Continuing our reflections on Geerhardus Vos’s Message on “Heavenly Mindedness” from
Hebrews 11:9 – 10:
“Paul tells us that in the matter of grace
and freedom from the law Abraham lived on a plane and in an atmosphere much
higher than that of subsequent generations. Anachronisms these things are,
if you will, but anachronisms of God, who does not let Himself be bound by
time, but, seeing the end from the beginning, reserves the right to divide the
flood of history, and to place on conspicuous islands at successive points
great luminaries of his truth and grace shining far out into the future.”
The above
quotation should be the subject of a seminary course! I wonder how many in
Vos’s audience at Princeton considered the implications of these words –
indeed, did they consider the implications and the spirit of this entire sermon
on heavenly – mindedness? Did they consider the implications for
Biblical exegesis? For teaching and preaching? For prayer? For a way of living?
For theological education? For Sunday school? For congregational life?
Do we have the
freedom in the Holy Spirit to receive the Word of God in the heavenly – minded
manner that Geerhardus Vos did?
We cannot say
that Vos was not tethered to the Bible, for his entire life was saturated with
the Bible, and his preaching exudes the Bible – it is coming out of the pores
of his skin. We cannot say that Vos is unmindful that he is moving beyond what
many would consider “sound” scholarship and preaching, for the above quotation
anticipates objections to his message.
We cannot say
that Vos is preaching a pedantic textual message without the liveliness of the
Living Spirit of God in the Living Word of God. Nor can we accuse Vos of
preaching a fanciful and illusionary message that is not Christ-centered nor grounded
in, and framed within, the Bible.
This message ought
to challenge our Enlightenment thinking, it ought to challenge our epistemology
and our pedagogy, and it ought to inspire us to seek the face of God as sons
and daughters of the Living God in Jesus Christ. Dear friends, Jesus says that
the words He speaks are spirit and life, and that the flesh profits nothing. We
are born from above, and we ought to know that only the Holy Spirit can reveal
our Father and Lord Jesus and the treasures of their Kingdom. All of our
exegetical methods, all of our preaching methods, all of our teaching methods –
fall short of the glory of God. This is not to say that we don’t do our
homework, but it is to say that unless the “eyes of our understanding” are enlightened
by the Holy Spirit that all of these other things are nothing – wood, hay, and
stubble.
Can we gently
remind ourselves that the scribes and Pharisees searched the Scriptures because
they thought that by doing so they would have eternal life, and yet they missed
the testimony of the Scriptures to the point where they crucified the One to
Whom the Scriptures gave testimony? Can
we remember that the Law and the Prophets were read every Sabbath in the synagogue,
and yet their Voice was not heard? Do we think that we are exempt from these
pitfalls?
Vos’s message
would receive a failing grade from many seminary professors (in both exegesis
and preaching), for he did not confine himself to accepted methodological
patterns – and yet – O how Vos soars with the Spirit and the saints and, in
Christ, brings life and light and hope to those who have eyes to see and ears
to hear! (And we have so much more to cover in Vos’s message). Do our hearts
and souls not thirst for such Living Water? Do not our minds search for such
vision and light and beauty of thought?
Shortly after I
graduated from seminary I discovered a frightening truth; I was so well –
trained in certain methodologies that I could do it all myself, I didn’t need
the Holy Spirit. Now of course this is a statement in the natural, because I
realize that without the Holy Spirit I would just be kidding myself and fooling
others – but in the sense in which I write this, it is true – it is true for me
and it just might be true for you. Sure, I could say, “Well, God honors His
Word and as long as I am preaching and teaching the Word, God will work.”
That is probably
true to a point, but only to a point. For after all, pastors and teachers are
called to reveal Jesus Christ, to shepherd people into Jesus Christ, to open
the treasures of Christ to His People, to show them how
to love Jesus and one another. We are called to show God’s
People the Kingdom, the Patriarchs, the Prophets, the way Paul, and Peter, and
John did, and as Vos did in this message. We cannot do this apart from a
vibrant life in the Living Word in the Holy Spirit.
If we are
preaching to machines, then by all means let us be mechanical. But if we are
preaching to, and loving people – then O my – let us be aflame with the Holy
Spirit and let us flow and soar in the Holy Spirit of freedom – for where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty! (2 Cor. 3:17 – 18).
I want to
conclude this post by making brief comments on this quote from Vos’s Heavenly
– Mindedness.
“Let us not
say that such an interpretation of their minds is unhistorical, because they
could not in that age have possessed a clear knowledge of the world to come.” Here
Vos anticipates an objection, the objection says, “Prove it! Prove these things
you are saying! Show me from history!”
“Rather, in
reading this chapter on faith let us have faith, a large, generous faith in the
uniqueness and spiritual distinction of the patriarchs as confessors, perhaps
in advance of their time, of the heaven-centered life of the people of God.”
Can you imagine a student telling a seminary professor, “Dr. Professor, let’s
please have a generous faith regarding what I’m preaching. I may not be able to
look to a historical document or a piece of archeology to prove what I am
saying, but I tell you that it is truth – I see it by faith.” Of course, with
Vos, we have a seminary professor telling this to both his colleagues and his
students as he points them to, and invites them into, “the heaven-centered
life of the people of God.” I don’t know if this has occurred to you, but
if our lives are heaven – centered, if we are fixing our minds on things above
(Colossians 3:1 – 4), we are going to see things that we cannot see when our
minds are fixed on earth.
“In other respects
also Scripture represents the patriarchal period as lifted above the average
level of the surrounding ages, even within the sphere of Special Revelation.
“Paul tells
us that in the matter of grace and freedom from the law Abraham lived on a
plane and in an atmosphere much higher than that of subsequent generations. Anachronisms these things are, if you will, but
anachronisms of God, who does not let Himself be bound by time, but,
seeing the end from the beginning, reserves the right to divide the flood of
history, and to place on conspicuous islands at successive points great
luminaries of his truth and grace shining far out into the future.”
Let’s keep in
mind that it was God’s plan that, “in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham
might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit
through faith” and that “if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s
descendants, heirs according to promise,” and that we, “like Isaac are children
of promise” (Galatians 3:13, 29; 4:28). Note that “the promise of the Spirit”
is linked to the blessing of Abraham. If we have the faith of Abraham then we
are connected to Abraham in Christ, and we certainly ought to see and know
things about our father Abraham that transcend the historical record – after all,
we are eating of the same Bread and drinking the same Cup.
Again, Vos
anticipates objections by saying, “Anachronisms these things are, if you
will, but anachronisms of God, who does not let Himself be bound by time…” We
may call them anachronisms if we want, but if we do call them such, let us do
so in light of the transcendence of God. Has it occurred to us, that if God “does
not let Himself be bound by time,” that as we live and move and have our being
in Christ that we are no longer absolutely bound by time and space? The very
nature of a heavenly – minded life in Jesus Christ is a life lived out of Christ
in the heavens, in the eternals – a life that sees, in some fashion, the end
from the beginning and the beginning from the end; how could it not be this
way when we live within the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the
Beginning and the End?
Has it occurred to
us that Vos’s message is actually modeling this very thing?
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