brings out the blessed mediatorial glory of the Son, that He takes everything up that is put into His hand; everything is safe and sure there. Here He is the One to whom all things belong, the Heir of all things. Men look around, they take account of the created sphere, they look into their telescopes and see the vastness of it. Even the created sphere is beyond them. They look into their microscopes to see the detail of it; what is it all for? It is for the glory of the Son. It all belongs to Him. How great the Person is who speaks; and it says, “by whom also he made the worlds”, and that brings out the oft-repeated truth that Colossians helps us with (“all things have been created by him and for him”, chap 1: 16): that what He creates as God, He inherits as Man.
Then, “who being the effulgence of his glory and the expression of his substance”. We need to apply our minds to these verses so that we get the good of them. Who but the Son could be spoken of in such a way? God has a world which is marked by glory, the centre of which is His Son. It emanates from Him. There was a time when He appeared here as a light, “And the light appears in darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not”, John 1: 5. There were those who were given eyes of faith to see it. John says, “we have contemplated his glory” (John 1: 14); that is a bit like considering. He had rested his gaze on that One, “contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten”. It is as if he says, I cannot quantify that glory for you, but if I were to give you a sense of it, it would be like this “an only-begotten with a father, full of grace and truth”. That brings out the expression of what was there. One in whom “dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”, Col 2: 9. You think of all that was expressed. Everything that is seen of God is expressed in the Son. That is a blessed truth to lay hold of. So not only does He create all things and inherit all things, but He upholds all things by the word of His power. Men study the created sphere and apply laws of physics to it; however there was a time that we can read of in the scriptures when one of the most impressive forces in creation - the seas - was turbulent and the company the Lord was with in a boat was at its mercy. But the word was, “Silence; be mute … and there was a great calm”, Mark 4: 39. I am not sure how men could apply any law of physics to that. It goes beyond man’s tiny mind and what it can conceive.
Then Hebrews says, “having made by himself the purification of sins, set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high”. The writer moves very quickly to establish His present position. He is sat down there, He has gone up, “having made by himself the purification of sins”, and when the Son does something it never has to be repeated. He sits down there, “on the right hand of the greatness on high”, to show us that everything now is established in Him. The thought is of greatness and elevation, all that now is in the heart of God that He unfolds to us is established in this blessed Person.
And then God says, “I will be to him for father, and he shall be to me for son”. What I have in mind as to our calling is that it is the place that properly belongs to sonship. Sonship is God’s highest thought for man, and what we have presented here is not only that He had title to that name, but He filled out that relationship perfectly. We have been given these relationships, speaking on a human level, and how wonderful it is that God has given us these relationships so that we can begin to understand what is filled out in that blessed relationship. We all know what a father does; the motives behind it are always love. He always did things for His Father, filled out that relationship in all its fulness. We can trace it all the way through His life; as a boy of twelve He says, “did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business?”, Luke 2: 49. You think of that, a boy of twelve, when even the strongest natural claim was asserting itself, One who always had His Father before Him! And that is the character of the speaking: it relates to what is truly ours in order that it might be filled out. The speaking of old was mainly providential and provisional, but this speaking relates to all that properly belongs to us.
Then we have the thought of the High Priest, in chapter 4. It says, “Having therefore a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God”. That is another thing that marks the epistle: how the writer interweaves the personal name of Jesus with His titles. I always think when that name is referenced in Scripture the Holy Spirit knows it will have our attention, that One that we love. It immediately arrests our affections. It goes on to speak of the sympathy of the High Priest. How real are the sympathies of the Jesus! We can prove them. If we feel that things are perhaps beyond us, or if we feel that the condition and circumstances we are in tend to hinder our enjoyment of the greatest of all that God would give us, that does not draw out the disapproval of Jesus; it draws out His sympathies. He is presented as “Jesus the Son of God”. I have in mind His priesthood in its most elevated character, and that is how He holds everything good for God. Jesus is the One who does things for us; the Son of God is One who does things for God, and He always holds His people at the true height of what is proper to them. If you want proof of that, read that precious chapter in John 17: you will see how the way in which He speaks to His Father about His people involves nothing as to failure. He always holds them in relation to divine purpose. So if things seem overwhelming for us, there is One, our High Priest, who holds everything good for God.
It goes on to say, “Thus the Christ also has not glorified himself to be made a high priest; but he who had said to him, Thou art my Son, I have to-day begotten thee. Even as also in another place he says, Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedec”, chap 4: 5, 6. He has title to that office because He is Son. The high priests amongst men obtained the office through their lineage, all according to man, but this is a Priesthood of a completely different order, “the order of Melchisedec”. It speaks of Melchisedec being “assimilated to the Son of God”. We read of Melchisedec when he appears almost mysteriously on the scene long before God assigned the priesthood to the tribe of Levi. This high priest does not trace his qualifications from man. At the time of the conflict of those nine kings, it is almost as if he comes from a different sphere and he brings that which is from that sphere with him. He blesses Abraham, he ministers to Abraham, and then he blesses the Most High God. As a result Abraham becomes morally superior to the circumstances in which he was. The king of Sodom says, give me the souls and you can take the property, but Abraham says, ‘I am not going to take it from you’; he had had to do with Melchisedec and says, “I have lifted up my hand to Jehovah, the Most High God”, Gen 14: 21-24. He became morally superior to the circumstances around and was able to bless God without needing to take anything from the world. The result of the Lord’s service in this way is that we become elevated from the scene around us and become occupied with what is for God.
The high priest would also suggest one who represents the people; it was only the high priest that could enter the holy of holies, so that the whole position of the people depended on the high priest. Now our High Priest has entered in: “Jesus is entered as forerunner for us”, showing He has entered in not only as having title to that office (and when He takes the office, He has it forever), but He has entered there on moral lines, as Jesus in all the perfection of His manhood. So we see the two thoughts again - the greatness of His own Person, and the moral perfection of what He is as Man. It says He “is entered as forerunner for us”, and that is where we come in. He brings His people in; He is “bringing many sons to glory”, Heb 2: 10. The “glory” there seems to suggest what is the true place of sons. We know as a blessed truth that where He is He desires His own to be with Him. So that we approach with “boldness for entering into the holy of holies by the blood of Jesus”, Heb 10: 19. And there He has laid an immutable basis for His own to enter in, “having found an eternal redemption”, Heb 9: 12.
It goes on to say, “who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God”, Heb 9: 14. My impression is that “the eternal Spirit” conveys that it was not just that He was meeting us in our need in His precious sacrifice, but in the shedding of His blood He was giving efficacy to thoughts that went all the way back into eternity. So as entering in, He sits down there and things are made perfect. He Himself has been made perfect. That is not a moral thought; I think the sense there is that He Himself has arrived at the place that is properly ours. Now that is the gravity of the moment, dear brethren, that we come into the gain of that which the men of faith of which we have spoken never had - there is One there who not only has given expression to all that is in the heart of God, and the glory of the thoughts that He has in His mind to bless us with, but He Himself fills out that place. O that we may rise to the greatness of it! There is One there, and He is there forever! The priests here were marked by infirmity and death, and death brought in decline to the point where it was extinguished in the days of Samuel. Jesus is there in “power of indissoluble life”; let us lay hold of that, dear brethren; that is the blessed truth. However sparse we may feel our apprehension is of our calling, there is a Man in the immediate presence of God filling out all that truly and properly belongs to us; that is our High Priest. He is a Priest forever. In due time we will arrive: Romans says of those who are sons that they are “awaiting adoption, that is the redemption of our body” (Rom 8: 23), when we will have bodies of glory like unto His own (Phil 3: 21), but there is a Man there who holds everything good for God. That is the character of the Son of God, taking up the office of High Priest. May we be established in that, as we see things as they stand in relation to Him.
So then there is that which we have to do. Ephesians brings out the height of our calling as a present reality in the divine mind; it is done and settled as far as God is concerned. Hebrews, however, brings out more of our side; it says, “let us approach with a true heart, in full assurance”, chap 10: 22. Well, that is our calling, dear brethren. We can have full assurance because there is One there who has not only conveyed everything that is true and proper to what belongs to us, but He holds it all good for God Himself personally.
I finish in Ephesians because this is where the test comes in. It says, “I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you therefore to walk worthy of the calling wherewith ye have been called”. That is the practical test for us - our walk. Our walk is down here, and it is a reflection of what we are, where our interests are; and so Paul says, “walk worthy of the calling”. That is in every provisional setting, our relationships, in our households, in our local assemblies, in our responsibilities. Look at all that belongs to you, how does it affect your walk? There is a soon coming moment where everything that is set before us will no longer have the character of a calling; it will be a present reality: things will be realised. It is very soon and in relation to that moment, I am reminded of two persons in the Old Testament who were taken out of the circumstances in which they found themselves. There was one man Lot; it speaks of “righteous Lot”, 2 Pet 2: 7. It says he “tormented his righteous soul” (v 8); he was found in a system of things he was not fitted for; it was not becoming of him. And effectively he had to be dragged out; that is a very sobering thing. But there was another man, Enoch, who it says, “walked with God”, Gen 5: 24. It says of him that he “was translated”, Heb 11: 5. What is going to be true of us when that calling on high comes? Does our walk take its character from all that will soon be our present portion? Or will we be taken from the scene in which we do not belong as those that have found a home here? The walk of the Lord Jesus here was heavenly in character. It has been said it was a walk out of this world. That should mark the believer’s walk, that it is a walk leading out of this world. So that when that moment comes and we are called to be with Him, we will not only be morally conformed to the image of His Son, but our walk here will have been in keeping with that blessed truth.
May we be encouraged as to these things, dear brethren; they are very challenging but let us have full assurance as to these things. May it be so for His Name’s sake.
Sidcup
28th February 2026