Romans 1:1 – 7, A Meditation (10)

 

 

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles in behalf of His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

 Continuing to ponder what it means to be “the called of Jesus Christ”:

 

What do you see in the following passages?

 

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out…This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day…No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:37, 39, 44).

 

“…that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life…I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word…I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours…I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (Excerpts from John 17).

 

There is a sense in which, as we ponder these words of Jesus Christ, that we are invited to take a glimpse into the eternal counsels of the Godhead, the Trinity. I don’t know that this is analogous to walking through the front door, perhaps it is more like standing outside a window that has been lifted up so that we can just hear pieces of conversation and catch a few rays of light. The temptation when we encounter the mysteries of God is to speculate on the things we don’t know rather than meditate on the things that God has graciously revealed to us. When we speculate we miss God’s unveiling of Himself, while if we will humble ourselves before Him and receive what He is revealing we will find ourselves being drawn deeper into the koinonia of the Trinity.

 

When we ponder the above passages, can we see that we do not belong to ourselves? Can we see that the genesis of our relationship with Jesus Christ is in God and not in ourselves? Do we see that Jesus Christ holds us tightly within Himself? While we may not understand it, can we acknowledge that the Father has given us to the Son?

 

In Acts Chapter 15, when the elders in Jerusalem met to consider the ramifications of the Gospel being preached beyond Judah and Galilee, James had this to say, “Brethren, listen to me, Simeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name” (Acts 15:13 – 14). Do we see what James is saying? God is “taking from among the Gentiles a people.” Just as Jesus called and took fishermen by the shore of the sea of Galilee, just as Jesus called Matthew from his tax business; even so God was calling and taking individuals from among the Gentiles that Peter, Paul, and Barnabas were preaching to – God was taking them to make them “a people,” to make them one with God’s People.

 

We see the deliberateness of God in His “taking from among the Gentiles” in Peter’s vision in Acts 10 and his visit to Cornelius; we see it again in Acts 13 when the Holy Spirit says, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” God is ever the initiator in missions; He calls whom He wills to both engage in mission and to respond to the Gospel in mission. In other words, we cannot go without His grace nor can others respond to the message preached without His grace.

 

If we are indeed “the called of Jesus Christ,” then not only are we not our own, but our work and ministry must not be our own – we must learn to bow our hearts before the eternal counsels of God and submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ, abiding in the Vine – convinced that without Jesus Christ, the Vine, we can do nothing (John 15:5).

 

Is the mark of the ownership of Jesus Christ upon our lives and the lives of our congregations? Do we live as people who belong to Another? A distinguishing feature of Jesus Christ was that He lived under authority, this is what the centurion recognized (Matthew 8:9); do people recognize this about us and our congregations? Are we subject to the authority of Jesus Christ? Are we living according to the will of Another? Is doing the will of our Father and Lord Jesus our source of light, life, and joy – is it the very reason we live?

 

I hope we will also see the orientation of the Biblical Christian life, that it is centered and arranged with the Trinity at its center, as its focus, and as its purpose and completion. Hence Paul writes, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” (Rom. 11:36).

 

“But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:30 – 31).

 

Do you think of yourself as being “the called of Jesus Christ”? What does Christ’s calling look like in your life today?