The Greatest Calling

“God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:9

We are apt to think that the calling of God is primarily to a mission, a work, a vocation.  These aspects of the believer’s calling, complimented by the gifts of God for the accomplishment of His work, are certainly a part of one’s calling.  But the central, most basic, and yet, the most wonderful privileged part of one’s calling is to have fellowship with God.  Indeed, when we look in the Old Testament, we see not only that the Tent of Meeting, or Tabernacle, was given by God to reveal to man the “way” to God, but also to, according to that way, bring man into communion, or fellowship with God.  From the very beginning of creation, when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, their highest reason to exist was not to take care of the Garden, having dominion over it, but to walk with God, to know Christ, to hear His voice “walking” in the cool of the day.  After the fall, when sin had shattered the freely shared fellowship between God and man, man was cast into a darkness that he had not known.  Though God was present, and cared for man, and even though God had prepared a means by which man could be reconciled to God, the fellowship that he knew with God was not to be known in the measure as before the fall.  Now it would be a question of “tasting,” “seeing through a glass darkly,” that man, flawed and scared by sin, would not know the fullness of fellowship that he had experienced before.  It was to restore man to the place of fullest fellowship, by dealing with sin, the sin nature, and Satan, that God would give His Son to die, accomplishing for man that which would be essential, so that man could again know something of true communion with the eternal God.

One of the great blessings of salvation is the certain hope of knowing fully, as we are known by God, at the moment of being with Christ one day. Scripture tells us that we “know in part,” but then, all that is restrictive and limiting, will be removed.  There shall be the complete putting off of all that is of this creation, with its sin and death, to put on fully, and without measure, the Lord Jesus Christ.  We shall see Him as He is, and we shall be like Him, filled with the blessed Spirit of God, that the fulness of Christ’s life in us will be fully known.  In other words, in that day, there will be the absolute experience of fellowship with God.   Jesus put it like this: “And this is LIFE eternal, that they might KNOW Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” (Jn. 17:3) This knowledge of God is the moment by moment experience of knowing God, communing with Him, receiving His blessed Life by the Spirit, and giving back to Him in praise, thanksgiving, adoration, and devotion, Life by the Spirit.

What does it mean to have communion with God? Can sinful man truly know fellowship with God? Let’s look at what the Apostle John wrote: “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly OUR fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” (1 Jn. 1:3) We the fruit of such a communion by what John then writes: “And these things write we unto you that your JOY may be full.” (v.4) He is not speaking of a joy just in the future, but now, in this world, at this present moment, in the circumstances of the Lord’s choosing. What are the conditions of knowing this joy? They are two. The first is that of truly belonging to Christ by faith, and the new birth. The second is wholeheartedly walking in the light. Christ saves, setting one free to walk in the light.

Dear Father, Establish us in fellowship. In Jesus’ name, Amen.