Heavenly Mindedness (2)

 

Continuing our reflections on Geerhardus Vos’s message on “Heavenly Mindedness”:

It [faith] is the organ for apprehension of unseen and future realities, giving access to and contact with another world. It is the hand stretched out through the vast distances of space and time, whereby the Christian draws to himself the things far beyond, so that they become actual to him. The earlier Epistles are not unfamiliar with this aspect of faith. Paul in II Corinthians declares that for the present the Christian walks through a land of faith and not of sight. And on the other hand this chapter [Hebrews Chapter 11] is not unfamiliar with the justifying function of faith, for we are told of Noah, that he became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.  G. Vos

 

What strikes you about this passage? 

May I say that it affirms unashamedly that our life in Christ is to be a supernatural life in which our citizenship and our life experience is in Christ in the heavens (Philippians 3:20; Ephesians 2:6). We are called to “see” and apprehend unseen and future realities. This is not the same as saying, “I believe such and such;” Vos says that “the things far beyond…become actual.”

 

Vos directs our thoughts to 2 Corinthians, Paul’s great letter of suffering. Is it a coincidence that in the midst of Paul’s suffering that Paul writes of “not looking at the things that are seen but rather those that are unseen, for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18)? Is it a coincidence that Paul writes, “for we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7)? Is it a coincidence that Paul writes, “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:17, compare with Rom. 8:18)? Regarding Paul’s “light affliction,” note his description in 2 Cor. 1:8 – 9 in which he and his coworkers “were burdened beyond strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed we had the sentence of death within ourselves.”

 

Vos preaches that faith gives us “access to and contact with another world. It is the hand stretched out through the vast distances of space and time…” Vos demonstrates this in the very message he is preaching, for his chapel message transcends time and space, he ranges into the unseen and sees Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – perhaps he sees the Patriarchs with greater clarity than he sees his Princeton Seminary audience.

 

Note that Vos reminds us that we can see complementary “angles of vision” (see previous post) when he speaks of Noah being justified by faith and becoming the heir of righteousness which is according to faith. Noah gives us a wonderful example of justifying faith and of “heavenly – minded” faith; an example of the unity of faith. “By faith Noah being warned about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith” (Heb 11:7). Noah is an example of what we might style “holistic faith”; that is, faith manifesting itself in complimentary ways, healthy and growing.

 

What reception would Vos’s language have in the church today? What reception would his language have in his Reformed tradition? Would we incorporate Vos’s teaching into the thinking and experience of our congregations? What might the challenges be?

 

On the other hand, if Vos is faithfully preaching the Word of God, if Vos is capturing the essence of Hebrews 11, then “What shall we do to be saved”? Remembering that Biblical salvation is holistic and complete, it is not simply focusing on moving from death to life, from light to darkness – it is about living in Christ, for Christ, unto Christ, as Christ.

 

Well, we are only in the beginning of Vos’s message, and while there is much more to say and think about, we can’t do it all at once.