The Upward Call of God in Christ Jesus

The strongest Christian influence in early America came through believers who, despite their many flaws and failures, ordered their lives according to Scripture. Yet the idea of being a pilgrim did not begin with the Mayflower voyage.

Peter describes Jewish and Gentile believers scattered across the Roman provinces of Asia Minor. They met privately in homes; the movement was known simply as “the Way,” not a religious sect, but believers gathered in the name of Jesus, who is “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:26). No temple, no building or priesthood stood between them and their personal relationship with Him. They met in the largest room in the household, broke bread together, and invited others to know Christ, so His Spirit could make His true dwelling place within their hearts.

These were the second generation of Acts, living almost thirty years after the resurrection. Luke did not write their stories down until decades later. Jesus promised that His Father would send the Holy Spirit in His name to “bring to your remembrance all things” (John 14:26), and those memories passed to each believer, carried by the Spirit dwelling within them.

The followers of Jesus lived as outsiders in their own land. He called them “sojourners and pilgrims” (1 Peter 2:11). Roman law and temple practices did not define their covenant identity. They received Jesus as Messiah and belonged to God’s kingdom. Jesus’ sacrifice was accepted, and they owed allegiance to no authority other than Him. They lived out God’s covenant promise to Abraham, fulfilled for both Jews and Gentiles: “Abraham’s promise is assured to all his descendants, not just to those who obey the law but also to those who have faith like Abraham’s. For Abraham is the father of all who believe.” (Romans 4:16). Their citizenship belonged to God’s Kingdom, not to Rome, not to the Sanhedrin, and not to any earthly nation.

In the colonies, some early Christian settlers saw their journey as providential, viewing themselves as sojourners bound for a new world that echoed the promise given to Israel. They established self-governing communities where Scripture guided their decisions, but views differed. Churches imposed strict religious conformity through their traditions. They enforced religious belief through civil law. These tensions reveal the complexity of man’s fallen nature and his decision to go his own way.

The Crown’s authority and its established religion followed the settlers across the Atlantic. Yet man’s greater destiny lies beyond man’s authority and the wilderness of life. He looks toward eternity, where God created him for a purpose and an eternal inheritance. Paul understood this pursuit as few others did and named it himself, writing to the church at Philippi:“I press toward the mark for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).

The Called-Out Ones

The word translated “church” in our English Bibles is the Greek ekklesia, derived from (ek) “out of” and (kaleō) “to call”. Though modern usage of church often refers to a place of worship. The word originally described a gathering summoned for a purpose — those called out. Physical buildings are not the dwelling place for God’s Spirit; God made man to worship his Creator from his own heart. John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Jesus dwells inside the hearts of believers.The Greek word (skēnoō) means “to pitch a tent, to dwell.”

God’s “upward call” in Christ is a royal summons. The King Himself calls believers upward into their placement as sons of God. The phrase upward call translates the Greek (hē anō klēsis), “the upward calling,” from (kaleō), the same Greek word, “to call,” and (anō), “upward” or “from above.”

Paul’s words carried imagery familiar in the ancient world. He was not describing a passive standing, but a calling pursued. The runner pressed toward the finish, where the victor was summoned forward to receive his prize. The race is run here on earth, but a man’s victory comes from above.

The upward call belongs to the same Greek word family as ekklesia, the assembly of the called-out ones, drawing the believer upward toward the goal and into the heights of God’s kingdom purpose.

But every believer is called to grow and follow Jesus with purpose that transcends the boundaries and limitations of the material world. All must be justified for their first act of faith. “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God” (Rom. 5:1). “Being justified,” from the Greek (dikaioō), “declared righteous”, is a legal term, such as a judge’s verdict: a one-time act by which God declares a sinner righteous by faith. These are believers who choose to mature and move beyond justification.

The thief on the cross next to Jesus testifies to justification’s legal foundation. Crucified beside Jesus and dying for his own crimes, he did not defend himself or deny his guilt. Instead, he rebuked the other criminal and confessed that the judgment against himself was just: “We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man, referring to Jesus, has done nothing wrong” (Luke 23:41).

In effect, the thief said, I am guilty. My judgment is just, and I am receiving what I deserve. With no time to prove his faith, he turned and said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:42–43). The thief was justified in a moment; disciples are shaped through a consistent walk of faith.

Israel was delivered and set apart through Moses, the Lawgiver, and God delivered them from the bondage of Egypt and baptized them through Moses, “in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Corinthians 10:1–2). Yahweh did not lead Moses to release Israel from their chains so they could roam aimlessly for decades. He has a purpose and calling for all men.

Yet Israel did not believe. They experienced God’s miraculous delivering power, yet still failed to trust Him. Scripture says, “… the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed” (Hebrews 4:2).

The writer of Hebrews later holds up this same history as a warning to the “holy brethren,” the Jewish-Christian believers he calls “partakers of the heavenly calling” (Hebrews 3:1).

When natural men begin reasoning about a matter, they inevitably seek out alternative paths and discover forbidden gates that invite exploration. Rationalization leads to compromise, entertaining the idea and rehearsing it until it leads to disobedience. James describes the doubting man as “double-minded, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8).

Israel’s unbelief is a warning for all who call on the name of Jesus. Their refusal to enter what God promised carried grim consequences that reached beyond their own generation. Their children bore the weight of their unbelief: “your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness” (Numbers 14:33).

The King’s Wedding Feast

During Passover week, Jerusalem became Israel’s most bustling city. Pilgrims poured in from every province, spilling through the streets, filling the courtyards and scattering across the hillsides beyond the walls. Miles of tents, penned livestock, and makeshift campsites covered every slope. Pilgrims kept coming until the city had no room left.

In the temple courts, coins clinked across the money changers’ tables while merchants herded lambs toward those who had come to buy their sacrifice. Doves were stacked in wicker cages beside them. Beneath all the commotion, a much older story unfolded.

For centuries, people gathered this same week from Galilee, Judea, and the far reaches of the Diaspora to remember their deliverance through Moses and the night the Lord passed over Egypt. Yet most of them did not recognize the fulfillment of their Passover feast: the true Lamb of God, already teaching in their midst. This is blindness that only Scripture can explain: “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive’” (Isaiah 6:9–10).

Perhaps God concealed His mercy in their blindness to bring less judgment. Paul writes that the rulers who crucified Him did not understand, “for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8).

Into the crowded courtyard, the chief priests, Pharisees, and elders closed in on Jesus as He taught. They confronted Him: “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?” (Matthew 21:23). “These things” referred to the authority Jesus openly exercised when He overturned the tables and drove the money changers from the temple. That same authority moved Him to heal the sick in these very courts, where He now stood teaching, without their permission.

These were religious teachers and interpreters devoted to strict observance of the Mosaic Law and the traditions of the elders. The people respected them, but Jesus rebuked them. Their laws required outward obedience, while they neglected “the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith” (Matthew 23:23).

The chief priests and elders held the temple’s ruling authority as members of the Sanhedrin, Israel’s highest council. They challenged Jesus over matters such as eating with tax collectors and sinners and healing on the Sabbath. They could not recognize that this man was the Messiah. They rejected God’s messengers who proclaimed His coming. Jesus said, “John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him” (Matthew 21:32). The high priests made a bargain with Rome for their power, and they planned to hold onto their seats. They wanted a king to manage, not a God to submit to. A conquering Messiah, they could have followed, even used, but this man offered them neither a throne to hold nor an army to command. Jesus did not bow to the rabbi’s sanction. He forgave sins as though the offense were His alone to forgive. He spoke of His Father as though the two shared one throne. The real question behind “by what authority” was not who had taught Him, but who He claimed to be.

Jesus taught through a series of parables. First came the parable of the vineyard and the wicked tenants. The Pharisees understood, “He was speaking of them” (Matthew 21:45). Fearing the crowd’s opposition, they remained, seething under His rebuke.

He continued: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who held a wedding feast for his son.” Jesus was the son for whom the wedding was prepared. “The king sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding,” referring to His covenant people, Israel, the nation that bore the covenant seed of Christ. When the invitation came, “they were not willing to come” (Matthew 22:2–3).

In the parable, the king’s servants were voices in the wilderness, mistreated and put to death, just as John the Baptist himself had been. Jesus had already said of him, “John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him” (Matthew 21:32). Jesus cautioned that Israel was about to repeat that history. “The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief cornerstone…” (Matthew 21:42).

Jesus continued, and the King told His servants, “Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast” (Matthew 22:9).

He instructed them to search the lands beyond his own covenant people and invite the Gentile nations. Gather as many as you find; come, ” He said. “The servants went out into the streets, and gathered together all they found, both bad and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests” (Matthew 22:10).

Yet the king was not looking for mere dinner guests; he was looking for those preparing for him. Discipleship is not for spectators, but for humble servants. When the king entered to examine his guests, he found one man without proper attire, a man “who did not have on a wedding garment” (Matthew 22:11), though the king himself had provided it. Instead, he wore his own clothes and clung to his self-righteousness. He rejected the king’s grace, convinced that what he wore was sufficient. Isaiah said it plainly: “all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6).

The man was seized by the guards, bound hand and foot, and thrown into “outer darkness” (Matthew 22:13). The other guests needed no explanation; the lesson was plain. Being invited, even being present, was not the same as being clothed in the King’s righteousness.

In Jesus’ final teaching in Jerusalem, He spoke prophetically to His disciples about what was coming. In Matthew 24:14, He says: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations…” The same promise reached the sojourners and pilgrims, joining Jew and Gentile into one people, and it would not end at Israel’s borders. The call went out to every nation on earth.

The Mystery of Unity

The Apostle Paul called a “mystery” in his letter to the Ephesians, hidden for ages and now revealed: “the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6).

God revealed the mystery: Jew and Gentile are one body in Christ. Paul points toward a people growing together into maturity: “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.” The all includes every member of His body, Jew and Gentile alike. That work within His church continues today.

God is forming one body in Christ and calls each member to grow into “a perfect man.” Each man must answer that call for himself, seeking Christ daily and growing through his personal fellowship with Him.

Gathering in Jesus’ name with other believers is always a good practice; yet Paul describes the inward unity of believers growing together “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). He refers to the inward transformation and maturing of His corporate body.

The unity of the faith is a miraculous work of God. Its fullness still lies ahead, making the true Spirtual unity crucial in this final age. Jesus warned, “For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many” (Matthew 24:5).

Their voices sow deep divisions within the visible church, the vast outward frameworks of denominations and ministries, institutions, congregations, and movements that bear the name of Christ. Its witness is splintered. The world hears competing versions of the gospel from those who all claim to know His name. It is difficult to find footing, much less a foundation, in this spiritual landscape.

Centuries before Paul wrote to the Ephesians, the Psalmist marveled at miraculous unity: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1). This unity (henotēs) speaks of “oneness,” not human cooperation or strategic alliance. No ecumenical movement or negotiated truce of “agreeing to disagree” will produce it.

It stands to reason that the colonial founders could never forge lasting unity through a constitution or any founding document, nor could any religious institution or denomination gather a unified Church by will or design alone. That unity belongs to Christ alone to build, and to the Spirit alone to complete.

The distinction Jesus draws is not between those who respond and those who don’t. The man without the garment answered the call like everyone else and took his place among the guests. Response was never the dividing line; the reckoning came later, not at the door, but at the King’s own inspection.

Jesus concluded, “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). The Greek sharpens the distinction. (Klētoi), rendered “called,” describes those summoned or invited. The word “Chosen” is rendered (Eklektoi, meaning to pick, choose, gather from out of a larger group), not just a guest who attends the wedding, but those who are singled out. Many receive the invitation; only some are chosen out from among them.

This scene carries a sobering application for the modern church. Some who fill the seats have not clothed themselves in the King’s righteousness. Occupying a place is not the same as being spiritually prepared. Jesus warned of a day when many would stand before Him pointing to their own activity as proof: “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” And He will answer them plainly: “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” (Matthew 7:21–23).

God’s ministers of reconciliation extend the invitation to all and gather without distinction; yet every man must himself prepare for Jesus, who transforms the human heart. Resistance often arises when honesty draws near, even though God said, “the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Luke 12:7). Nothing remains to discover that God has not already seen.

David, a man of remarkable victories and profound failures, willingly opened his heart before God: “Search me, O God, and know my heart… And see if there is any wicked way in me” (Psalm 139:23–24). He did not wait to be found out. He asked to be searched, approaching God with the same boldness later expressed in Hebrews: “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16).

A believer’s upward call is not a metaphor or an abstract spiritual concept; it begins with a decision to confess Christ as Lord. “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10). From there, God continues His work in us as we become disciples who pursue His high calling.

Spiritual Sonship

Paul described believers as recipients of “the Spirit of adoption” (Romans 8:15). These words carried weight for Jews and Gentiles alike, though for different reasons. Gentiles, who had no prior covenant standing, needed to hear that the Gospel was offered to them. Jews carried a different burden from their own synagogues. The Temple was the center of sacrificial worship; synagogues were local places of gathering, prayer, and instruction from the “tradition of the elders” (Matthew 15:2). Scribes and Pharisees had layered their own accumulated law onto the Law of Moses itself.

They had forgotten the vision of their own forefathers. Israel’s patriarchs protected the covenant seed that brought forth the Messiah; the covenant promise now goes beyond her borders and is opened to all nations. It is the spiritual opportunity of a lifetime. God gave Abraham the promise: “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice” (Genesis 22:18).

Jews, long burdened under the weight of legalism taught by their elders, received Paul’s letter to the church of Rome: God did not call you to a “spirit of bondage again to fear,” but to “the adoption of sons who cry out, ‘Abba, Father’” (Romans 8:15). The Aramaic word Abba carried a depth that Greek alone could not fully express. Jesus, who spoke

Paul later carries the same expression into Romans and Galatians. Both words mean Father. The two languages stand together, neither replacing the other, one cry spoken in two tongues: “Abba, Father.”

This adoption of sons was not the taking in of a helpless orphan. It was a legal term of the day, denoting the formal placement of a son into the full status, family name, inheritance rights, and legal standing that came with sonship.

The Greek word huiothesia literally means “placed as sons,” from (huios)“son” and (tithēmi) “to place.” In Paul’s Roman world, this reflected the legal procedure of (adoptio), under which an adopted heir received the same standing as a natural-born son, often with greater security. Roman law made it harder to disinherit an adopted heir than a biological one.

God’s first son was Adam, His first man. Adam was a pattern (typos) of “him that was to come” (Romans 5:14), a shadow pointing toward the true work in Jesus, the fulfillment of God’s promise. In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, “born of a woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4), “the firstborn (prōtotokos, a title of rank and preeminence) among many brethren” (Romans 8:29).

Jesus’s ministry was never meant to be studied from a distance. A natural man cannot fully understand His written Word. Jesus lives in believers; His wisdom is present in their hearts. He walks with them through the same wilderness of decision He once walked. His example directs His placed sons with steps toward His Father’s plan and purpose.

When the Pharisees asked when the kingdom of God is coming, Jesus answered, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is among you” (Luke 17:20-21). The Greek word for “observation” (paratērēsis) describes watching for outward signs, provable to the eye. The Kingdom of God in their Messiah had already arrived in person, standing before them.

When Jesus walked through the crowd, the kingdom was present and active. “God’s Word (Logos) became flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). The Logos is God’s expression, not only in His spoken and written Word, but all creation testifies of His glory; His invisible attributes are clearly seen, … so that (we) are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). Jesus, the Son of God, fully expressed His Father’s Logos, His plan and purpose.

God’s Spirit is “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3). Express image (charaktēr) describes the precise, full expression and exact stamped imprint of God. Yahweh revealed Himself on this earth through Jesus, who fulfilled His Father’s plan.

This same posture of humility is revealed through His Ekklesia, “his body” (Ephesians 1:22-23), which Christ is preparing as “a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing… holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27), made righteous through surrender. It is the humble heart that secures a seat at the wedding feast, the same heart that prays, “not my will but Yours be done” (Matthew 26:39). That same surrender is what turns the heart toward the Lord and lifts the veil.“When one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”(2 Corinthians 3:16–17).

Christ Himself becomes a living reality within believers who abide in Him, not a doctrinal concept held at arm’s length, but an indwelling presence. Paul prayed that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Ephesians 3:17), revealing a work that continues beyond salvation’s first moment of decision. Jesus declared, “He who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do” (John 14:12).

Scripture long foresaw the gathering of nations in the final days. Isaiah asked the question centuries before Christ: “Shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children” (Isaiah 66:8).

Isaiah’s prophecy anticipated a day when God would gather “all nations and tongues” to see His glory (Isaiah 66:18), and Peter later declared that day fulfilled, speaking to believers in language once reserved for Israel alone: “you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people” (1 Peter 2:9).

The Ekklesia, this called and chosen body, is a nation unlike the nations of this world. Its borders are not drawn upon the earth, nor does bloodline determine its citizenship. Jew and Gentile enter the same household through Christ, becoming “fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19).

This holy nation continues the work the king’s servants once did, going out to gather guests for the feast. What began with Israel, and extended to the highways when those first invited refused, is now carried forward as “the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18–20). Jew and Gentile alike go out together that the nations might be gathered in, one family crying “Abba, Father” with one voice.

America’s founding laws protected the freedom of conscience from the coercive power of government, but no law can determine where conscience will lead. That choice belongs to each man. Beyond every constitution, institution, denomination, and tradition stands the same invitation that has confronted mankind from the beginning: “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15). Freedom of conscience leaves each man free to choose whether he will answer the call.