THE CALLING WHEREWITH WE ARE CALLED
[p. 92] THE CALLING WHEREWITH WE ARE CALLED
We are exhorted to walk worthy of the calling wherewith we are called, but we shall not be able to do so unless we have some idea what that calling is. The calling has to do with the present time; it is the mind of God as to His saints now.
I cannot enlarge much upon it, or even give a full outline of the calling, but I may suggest that three things, at any rate, have a prominent place in it. (1) The thought of “one new man”; (2) The fact that we “have access by one Spirit unto the Father”; (3) The truth that the saints are “builded together for an habitation of God in the Spirit”. I should like to say a few words on these three things.
We may not be up to our calling, and that to our own great loss, but the calling remains. The moment we speak of our calling we are looking at things altogether from a divine standpoint. The calling of God’s saints is always perfect in itself, and worthy of God. And our knowledge of God is very much dependent on the manner in which we apprehend our calling. It is a great thing to be in the intelligence of our calling. We may feel that we are “less than the least of all saints”, but it is blessed to be taken into the secret of God, and made to know His thoughts with regard to His saints.
The first thing to apprehend is that a new man has come into being. We shall not advance very far into Christianity if we do not apprehend this.
As to the actual condition of the world when Christ was here we may say that there were two men on earth — the Jew and the Gentile: the Jew, as such, making his boast in the law of commandments in ordinances, and professedly [p. 93] drawing nigh to God according to his privileges; the Gentile, on the other hand, openly giving himself up to “lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness” (Ephesians 4: 19). Outwardly there was the greatest possible difference between the Jew and the Gentile, but in reality they only presented two phases of the behaviour of the same man. See chapter 2: 2, 3. Both were characterised by “the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts”. This was fully brought out by Christ’s presence here, and by His cross. The Jew was no more prepared to receive God than the Gentile.
God must have a “new man” — a man of an entirely new order. Hence the necessity for the death of Christ. The new man could not be linked with the old. If there was to be a new man there must be an end of the old. If the Gentile is made nigh in Christ Jesus it is “by the blood of Christ”. It is by that which bears witness of death — of the end of man after the flesh. The enmity between Jew and Gentile is annulled really by both being set aside. If the Messiah went into death as rejected by His people, what became of all the pretensions o£ the Jew? The same death which removed everything that disqualified the Gentile for approach to God has set aside all the pretensions of the Jew. Man in unrestrained lust, and man subject to commandments in ordinances are alike ended in death, to make way for “one new man”.
Christ and the cross are God’s great tests for men. Christ crucified is a stumbling-block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Greeks; but to them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1: 23, 24). The cross brought to light that there was nothing in man for God. “If one died for all then were all dead”. Man is often large before our eyes; we are easily influenced by what is of man in the way of wisdom or religiousness. But the cross is the power of God to deliver us from all that. Our every blessing is in CHRIST, and we have [p. 94] also found in Him the perfect revelation of God. The testimony of God, in one word, is CHRIST, and God is forming a new man to be morally descriptive of Christ. In the cross there is the entire setting aside of man in the flesh, that there might be a new man with a new mind (1 Corinthians 2: 16).
It has been brought before us that the death of Christ is not only the end of man in the flesh, but that the love revealed in His death is the formative power of the new man. We learn the love of God in that precious death, and as we learn it we are formed by it according to God (sec Ephesians 4: 24). The effect of the love of God is to form us in “righteousness and holiness of truth”, and this is the character of the new man.
In Ephesians 3 we get the state that corresponds with our calling, and here the apostle prays, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” (verse 17). All that subsists in Christ as the Head and Centre of God’s blessed world dwells in the heart, and no other man has any place there.
As having heard Christ, and been instructed in Him as the truth is in Jesus, the Christian has put off the old man, which corrupts itself according to the deceitful lusts; and, being renewed in the spirit of his mind, has put on the new man, which according to God is created in truthful righteousness and holiness. The Christian definitely parts company morally with the old man, and puts off all his habits and ways.
Instead of Jew and Gentile there is now “one new man” formed after God. It takes all the saints on earth to make up that “one new man”. In the calling wherewith we are called differences of nationality, race, or colour have no place. There is “one new man” formed in Christ, and if this were entered into in faith and by the Spirit it would necessarily bring about practical unity and peace amongst all saints.
Now a few words as to “access by one Spirit to the Father”. What strikes one in this statement is the fact that it [p. 95] contemplates the saints quite outside the range of the flesh. We are viewed as in a circle of things where everything is of God. It is blessed to know that if we have access to the Father it must be so. We could not bring any imperfection to the Father. It is through Christ; it is by one Spirit; and it is unto the Father. Divine Persons, if we may so say, fill the scene.
We have access to the Father as those who can be in His presence entirely upon the ground Of CHRIST. We approach according to the blessedness of our calling and acceptance as it is set forth in Christ, and thus we come to the Father as worshippers. Then it is “by one Spirit”. The Spirit is necessarily exclusive of the flesh in every form of its activity. And inasmuch as it is by one Spirit that the whole worshipping company has access to the Father, there must be in that circle perfect and divine accord. One could not think of a jarring note in the Father’s presence! Jars proceed from flesh, and flesh can never have access to the Father. Any movement of flesh — any wrong feeling, etc. — should be thoroughly judged and set aside, or it will certainly hinder us from having access to the Father. A saint in whom there is the activity of unjudged flesh should beware of coming to the assembly. It is a very solemn thing to bring unjudged flesh before the Lord. The Corinthians found this out to their cost.
In chapter 3 what corresponds with access to the Father is “being rooted and grounded in love”, in order that ye “may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height” (verse 18). That is, Paul would have us become capable of apprehending the whole scope of the Father’s counsels, of which Christ is the blessed and eternal Centre, that we may be thus enlarged in worship and praise before Him.
Then I am sure that the practical outcome of having access to the Father by one Spirit would be that, we should become very diligent in endeavouring to keep the unity of [p. 96] the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace. It would tend greatly to promote practical unity amongst saints.
I have dwelt upon these parts of the calling because they are connected in an intimate way with the fact of God dwelling here in His saints. This comes out very distinctly in the last four verses of the chapter. “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2: 19 - 22).
The way in which the spiritual house is looked at in 1 Peter does not go beyond what was realised on the day of Pentecost. That is, the remnant of Israel was added to the 120 disciples and, as indwelt by the Spirit, constituted the House of God. But this did not suffice to give full expression to the truth. In order to present the House of God in its complete character it was necessary that Gentiles should be brought in. This did not take place historically until Cornelius and his friends received the Spirit as recorded in Acts 10, and afterwards Paul was expressly sent by the Lord to the Gentiles. So that, as in the scripture before us, Gentiles can now be addressed as being “of the household of God”, and as being “builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit”.
The whole company of saints on earth indwelt by the Spirit are builded together, so that God may dwell here. He dwells in His saints in the way of blessing and testimony. His grace, His attributes, and His nature are known in His house, and are expressed there in testimony. It would be well if we were more impressed by the seriousness and blessedness of this part of our calling. So that, as partaking of His character, and formed in His nature, we might be able [p. 97] to give a more true expression here of what God is as revealed in grace in Christ.
We are exhorted to walk worthy of the calling wherewith we have been called. This involves that we become “followers [imitators] of God, as dear children, and walk in love, even as Christ also hath loved us” (Ephesians 5: 1, 2). Nothing could be more blessed than to know God as those who are in the full light of His favour and love, and then to be here to give expression to what He is in the midst of a world of selfishness and hatred and lust — a world, too, where all are in darkness as to God, and where every serious mind feels the darkness, though pride of heart and will often prevent the acknowledgment of it. We are put in the light in order that the light may shine from us. The House of God is filled with divine light, but the light is there that it may shine forth in blessing and grace towards men. The work by which God brings us to the knowledge of Himself is a hidden and secret one, but it is intended to be manifested and to come abroad in testimony (see Mark 4: 21, 22). The divine candle is not to be put under a bushel or under a bed, but to be “set on a candlestick”.
It is said of the holy Jerusalem that “the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof”, and what follows is, “And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it” (Revelation 21: 23, 24). What the holy city will be in the coming day of glory, the House of God is morally now — the light of the world. Hence the apostle prays that we might be “filled unto all the fulness of God”, so filled with the knowledge of God that we might be capable of giving a true and full testimony to Him now morally, as we shall in the ages to come.
In connection with this it is very interesting to notice the purpose for which the gifts of the ascended Christ are given. Read Ephesians 4: 7 - 13. Now turn to Psalm 68: 18. I want you to notice the words, “That the LORD God might dwell among them”. In the New Testament we read that the gifts are “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ”, etc.; but in the Old Testament they are connected with. God dwelling amongst men. The two thoughts go together; the saints are the body of Christ and they are also a habitation of God in the Spirit. The perfecting of the saints goes on as they increase in the knowledge of God, and all the gifts further this. The substance of all true ministry is the setting forth of divine Persons in their manifold activities, and in all the varied grace in which they have been pleased to make themselves known to men.
Apostles have a special place as sent by Christ to make known in unity of testimony the whole truth of Christianity. Whatever we know of Christ, and of God as revealed in Him, we have got in one way or another from the apostles Prophets are those by whom the truth is brought home in present application to the consciences of men; evangelists make known the grace of God which brings salvation to all men; and pastors and teachers feed the flock of God, and nourish souls by the ministry of the word. But the action of all these gifts is to the end that God may be known and expressed in His saints — that He may dwell here in blessing and testimony.
God is near to us in the utmost conceivable favour. All the action of the Spirit, and every exercise of divine gift, tends to make this more and more a reality to us. There is no shade of distance between God and His household, no cloud upon the favour in which He dwells in His saints.
I am perfectly conscious how feebly I have entered into the great reality of the fact that we are a habitation of God in the Spirit, and how little I have apprehended all that hangs upon that fact, and hence I can only put it before you in a very feeble way. But I desire to know more of it in spiritual intelligence and power, and I believe there is the same desire [p. 99] in your hearts, by the grace of God. I trust we may with prayerful exercise meditate upon these things, and be greatly enlarged in our knowledge of God, and of the wondrous way in which He is near to us in blessing and love!
The first thing for us is to get an apprehension of the calling wherewith we have been called, and then it is important that we should give good heed to the exhortation of Paul, who could say that he was “the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles ... . I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4: 1 - 3).