CONSIDERING HEAVEN

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His
abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that
does not fade away, RESERVED IN HEAVEN FOR YOU, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." (1 Peter 1:3-5)

Devotion 4 of 12

THE HEAVENLY SUMMONS
A heavenly calling

Our involvement in salvation is the result of our response to a heavenly call, or summons. Believers are called "partakers of the heavenly calling" (Heb. 3:1). That is a call that came to earth from heaven! It is a call upward: an invitation to come to heaven, revealing a heavenly initiative that is mind-boggling. If the call is a "heavenly calling," the emphasis is not on methodology, but upon the capacity to and stewardship of hearing. Further, how the ambassador is used in the call is not the real issue, but the response of the hearer to the call. I realize that Jesus uses means in getting the call to us. However, the means are not the point, but the call.

Jesus is from heaven

Remember that our Savior is the "Bread" that came "from heaven" (John 6:32,33,50). The importance of this is seen in the fact that He returned to heaven. He did not stay in the world. That alone confirms to us that this world is not the primary world. If it were, Jesus would have remained here. But He did not, and we cannot!

Jesus is speaking from heaven

Presently, Jesus is speaking to us "from heaven," and we are admonished not to "refuse" Him (Heb. 12:25). Some might be tempted to speculate HOW He speaks from heaven--but that is not the point of the text. The point is that He IS currently speaking from heaven, calling us upward and onward.

Scripture assumes that an identity between Christ and His people has taken place in regeneration, and it appeals to that identity. After all, we have been raised up and "made to sit together with Christ in heavenly places" (Eph. 2:6). Christ speaks to His people through that relationship, and they are admonished to hear Him with a discerning and attentive ear.

Technically, He is not speaking to us from our hearts, even though He dwells there, but from heaven! In salvation Christ's identity with us is not the objective. Rather our identity with Him is the aim. Also, the more unaware we are of heaven, the less likely we are to hear "Him that speaks from heaven."

The Spirit is from heaven

The marvelous Gospel, through which we were called (2 Thess. 2:14), the power effecting our salvation (Rom. 1:16), obtains its power from heaven. In a poignant expression, Peter states, " . . . reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven . . . " (1 Pet. 1:12). Were it not for heaven, the Gospel would not be Gospel! The Spirit came "from heaven," and the characteristics and desires of heaven permeate every aspect of His work. His main identity is not with us, but with heaven.

The more we give heed to His words, the more interest we obtain in the place from whence He came.

We are called to come to heaven

Not only does the call to salvation come from heaven, it summons us to heaven. That is the aim of salvation. In sanctification, we are being "changed from glory TO glory," by the Spirit of our God (2 Cor.3:18). In the new creation we become "partakers of the Divine nature" (2 Tim. 1:4). But that is only the beginning. We are being oriented for the glory that is to come! To put it another way, God has "called you unto his kingdom and glory" (1 Thess. 2:12). He has called us "to the obtaining of glory" (2 Thess. 2:14).

PRAYER POINT: Father, through Your only begotten Son, grant that I may have a keen sensitivity to the heavenly calling.

-- TOMORROW: WHAT WILL HEAVEN BE LIKE? --