God’s grace, given through Jesus Christ, claims us and calls us.
[God] saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.
God calls us into a relationship and into his service, not because of anything we do, but because of His grace. This truth keeps us from feeling undue pride over being called. It also keeps us from falling into shameful fear when we fail to live according to our calling. God’s grace, given through Jesus Christ, claims us and calls us. In this, we can be reassured. In this, we can rejoice.
The call of God is not something we can arrange or earn. As Paul writes to Timothy, “[God] saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus . . . .” (1:9). When it comes to your calling, God wasn’t sitting up on his heavenly throne, looking down to see if your life was good enough to be worthy of his calling. No, on the contrary, God calls us not on the basis of anything we do, but on the basis of his grace.
God’s grace inspires the calling all Christians receive when we come into a relationship with God through Christ (see Galatians 1:6). God’s grace also inspires the particular calling of particular people to a particular work. Thus, in Galatians 1:15-16, Paul writes that God “called [him] through his grace,” both to become a follower of God’s Son and to “proclaim him among the Gentiles.” The calling of God is always an expression of God’s grace, God’s undeserved favor given freely to us.
Why does it matter that we are called by God according to his grace? Well, for one thing, it keeps us from any pride we might have to be one of God’s called people. We did nothing to earn our calling as if it were some prize for good behavior.
For many Christians, pride is not a major concern. Shame and fear can dominate our hearts. We know how much we fall short of God’s standards, how often we fail to love God with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves. We might even fear that God will reject us. But, because our calling rests on God’s grace and not our works, then we need not be afraid. Yes, we should still seek to walk worthy of our calling (Ephesians 4:1). But we should not worry that God will rescind our calling if we don’t measure up. God has chosen us according to his grace, and his grace toward us is rich beyond measure (Ephesians 2:7).
Comments