Called To Be Saints
Notes
Transcript
1. The Calling of God, vs. 1-3.
1. The Calling of God, vs. 1-3.
V. 1 - Paul -the very name would bring to remembrance their founding pastor.
He begins this letter reminding his original readers of his privilege and calling, the source being the Lord Himself.
at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me.
“And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
“And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
‘But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you;
rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you,
to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’
“So, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision,
This was confirmed also by the prophet Ananias when he was told to go to Paul in Damascus, Acts 9:15
But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel;
Afterwards, Paul had the authority and power to heal, to discern good and evil, and to speak boldly, free from doctrinal error. As an apostle, Paul answered to no higher human authority, only to God directly. He valued God’s favor more than the favor of men, Gal. 1:10
For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.
Sosthenes is called “the brother” in the Greek text. He may be the Sosthenes mentioned in Acts 18:17 as “the leader of the synagogue” in Corinth. If this is the same person, he obviously had been converted to Christ and later joined Paul in Ephesus. The Corinthians knew this man by name.
Did Sosthenes have a role in the letter to the Corinthians? We can’t be sure. Some believed he served as Paul’s secretary, called an amanuensis, who wrote Paul’s dictated words. But throughout the letter, Paul mostly refers to himself in the first person singular, “I,” indicating that he meant for the letter to be understood as coming from him, carrying the weight of apostolic authority.
V. 2 - The recipients of the letter are addressed next as common with the letters of Paul’s time. They are called “the church of God.” the Greek word for church, ekklesia, refers to an “assembly.” Sometimes referring to a general social or political assembly, Paul uses this generic term for an ordered gathering to carry significant theological weight. It is most often used in referring to a local membership of a church in a specific city — the people of a specific congregation, but it can also indicate the “regional church” made up of all the believers and local churches in a named region. The term is also used for the entirety of Christianity spread throughout the whole world. Paul does not have in mind the building, but the body of people saved through faith in Christ and called together to live in community with one another. The root of the Greek word ekklesia means “called out.” We have been called out from the world to be a part of a new corporate body under the headship of Christ. We believers are the church. In a very real sense, we bring the church with us when we enter our places of worship; and we take the church with us when we return to the world.
These believers are addressed as “sanctified in Christ Jesus,” being set apart by God to be His holy people. As such they were set apart from sin, but not from sinners. They were to be in the world, but not of the world.
Theologians speak of “justification” as the past, one-time event of our salvation; “sanctification” as the ongoing transformation that continues through a believer’s life; and “glorification” as the future consummation of our salvation when we are resurrected in glorified, imperishable bodies. Paul’s use of the term “sanctified” here, a perfect participle in the Greek, to refer to the initial, unrepeated “setting apart” of people in the eyes of God, also called “positional sanctification.” the result of this permanent setting apart is that believers are now “saints by calling.” As it relates to “sanctified,” the saint is one who is devoted, consecrated, pure, and holy in God’s eyes, who is uniquely set apart for His use regardless of the saint’s practical holiness from day to day.
Paul’ words to the local church in Corinth are able to transcend the geographical and historical boundaries in which they were originally written. Paul acknowledges this when he writes to “all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.” This letter, then, is as much for us today as it was for the Corinthians in the first century.
V. 3 - A common greeting of the day, the blessing of grace and peace would have had particular meaning for Christians and for the church in Corinth in particular. Here the “grace and peace” Paul mentions should have brought to mind those virtues of the Christian life that must be present to maintain church harmony. The rest of this letter will demonstrate that Paul wants the Corinthians to be known as gracious saints who lived in peace with one another as they become what they already are in Christ!
2. The Graciousness of God, vs. 4-7.
2. The Graciousness of God, vs. 4-7.
Verse 4-7 - Paul here looks at the church as it is in Christ before he looks at anything else that is true of the church. As someone who had ministered with them and among them, Paul isn’t just blowing smoke when he lists the five positives of the church in Corinth.
grace (charis) is the unmerited favor and enabling help God had lavished on the Corinthians in Christ Jesus. Paul had full confidence that the Corinthians had genuinely experienced God’s unmerited saving grace, receiving His gift of salvation by trusting in Jesus Christ.
enriched (ploutidzo) indicates the spiritual riches that they had received through the ministry of God’s servants, so that they could share the gospel of Jesus Christ because they understood it clearly and could articulate it effectively to others.
established (bebaioo) emphasizes the faith that was authenticated, made sure by Paul, who established a firm foundation for their faith, having spent over a year and a half of his life doing so.
Spiritually gifted. As a result of their genuine saving faith, the Corinthians did not lack any spiritual gifts. The positive tone of this section suggests that they had at times been exercising those gifts properly.
Prophetically alert as they exercised their spiritual gifts. They were “awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ” This is one of the many indications that the apostles taught the imminent return of Christ for His own. The Corinthians were engaged in an urgent ministry in light of that prophetic reality, living in an earnest anticipation of that moment when they would see His face.
3. The Assurances of God, vs. 8-9.
3. The Assurances of God, vs. 8-9.
v. 8-9 - What a great picture of vitality that the Corinthian church possessed! It is this kind of vitality that Paul addresses now, mentioning two rewards in these verses;
in verse 8, dealing with the believer’s future: Christ “will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Despite our current status as unrelenting sinners, in eternity we will be blameless. The Greek word means to be beyond accusation, and this will happen at the very time of Christ’s coming for His own in the rapture of the saints. That is when our earthly bodies, subject to sin, suffering, and death, will be miraculously transformed into perfect, immortal bodies like Christ’s resurrection body, Phil 3:21
who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory.
In our new, glorified state, nobody in heaven or in hell will be able to hold anything over our heads, Jude 1:24
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,
2. In verse 9, dealing with the believer in the here and now: “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.” Based solely on His sovereign grace as Paul states in Eph 2:8-9,
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
God called us into an eternal relationship with Christ that began the moment we first believed. The permanence of our relationship is not based on our own efforts, but wholly on the faithfulness of God.
God will “confirm” believers “to the end,” and Paul’s reminder that “God is faithful” tells us that we can experience an enduring fellowship with God every day of our Christian lives, because He has promised He will never desert us nor forsake us, Rom. 8:38-39
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”
