What is your vocation, or your “calling in life”? This is the question that every Christian graduate faces after the completion of his or her studies. For some, it may mean further schooling to gain the training needed to become a teacher, a full-time youth worker, a missionary, a counselor, or a lawyer. Others will go directly into the workforce, seeking employment in business, accounting, information technology, or a host of other fields. But regardless of the specifics, I am certain that the issue of your future vocation or calling is very much in the forefront of the thinking these days.
Some of the richest, most helpful teaching on how we should view our vocation comes to us from the great theologians of the Protestant Reformation. More than anyone else, Martin Luther connected the dots, so to speak, on the implications of the recovery of the pure gospel and its relationship to one’s “calling” or “vocation.” In order to make this point, I’m going to discuss this theologically.
The Theological Basis For The Christian’s Vocation
Consider Luther’s teaching that we are saved by grace, through faith ALONE, apart from works. This was a central teaching of Luther’s. More to the point, it is one of the central teachings of the Bible.
In Luther’s day, it was thought that a person who was really serious about saving his or her soul would become a priest or a nun or a monk, which would allow a person to devote one’s full-time energies to attaining this goal. Your average merchant, or peasant, or farmer, or soldier, or housewife was distracted with the worldly concerns of his or her occupation. Sure, they could be good Catholics by going to mass, taking communion, and observing the fasts and feast days whenever they could. But those who had a “religious vocation”—who were called to the religious orders—were the ones who had a “calling” and secured for themselves a much higher degree of holiness, and therefore were more pleasing to God.
Of course, in the Roman Catholic doctrine of merit, the member of the religious order would rack up even greater spiritual “brownie points” than would be possible to those whose time was divided, having to pursue worldly activities like milking cows or changing diapers. For example, if a person venerated relics, prayed certain prescribed prayers, went on pilgrimages, and did other spiritual exercises, such a person could receive an indulgence to remove time that would otherwise be spent in purgatory. Quite obviously, simple math tells you that the more time one has to devote to such activities without distraction, the more merit one can accrue.
Now, contrary to the way it was supposed to work, Luther did not find peace with God even though he sought it with all his heart through the monastic life. Luther became a monk, joining the Augustinian order. This was a strict monastic order which, similar to other monastic orders, had a very regimented lifestyle. They would devote themselves to prayer, fasting, attending mass, confession, and other religious disciplines. Luther certainly did not fail for lack of trying. He worked at the salvation of his soul with all his might. He was a “model” monk. He excelled his fellow monks in night watches, fasts, and all of the other disciplines. The way Luther put it, “If ever a monk would have gotten to heaven through monkery, I would have gotten there.”
Yet, Luther was unable to find peace through any of these monastic exercises or Catholic accomplishments. In fact, the harder he tried, the worse his spiritual state. Listen to this quote from Luther:
I tried to live according to the [Augustinian] Rule with all diligence, and I used to be contrite, to confess and number my sins, and often repeated my confession, and sedulously performed my allotted penance. And yet my conscience could never give me certainty, but I always doubted and said, “You did not perform that correctly. You were not contrite enough. You left that out of your confession.” The more I tried to remedy an uncertain, weak and afflicted conscience with the traditions of men, the more each day found it more uncertain, weaker, more troubled. [2]So what happened? As a result of Luther’s studies in the Bible, he discovered the true meaning of the “righteousness of God.” While preparing his lectures on the book of Romans, he discovered that the righteousness of God becomes our own possession through faith alone, and that the just shall live by faith and not by works—whether pilgrimages, fastings, veneration of relics, prayers to the saints, or attending masses. It is the very righteousness of Christ himself that is imputed to us—credited to our account—when we put our trust in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation. Thus, we are saved by faith alone, apart from works. Luther said that when he finally came to realize this, it was as if the gates of heaven were opened to him, and the peace he had sought for in vain through his efforts came upon him like a flood.
Now we might wrongly conclude that if we follow Luther’s doctrine to its logical conclusion, there will be no place for good works in the Christian life. Indeed, if we are saved by grace alone through faith alone, apart from works, then why do any works at all?
It is here that the practical outworking of Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone connects to his idea of vocation, and actually provides the firmest motivation of all for the Christian to do works of love. The doctrine of justification by faith alone does indeed mean, as Luther put it, that “God does not need our works” in order to save us. Now, although God may not need our works, guess who does need them? Our neighbor very much does need them. And it is for this reason that works become necessary in the Christian life: not to impress God with our holiness so he might be coaxed into granting us entrance into paradise, but that we might serve our neighbor, who very much needs our aid.
This service to our neighbor does not take place in cloistering ourselves away in a convent or monastery, or living in a cave like a desert hermit, but by unplugging our neighbor’s clogged toilet, or bringing meals when she is sick, or giving a word of encouragement when he is down. Luther states, “The Christian life does not consist of that which such men as monks invent; it does not drive people into the wilderness or cloister. It is Satan who commands you to forsake men. On the contrary, the Christian life sends you to people, to those that need your works.” [3]
In other words, even though our vocation contributes not one whit to our own security before God, it is still imperative that we do our duty, for the sake of others. Our station in life, whatever it may be, should always be other-focused.
The Practical Application Of Luther’s Insights
I would now like to make some observations on our calling, which we can glean from Luther’s insights.
Every One Of Us Has A Calling
First of all, every one of us has a calling. In fact, we all have more than one calling. It’s important to realize that the callings in your life are often dynamic, and not static. Some callings may endure throughout your entire life, while others may be transitory or situational.
For the last several years you have had one very important vocation: being a student at Emmaus. Being a student is not just an activity that you did in order to prepare for a future calling—though your Emmaus education certainly did do that. But being a student is itself a calling. Did you regard it as such while you were at Emmaus?
I want to speak to you candidly about the problems that sometimes arise when students fail to regard being a students as a calling. For example, I will get a student who signs up for an intensive summer school class that meets only ten times, and then he informs me that he must miss the first three sessions because of a youth retreat he needs to lead. You see, the student tells me, he has a “ministry” that he needs to do, and won’t I please understand just how important this is and allow him to miss these sessions. I’m sure I’ve had more than a few students think me quite unspiritual when I tell them that if they are going to take my class, then my class is their ministry—at least during the hours they need to be there and the time they need to put into studying for it. But you see, we trick ourselves by lapsing back into the old Roman Catholic separation of the sacred from the secular and forget that God’s calling is much bigger than we think. It’s easy to see how leading a youth retreat is “spiritual” and “ministry,” but walking around muttering the names of dead theologians to prepare for an exam in Patristic theology is not. I understand that about a third of you will be continuing as full or part-time students as you pursue graduate degrees. And so for you, you will continue in your vocation as a student for some period of time. If you are going to continue your education, please consider what I have to say and treat this as a calling from God. Work at it with all your might to the glory of God.
For many of you, though, your vocation as a full-time student is now at an end. But even as you set aside your vocation as a student, you will take on other callings in your life, as God leads. I know that a handful of you graduates are already married, while others of you are engaged and are planning to be married soon, once graduation is behind you. For yet others of you, marriage may be a possibility farther off in the future. To all of you who are or will be married I say, whatever other calling you may have, one of your callings is to be a husband or a wife. Now, perhaps you’ve never stopped to consider the fact that you are “called” to be a husband or a wife, that you have a “vocation” as a spouse. But that is exactly what it is. For you ladies, God has or will place you in your husband’s life to serve him through your works of love. This is absolutely a ministry, and God has or will call you to it. No doubt your husband will say, “Yes, that sounds pretty good!” But likewise, your husband is called to be your husband. And this means that he had better treat you right in order to fulfill his divinely appointed calling! And you may quote me on that!
A certain number of you—maybe quite a few of you—will also become parents someday. That, too, is a vocation. Here is a test: How do you know that you are called to be a parent? One thing that tips you off is if you have kids! If you have kids then you are called to be a parent. It’s not optional. It is the situation you are in, and God in his sovereignty has called you to it. He has or will place children in your life, and you in theirs. As a parent, you serve your children through acts of love. You nurture them, feed them, clothe them, discipline them, teach them, and do a whole host of other things for them. Now, you don’t get to heaven by doing any of these things. But if you have faith in Jesus Christ, then the heaven thing is already taken care of. No, you do these works because your kids need those works, and they are depending on that love and care.
And then there are the different job occupations you will enter, a number of which I have already mentioned. All of the above are high and holy callings. Do not despise them or look down upon any of them as menial or insignificant!
Your Calling Brings Glory To God
Second, not only do you help your neighbor through your calling, but in doing so you bring glory to God.
It’s easy to see how someone who preaches or teaches the Word at your assembly or who is serving on a faraway mission field brings glory to God. That is so obviously spiritual! But pulling all-nighters to study for your CPA exam also brings glory to God and is every bit as “spiritual” as teaching a Sunday School lesson.
One of the critical doctrines that Luther taught was the so-called priesthood of all believers. There is a very real sense in which we are all ministers, and your calling as a wife or mother or accountant or graduate student is no less “spiritual” or “holy” than the call to be a full-time worker or elder in your local assembly. In affirming the priesthood of all believers, Luther did not deny that there is a specific call to what we typically consider “ministry,” such as preaching and teaching the Word. I know that a good number of you Emmaus grads are called to go into “ministry,” or church-based lines of work. Luther believed that only certain people are called to that in terms of providing the leadership function in the church, because there is a variety of gifts in the body and not all are gifted for leadership. But then, neither is everyone called to be married, nor everyone called to be a plumber, nor everyone called to be a United States Senator.
But all of these callings—whether to preach the Word or snake out a plugged shower drain—come from the same God and are for the same end: to bring glory to him by serving others in his name. Remember the words of Jesus: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matt. 25:40). So we serve others and thereby serve Christ himself.
God Will Sanctify You Through Your Calling.
Third, and finally, have a realistic view of what your vocation entails, for it is not all roses.
While our vocations are ordained by God, this does not mean that we should over-spiritualize or idealize them. Now that you will have your Emmaus degree, perhaps you are looking forward to exciting vocational prospects. And they may well be exciting. But that is not the whole story.
Again, Luther is very helpful in this regard. He points out how God uses our vocations as one of the primary ways in which he brings the cross into our lives, to discipline us and to help us die to self. We often talk about the “spiritual disciplines”—such as prayer and fasting—but it would seem that God frequently chooses to discipline us through the seemingly mundane things. Listen to what Luther himself says:
I ask where our suffering is to be found. I shall soon tell you: Run through all stations of life, from the lowest to the highest, and you will find what you are looking for…. Therefore, do not worry where you can find suffering. That is not necessary. Simply live as an earnest Christian, preacher, pastor, [burgher,] farmer, noble, lord, and fulfill your office faithfully and loyally. Let the devil worry where he can find a piece of wood out of which to make a cross for you, and the world where it can find a branch out of which to make a scourge for your hide. [4]Bear in mind, by the way, that Luther knew that God uses the devil and the world for his own good ends. So the fact that the devil and world may bring trials into your life does not mean that God is not ultimately behind it and in control of it all.
Conclusion
I hope that something I’ve said has encouraged you, while at the same time given you a realistic estimate of your life in this world. Be encouraged that you have a calling—every one of you. Multiple callings, to be sure! Do not despise those fields of labor into which God has placed you or will place you—even the ones that seem menial and mundane. God knows what he is doing!
As Luther often pointed out, God is frequently hidden under the opposite of what we would expect. If we had written the story, Jesus would have come as a conquering hero and not as one born in a stinking stable, rejected by men, and finally crucified on a wretched Roman cross. Yet the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.
If for Jesus the cross had to come before the glory, why ought we to think it should be any different for us?
Remember that God has called us to be faithful in the calling in which we have been called, whether glorious or mundane, ordinary or spectacular, in delight and in suffering. For it is in being faithful to our calling that we identify with our Savior and fulfill our purpose as instruments in his good hands.
Notes
- Alan Gomes is Professor of Historical Theology at Talbot Theological Seminary and is the author of numerous scholarly books and articles. He is the general editor of the fifteen-volume Zondervan Guide to Cults and Religious Movements. This article was originally delivered as a commencement address to the graduating students at Emmaus Bible College in May 2011.
- Luther, WA 40.II.15.15. Translated by E. Gordon Rupp, in The Righteousness of God: Luther Studies (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1953), 104; cited in David Steinmetz, Luther in Context (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 2.
- Luther, quoted in Gustav Wingren, The Christian’s Calling: Luther on Vocation (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1957), 54-55.
- Luther, quoted in Wingren, 29-30.
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