What the Bible says about God's Summons
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Jeremiah 25:3-4

This passage, along with verses 8-9, gives a simple, clear, and graphic example of why hearing God's Word, believing it, and understanding God's sovereignty is important to practical applications in our life. This is why Jesus admonishes us to listen. The Jews certainly heard Jeremiah's voice proclaim God's warning, but it did not motivate them to act. They did not fear God's sovereignty over their lives. The direct result was disruption in society, the pain of warfare, and the captivity that followed. As almost any parent would say to his child in a similar situation, God is saying, "I told you not to do that. If you had listened to me, this would not have happened."

Why did they not listen? The words spoken by God's prophets carried no authority in their minds because they had no faith in God's sovereignty. If asked, these people would have asserted they believed in God. In reality, they had no faith that God was even anywhere around, that He had the power to do what He said, or that He cared enough for them to do it. They lacked living faith.

Why is it so important to listen to God's message? Because God's summons comes to those who listen to and believe the message, and through them His work is done. Notice John 6:29: "Jesus answered and said to them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.'" God is working salvation in all the earth (Psalm 74:12), and He is doing it in and through those who believe the Son. Only those who believe the Son will willingly submit to God's sovereignty because they look to Him as their Ruler.

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Sovereignty of God: Introduction

John 6:44

God foreknew us and determined to call us before He ever made His summons known to us. By doing so, He was making a prognosis. We are in this elite group, the called, only because the great God of heaven and earth specifically and personally summoned us by forcibly bringing the good news to our attention so we would be motivated to choose to respond freely to it.

He then led us to repentance, to a personal understanding of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and to an acceptance of it. Then He gave us His Holy Spirit to enable us to obey the obligations of the New Covenant. It is in this combination of factors, plus a few more, that we can begin to understand the possibilities of human life. We see in Christ the pattern of what we ought to be, and the motivation to be in His image begins to arise in us. But this occurs only because God has summoned us to be in this elite group, the firstfruits, to run for this awesome goal.

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Elements of Motivation (Part Five): Who We Are

John 6:44

We and our brethren fit into the same pattern as Enoch, Noah, Abraham and the other patriarchs, and others down through time, as individuals who make up the church. All of us are called out, drawn by God's grace—an act of love on His part—that separates us from the world and puts us in a position in relation to Him that the uncalled do not have the privilege of being part of. We had no control over this, and neither do the uncalled. "Jacob I have loved; but Esau I have hated," God says (Malachi 1:2-3). We are living fulfillments of that prophecy. God has loved us, but the uncalled has He not.

To break Israel's bondage to Pharaoh and to Egypt, did God have to work miracles and others things far beyond human capability? Of course, He did. To break us away, to set us apart, to separate us from the herd, as it were, God had to do similar things spiritually to break our bondage to Satan and this world. This is no little thing. It is because of what the Lord does that we are separated from the world. Real miracles must occur, or we would never be separated. Those miracles begin with our calling.

The Greek word translated into English as "assembly" or "church," depending on which version of the Bible one uses, is ekklesia, and it means "a calling," "a summons" to an assembly. The purpose of the calling out or separation from others is determined by the context in which ekklesia appears. So, the word can even be applied to a mob of people who are summoned by their own curiosity about something exciting happening in the neighborhood. Luke uses it exactly this way in the book of Acts (see Acts 19:21-41). People were drawn by the possibility of a riot taking place in the city.

Ekklesia can apply to people summoned by the attraction of a theater show. It does not necessarily need to be a formal summons, but in our case, the Bible makes sure that we understand that our calling is specific and formal. God Himself summons us to be separated away from the world.

As time passed in the first century, ekklesia came to be applied to the Christian assembly or congregation to distinguish it from the Jews' Sabbath meeting in a synagogue. The word itself has absolutely no direct connection to the church, but by common usage, it came to be understood as implying those called and separated from the world, and so we speak of "the church." But in Greek, all it means is "those summoned." To us, it implies "summoned by God"; "summoned to be separated from the world"; "summoned so God can reproduce Himself in us."

John W. Ritenbaugh
Sanctification and Holiness (Part 1)

1 Peter 1:2-5

We have been summoned to a great cause. The summons is personal and specific. It presents us the challenge of choosing to live a life worthy of the awesome vocation to which God has summoned us. Our calling has become our life's work. God has summoned us to yield to His creative efforts of reproducing Himself, just as II Corinthians 3:18 instructs us: "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Elements of Motivation (Part Five): Who We Are


 

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