The Heavenly Calling

Anonymous

Ephesians 2:1–13

This precious portion of the inspired Word, which gives the most exalted view of the Christian calling, emphasises the fact that we are indebted to the grace of God, and the blood of Christ, for this marvellous position of which we could not even have thought. ‘God, who is rich in mercy’ thought of this. ‘By grace are ye saved … ye who sometimes (or formerly) were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.’ And how nigh are we thus brought? ‘Made [to] sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus’, or, as it is expressed in the first chapter, ‘blessed … with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ’ (1:3). Israel was blessed with all temporal blessings in earthly places on condition of keeping the law. Those who believe in Jesus are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places as the gift of grace through His precious blood.

It must be by grace that we have this calling on high. Even if Adam and Eve, while in their state of innocence, had been given a place in heaven, it would have been a matter of pure grace. By their obedience they could only keep their first estate. They could not earn a higher one. If so, it must indeed be grace which gives us a place there, us who were away from God, lost and undone through sin. But while grace alone might have been sufficient to give our unfallen parents a place in heaven, it required more than grace to give us a place there; that is, it required grace to lay a basis on which God could righteously pick us up, and give us a place in His holy presence. Justice required that sin be atoned for; as, without it — ‘without shedding of blood’ — is no remission (Heb. 9:22). Hence it is said in our passage that we are ‘made nigh by the blood of Christ’.

And then, as a proof of finished atonement, God ‘raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come’ (1:20–21). And as the exceeding greatness of the power which wrought this in Christ is to us-ward who believe, therefore it is said that ‘God …, for his great love wherewith he loved us, … hath quickened us together with Christ … and hath raised us up together, and made us (Jewish and Gentile believers) sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus’. Of course, the value of Christ’s atoning death is not divinely appropriated to us till we receive Him in a true faith. But as soon as we do receive Him, the value of His death is ours, and therefore we are at once in God’s eye seen as dead with Him; and, as a consequence, we are, as stated in the passage before us, quickened with Him, raised up with Him and seated in the heavenly places in Him. In short, we are at once identified with Christ in His death, resurrection and ascension, which took place more than eighteen hundred years ago. Yea more, we are identified with Him as now seated in the heavenlies. We are seated there in Him. As sure as He lives before the face of God, we live also. Such is the present exalted position or standing of all true believers in Jesus, however poorly they may be taught in these precious truths. Of course, the work of Christ is perfect. If so, the standing of believers before God is perfect. It being in Christ, it must be perfect.

We have next God’s purpose in giving us this perfect standing in His presence, namely ‘that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus’. Thus, while we have even now this exalted position in Christ, and thereby a present object for the heart, we have a bright and sure hope of being with Him where He is, the position and the hope being inseparably connected. ‘If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ’ (Rom. 8:17). The hope is to be realised ‘in the ages to come’.

And we now are to walk according to all this, and in the sense and power of it. ‘For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them’ (Eph. 2:10). Thus, though we are not saved by works, but simply on the principle of faith, yet, being saved, we are to walk as saved persons. Good works thus come in here, not to get this place in Christ, but because we are in it. The subsequent exhortations in this epistle accord with this (‘I … beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called’ (4:1); ‘Be … followers (or imitators) of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us’ (5:1)). Further, we are exhorted to ‘put on the whole armour of God, that [we] may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil’ (6:11). He is ever busy seeking to get us down from a sense of our heavenly calling, for if he can do even that, our walk, though it may to the eye of the natural man be correct, yet it will not be a heavenly walk, and we cease, till restored, to be a real testimony for Christ. Whereas, if we, in spite of all the powers of evil, maintain a true sense of the place which grace has given us, and of the consequent hope, and walk in the power which is for us, others may notice that our eye is on the unseen — that our backs are toward this poor world from which, through the cross, we have been delivered, and that our faces are set toward that into which through grace we are brought, with its bright outcome.

R H[1]

[1] Extracted from Help and Food for the Household of Faith (1894) vol. 12 p. 253.
________________

From: Truth and Testimony, 2022