A Heavenly Calling (1)

Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus… Hebrews 3.1

No earthly good?
In our secular age, the idea that there might be something like a “heavenly calling” is not received as anything like real truth. The only “heavenly” matters most people today take seriously are those that relate to the weather, space exploration, star gazing, or coronal mass ejections.

In other words, all that’s really considered “heavenly” by most people is really just some form of matter located up in the sky at one degree or another of distance from the earth.

Which is just to say that the unseen realm of spiritual beings and purposes is no longer regarded by many people as of any relevance to our lives. It’s not really real, even though many people claim to have some acquaintance with it. Even Christians aren’t exactly sure how to think about the spiritual realm which is mentioned so frequently in the Bible. For most Christians, heaven is a real place, but it’s not so real right now. It will only be really real when we get there – and hopefully, that won’t be for a while yet.

Most unbelievers don’t believe in a heavenly realm or spiritual beings, including God, at all. Many – perhaps too many – Christians regard such matters as true, in a certain way, but only somewhat relevant to our lives here and now. Heaven is not so much something we know as something we believe; it is not to be experienced in the present but awaits us, so to speak, in the sweet by-and-by.

Heaven is something it’s good to be sure about for after you die; but in the here and now, heaven has very little practical relevance.

A calling we can share
The writer of Hebrews, on the other hand, mentions “the heavenly calling” and indicates that some people – such as those to whom he was writing – are actually “partakers” of that heavenly calling. He writes about heaven and our calling there as though it were something relevant to present experience. In fact, the entirety of Hebrews 3 is devoted to warning, urging, exhorting, and teaching readers how to partake of that heavenly calling and how to keep from forfeiting it.
In other words, the writer of Hebrews indicates that heaven – from which, for which, and to which this “heavenly calling” pertains – is a real place, and a real place right now, a place so important that we must not allow anything in this life to get in the way of our sharing in, holding fast to, pursuing, and knowing that heavenly calling at all times.

What does the writer mean by “a heavenly calling”?

From, for, and to heaven
First, he means for us to understand that ours is a calling that comes to us from heaven – from God, the Creator of all things (v. 4), the One Who sent His Son to inaugurate the day of salvation (vv. 1, 13-15). God issues a call to human beings, a call which, as the writer explains in Hebrews 1, comes through the prophets of the Old Testament and Jesus Christ and those who knew Him first-hand (Heb. 2.1-4). From His place of eternal presence and power, God issues a call to all human beings, summoning them to know Him and His ways, and to enter into His rest (vv. 9-11).

Second, this heavenly calling is a call for heaven as well. It comes to summon people to embrace heaven’s priorities – which are the ways of God (v. 10). The ways of human beings on earth are naturally unbelieving, sinful, and evil (vv. 12, 13). Such a way of life does not please God, Who is the Author of life (v. 17). But rather than just exercise sovereign wrath against humankind, because of the moral and spiritual affront we are to Him, He calls us from heaven to embrace a life for heaven and its purposes and ways.

Finally, that heavenly calling is to heaven as well. God is gathering men and women into His eternal rest (vv. 11, 18). In that place there will be no unbelief, no sin, no deceit, and no wickedness. Instead, resting in the Lord and actually sharing or partaking in Him (v. 14), human beings will find full and complete satisfaction and joy, forever (Ps. 16.11).

There is a heavenly calling, and it’s really real. And it is really possible to share in this altogether new level of reality and life. Doing so deepens our assurance in unseen things and brings forth in us the full faith evidence of all that we hope for in Jesus.

For reflection or discussion
1.  If you were to define the “heavenly calling” which Christians pursue, what would you say?

2.  What do you think are the primary obstacles keeping people – including many who call themselves Christians – from “sharing in” this heavenly calling?

3.  How would you describe your own experience thus far of sharing in this heavenly calling?

Next steps – Conversation: Ask some of your Christian friends about this “heavenly calling.” What is it? What does it mean to “partake” of it? How can one be certain that he is following this heavenly calling? Invite them to talk again, and encourage them to read this and the remaining installments in this series.

T. M. Moore

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This week’s ReVision study is Part 9 of a 10-part series, “Full Faith.” You can download “A Heavenly Calling” as a free PDF, prepared for personal or group study. Simply click here.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.