God Called us in the Fellowship of Christ, into His Sufferings, and unto His Glory

The New Testament reveals many aspects of God’s calling. In the Gospels, the Epistles, and in the book of Revelation we can see a clear picture of God calling us.

First, God called us according to His predestination, His foreknowledge and choosing in eternity past. God called us according to His purpose and His grace.

Then, in time, God called us in Christ and through the gospel. When we heard the gospel and saw the wonderful Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, we were drawn to Him and we took heed of God’s calling.

Why did God call us? What is the purpose of God’s calling? The New Testament reveals various aspects of the purpose of God’s calling: in 1 Pet. 2:9 we see that God called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Hallelujah, God delivered us out of the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, a realm of love and light (Col. 1:12)!

God’s calling is so that we as His chosen ones may be separated and made holy unto God; now we are His holy ones, the called saints (see Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2). Today we want to see six more aspects of the purpose of God’s calling, which are,

1. God has called us so that we may enter into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, to partake of and enjoy His all-inclusive riches (1 Cor. 1:9, 30).
2. God has called us into the sufferings of Christ (1 Pet. 2:20-21).
3. For the Body of Christ, God has called us into the peace of Christ (Col. 3:15).
4. God has called us for the purpose of obtaining the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ; He has called His chosen ones unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth so that they might obtain the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thes. 2:13-14).
5. God’s calling is by His own glory and with the goal of our entering into the eternal glory of God (2 Pet. 1:3; 1 Pet. 5:10).
6. God has called us into His kingdom (1 Thes. 2:12).

God Called us into the Fellowship of His Son to Enjoy All His Riches

1 Cor. 1:9 tells us that God is faithful, who has called us into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. The purpose of God’s calling is that we enter into the fellowship of His Son to partake of and enjoy His all-inclusive riches.

Christ is the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9), and in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Christ is all-inclusive; He is our God-given portion for us to enjoy and partake of. Our God is faithful to bring us into the full enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ.

We need to lay aside our private interests so that we may be one with His interest, and we will partake of Him, enjoy Him, and live Him out in our daily living today.

God Called us into the Sufferings of Christ

In 1 Pet. 2:20-21 tells us that if we are doing good and suffering, this is grace with God; for to this we were called, because Christ also suffered on our behalf, leaving us a model that we may follow in His steps.

The Lord Jesus set a pattern for us; He set His suffering life as an underwriting for us to copy by tracing it, so that He may be reproduced in us. Christ is the original copy, the Spirit is the light, the divine life is the ink, and we are the paper for Christ to be reproduced in us.

As we go through sufferings, sorrows, and unjust suffering, we experience God’s grace and enjoy the motivation of the divine life within us and its expression in our daily life so that in our behavior and living we become a reproduction of Christ.

In our sufferings He gives us grace so that we may endure; we need to have the consciousness of God as we suffer for Him. We should focus not on our sufferings and dealings but on the grace of God, being conscious of God as we suffer.

To this we were called, to be Christ’s reproduction as we suffer one with Him and enjoy His grace to become His duplication today.

God Called us into the Peace of Christ for the Body of Christ

In Col. 3:15 we are told to allow the peace of Christ arbitrate in our heart, to which we were called in one Body. Christ created in Himself on the cross one new man, making peace between the Jews and the Gentiles; we need to allow the peace of Christ become the arbitrating peace in the church of God.

The purpose of God’s calling is for us to have the peace of Christ arbitrating in our being and in the church of God for the Body of Christ. If we are in the peace of Christ, we have a God-man living and we have a kingdom living, not struggling or striving but enjoying peace.

God Called us to Obtain the Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ

God chose us from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, to which He called us through the gospel unto the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thes. 2:13-14).

God created us in His image so that we may contain Him and express Him in His glory, but due to the fall of man, we cannot contain or express God. Therefore, God came to accomplish redemption for man, and He calls us to Himself unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth so that we may obtain the glory of Jesus Christ.

The glory of the Lord Jesus Christ is Christ expressing God; we are called to be made the same as the firstborn Son of God, Jesus Christ, and express God corporately as His many sons! Hallelujah!

God Called us by His Own Glory so that we may Enter into the Eternal Glory of God

As those who are pilgrims in this world, we sojourn here, not having our home or setting roots in this world. We are God’s holy nation and people, and He calls us by His own glory and virtue (1 Pet. 1:3).

God called us by His own glory and virtue: the glory is the goal, and the virtue is the excellency, the energy of the divine life that supplies us to reach the goal. The God of all grace is constantly ministering to us the riches of the bountiful supply of the divine life in many aspects and in many steps of the divine operation on and in us in God’s economy.

He called us, and we cooperate with Him by bountifully supplying to our faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge self-control, and to self-control endurance, and to endurance godliness, and to godliness brotherly love, and to brotherly love, love.

These virtues are the riches of the divine nature abounding and existing in us richly, supplying us bountifully and giving us a rich entrance into His eternal glory so that we may express the God of all grace (1 Pet. 5:10).

God Called us into His Kingdom

The final destination and purpose of our calling is to enter into God’s kingdom; we are not to go to the judgement seat and then sent to the lake of fire but to enter into the kingdom of God in a rich way.

The kingdom of God is an organism constituted with the life of God as a realm of life for His ruling, in which He reigns by the divine life and expresses Himself in the divine life (see John 3:3, 5-6; Matt. 6:10, 13).

Before we responded to God’s call (before we were saved) we were not in the kingdom of God but rather, we had nothing to do with God. But God called us and we responded to His call, and thus we entered into His kingdom.

Today we, those called by God, must live in the church life that we may grow and develop int he life of God unto full maturity. As we grow in life day by day and develop in the divine life unto maturity, the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly supplied to us (see Rom. 14:17; 2 Pet. 1:5-11).

God has given us the divine and precious promises by which we escape the corruption in the world and have a rich entrance supplied to us into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Lord Jesus, cause us to realize and apprehend the full extent of the purpose of Your calling. Lord, make the church life today the reality of the good land, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land in which we enjoy the all-inclusive Christ to the uttermost and we build up the temple of God as the permanent habitation of God! Cause us to grow in life and develop unto maturity as we live the kingdom life in the church life so that we may have a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Andrew Yu’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Truth Lessons — Level One, vol. 3, lsn. 28, as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (1),  week 3 / msg 3, The Purpose of God’s Calling (you can buy this morning revival book here via LSM and here via Amazon).
• Hymns on this topic:
  # God has called us into the fellowship of His Son, / That we may partake of Christ and enjoy Him / As our unique center and as our God-given portion. / God has called us into the fellowship of His Son. (Song on God Calling us)
  # Lord, grant me the experiences / To produce such a ministry. / Through revelation and sufferings, / Lord, constitute Yourself in me. / By Your all-fitting life, / Lord, I learn to live. / By Your sufficient grace, / Lord, make home in me. (Song on Experiencing His Sufferings)
  # What we are, we’re the called ones, / We’ve been called into the purpose. / No longer low in Adam’s fall, / God’s glory is our holy call. / We’re the called ones, glorious! (Hymns #1279)