Every disciple of Christ has a great calling and destiny. It’s not just for pastors; it’s for all believers. Unfortunately, most Christian leaders who speak about the topic of calling tend to either keep it very vague (“you have a great calling on your life!”) or equate it with a person’s career (“you’re called to be a great doctor.”) Both these options are problematic, however. In the first, the calling is so vague that believers feel little sense of purpose in it. If we told our soldiers that they were “called” to be warriors, but never gave them specific training or discipline, would they be ready for battle? Of course not. Unfortunately that is likewise the case for many believers today, who congratulate one another as “overcomers” and “more than conquerors” but in truth are the greatest backsliding generation of believers in our nations history. This is the consequence of spiritualizing “calling” to be effectively meaningless. The second option–equating calling with career–is equally problematic. Believers who take on this understanding are tempted to idolize their careers, or conversely, get thrown into confusion if their chosen career path doesn’t work out. We cannot follow God well if we believe that He is behind every promotion and the devil behind every demotion. Even many pastors believe this, equating the size of their church with the favor and calling of God. But we see in Scripture that John the Baptist’s loss of ministry influence and subsequent arrest and execution was not counted as failure but success! And likewise, it was Christ’s willingness to offend his followers (John 6) and be obedient unto death that signified him as worthy to rule over all of heaven and earth. The truth is that our calling is not our career, and often we must sacrifice our income or reputation to be obedient to God. In fact, Jesus was a carpenter and Paul a tentmaker, but neither profession constituted their true callings.
Similarly, each believer has a calling that has a true calling that is independent of their career. It is also important to note that we can fulfill our callings, or fail them entirely. This is why there is a judgement, and this is what makes a calling worthwhile to pursue in the first place, after all. A calling that every Christian automatically fulfills or that Christ has already fulfilled for us leaves us with little to do or without purpose here (which is unfortunately how many believers feel today).
So what is it? The secret to our calling is found in the Great Commission in Mat. 28:
“18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20, NIV
Most believers have been taught to see this passage as a call to missionary work abroad, but that is really only the beginning. Though missionaries may be the first to bring the gospel to a region, the lionshare of the commission–to teach the nation to obey his commands–is a corporate responsibility that every believer has a part in. We are, in a sense, all missionaries to the nations in which we live. Put another way, God expects entire nations to obey his commands, and calls his followers to use their influence to make it so. There are limitations to this–we warn and persuade rather than coerce–but the goal is the same: work to accomplish a thoroughly Christian culture in the nations of the earth.
I am often refuted in this point by those who vaguely point towards the concept of freedom of religion. Let me say that I firmly support and uphold religious freedom in the sense that I do not believe the Church or governments should be coercing people to believe in God or something similar, but that is a far different understanding than the one that believes that we should promote “tolerance” in the sense celebrating all religious beliefs as equally good. The latter is a tenet of a Humanistic worldview, and is deeply unbiblical and unchristian. It is precisely the kind of a idea that we are at war with. Jesus warns that all those who refuse his lordship will be condemned. Paul publicly declared in Athens that the God of heaven commands all men to repent for worshipping other gods and to put their faith in Jesus (Acts 17).
The call to disciple nations is for every believer, and we are gifted in various ways to accomplish this. Some are writers, some encouragers, some healers–but all ultimately have the same aim and goal–Christianize the nation. On this effort we shall all be individually judged. Some of us will be counted as faithful servants, and some will be punished as wicked and lazy ones. Much emphasis has been placed in the Church on the impossibility of earning one own’s salvation through works, but very little emphasis has been placed on the purpose of good works, or why so much of the New Testament devotes so much time to encouraging believers to do them. Though our good works are useless for gaining eternal life since it is a gift given for faith, the emphasis of Scripture is that such a gift renders a great obligation. We owe the Lord a debt that can never be fully repaid, but we will be judged according to our works and rewarded to the measure of our faithfulness. Some shall be relatively wealthy in the Age to Come, and some poor. Some will have high positions, and some low positions. These outcomes shall be awarded unto us according to our works.
This is the basis on which the Scripture calls us to deny ourselves, to take up our crosses, and to follow Him. We are to sacrifice all worldly priorities and selfish ambitions for the greater purpose of discipling the nation in the Lord’s ways. This is the same purpose to which the Old Testament prophets devoted themselves, and is in fact why the history of Israel is provided to us in Scripture. It was provided to us as a model for other nations to learn from. Just as Israel was engaged in national battle for faithfulness to Yahweh throughout its history, so are the other nations of the earth in a battle for faithfulness to Christ. Just as Israel experienced great “revivals” early in its history, and general decline afterwards, such is the pattern and temptation for every nation that comes to know Christ in a general way. In Israel’s history, God called prophets to galvanize the nation to remember the Lord, to forsake other allegiances, and to faithfully obey His commands. They were opposed by those who paid lip service to Yahweh, but compromised with other gods.
The same is true for faithful believers today. We are called to stand firm for Jesus’ commands, and call the nation to repentance and obedience to them. Like with ancient Israel, nations are expected to remember the wonders that God did in that nation’s past. Here in America, we have had several significant revivals, including the First and Second Great Awakenings, the Pentecostal Outpourings of the early 20th century, and the Jesus people movement of the 1960s and 70s. Like God commanded the Israelites to be very careful to remember and to tell their children, so He expects America’s generations to be faithful to the revelations of their grandparents and great grandparents. It has become popular in some circles to say that we cannot expect unbelievers to act like believers, but that is exactly the expectation that God has for them, hence the Judgement.
Jesus told his believers that they were “salt” and “light” in the land (Mat. 5). They were to preserve their lands from judgement and declare truths that others were afraid to or unable to see. But what if the salt lost its saltiness? Then it was fit only to be “thrown out” and “trampled underfoot.” This speaks of how a national Church that has lost its ability to “season” its nation with righteousness deserved to share in its nation’s judgement. Even as Jerusalem was “trampled” by the Romans and its people scattered in 70 AD, so can America–and any nation–be judged for practicing great sin.
We stand at a crossroads in the history of our nation. Will we continue down this path of rebellion against the Lord and his commands? Will we continue to celebrate sexual immorality and be content to let our unborn babies pay for the sin, or will we push back?
4 Those who forsake instruction praise the wicked,
Prov. 28:4
but those who heed it resist them.
It is time for reformation in the American church, to stop playing church games and to start being serious about contending with the nation for mass reformation. It’s time for it to take its place as the righteous remnant that will push back against the darkness. Even as 7,000 persisted in the days of Jezebel, a remnant will not bow down today to the spiritual forces of Marxism or Secularism or apathy, and we will resist.
The Lord is a God who avenges.
O God who avenges, shine forth.
2 Rise up, Judge of the earth;
pay back to the proud what they deserve.
3 How long, Lord, will the wicked,
how long will the wicked be jubilant?4 They pour out arrogant words;
all the evildoers are full of boasting.
5 They crush your people, Lord;
they oppress your inheritance.
6 They slay the widow and the foreigner;
they murder the fatherless.
7 They say, “The Lord does not see;
the God of Jacob takes no notice.”8 Take notice, you senseless ones among the people;
you fools, when will you become wise?
9 Does he who fashioned the ear not hear?
Does he who formed the eye not see?
10 Does he who disciplines nations not punish?
Does he who teaches mankind lack knowledge?
11 The Lord knows all human plans;
he knows that they are futile.12 Blessed is the one you discipline, Lord,
the one you teach from your law;
13 you grant them relief from days of trouble,
till a pit is dug for the wicked.
14 For the Lord will not reject his people;
he will never forsake his inheritance.
15 Judgment will again be founded on righteousness,
and all the upright in heart will follow it.16 Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
Psalm 94:1-16, NIV
Who will take a stand for me against evildoers?
