Heavenly - Mindedness (10)

 

Continuing our reflections on Geerhardus Vos’s Message on “Heavenly Mindedness” from Hebrews 11:9 – 10:

 

“The patriarchs had their vision of the heavenly country, a vision in the light of which the excellence or desirableness of every earthly home and country paled. Acquaintance with a fairer Canaan had stolen from their hearts the love of the land that lay spread around like a garden of paradise. Of course, it does not necessarily follow from this that the author credits the patriarchs with a detailed, concrete knowledge of the heavenly world. In point of heavenly-mindedness he holds them up as models to be imitated. In point of information about the content of the celestial life he places the readers far above the reach of the Old Testament at its highest. To the saints of the New Covenant life and immortality and all the powers of the world to come have been opened up by Christ. The Christian state is as truly part and prelibation of the things above as a portal forms part of the house. If not wholly within, we certainly are come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God. And in this we are more than Abraham.

 

“No such Gospel broke in upon the solitude of these ancient shepherds, not even upon Jacob, when he saw the ladder reaching up into heaven with the angels of God ascending and descending upon it. But do you not see, that precisely on account of this difference in knowledge the faculty of faith had addressed to it a stronger challenge than it has in us, who pilgrim with heaven’s door wide open in our sight? For this reason it is so profitable to return again and again to this part of the Old Testament Scriptures, and learn what great faith could do with less privilege, how precisely because it had such limited resource of knowledge, it made a sublimer flight, soaring with supreme dominion up to the highest heights of God.”  Geerhardus Vos.

 

Since the beginning of the above quotation is linked to what will follow in Vos’s message, most of this reflection will consider the contrast, or distinction, between the Patriarchs and Old Covenant saints, and those of us in the New Covenant.

 

“The patriarchs had their vision of the heavenly country, a vision in the light of which the excellence or desirableness of every earthly home and country paled. Acquaintance with a fairer Canaan had stolen from their hearts the love of the land that lay spread around like a garden of paradise.” This continues the theme of heavenly – mindedness, and Vos will return to this in our next section, but let’s not skip over it less we miss the thrust and import of the sermon. Vos tells us that the vision the Patriarchs had of their heavenly country was so overwhelming that all earthly homes and countries paled before that vision and desire. And that while the earthly land they lived in was a paradise, that nevertheless their affection for that earthly paradise had been “stolen from their hearts.”

 

Do we have such a vision in our own lives? Are we living lives of such heavenly – mindedness? Let me especially ask this of us who live in the United States, for we have been raised in cultural isolation from the rest of the world, in a land that is wealthy beyond the imagination of much of the world (even though we must acknowledge that there is much want and need and inequity within our borders), and in a land in which the pursuit of “happiness” and pleasure is pretty much a religion.

 

We live in a land in which much of the professing church reflects not a vision of heaven, but rather a vision of the values, priorities, and pursuits of earthly culture.

 

Furthermore, in our nation we have a syncretistic Christianity that is often enmeshed in nationalism to the point where the “church” is placed in the service of the State, of political parties, of economic agendas. In some circles it is safer to criticize and doubt the Bible than it is to question the Constitution or a political perspective. The fact that we are generally safe from foreign enemies and that we are prosperous and entertained makes the foregoing seductive. It also means that, in our pleasure – induced stupor, having our hearts stolen away from the surrounding earthly culture by a heavenly vision is a pretty rare thing.

 

The fact that much preaching and teaching demands little or nothing of us in terms of the Cross and discipleship, that our Christianity generally caters to ourselves, and that the peer pressure of going along with the narcissistic culture of our nation is so great – means that to break out of this gravitational pull and share in the heavenly – mindedness of the Patriarchs has many obstacles.

 

In this election year of 2020, the fact that some so – called “Christian” leaders have attacked one political party on behalf of another political party, and have cloaked these attacks with a syncretistic “gospel” of “Christian” nationalism, makes the challenge of being heavenly – minded all the more pronounced. When the world culture and irresponsible pastors, preachers, and teachers want to steal our hearts away from Christ and His heavenly Kingdom and way of life – we have much to strive against to break away from the earth and live in the heavens in Jesus Christ.

 

Can we, the professing church in the United Sates, say that, “the excellence or desirableness of every earthly home and country [has] paled?” What is our honest answer?

 

What does my life reflect? What does your life reflect? What do the lives of our congregations reflect?

 

What challenges are we facing in this regard? In our hearts and minds? In our relationship with Jesus Christ? In our relationships within and without the church?

 

Can we be honest with ourselves about the state of our souls in this regard? Can we be honest with our holy Father and our Lord Jesus? Is the Holy Spirit searching our hearts and minds? Can we be honest with others about this matter, within and without the church?

 

Have our hearts been stolen away from the things of earth, no matter how desirable they may be, and made one with the heart of Jesus Christ in our heavenly home?

 

Well, I wanted to cover more in this reflection, and I actually wanted to focus on Vos’s thoughts on the distinction between the Patriarchs and ourselves, but one central thought is enough and it’s time to close. The Lord willing, we’ll look at the distinction question in the next post.