The Distinguishing Marks of a Believer Rom 1:6-7
Particular People called to belong to Jesus . . .
Two types of Calling: The Universal call and the Effectual call.
1) The Common, universal, general or gospel call (Matt 22:1-14), which is the same as evangelism and missions, is the call of everyone everywhere (Piper) It is to repent and turn to the Creator God, the Lord of all for redemption (Acts 17:22-31, Acts 3:19, 26:19-20, Luke 24:44-48). Every time the gospel is preached the call goes forth. There is a universal or general call for the hearers to repent and believe the gospel. (Jones)
2) The Converting or effectual call is an act of God the Father, speaking through the human proclamation of the gospel, in which he summons people to himself in such a way that they respond in saving faith (Grudem) (Rom 1:7, 8:30, 9:24; 1 Pet. 2:9; 5:10; 1 Cor. 1:2, 1:9; 1 Thess. 2:12-14). So, a Christian is someone who response to the call of God to repent and believe. A Non-Christian is one who rejects the call of God to repent. All Christians are effectually called. The saving call of God is effectual- it accomplishes what it calls for; it creates what it commands (Piper) (Acts 2:38-39, 1 Pet 2:9-12, Rom 8:30). (2 Cor 4:6)
The human heart is corrupt and hard and rebellious and blind and virtually dead to spiritual reality (Eph 4:18) The only thing that can save us from our own corruption is a divine, supernatural, powerful, awakening call from God. If we say (in democratic fashion) that God must call everyone the same way he calls anyone, we do not yet understand how deeply sinful and rebellious and undeserving we are. If God calls anyone, it is grace, free and totally undeserved. And he is not obliged to call everyone if he calls anyone, because he does not call any on the basis of human merit or human distinctives. Democracy proceeds on the basis of universal human rights; but rebellious, sinful humans have absolutely no rights in relation to God. All divine condemnation is just; all divine salvation is gracious. ( Rom 9:15) The fact that anyone is called from darkness to light is a wonder of grace. The call of God into the fellowship of Jesus (1 Cor 1:9, 1 John 1:3) is given to some, not all, and that no injustice is done here because none has a right to the call. (Rom 8:28-30) The "call" of God, used here is special and particular. So.are we not to preach the gospel to everyone? Indeed we are. Jesus scattered the seed of the word indiscriminately on every kind of soil (Mark 4:14). Paul did exactly the same: he would come to a city and he would preach the gospel to the whole synagogue or the whole town square. He would "call" everyone to repent, without exception (Acts 17:30)
The gospel is an offer to everyone that whoever sees the glory of Christ, and is drawn to him, and receives him in his beauty as his or her own precious portion in life, and trusts in this glorious Christ will be saved. Everyone who hears the gospel and believes, on the basis of this faith alone, will be justified and accepted by God. But when that gospel is preached . . . some believe and some do not? Why did you believe? 1 Cor 1:23-24: Paul preaches indiscriminately to all – God means for every ethnic group to be reached with the gospel – "all the nations”, (Rom 1:5, Luke 24:47, Matt 24:14). As he preaches to all and offers salvation to all, most of the Jews regard a crucified Messiah as a stumbling block and reject him. And most of the gentiles regard a crucified Lord as foolishness, and they reject him. But in those two groups, among those who hear – out from them – some are called (a different "call" from the universal call to all). And the effect of their call is that this Christ no longer looks like a stumbling block, and no longer looks like foolishness, but rather he looks like the power and the wisdom of God. (1 Cor 1:24). The effectual call awakens the dead (Eph 2: 4-5), gives sight to the spiritually blind, opens the ears of the spiritually deaf, humbles the proud, softens the hard, and brings forth faith. The call of God takes away every proud obstacle to faith and makes Christ irresistibly attractive, so that willingly, freely we believe. (Piper) Consider 2 Cor 4:4-6 If someone can't see "the glory of Christ" in the gospel because of rebellion, they won't believe the gospel. It will seem like a stumbling block or foolishness v 4. So, there are two tasks of the believer: Share Christ and serve the lost (v 5). It is not Christ, but Christians that often keep people from the gospel. This universal call must be “scattered” to all. Not only must the gospel be preached from a servant life, but God himself must supernaturally give divine, spiritual light or sight to the heart. So the decisive difference in who is saved is the divine supernatural call of God, like when God call to the light and it was created (v 6). Until God effectually calls us the way he called light into being at the creation, we will not see "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the gospel." And if we don't see it, we will not love the light and come to the light (John 3:19-20) But if we do see it, we will come. Christ will no longer be a stumbling block or foolishness. He will be to us "the power of God and the wisdom of God." And we will come to him and cleave to him and love him and trust him. God has said in your hearts, "Let there be light," and you have seen his glory and come to him and called on him, and he has saved you, and forgiven you and accepted you and poured out his love in your hearts. That is what has happened to you, Christian. Learn who you are. Learn how to thank your God, and live in the humble wonder of grace (1 Cor 1:26-31). Christians are "the called,," the ones to whom God has spoken to their hearts so powerfully that they have been wakened from the sleep of unbelief, and their blind eyes have been opened to see Christ for who he really is, and their hardness of heart has been taken away, and they have been raised from spiritual death (John 11:43). (Piper).
Precious People loved by God
God loves all people with a common love (Deut 10:18; John 3:16; 1 Tim 4:10; Titus 2:11; Tit 3:4) and “His’’ people with a covenant love. (Deut 7:6-11, 10:15, 1 John 3:1; Jere 31:3; 2:4-7, Col 3:12). (T. Robinson, D. D.) Your call comes from the love of God which he has specifically for you; and that it ushers you into a realm of God's love that no one knows but those who receive it. God loves the world: His love is as broad and as general as the rising sun and the falling rain (Matt 5:44-45). We may offer eternal life to every person on this planet who will put his faith in Jesus. And it was the love of God that sent his Son so that offer could be made to the world. (John 3:16,).So in at least these two ways God's love is broad and general: he sustains the unbelieving world with sunshine and rain, and he offers eternal life, at the cost of his Son, to any and all who will believe. (Piper)
Those who are called by God, who to belong to Jesus Christ, are loved by God in a special way, they are not loved because everybody else in Rome is also loved by God. His love for them is different and distinct from the love he has for everybody in Rome. God loves "the called" with a special covenant love that he has made with his bride the church (Eph 5:25). God holds out love to the whole world, but loves the church (believers) with a special, precious, everlasting covenant love. (Jer 31:3), This covenant love does not just offer safety to people, but promises to keep them safe from destruction. Jer 32:40 God promises to put the fear of Himself in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Him. This is not a general love for all. It is a special love that puts the fear of God in our hearts and keeps us from turning away. This is the new covenant for which Jesus came into the world to die and purchase the privileges of this new covenant for us with his blood. Luke 22:20, Heb 13:20-21), The blood of Jesus, in a very special way, was poured out to secure the promises of Jer 32:40. This is a very special and precious love. To know that you are loved in this way is the very heart of Christian assurance. That God has called me, that he has shone in my heart to give the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor 4:6), that he will work omnipotently to keep me, and bring me to everlasting glory (Rom 8:30, Jude 24, Col 1:21-23) – this is what it means to be "the loved by God." There no way that the new covenant will be broken or nullified in the life of "the called”, because the covenant is ibn the blood of Christ, not your works (Rev 12:10-11) We are kept from separation "through Him who loved us." (Rom 8:35-37). Rom 8:35 asks, "Who will separate us from the love of Christ?" And verse 37 answers: Nothing will separate us! And the reason given is that we overwhelmingly conquer "through him who loves us." Or to put it simply and bluntly: the love of God keeps us from being separated from the love of Christ. Will "the called" be separated from him? No! Why? Because God loves us! The covenant love of God triumphs in preserving his own. (Rom 8:38-39) the special, covenant love of God for us will triumph over everything that tries to destroy our faith and pull us away from God. This is not the general love of God that offers eternal life to the world, nor is it the sustaining love of God that gives sun and rain even to his enemies. This is the love of God for his bride, his chosen people (Rev 19:7-9). He calls us from death to life, and he keeps us from falling away. This is what is meant by the “loved of God” And it is what God means when he says to you Christians today: You are the called of Jesus Christ; you are my loved ones. I have chosen you for my own; I have called you; I have justified you; I will keep you; I will work in you what is pleasing in my sight (Heb 13:20-21); nothing will separate you from me; because I love you with an everlasting love. You are my beloved.
Peculiar People called to be saints The end of the Divine calling is to convert sinners into saints or holy persons (1 Peter 2:9-12). The word “saints,” hagioi means those who are holy, or those who are devoted or consecrated to God. The word speaks of what is separated from a common to a sacred use, In the OT anything that is set apart to the service of God, to the temple, to the sacrifices, to the utensils in the temple, to the garments of the priests, and to the priests themselves. It was applied to the Jews as a people separated from other nations, and devoted or consecrated to God, while other nations were devoted to the service of idols. It is also applied to Christians, as being a people devoted or set apart to the service of God 1 Pet. Christians are separated from other men, and other objects and pursuits, and consecrated to the service of God. (Barnes) It means that we are separated from anything that separates us from God. It is not just separation from the things, cause that would make us no different than a moral person, but it is a separation to God. (Jones). Christians are saints—i.e., separated from the world and consecrated to the service of God—holy in principle, and destined to become more and more holy and perfect in their whole life and conduct. (Phil 2:12-13) (Schaff) They were saints because they were called, and they were called because they were beloved of God. They were not then saints by natural birth, nor did they make themselves saints either in whole or in part; but they were made so altogether by sovereign grace resulting from sovereign love. All believers are saints, and in one sense all of them are equally sanctified. They are equally separated or consecrated to God, and equally justified, but they are not all equally holy. The work of sanctification in them is progressive. There are babes, and young men, and fathers in Christ. Some are weak in faith, and some are strong; but none of them are yet perfect, neither have they attained to that measure of holiness at which it is their duty constantly to aim for, Phil 3:12. (Haldane) We love him, because he first loved us, 1 John 4:10. The love of God is the cause of our holiness. They were called out of the world that is, separated from the world, and consecrated to the service of Christ, and so lay under a necessary obligation to be true and real saints. (Expository Notes) The name saint does not denote a perfection in holiness, but one that is devoted and consecrated to God, who is holy in heart and life, though he has many imperfections. (Poole). To sanctify means ‘to set apart for a holy purpose, to make holy’ and from the Christian point of view that means to be conformed to the image of Christ. Sanctification is both positional and practical. We are holy and set apart through Christ’s holiness put upon our account and we are becoming holy and set apart (growing in Godliness) through the work of the Holy Spirit within us. So, the result of being put in this position is that we will now be ‘in process of being sanctified’ (set apart by being made holy) by Christ Jesus and the Spirit. The purity of Christ, which has been set to our account, must now become an actuality. We must therefore go through the process of ‘being set apart for God’ by being constantly changed by the Spirit (present tense - Heb 2:11; 10:14; Rom 6:19; 6:22; 1 Thess 4:3; 2 Thess 2:13, 2 Cor 3:18; Phi 2:13). If we are His, He will carry out this work in us (Pett) Do you realize what God has done to us? We are what we are, not because of anything in us. It comes from the love of God. Whatever made him look at us? We don’t know. It is amazing. While we were enemies of God, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8). While we were sinners, and opposed and aliens- it was then he died for us. Beloved of God. Called saints. That is what we are. Because we are that let us show it (1 Peter 2:11-12). Let us not object to the demands of the gospel, let us cease to try to live as near as we can to the world. If we are saints, lets us proclaim that fact. Let it be evident to all (Jones).