Heavenly - Mindedness (11)

 

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.

 

 

Vos draws our attention to distinctions between the Patriarchs, living before the Incarnation, and ourselves, living during and subsequent to…and hopefully in the continuum, of the Incarnation.  

 

The Letter to the Hebrews demonstrates the vast difference between living in shadows and types and living in the fulness of those things which the shadows and types mediated. If we “see through a glass darkly” now, how much more darkly did those who lived before the Incarnation see through that same glass?

 

Peter writes (1 Peter 1:10 – 12) concerning those prophets before the Incarnation:

 

“As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look.”

 

And then we have the conclusion of Hebrews Chapter 11:

 

“And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be perfect.”

 

We also know that in some way the Holy Spirit was engaged with those who lived before the Incarnation in a different fashion than those of us who have lived since the Incarnation. We see this in the following:

 

“Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” John 7:37 – 39.

 

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” John 14:16 - 17. (See also John 15:26; 16:12 – 15; Luke 24:49).

 

Now of course someone could say, “Well, the difference between then and now is clear enough, the Holy Spirit was “with” them, but He is “in” us. Yes, but what does that mean?

 

We see “Old Testament” saints enjoying deep communion with God. Moses, Abraham, David; these men were deep in God and God was deep in them. Enoch “walked with God and was not,” ponder that for an example of communion with the Holy One. And in terms of them living in shadows and types, it seems to me that for some the shadows and types became transformationally sacramental, inviting these saints to reach and see through the types and shadows and touch, in some fashion, the reality behind them.

 

Since the lives of Noah and Shem overlapped that of Abraham, consider that the faith of Shem and Noah, and the faithful antediluvians through them, possibly, if not likely, touched Abraham. When Vos speaks about the unusual heavenly – mindedness of the Patriarchs, let’s recall that they were not long removed from those people, such as Shem, Noah, and Enoch – who lived in a “thin place” as the Celts say. These people were closer to the “beginning” than later generations.

 

By way of example that may be of some use, when people in undeveloped nations hear and “see” the Gospel, they often embrace it with an experiential reality that supersedes our Western experience. I think one reason for this is that they live closer to the gut levels of life, closer to life and death, closer to creation; they do not have the pollution of soul that we are raised in – we take the smog of culture for granted, they breathe clear air.

 

“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad,” (John 8:56). This testifies to the transcendent nature of Abraham’s heavenly – minded faith.

 

Vos says that since we have an advantage of knowledge over the Patriarchs, that we ought to be especially challenged by their faith; for how does our heavenly – mindedness compare with theirs? It appears to fall far short. This is difficult for us to understand because we place so much emphasis on “knowing” information, rather than relationally knowing Christ through His Word living within us and us breathing the Holy Spirit as a Way of Life.

 

All of our Bible knowledge and religious paradigms and “worldviews” can be a barrier to heavenly – mindedness in that these things can become a substitute for living in Christ and Christ living in us as an organic Way of Life, individually and as His Body. God’s Word is given to us so that we might become partakers (koinonia) of the Divine Nature (2 Peter 1:4).

 

I wanted to take some time to ponder the distinction between the Patriarchs and ourselves, and between the “Old Testament” saints and ourselves, because I don’t think we know as much as we think we know – our knowledge is limited. I certainly don’t pretend to understand the distinctions, to comprehend them – there is more mystery than anything else to me. And yet, these men and women are part of our “communion of the saints” and Vos is calling us to this communion, to this heavenly – mindedness. Compared to them, we all too often live as people of the earth…and are sadly satisfied with that.

 

Just because living as earth people is all we know, doesn’t mean that it is all we should desire.