Called Out of the World

It may help us understand God's call on our lives if we take a closer look at that time when God called Abraham out of the world and into a new land that God would show him. He was the first person in Scripture to be called out of the world by God. Abel lived by faith and died for his faith (Gen. 4:3-8). Enoch walked by faith and was taken into heaven without passing through death because of his faith: "Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him" (Gen. 5:24). But it was Abraham who was the first to be "called" by God in Scripture.

It was all a matter of timing. When the time was right, when the world had again strayed far away from God and the things of God, He acted. God called Abraham out of the world. It was time. It had to take place to preserve a people for Himself. If God had waited any longer the world may have been right back where it was before the flood of Noah, another man who lived a life that was righteous (Gen. 7:1). Abraham was set apart by the call of God to leave the old world, his old life behind, and go to a new land that God would show him, where he would live a new life with God (Gen. 12:1-3).

The principles God set in motion with the call of Abraham are still in operation today. We too are called to depart from the ways of the world and be separate from it, set apart for God. "Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord" (2 Cor. 6:17a). But when we separate ourselves from the world, we do not enter a void. God calls us out of the world and into a new land, a whole new life lived in the love, holiness, wisdom, and power of God. It is a new life that God gives us—a life lived by faith in Christ. It is to that life that all believers are called by God.

That means your life will never be the same. Abraham responded to God's call, went out from the world, and followed God. His life changed. Nothing was ever the same again. Slowly he became the man of God he was meant to be. We too need to recognize that, as believers, God calls us to a new life of godliness. Like Abraham, we need to go and follow Jesus into that new life, a life lived by faith in Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 it says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." Amen.