269. Called to the Kingdom
1 Thessalonians 2:12 That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.
We are called. The Holy Spirit calls us through the Gospel. We respond by the faith the Spirit creates and grows within as we hear the Gospel. The call of the Holy Spirit is enticing, alluring and attractive; and the call is compelling, but it is not forced. God graciously grants us the freedom to resist, and the human being, totally corrupt in sin and rebellion, can only resist the call of God on our life. Being blind, dead, and an enemy of God we cannot respond positively to the call unless moved by the Spirit through the sweet Gospel. The call is powerful, but it is not overpowering.
When we are called through the Gospel and faith is granted to receive it, we have what the Gospel promises: forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation. We are called to His kingdom and glory. This is a wonderful promise: we have been called out of darkness into light, out of the kingdom of the world and devil and death into the kingdom of God and Life, out of bondage into freedom, out of the prospect of eternal death into eternal life, out of sin and guilt into forgiveness and righteousness, and out of shame into glory.
It is enough to be in the kingdom, but it is even grander to be in His glory. Jesus brings us into glory. We who fall short of the glory of God are called smack dab into the center of the glory of God. We human sinners cannot see the glory of God or we would be struck dumb, even struck dead. But forgiven sinners are allowed, even graciously invited, to enter into God’s glory, without fear of death, but with the gift of a beautiful life.
Every time we repent and believe the Gospel we are brought into God’s kingdom and His glory. Sin prevents us from seeing the glory in its fullness, but faith in the forgiveness of sins believes the kingdom and the glory. We see Jesus, the Word of God come in the flesh, and, as John says, “We have seen his glory.” It looks like grace and truth. Jesus is the glory of God, and it is within us. To the kingdom and glory living in us we have been called.