God's CALLING, pt 2: To Israel and the World

Matthew 20:16: So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.

To the casual reader of the Bible, there is quite a bit of confusion about this word, “called.” Not that we misuse it per se, but that we do not fully use it. Scripture often assigns a much deeper meaning to this word than we do in our everyday usage. We may call someone’s name or call him or her on the phone. We even say that a particular job or ministry is a person’s calling. And some will even go a bit further and say that the church is the called-out ones. These are all proper uses of the word, but they stop short of a full biblical definition of the term. Scripture attaches a supernatural element to this term that the Christian should be aware of, or else there are some portions of the Bible that they are simply not going to adequately understand. “Called” is indeed a wonderful word, a word that should give every genuine believer great comfort and hope. This word speaks of God’s amazing grace that reaches down and saves a wretched sinner out of the depths and bondage of sin. It speaks of the believer’s deliverance from the darkness of sin by the Word of God. As God spoke the world into existence, so the Spirit’s call pulls us out of the chaos of sin into the light of the new birth. "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28