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In this lesson and in the next we shall focus on God’s calling. God’s calling is the first thing that God does in His chosen ones in the initial stage of His full salvation. In order to fulfill His purpose of selecting and predestinating man in eternity past, God comes in time, under His sovereign arrangement, to call His chosen ones that He may bring them back to His original intention to receive all the blessings that He intends to give them.
God’s calling is God’s new beginning. When God created man, there was a beginning. However, because man was corrupted and spoiled by Satan, he fell. Nevertheless, God would not give up man. His purpose in man never changes. So God came in to call man in order that He might have a new beginning with fallen man, and that His called ones also might have a new beginning and a change in their life, their concept, and even their entire being. This is God’s calling.
God’s calling is a transfer of race. God’s calling of Abraham meant that He had given up the race of Adam and had chosen Abraham, with his descendants, as the new race (Gen. 12:2-3; Gal. 3:7-9, 14; Rom. 4:16-17) to be His people for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose. All the called ones have been transferred from the created race to the called race. Although we were born into the Adamic race, at the time of our calling we were transferred into the Abrahamic race, the race of the called ones. Hence, God’s calling is a transfer of race.
The transfer of race is actually the transfer of life. The transfer of life is a transfer from the life of Adam to the life of Christ. This is also a transfer from the life of the old creation to the life of the new creation. Because of the fall of man, all of God’s original creation became old and is no longer able to fulfill God’s purpose. Therefore, God needs a new creation, a creation with a life that is stronger and much better than the created life of Adam. This life is the uncreated life of God, the life of Christ. The transfer of life in God’s calling is from the fallen life of the old creation to this stronger and better life of the new creation.
God’s calling originates with and is initiated by God. Romans 1:7 shows that all the saints are beloved of God and called by God. In eternity past God foreknew, chose, and predestinated us (Eph. 1:4; Rom. 8:29-30); in time He created us. However, we fell (Rom. 5:12), falling into sin, the self, the flesh, the world, and the old creation. Hence, God came to call us out of everything that is other than God Himself.
God’s calling is according to His predestination (Rom. 8:30). In eternity past He foreknew, chose, and predestinated us (1 Pet. 1:1-2; Eph. 1:4-5). Moreover, according to His predestination, in time He called us, justified us, and glorified us. This was foreordained in eternity by God, with whom is no variableness (James 1:17), according to His purpose and plan.
God’s calling is not only according to His predestination but also according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28b; 2 Tim. 1:9a). His purpose is His plan according to His will to place us into Christ, making us one with Him to share His life and position that we may be His testimony. According to such a purpose, such a plan, God predestinated us in eternity past and called us in time.
God’s calling is also according to His grace (2 Tim. 1:9-10). This grace was given to us in Christ by God before times eternal. It was according to this grace that God called us. This grace has been manifested through the first coming of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who nullified death and brought life and incorruption to us.
God’s calling is also through His own glory and virtue (2 Pet. 1:3). Glory is the goal of the divine calling; virtue is the energy to reach the goal.
God’s calling has a goal. He called us to bring us into His glory. He not only called us through His glory, but He also called us to His glory. When Christ came to the earth, He, as the effulgence of God’s glory (Heb. 1:3), became a great light shining in darkness and in the shadow of death (Matt. 4:16), attracting and calling people to follow Him (Matt. 4:19-22). Then He continued to attract the disciples with His glory in cases such as His changing the water into wine (John 2:2-11), His transfiguration on the mountain (Matt. 17:1-2), and His resurrecting of Lazarus in Bethany (John 11:39-40, 43-44). In these cases He revealed His glory to them again and again. He also gave them this glory (John 17:22) that they might have God’s life and nature (John 17:2-3; 2 Pet. 1:4) and become one to be God’s corporate expression. After His death and resurrection, He entered into the disciples with His glory (Luke 24:26; John 20:22) so that they might share His glory. Then on the day of Pentecost, this ascended and glorified Christ poured Himself out, and Peter and the rest of the disciples were filled with glory and were in a situation that was full of glory (Acts 2). Eventually, when Christ comes again, this glory will be expressed through the believers’ whole being—their spirit, soul, and body. At that time, they will be manifested with Him in glory (Col. 3:4). This is the glory into which we have been called.
God called us not only through His glory but also through His virtue. Virtue, literally meaning excellency, denotes the energy of life to overcome all obstacles and to carry out all excellent attributes. Glory is the goal of the divine calling; virtue is the energy of life to reach the goal. God has called us and imparted life into us (2 Pet. 1:3), and the divine energy of this life is virtue. This virtue needs to be developed (2 Pet. 1:5-8) to become our strength that we may reach the goal of God’s calling and enter into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 1:11), which is to enter into the eternal glory of God (1 Pet. 5:10).
God’s calling is in Christ (1 Pet. 5:10). He did not call us outside of Christ; He called us in Christ as the sphere. “In Christ” also indicates that the God of all grace has gone through all the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to accomplish the complete and full redemption, that He may bring His believers into an organic union with Himself. Thus they may participate in the riches of the Triune God as their enjoyment. Christ, who is the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9), has become the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17) as the bountiful life supply to us (Phil. 1:19b). It is in this Christ, through His all-inclusive redemption and based upon all His achievements, that God can be the God of all grace to call us into His eternal glory, and to perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground us in the Triune God as the solid foundation, thus enabling us to attain to His glorious goal.
God’s calling is also through the gospel preached by the sent ones (2 Thes. 2:14). The gospel is the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:1-3; Acts 5:42b), with His person, with all that He has accomplished, attained, and obtained, and with all that He is accomplishing in this age and will accomplish in the coming age and in eternity as the contents. Such a Christ must be preached as the gospel, the glad tidings, by God’s sent ones, that God’s called ones may hear and receive Him (Rom. 10:14-15), thus fulfilling God’s plan in eternity.
God’s calling is the first thing that God does in His chosen ones in the initial stage of His full salvation. This is God’s new beginning in which He calls men out of the created Adamic race and transfers them into the called Abrahamic race, and out of the life of the old creation into the life of the new creation. God’s calling is according to His predestination, purpose, and grace, and through His glory and virtue. This virtue becomes the energy of life by which the believers reach the goal of God’s calling, that is, to enter into the eternal glory of God. God’s calling is in Christ; Christ is its sphere. It is in Christ, through His all-inclusive redemption and based upon all His achievements, that God can call the believers into His eternal glory. God’s calling is also through the gospel preached by God’s sent ones so that God’s called ones may hear and receive Christ.
