The High Calling of God

The greatest threat currently facing our Christian community is the subtle influence of cultural values upon all who profess Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. Almost without realizing it, many believers soften their interpretations of biblical truths to bring them more into line with the accepted norms of our current day. In doing so, they create for themselves an alternative Christian lifestyle, one suited to their own level of comfort and consistent with their own desires and ambitions.

Although we as believers should rejoice in the knowledge that we are eternally saved, we must not forget that our earthly decisions and behavior will be carefully reviewed by our Lord before the Judgment Seat of Christ. We must also understand that our Lord’s review of our lives on earth will be far more consequential than most of us have imagined.    

To help us gain a more accurate perspective, we might view our time on earth as enrollment in a spiritual preschool. As nonsensical as this might seem, we must remember that our heavenly Father is not expecting great accomplishments from us. At this early stage of our spiritual development, He is far more interested in our “becoming” than in our “doing.” Like the parents of most preschoolers, our Father simply wants to prepare us for what lies ahead. The spiritual preschool we call Planet Earth serves to introduce us to a number of basic social and interactive skills—to help us understand the importance of receiving instruction, learning how to share, and playing nice. Like many earthly preschoolers, however, most of us have a degree of difficulty with even the most basic of these disciplines.

To expand on this perspective, we might envision the scene at a high school or college graduation ceremony where a number of the students are wearing cords and/or stoles over their gowns. These decorative accessories serve to identify those honor students who are graduating with special recognition. Similarly, when we appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ, not all of us will receive the same level of recognition, rewards, and position within God’s Kingdom structure. On that day, many will receive crowns and other forms of divine recognition while others will stand spiritually naked, having nothing to show for their time on earth. Regretfully, they will discover that they are the ones who must be “saved, yet so as through fire” (1 Cor. 3:15). It is especially sobering to realize that these distinctions will likely accompany us throughout eternity. To use a military metaphor, there will be many privates in Heaven and a relatively smaller number of highly decorated officers.

Admittedly, the thought of a future aristocracy among the saints is not warmly embraced by the majority of casual or non-overcoming believers. We know that our liberal society does not endorse the practice of recognizing exceptional performance. The reason, we’re told, is that when we reward or favor an individual, we run the risk of offending others who may have chosen not to apply themselves. In our current culture, all individuals are supposed to be treated the same—no winners, no losers, and of course, everyone gets a participation ribbon. The only problem, however, is that liberal ideals such as moral tolerance and political correctness will have no place in God’s Kingdom structure.

Fortunately, however, it’s not too late to reexamine our views and revise our priorities. In the same manner in which the landowner in the parable of the laborers in the vineyard (see Matt. 20:1–16) returned to the marketplace in the eleventh hour to search for additional laborers, God, in this final hour of human history, is actively searching out those willing servants who will make up His eleventh-hour army of overcomers.

To assist His overcoming recruits in their training and development, God has hidden a number of spiritual treasures within His Word—treasures that He wants us to find. We are informed In Proverbs 25:2 that “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter” (NASB). In the same manner, it’s the glory of aspiring overcomers to search out those hidden treasures that will assist them in their pursuit of God’s ultimate prize—to be recognized as overcomers before the Judgment Seat of Christ.

Not surprisingly, many of God’s hidden treasures are only visible to us when we align our perspectives with His perspective. When we begin to see things as God sees them, new revelations usually follow. Accordingly, The High Calling of God attempts to address a number of these important biblical issues as seen through the viewing lens of God’s own perspective. It’s my sincere hope that you will join me as we begin to search out those hidden treasures that will assist us in our quest for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.