The Hope of His Calling. 2
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Take the calling itself first. Paul desired that the Ephesians might have a better knowledge or assurance that they had been supernaturally quickened, personally called out of darkness into God's light. If the Christian measures himself impartially by the Word, he should have no difficulty on that score. He should be certain of his salvation. he ought to be able to say, humbly yet confidently, "one thing I know, that I once was blind—but now I see" (John 9:25). If I see, with a feeling sense in my heart, what a heinous and filthy thing all sin is, what a depraved and loathsome creature I am by nature, what a sink of iniquity still remains within me, what a suitable and sufficient Savior Christ is for such a wretch as me, what a lovely and desirable thing holiness is—then I must have been called to life. If I am now conscious of holy desires and endeavors to which I was previously a stranger, then I must be alive in Christ.
Secondly, that to which the Christian is called in this verse—an assured expectation: "that you may know what is the hope of His calling." As God has called His people to holiness, so also He has called them to be full of hope and good cheer. The apostle prayed in another place, "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:13).
Thus, we may understand that by His calling we may know that hope which God has commanded us as Christians to have; (1 Thessalonians 4:7), "God has called us not to impurity—but unto holiness," means that He bids us to be holy, for the third verse of the same chapter declares "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." In that passage the will and calling of God are one and the same thing. Thus it may also be understood here: "That you may know the hope of His revealed will," which He requires us to have.
"THAT YOU MAY KNOW," not being ignorant or doubtful. This denies one of the doctrines of the Council of Trent: "If any affirm that a regenerate and justified man is bound to believe that he is certainly in the number of the elect—let such a one be accursed!" The very fact that Paul was inspired to place on record this petition—shows clearly that it is God's WILL FOR His people to have assurance, that it is both their privilege and duty to earnestly seek it, and that an increased experience of assurance should be theirs. A doubting Thomas does not honor God.
Now let us put the whole together. Only as the eyes of our understanding are divinely enlightened, are we able to know "what is the hope of His calling"—know it, not by carnal presumption nor by mental acumen but perceive it with anointed vision. Nevertheless, if our eyes are not enlightened, the fault is entirely our own, for it is the revealed will of God that each regenerate person should have assurance that he is a new creature in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit has given us one whole epistle to that very end: "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life" ( 1 John 5:13). Hence, those who would have the Christian believe that a firm and abiding assurance is not desirable, are standing on an unscriptural doctrine.
Note how emphatic it is: "the eyes of YOUR understanding being enlightened that YOU may know." That cannot signify less than that your OWN eyes should see what grounds of assurance the Christian really has to know that eternal life is his, that his own heart may realize the hope which God has bidden him to exercise. Not to see with someone else's eyes, not to read through creedal spectacles, not to take any man's say-so for it—but to live by your own God-given faith and read in the light of Holy Writ, your own clear evidences. The apostle prayed here that they might know what great, infallible, multitudinous grounds of hope God had called them to; that they might appreciate what grounds of assurance and evidence they had—that heaven was theirs; that they might have assurance of their own interest in heaven! Every time I truly mourn over my sins, feel my poverty of spirit, hunger and thirst after righteousness, I have an indubitable evidence that I am among the "blessed".
Precepts and petitions are complementary one to the other. The precepts tell me what God requires and therefore what I need to ask Him for most, that enabling grace may be given me to perform the same. The prayers intimate what it is my privilege and duty to make request for, thus they indirectly reveal my duty. "Give diligence to make your calling and election sure" (2 Peter 1:10), is the divine precept making known my duty. That "the Father of glory, may give unto you... wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling" is a request that I may be enabled to successfully carry out that task of making my election sure. This petition tells us we ought to labor after and pray earnestly for a clearer insight into and a fuller acquaintance with the great objects of the Christian's hopes and expectations.
We cannot obtain a true and influential knowledge of the grounds which regeneration gives its subject to hope that he has passed from death to life, nor realize what confidence in God He has bidden him to have (for both things are included) unless our eyes are divinely anointed. No matter how clearly and vividly the landscape appears when the sun is shining—a blind man does not behold it. Christ is manifestly set forth in the gospel—but the hearer must be given spiritual sight before he will perceive the absolute suitability of such a Savior in his own desperate case. Even after regeneration, the Christian is still completely dependent on divine illumination in order for him to continue apprehending spiritual things. No reading of commentaries can secure an answer to his petition, and even a searching or study of the Scriptures, will not of itself convey to the believer a spiritual and influential knowledge. Only as and when the eyes of his understanding are enlightened, will that delightful and wondrous experience be his.
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