As believers we have had to do with God in two specific ways; or, rather, God has set us before Himself in sovereign grace according to a twofold revelation, which absolutely controls the soul, and affords a sure foundation for further progress. God has called us, and we have learned Christ. Feeble and defective may be our apprehension, and the effects of such amazing grace consequently lacking their proper fullness; but it is nevertheless true of every believer, that God has spoken personally to his soul, has called him, and that he has learned Christ. Adam in innocence needed no call. The moment sin entered, and he was lost, then “the Lord called unto Adam.” That call stayed his downward path of ruin, and marked the point where grace could intervene; viz., sins confessed in the presence of the Lord. God’s calling indicates an authoritative and public announcement of what is in Himself, and stamps its character upon him who is addressed. From the first, man’s heart, as taught of God, recognized the need of a substitute; but until the angel of Jehovah called unto Abraham out of heaven, never had the substitute been identified with the beloved and only begotten Son. (Genesis 22:22And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. (Genesis 22:2); Hebrews 11:1717By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, (Hebrews 11:17))
In the garden, out of heaven, and for a third time out of the bush, God’s call is heard. (Exodus 3:44And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. (Exodus 3:4)) Not now in the truth that discovers sin and the love which provides a substitute, but as the Holy One who redeems His people, taking His place in the midst without abating His glory, but enabling them to sustain it. The call implies that man had wandered from God as Adam had, and, proceeding from the heart of God, invites into His own heavenly presence, as to Abraham. (Compare Hebrews 6:13-2013For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, 14Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. 15And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 16For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. 17Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: 18That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: 19Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; 20Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. (Hebrews 6:13‑20)) But it is founded on grace, which reigns through righteousness, a substitute being provided, and holiness maintained through redemption. Moreover, the call relates to the counsel and purpose of God—the heavenly scene wherein He has blessed us, choosing us in Christ before the world’s foundation. Seated there in Him already, it is nevertheless a call to us, for we are not with Him there as yet.
In addition, the call, as already mentioned, stamps its character upon him to whom it is addressed. Thus, Adam is no longer a hidden but a discovered sinner; Abraham, a man who trusted the heart of God, and saw Christ’s day (Hebrews 11:8, 198By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. (Hebrews 11:8)
19Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. (Hebrews 11:19); James 2:2323And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. (James 2:23); John 8:5656Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. (John 8:56)); in Moses we see specially sanctification to God and redemption (Hebrews 11:24-2924By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; 25Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 26Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. 27By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. 28Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. 29By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned. (Hebrews 11:24‑29)) As to the last, it is these two facts that are distinctive of his faith, as precisely pointed out in the passage quoted from Hebrews 11. The election of Jehovah’s people, and His purpose to bring them into the land, though mentioned in the call of Moses, were matters of previous revelation. One other instance may be cited as illustrating in this way God’s call of the Christian; viz., Elisha’s call to be prophet in the room of Elijah. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth; and his first act on being aroused to the imperative nature of the call was to sacrifice his prospects. He “took a yoke of oxen, and slew them,” &c. “Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him.”
Thus God has called the believer, and in virtue of this has constituted him, not only a heavenly sojourner and saint on earth, but “in Christ” according to His own nature, holy and without blame before Him in love. Growth or attainment are not in question here. It is ours wholly in and by the call of God, though it awaits display, and is according to the eternal purpose and choice of God, and is founded surely upon the redemption we have through the blood of Christ. Moreover, we were marked out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. (Ephesians 1:3-53Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, (Ephesians 1:3‑5)) Have we all understood the imperative nature of this call? How gladly, then, shall we relinquish all the prospect this poor world can offer, as those who are blessed with better, even spiritual blessings, in a higher and a heavenly sphere!
But, even if fairly started, conscious of God’s call, and thus constituted according to His own nature, there is yet another thing—the having learned Christ. Neither is this any matter of attainment; though our souls are perhaps slow to receive the truth of it. It is Jesus, and the truth is in Him, and He is eternally, unchangeably the same. This truth is learned by us experimentally, and in the measure that our souls are acquainted with Him. (Ephesians 4:20-2420But ye have not so learned Christ; 21If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. (Ephesians 4:20‑24)) To have learned Christ is, then, the having put off the old man, corrupt according to the deceitful lusts (our former conversation), and being renewed in the spirit of our mind, and having put on the new man, which, according to God, is created in truthful righteousness and holiness. Let us remember that in Christ this is the truth, and the truth as to its. By the cross put off, the old man is, for faith, forever done with. We never could have put him off ourselves; it would have been our own eternal condemnation. But, after four thousand years of trial, the world has been finally judged, sin in the flesh condemned, the old man—the flesh—crucified, and thus put off for us forever—the work of God alone by the cross.
The difficulty sometimes is to accept it because contradicting experience. Perhaps, as illustrating the truth, we may be helped by the history of Elijah. His ministry, his hopes, his affections were connected with Israel in the flesh, and, however he may have failed, his heart clung divinely to that unhappy but beloved people. But, in testimony and, in spirit, the time had come for Jehovah’s faithfulness to His promises to proceed upon a new and better ground, even that of resurrection itself. Elijah, as a man of God, must therefore enter into His mind about it all, and, in sealing Israel’s rejection, survey the scene of its total failure. He proceeds with Elisha from Gilgal, where at the first the reproach of Egypt was rolled away, and strength acquired for victory as Jehovah’s host, but now “all their wickedness was there.” (Hosea 9:1515All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters. (Hosea 9:15)) From thence they went down to Bethel, the spot where Jacob lay asleep, and received the unconditional promise of the land. But, worse and worse, the calf of Samaria was there. Neither, therefore, can they tarry here; so they came to Jericho. What of Jericho—proof of the enemy’s power while existing, but, when devoted to the curse, the pledge of Israel’s possession? That city is built again in defiance of Jehovah’s word by Joshua (1 Kings 16:3434In his days did Hiel the Beth-elite build Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun. (1 Kings 16:34)), and nothing now remains but to give over the whole scene for lost, to accept the divine sentence, and pass out of it by death. Thus, the Jordan is traversed. The divine path is no longer into the land, but out of it. “They two went over on dry ground.”
And is it difficult for us to take this journey in a moral way? In every spot where the footsteps of the first man have been traced by the word of God the record given is one of utter irretrievable failure. Eden’s innocence, the world before the flood, the law from Sinai, all tell the tale. The priesthood and the kingdom, Aaron’s sons and David’s seed, confirm it. The remnant brought back in recovering grace from Babylon only serve to close the history of man, and seal his condemnation. His sun sets in the impenetrable darkness, the eternal midnight of the cross. But how bright and blessed is the scene that opens beyond! Weaned from earth, Elijah’s faith formed heavenly links, and carried thither by a chariot of fire and horses of fire, Israel’s guide and preserver becomes a man in heaven. His spirit in double measure rests upon the man identified with him on earth. Elisha, who had before heard and answered to the call, now learns the ruin of the old thing, and accepts his portion in Israel on a new footing (typically resurrection), and, in an inverse order, substituting Carmel (fruitfulness) for Gilgal, the place of circumcision.
And cannot we, as having put on the new man, in identification with Christ risen from the dead (for this the Christian is), walk through the old scene in truthful righteousness and holiness, being created thus according to God? The spirit of the mind being renewed, can we not return and bring as it were the healing power of grace into the bitter waters of this poor world? Having done forever with the old man and assumed the new, and supplied with fresh renewals of the mind, may we be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love, even as Christ loved us, and delivered Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor, ever remembering God’s calling, and the Christ we have learned.
W. T. W.