Consider Your Calling

What is God’s call? Who does God call? Why does God call who He does? And what does Christ become for those God calls? We find Biblical answers to these questions in our study of 1 Corinthians 1:26-31. We hope you can listen in!

Teaching Notes:

Consider Your Calling

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Intro:

In our last study Paul taught us how people responded to Christ crucified when he was preached to them. The Jews stumbled over it, because they were expecting a great conquering Messiah, not one who would be shamefully crucified. The Greeks thought the message was foolishness, because they were lovers of wisdom, and this message had none of the earmarks of philosophy. But there was 1 other group — some Jews and some Greeks responded differently. They are referred to as “the called” in 1:24. When they heard this message, God called them, and they saw Christ as the Power and Wisdom of God. This message transformed their lives — they experienced Christ’s Power. They saw the Cross as the ultimate demonstration of the Wisdom of God.

Now in 1:26-31, Paul is going to continue to develop this theme, and specifically vs.24. 1:26-31 is, for all intents and purposes, an exposition of 1:24. Paul is going to spend some time on “calling” and how that has made Christ “the Wisdom of God”.

In this section we receive answers to 4 questions:

1. What is God’s call?

2. Whom has God called?

3. Why has God called them?

4. What does Christ become to those God calls?

1. What Is God’s Call?

• God’s Call Is Related To His Choice: In our last study, we talked about God’s call, and said that it was not just an offer of salvation, or God wooing or beckoning us, but rather God’s irresistible summons, or a being compelled by God to come to Christ. Vs.26 & 27 confirm that idea. Notice vs.26 “For consider your calling brethren..” Vs. 27 says “but God has chosen the foolish. . .“ Paul substitutes calling with choosing. This tells me that when God calls someone, it is because He has already chosen them. Those whom God chooses in eternity, He calls in time. You may be chosen but not yet called, but you can’t be called but not chosen. We have the order given to us in Rom.8:30 “and those whom He predestined these He also called, and those whom He called these He also justified, and those whom He justified these He also glorified.” Predestination (election), Calling, Justification, Glorification. God effectually calls all those whom He has chosen. God does not effectually call any whom He has not chosen. All who are chosen are called, are justified, and glorified.
• God’s Call Is His Work Alone: 1:30 “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus.” Paul puts emphasis on it being His doing, in contrast with our doing. What this means is that God does this all by Himself. He does not need, require, or even want our help. We do not contribute 50% and God contributes 50% to get this done. We don’t even contribute

1%. We can’t contribute, because we are spiritually dead when this call comes to us. There are 2 words that may be helpful here: synergistic, and monergistic. Synergistic refers to 2 or more agencies that accomplish something together. Monergistic refers to 1 agency that accomplishes something. Is regeneration synergistic or monergistic? This verse would tell us it is monergistic. There is only 1 agency that is working when the sinner is regenerated, and that agency is God alone!

• God’s Call Unites Us To Christ: Vs.30 “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus.” We have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. But outside of Christ we have no spiritual blessings. If you want God’s blessings you have to get into Christ— that’s where those blessings are to be found. Think of Jesus as the water spout. If you want water, you have to get under the spout. Or, think of Jesus as the living vine, and you as a dead branch on the ground. If the branch wants to be alive, it some how has to get “in” the vine. The life that is in the vine can only be passed to the branch when it is united to the vine. God’s call is what takes the dead branch and puts it “in” the vine. God’s call takes us as spiritually dead sinners and connects us to Christ, the Living Savior. His life now passes into us and we are born again. And being one with our Savior, we receive all the spiritual riches that are in Him.

2. Whom Has God Called?

• Not Many Wise, Mighty, Or Noble: Notice that these words are qualified by “according to the flesh” (vs.26). If a man possesses fleshly wisdom, might, or nobility, he is not likely to be called by God. Now, this verse does not say that there are not any wise, mighty, or noble peopled called. It’s just that there aren’t many. “. Lady Huntington, a wealthy aristocrat who loved Jesus and helped finance George Whitefield’s ministry once saved she was saved by the letter “m”.
• God Has Chosen the Foolish, Weak, Base, Despised, and the Things that are Not:

That probably doesn’t make you feel really great, but it’s true. Foolish — ones that do not possess great human wisdom and learning. Weak — those without human strength and power and influence. Base — the lowly, ones the world deems beneath them. Despised — those the world turns down their noses at. All of these expressions teach us that God calls the underdog, the ones the world doesn’t have the time of day for, the loser, the down and out, the average, ordinary person.

3. Why Has God Called Them?

• To Nullify The Things That Are: Luke 1:52-53; 1 Sam.2:6-8. God seems to take delight in raising up those the world considers nothings, and lowering those the world considers the everythings. But why?

• So that no man may boast before God: 1:29. The meaning is that no man may boast in himself before God. He can’t boast in himself because he knows there is nothing in himself to boast of He has no wisdom, riches, or might to boast in. Everything he has, he has received from God.

• So that we would boast in the Lord alone: 1:31. This is why God chose them, and called them. This is why it was His doing alone that put them in Christ Jesus. If my salvation were the result of my choice, if I cooperated with God and answered His call by the exercise of my will, if I did something to put myself in Christ Jesus — then I could boast a little before God. Certainly I might boast in the Lord, but I could also boast in myself too. But God will have none of that! God is a jealous God, and He is most jealous of His own glory. That’s why He has specifically designed that salvation would be grace and not by works, so that no one of us could ever boast. God hates human boasting, unless that boasting is in the Lord. A brain surgeon gets little glory by using the latest state of the art tools worth millions of dollars. Oh, but he gets great glory by using a can opener and a pair of pliers!

4. What Does Christ Become To Those God Calls?

• Wisdom From God: This is where I made an interesting discovery last week. In the Greek, there is a distinction between the first one (wisdom) and the last three (righteousness, sanctification, and redemption). The Weymouth NT translates the verse like this: “But you — and it is all God’s doing — are in Christ Jesus: He has become for us a wisdom which is from God, consisting of righteousness and sanctification and deliverance.” Remember that in 1:24 Paul says that the called see Christ as the wisdom of God? Well, that is what Paul is saying again here, but he elaborates here to tell us what the wisdom of God consists of: righteousness, sanctification and redemption.
• Righteousness: This is justification, the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us, and our sin to Him. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Jer.23:6. Jehovah-Tsidkenou. When we came to Christ we had no righteousness of our own which was acceptable to God. Guess what? We still do not have any righteousness of our own which is acceptable to God. We will never have that! Christ is now and always will be our righteousness, so that we are acceptable to God!
• Sanctification: Our progressive conformity to the will of God. How is a man sanctified? He must be “in Christ” first. Then the life which is in Christ flows through Him. The power of the resurrection life of Christ transforms any man who is in Christ. That is not to say that we are sanctified without any effort of our own. Whereas regeneration is monergistic, sanctification is synergistic. Yet, Christ Himself, through His Word and Spirit purges us from sin, and gives us holy ambitions, and desires to be pleasing unto Him.
• Redemption: The order of these words leads me to believe this must be speaking of our ultimate redemption — the redemption of our body. First we are justified when Christ becomes our righteousness, then we are sanctified, then finally we are glorified when we receive the redemption of our body. Rom.8:23. Christ Himself will see to it that our body is redeemed, we are set free from even the presence of sin, and perfectly conformed to His likeness, including our bodies.

Thought Questions:

1. When God planned salvation, what was He primarily concerned with?
2. Has this passage helped you to understand God’s call in a different light? If so, how?
3. How has God designed things so that we may not be able to boast in ourselves before God?
4. How does it make you feel to read that God has chosen the foolish, weak, base, and despised?

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