What is “the hope of His calling”?
Question:
Dear brother,
Thank you for your web site. It has been most helpful to me as I struggle to share with a person who believes in "Once Saved Always Saved." Can you enlighten me as to what it means in Ephesians: "the hope of His calling"? Does it refer to heaven? Our resurrection on the last day? Becoming like God when we "partake of His divine nature"?
Thanks in advance.
Answer:
"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints" (Ephesians 1:17-18).
"There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling" (Ephesians 4:4).
God's call is His invitation to become His child and be saved. See "Make Your Calling and Election Sure" for details. Answering that call gives us hope of eternal life. Notice that Paul said, "the hope of His calling" is "the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints."
"I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust" (Acts 24:15).
"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:1-2).
"Because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel" (Colossians 1:5).
"In hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began" (Titus 1:2).
