Heavenly Mindedness (21)

 

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.