Did you get an in­vi­ta­ti­on to the par­ty?

– Yes, I did, but I don’t how to dress for the oc­ca­si­on.

– Well, they gave the re­com­men­ded dress code in the in­vi­ta­ti­on.

There are many kinds of cal­ls and in­vi­ta­ti­ons. We ac­cept some, but can­not ac­cept all. We usu­al­ly pre­pa­re for a fes­ti­ve oc­ca­si­on with res­pect for the per­son who in­vi­ted us.

The call in­to fel­lows­hip with God pre­sen­ted to all pe­op­le is more spe­ci­al than any tem­po­ral call or in­vi­ta­ti­on (Luke 14:16–23). It is ba­sed on God’s love to­ward man.

God cre­a­ted man in His own ima­ge, but this ima­ge was cor­rup­ted by sin. Lo­ving God enac­ted a plan that He had dis­cus­sed with His Son be­fo­re anyt­hing had been cre­a­ted. God’s plan was to call man back in­to con­tact with Him.

Call of the gos­pel

God’s call to man is al­so a gift and an ex­hor­ta­ti­on. But a gift is not re­al­ly a gift if one must strug­g­le to re­cei­ve it. The per­fect gift is re­cei­ved out of grace, out of the good­will of the gi­ver. To re­cei­ve this gift of God, the for­gi­ve­ness of sins, we need to be­lie­ve in Him and His word. God’s call al­so en­tails tem­po­ral and eter­nal bles­sings.

Faith is the work of God (John 6:29; Phil. 1:29). He opens a per­son’s he­art to re­cei­ve the gift of be­lie­ving. Through faith a per­son pos­ses­ses the righ­te­ous­ness pre­pa­red by Christ.

Through this faith he al­so pre­pa­res for the he­a­ven­ly fe­ast, ho­nou­ring the Fat­her and we­a­ring the on­ly gar­ment ac­cep­tab­le be­fo­re Him.

Man can do not­hing to earn his own righ­te­ous­ness. It is on­ly at­tai­nab­le through God’s abun­dant love. A de­monst­ra­ti­on of this love and good­ness was seen and he­ard at the ri­ver Jor­dan, where John the Bap­tist, Je­sus’ pre­de­ces­sor, said: ”Be­hold, the Lamb of God, who ta­kes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29.)

God gave His Son as ato­ne­ment for our sins. We can the­re­fo­re pos­sess righ­te­ous­ness so­le­ly through grace.

The good mes­sa­ge, the gos­pel, cal­ls those who have lost their li­ving con­nec­ti­on with God. Mar­tin Lut­her said, ”I be­lie­ve that I can­not by my own re­a­son or strength be­lie­ve in Je­sus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has cal­led me by the Gos­pel, en­ligh­te­ned me with His gifts, sanc­ti­fied and kept me in the true faith.”

Call un­to re­pen­tan­ce

God’s cal­ling love is al­wa­ys be­ne­fi­ci­al for man. God spe­aks to a per­son and awa­kens him through a voi­ce in his cons­cien­ce. This call is ma­ni­fes­ted in the per­son’s ex­pe­rien­ces, his life cour­se, his en­vi­ron­ment, na­tu­re, and the his­to­ry of na­ti­ons. God es­pe­ci­al­ly spe­aks to us and cal­ls us through His word. When you hear this call, it is time to re­pent (Hebr. 3:15).

God is pa­tient and long-suf­fe­ring in His love. He waits for a sui­tab­le mo­ment to show His mer­cy (Isa. 30:18). It is good to re­mem­ber, ho­we­ver, that God does not re­bu­ke and call for ever. God’s lo­ving call is al­wa­ys a se­ri­ous mat­ter. Ac­cor­ding to Je­sus, those who re­ject this call do not get in­to he­a­ven (Luke 14:24).

Man ty­pi­cal­ly tends to post­po­ne his de­ci­si­ons. Many pe­op­le cal­cu­la­te and say that they will re­pent la­ter, when they are ol­der or close to de­ath.

The let­ter to the Ro­mans awa­kens pe­op­le by as­king: “Do you pre­su­me on the ric­hes of his kind­ness and for­be­a­ran­ce and pa­tien­ce, not kno­wing that God’s kind­ness is me­ant to lead you to re­pen­tan­ce? ” (Rom. 2:4.) God’s sa­ving love is avai­lab­le to man wit­hout any chan­ge or imp­ro­ve­ment on his part. When a per­son re­pents, he sa­ves his life (Hes. 18:27).

Proc­lai­ming the call

In our time many pe­op­le ask: where can I find li­ving God, where can I find mer­cy? Christ Him­self foun­ded His king­dom on earth. John tel­ls us how new Je­ru­sa­lem came down out of he­a­ven (Rev. 21:2–3). The word of God is hid­den in this holy city, the king­dom of God.

God’s king­dom has the mis­si­on of cons­tant­ly pre­ac­hing the good mes­sa­ge of the gos­pel. God gave His child­ren the mi­nist­ry of re­con­ci­li­a­ti­on (2 Cor. 5:18). God still cal­ls pe­op­le un­to re­pen­tan­ce through the gos­pel. He waits pa­tient­ly to show mer­cy un­to them and to gui­de them in­to His king­dom.

When Christ co­mes in His glory, the ci­ti­zens of this king­dom will be ta­ken up in­to he­a­ven to meet the He­a­ven­ly Fat­her who cal­led them. The gos­pel will car­ry in­to eter­nal joy all those who ac­cept and be­lie­ve it.

Text: Oi­va Sa­ve­la

Trans­la­ti­on: S-L.L.

Teks­tis­sä kä­si­tel­lään seu­raa­vaa raa­ma­tun­koh­taa: Rom. 2:4

Jul­kais­tu Sii­o­nin Lä­he­tys­leh­des­sä 1/2016