Called According to Paul: 2 Timothy 1:9

I want to put this old series of posts in the favorite posts section on the right sidebar, so I’ve been reposting them from my previous Blogger blog one by one. An explanation of this series of posts can be found here. You’ll find other posts in this series here.

Not Herman Ridderbos.

Here’s how Paul uses of the word called in 2 Timothy 1:9:

… God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began…. (ESV)

Some scholars think this verse and the one following are part of an early Christian hymn. The language and thought, though, are not different from what Paul writes elsewhere, so if it’s a hymn, maybe it’s one that he wrote. At the very least, we can say that he approved of what was written here or he would not have included it in his letter to Timothy.

Here’s what I notice about the word call in this verse:

• Call is closely associated with salvation just as it was in 1 Corinthians 1 and 1 Corinthian 7.
  
  
• The call is to something—to a holy calling. Once more, there’s the thought of appointment or assignment. (See the two posts linked above for other similar uses of call.) Those who are called or saved are not only called from a life of sin, but to a life of holiness.
  
  
• Here, as in 1 Corinthians 1, the call is said to be based in God’s will or purpose or choice.
  
  
• This call is also based in God’s grace. Because God is gracious, he wills or chooses to call people. This fits perfectly with the statement that the call does not come to us because of (or based on) our works. Grace, at least in the way Paul uses the word, stands in contrast to human works. If something comes to us based on our works, then it cannot come as a result of God’s grace.
  
  
• The grace from which God’s call comes is given before the beginning of time. God’s call, then, originates in God’s precreation plan. The gracious choice to call was made “before the ages began.”
  
  
• Even though God’s choice to call was made before time, it is grounded in the temporal saving work of Christ. This grace is given to us “in Christ”; it is because Christ would come to abolish death (v. 10) that God’s choice to graciously call could be made in eternity past.

As always, these posts are a work in progress, so I welcome additional observations or corrections. What does your magnifying glass detect?

Called According to Paul: Romans 4:17

I want to put this old series of posts in the favorite posts section on the right sidebar, so I’ve been reposting them from my previous Blogger blog one by one. An explanation of this series of posts can be found here. You’ll find other posts in this series here.

Not Herman Ridderbos.

In Roman 4:1 Paul writes,

…as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. (ESV)

Paul is writing in Romans 4 of Abraham’s faith. Abraham, he says, believed that God would fulfill his promise. You’ll remember the promise: God told Abraham that he would make him the father of many nations so that the number of his offspring would be like the number of stars in the sky.

Abraham’s faith held firm when a son seemed like an impossibility because he knew the God who spoke the promise to him was the God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In other words, Abraham’s faith was strong regardless of the impossibility, humanly-speaking, of what God had promised him (Abraham, after all was “as good as dead” and Sarah was barren), for he understood that his God was the God of divine fiat.

The language of the phrase we’re looking at—”calls into existence the things that do not exist”—harks back to God’s creation by command. And while in this usage call is not refering to the call that works salvation (or faith, or conversion) like the usages already examined in 1 Corinthians 1 and 7, Paul is nonetheless using it in the sense of divine command. Abraham understood that just as God had called all of creation into existence out of nothing, he could produce offspring from an old man and his barren wife by calling into existence things that do not exist. Paul is using call here to refer to a command with creative power.

As with other posts in this series, I welcome additions/corrections/comments regarding the way Paul uses of the word call in this passage.

Called According to Paul: 1 Corinthians 7

I want to put this old series of posts in the favorite posts section on the right sidebar, so I’ll be reposting them from my previous Blogger blog one by one over the next few weeks. An explanation of this series of posts can be found here. You’ll find another post in this series here.

Not Herman Ridderbos.

In this post, I’m looking at the use of the word call in 1 Corinthians 7, verse 15-25. I’ve quoted the passage below and italicized call each time it’s used:

But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace. Wife, how do you know whether you will save your husband? Husband, how do you know whether you will save your wife?

Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches. Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God. Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it. But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity. For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a slave of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God (1 Corinthans 7:15-25 ESV).

In all of these usages of called, it is a sort of shorthand for “became a Christian” or “first believed.” This would make it a similar usage to 1 Corinthians 1:24 where it is a parallel for “being saved”. When people are called in the way Paul uses the term in this passage, they are saved. This is a call that results in believing.

This is also an individual call. It goes out to individual people in various circumstances. We saw the individual nature of the call in 1 Corinthians 26-28 (…not many wise…not many powerful….), too, but it is even clearer here.

[When I first posted this, Kim (Hiraeth) suggested that in the first use of the word call in this passage, the sense may be more “appointed”, as in “God has appointed you to peace.”]