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beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding His Son, who as to His earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through Him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for His name’s sake. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
“To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be His holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 1:1-7) That’s four references to calling in seven verses. The first reference is specifically about Paul’s call to apostleship. But the next three are all about you and me— Christ-followers across the globe and throughout history. Each of us and all of us are called to the obedience that comes from faith for His name’s sake, called to belong to Jesus Christ, and called to be His holy people. Obedience. Belonging. Holiness. That’s our calling. These three things ground every specific call, every particular assignment. This is vitally important to remember. Christ calls us into a relationship with Him and conformity to Him before He calls us to any particular work for Him. This is true whether you hear the call or not. Put it this way: If you are following Jesus, it’s because He wanted you, called you, and you came. And before He asks you to do anything, He simply wants you to be with Him. His first and most important assignment is for you to abide, to hold still long enough that He can bathe you in His love and shape in you His character. I meet a lot of frustrated and stalledout Christians. One of their main complaints is that they don’t know “what
God wants me to do.” I answer, “But you do know: obey Him, belong to Him, and become holy through Him.” Martin Luther said that the will of God is to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and body, and then do whatever you want. That’s the basic idea. Jesus said, “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and everything will be added unto you.” Get the first part right—seeking God, loving God, knowing God—and all the rest follows. Any specific calling or assignment is always rooted in this deeper and universal call to obey, belong and be holy. But now watch: if you’re living out the deeper and universal call, you’re much more likely to discern the specific work. There are a number of things to pay attention to in making that discernment—but that would take another article to explore. But it’s the deeper and universal call that is the source of our peace, joy, strength. It is what we lean into when everything else becomes hard or unclear. Obey. Belong. Be holy. A biography of Jonathan Edwards, a key figure in America’s First Great Awakening, describes his reaction on the day the church elders came to fire him. The firing happened after a series of decisions Edwards made that riled up his congregation. At a riotous church meeting, he was dismissed with a vote of 230 to 23. It was a bloodbath. Yet he received the news without any sign of anger or distress. Then he went on to preach for the congregation for 15 months, until they found a replacement. That’s a man who lived his deep calling: obey, belong, be holy. Everything else was just the overflow of that.
/ MARK BUCHANAN is an associate professor of pastoral theology at Ambrose Seminary in Calgary. He previously served as the senior pastor of New Life Community Baptist Church in Duncan, B.C.
ANY SPECIFIC CALLING OR ASSIGNMENT IS ALWAYS ROOTED IN THIS DEEPER AND UNIVERSAL CALL TO OBEY, BELONG AND BE HOLY.
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JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2016 SEVEN 17