Continuing with
the quote from Vos’s message in our last post:
“In the city
of the living God believers are joined to the general assembly and church of
the firstborn, and mingle with the spirits of just men made perfect. And all
this faith recognizes.” G. Vos. (See Hebrews 12:18 – 24).
What does it
mean to “mingle with the spirits of just men made
perfect”? This is a reference to Hebrews 12:23, which tells us that we
have come to “the general assembly and church of the firstborn, and to God, the
Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.”
In 2 Corinthians
7:1 we read, “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse
ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear
of God.” This verse is preceded by a call to come out of the world and live as
the “temple of the living God,” along with a call into the family of God, “And
I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me, says the
Lord Almighty.” This is not unlike what precedes Hebrews 12:23 in that Hebrews
Chapter 11 is a demonstration of what that “coming out of the world” and “coming
into the family of God” and living as the “temple of God” looks like. Also, Hebrews
12 demonstrates what the process of being cleansed from defilement in flesh and
spirit looks like – submitting to the work of our loving heavenly Father in the
midst of trial and correction, as He makes us partakers of His holiness and
peace.
But again, what
does it mean to “mingle with the spirits of just men made perfect”?
These are the men and women of Hebrews Chapter 11, and all whom they represent.
These are the “great cloud of witnesses” of Hebrews 12:1. But what does it mean
to “mingle” with them?
I have two words
of warning before I go farther in the possibilities of what it means to mingle
with the spirits of the righteous made perfect. The first and most important
word is that we must always look for Christ, we must always see Christ, and
we must always testify to Christ. Whatever mingling with the saints may
mean, whatever the communion of the saints may mean – our koinonia must always
be in Christ, through Christ, and unto Christ.
Peter had this
lesson driven home to him on the Mount when the Father spoke, “This is My
beloved Son, hear Him.” It is the “testimony of Jesus” that is the spirit of
prophecy; and we overcome in this life by the blood of the Lamb and the word of
our testimony, and that testimony must always and ever be Jesus Christ, the
Lamb of God.
The communion of
saints is glorious because of Jesus Christ, not because of the saints in and of
themselves. It is only as I see Christ that seeing Abraham, Moses, David, Deborah,
or Mary Magdalene is either appropriate or helpful to me…or to you. This is
also true of how I view Augustine or Wesley or Calvin or St. Francis. It is
also true of how I view my contemporaries. It is God and the Lamb who are the Light
of the City to which we are called, we forget this to our peril and to the
peril of those we serve.
The second word
of warning is that our experiences of God are not all the same, while they do
have overlaps and commonalities, they are not the same in every respect – yet we
all seem to have a propensity to live as if my experience must be your
experience. While I am going to, the Lord willing, expand on this in the next
section of Vos’s sermon, I want to point this out now, otherwise we run the
risk of thinking that our experience of Hebrews Chapter 11 needs to be everyone’s
experience of Hebrews Chapter 11, that our experience of “the great cloud of
witnesses” must be everyone’s experience of “the great cloud of witnesses.”
This danger is
especially pronounced when we have new experiences, or a burst of new
understanding and illumination. In our excitement we naturally think that
everyone should not only share in our excitement, but also in our experience. Perhaps
we forget that we are the Body of Christ and that there are mysteries within
this Body, for while we have relationships with one another, we also all have
particular relationships with the Head of the Body. To receive light and life
and grace from another member of the Body does not mean that I have the
same particular experience of that member, it means that I receive Christ from that
member.
My wife loves baking
and is a wonderful baker; I can enjoy the delicacies she bakes without having
her experience of joy in the creative process of baking. Also, while she enjoys
powdered sugar and icing and glazes on her finished baked goods, I do not care
for these things – so she either leaves some of her baking without these things
or I remove them before I eat them. We need not all have the same tastes.
This is an
important warning because while there is a deep theological basis for the
communion of the saints, how we experience this communion can vary – just as
how we experience communion with the Trinity varies. Some of us may feel more
deeply than others, some may see more clearly than others, some may think more
profoundly than others…this is healthy for we are the Body of Christ and
members of one another…this is the way it ought to be…we need each other to be
who Christ has made us to be, we need for one another to be faithful displays
of the particular gifts and graces that God has given to each one of us.
We’ll continue
this exploration in the next post.
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