HEAVENLY CALLING

Heavenly Calling

Ephesians is the book on the vocation of the church. Our vocation is in the heavens having a heavenly calling [Heb.3:1] and a heavenly citizenship [Phil. 3:20-21]. Therefore we are to be careful how we walk on this earth. Not today do we render our full service, but in God's great tomorrow, when Paul reveals in this great epistle that the redeemed church out of the earth, gathered into eternal union with Christ in the heavens--that church has become the minister of the grace of God to the ages that are yet unborn; a medium through which God shall unfold in perfect clearness to principalities and powers in the heavenly places, His own wisdom and His own power. The powers of the world to come are to touch the present age through the men and women who are the sons and daughters of the world to come, and who will only find the fulfillment of their highest vocation when that eternal day breaks beyond the mists and beyond the shadows. Those that are called out, separated, sanctified men and women whom God was preparing for the high vocation that lay beyond in the heavens.

        Believers in Christ are seated in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus [Eph. 2:6, the expression is used five times in Ephesians]. This is an access and an identification not experienced prior to the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit [1 Cor. 12:13]. We are to seek things above [Col. 3:1ff]. Our inheritance as believers is spiritual and heavenly [1 Peter 1:4]. Ours is to be his heavenly kingdom [2 Tim. 4:18].

Eph. 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

Eph. 2:7  That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Eph. 3:10  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God

This is the second of the "in order that" statements (Cf. first in 2:7) The ultimate meaning of life after being saved to the apostle shows not to be discovered in the present life, that it does not lie in the realm of earthly things. By argument and teaching, declarative and illuminative statement, he proves the ultimate meaning of Christian life lies far beyond the present age, in those measureless ages that are to come. There the saints are to fulfill their ultimate work as they become the messengers to angels and ages of the grace and wisdom of God. These soldier saints in this world are only in preparation for higher, larger, nobler and fuller service. We are making known the wisdom of God to those mentioned in 1 Peter 3:22. How many of us thought as though we were of such a high vocation, that we carried such importance with God's program? Man’s purpose was intended as a medium for divine manifestation, one through whom because of his likeness to God, it would be possible to express Himself to other creatures more perfectly. The angels curiosity has already been revealed in 1 Peter 1:12