THE CALL OF GOD, AND HOW WE REACH IT
Part 1
Romans 8: 16, 28, 29; Ephesians 1: 3-10
There are what we might speak of as two sides of the gospel, the relief side and the calling side. It brings us relief as to all we were as sinful men, forgiveness of sins, justification and salvation, all that is on the relief side; but on the other side the gospel is the call of God, that we may be with God in all the blessing and fulness of sonship. So Paul preached Jesus as the Son of God, not only what He was down here on earth, though He was the Son of God here, but what He is as a man in glory. He is declared “Son of God in power ... by resurrection of the dead” (Rom 1: 4) but as gone up into glory He has taken His full place as Son of God.
It says in Romans 8: 30, “whom he has predestinated, these also he has called; and who he has called, these also he has justified; but whom he has justified, these also he has glorified”. The thought God had in His mind for us from all eternity is now brought to pass in Christ raised from the dead and in the glory of God the Father, as Son of God, the Object of the Father’s love, and One perfectly answering to that love.
We are called to sonship, to have part with Christ in the position that He occupies in relation to God; and the ultimate result of that will be that we shall be conformed to the image of God’s Son, all like Christ, sharing the position and glory of God’s well-beloved Son.
There are two or three thoughts in connection with sonship I would call attention to. The first thought is response; we have received the spirit of sonship whereby we cry Abba, Father. Not only are we before God as the objects of His love, and loved of Him as He loves Christ, but there is a response in our hearts to that love. No one can respond to God like a son, and He has given us the Spirit of His Son whereby we cry Abba, Father.
Then the next thought is, it is a state of liberty. A son with his father is perfectly at home, happy and free, hence the Lord says in John 8, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed”. He contrasts this with the state of a servant. Sonship is often presented in Scripture in contrast to being a servant. A servant can be turned out of the house, but a son never. God has given us an abiding place in His house. You belong to God’s household, you have a son’s place there. Who could give us that?
Nobody but the Son. If the Son makes you free, gives you the consciousness that you share His place in God’s house, you will have liberty. You will know you are the object of His love, for it is His love which has given you a place in His house and delights to have you there. In all this God is acting from Himself, for His own pleasure, delight, and glory. You will never know what liberty is till you reach that spot. We may be very slow in reaching it, but it is God’s thought for us and He will bring us to it. When the father met the prodigal he was yet a long way off, but what was in the father’s mind was to bring him into the house as a son, and he never left him till he brought him there into all the joy and light of the father’s house. That illustrates the journey of the soul. When there was the first turning of heart to Him, God met us in all our sin and ruin and wretchedness in the far-off country, and removed it all. From that point we began to move. Different things took place on the road. When the prodigal got into the house, he enjoyed liberty; he had peace before. Many have peace but not liberty; they are quite sure their sins are forgiven, and that, if they died, they would go to heaven, but they have not liberty. Many want to be made servants like the prodigal; he would say, “Make me as one of thy hired servants”, Luke 15: 19. Do you think God has delight in servants? If you know what God is, you would know that He could not have pleasure in servants. No, He has pleasure in sons, and nothing less will satisfy Him. If you take the place of a servant in God’s house, you do not satisfy the heart of God. There is a special service which belongs to sons. No service can satisfy God but the service of sons. The great end of salvation is that we may serve God. “Let my son go, that he may serve me”, Exod 4: 23. God has set us free that we may serve Him, and we cannot serve Him acceptably except as sons.
There is another thought which we get in Ephesians, and that is intelligence. A son is one to whom the father can communicate his mind, and with whom he can share his thoughts. All saints are children, but all are not consciously in the place of sons. There is no reason why we should not grow up into manhood and understand what God has made known to us of His mind and will. “Having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself”. What a wonderful thing it is that we should be made capable of receiving all these communications! God would make known to us what He is doing, and what He is about to do. He makes known to us the mystery of His will. It is hidden from men, they do not know what God is doing, but we do. He is going to bring about a state of things which will be for His own pleasure, and to His glory for all eternity. He delights to make known to us all He is doing and all He is going to do; He can make known all His secrets to us.
There is another great thought in connection with sonship, and that is glory. Until we reach the position Christ is in now, we are not in the fulness of sonship; we must have our bodies redeemed. He will quicken our mortal body, He will transform these bodies of humiliation into likeness to His body of glory. Then we shall be like God’s Son. He has determined it that we shall be conformed to the image of His Son, be in the same glory in which Christ is as man in heaven, a glory above that of all other creatures. So that in its full result we await sonship, that is the redemption of our bodies.
God gave it to His Son to bring all this to pass, and when He has done it, it will be all to God’s good pleasure. God will have the supreme joy in heaven of surrounding Himself with millions of sons, all like Christ. God has taken us into favour now in His beloved Son—“to the praise of the glory of his grace”. It glorifies His grace to have done it, to have taken up poor degraded creatures such as we were, and given us a place and position in His own beloved Son. You will be an item in it, and God’s fullest, highest glory will shine out another day in it. All the saints beneath us in God’s universe will learn what God is in the fulness of His grace and love as they see it displayed in the church—“Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end”, Eph 3: 21. It does not magnify us, but it magnifies God who has brought it all to pass.
That is the calling, and whether you have only just begun the journey, or have got a good way on, never lose sight of the fact that this is God’s calling. If I only leave on your mind an impression of the greatness of God’s calling, our coming together will not be in vain. We are so apt to lose sight of it. If we enter into it we shall be worshipping God as Father, and one great effect, as with the apostle, will be that we shall do as he said, “I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”, Eph 3: 14. If ministry does not produce exercise and put us on our knees, it will not have much effect. It should put us on our knees because we must feel how very feebly at best we have answered to God’s calling. It will make us praise too. But it is only in answer to prayer that God will work in us and give us to answer to the blessedness of that to which He has called us, answer better to the love which is the spring and cause of all our blessing.