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#5.
What is the Hope of our calling?
pp. 122, 123
It is an amazing thing to discover that even when the distinctive nature of the
dispensation of the Mystery has been seen, there are some who go back to I Thess. 4:
for the revelation of their hope. In the nature of things, the hope of any calling must be in
agreement with its peculiarities of sphere and constitution, and it is therefore impossible
that the hope of Israel should also be the blessed hope of the Church of the Mystery. It
may, of course, be objected that I Thess. 4: does not represent the hope of Israel. This,
therefore, we must examine.
The Acts of the Apostles opens with the hope of Israel, both before and after Pentecost
(Acts 1: 6, 3: 19-36), and closes with the hope of Israel in Acts 28: 20. This hope,
therefore, is in operation throughout the whole book and period. It is outside the scope of
this series to do more than point out simple facts, and we will therefore deal only with the
hope of the Church at the time when Paul wrote the Epistle to the Romans. This must,
however, be identical with the hope of all other churches that came under the same
dispensation.
In Rom. 15: 12, 13 the Apostle writes:
"Isaiah saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and He that shall rise to reign over the
Gentiles; in Him shall the Gentiles hope. Now the God of the hope fill you with all joy
and peace in believing, that ye may abound in the hope, through the power of the Holy
Ghost."
The reader has only to turn to Isa. 11:, to which this passage refers, to prove beyond
the possibility of doubt, that the hope to the Church in Rome at this time was Millennial.
The reference to the Archangel in I Thess. 4: makes another link with Israel, as does the
connecting passage in II Thess. 2: where the Man of Sin is spoken of. In I Cor. 1: 7 the
"coming" of the Lord is actually the "revelation" or "apocalypse".
The hope of the Church of the Mystery must be the realization of the calling that
places it far above all principalities at the right hand of God, a hope that is far removed
from Isa. 11: It is set forth in Col. 3: 4, where it is associated with the manifestation in
glory, when Christ Himself shall be made manifest.
The hope of any company of believers must of necessity be the realization of
their calling. It is obvious that the calling of the Church in Ephesians differs
materially in sphere, constitution, and destiny from that of the Church at Rome or
Thessalonica during the Acts. The hope of these churches must be the fruition of
the covenants that were then in force, namely, the covenant with Abraham and the
new covenant with Israel and Judah. Members of the Church of the Mystery are
taught to set their minds on things above, and that their hope is that when Christ