Making Our Calling and Election Sure

“Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure . . . .” 2 Pet. 1:10.

Each person has his own particular calling and unique election. Just as there are many members of the same body, so there are many callings within this body. However, every member can grow up to the Head—Christ. It is just as easy for a servant boy from the country to grow up to the Head as for a bishop in the town, or for a servant girl as the lady of the house. The only thing that matters is obedience to the faith. It is extremely important that we have a clear understanding of how to make our calling and election sure. I think we can all agree that in this, as in everything else, Jesus was the Master from whom we must learn.

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name.” Phil. 2:5-9.

In other words, the way to make our calling and election sure is to humble ourselves. A person can always humble himself, regardless of his state or position. Striving to exalt yourself will always destroy the work of God. It won’t hurt you to be “sung down” in a meeting. Ignorant people did that to John Nelson Hyde, the praying missionary. This godly man simply remained silent. When some people became upset about the way he was treated, Hyde simply excused what the others had done to him. Being the leader of an assembly is nothing to covet if the best way for me to make my calling and election sure is by sitting in the lowest place. Our task is to descend as far as possible. It is God’s task to exalt us in His time. All servants of God have understood this mystery of going down. Paul says, “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” Phil. 3:7-8. These words of Paul make if very clear that all other knowledge is a hindrance to the knowledge of Christ Jesus. It sounds so absurd when a preacher boasts to his congregation about his education by cleverly weaving it into his sermons. We need education in obedience and faith, in humility, in forgetting what lies behind. When God finally exalts a person, He does it in His own amazing way to put to shame all those who think they are something. He has done this in every age and every generation. Jesus’ mother was lowly in her own eyes, and she had taken note of the way God dealt with the proud. We see this from her words in Luke 1: “The Lord . . . has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; for behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. . . . He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.” We see again that humbling ourselves is the way to make our calling and election sure. “The humble He guides in justice, and the humble He teaches His way.” Ps. 25:9. “Before honor is humility.” Prov. 15:33. Jesus descended to the lowest parts of the earth. This is precisely why His name is praised among the most lowly, because His blessed Spirit is working among them.

“For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners . . . .” (i.e., from the leaders of the people, their high priest and the other priests and those who listened to these leaders, or rather, “misleaders”). Heb. 12:3.

Wherever the life of Christ is manifested in flesh, it is bound to suffer this same hostility from sinners. But for us, this hostility is also working together to make our calling and election sure. The time is coming when the Lord will turn everything upside down and inside out, so that those who are highly regarded will be despised, and those who are despised will be highly regarded. Those who exalt themselves will be horrified and dismayed when they behold Him whom they have pierced.