Heavenly Mindedness (26)

 

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

 

“Next to the positiveness of its object the high degree of actuality in the working of this grace should be considered. Through the faith of heavenly-mindedness the things above reveal themselves to the believer, are present with him, and communicate themselves to him. Though as yet a pilgrim, the Christian is never wholly separated from the land of promise. His tents are pitched in close view of the city of God. Heaven is present to the believer’s experience in no less real a sense than Canaan with its fair hills and valleys lay close to the vision of Abraham. He walks in the light of the heavenly world and is made acquainted with the kindred spirits inhabiting it.

 

“And since the word “actual” in its literal sense means “that which works,” the life above possesses for the believer the highest kind of actuality. He is given to taste the powers of the world to come, as Abraham breathed the air of Canaan, and was refreshed by the dews descending on its fields. The roots of the Christian’s life are fed from those rich and perennial springs that lie deep in the recesses of converse with God, where prayers ascend and divine graces descend, so that after each season of tryst [intimate private time with God] he issues, a new man, from the secrecy of his tent.” G. Vos

 

What are the roots of our life? What do we feed on? What, or who, is the source of our life? Vos writes that our roots are to “lie deep in the recesses of converse [communion, relationship, fellowship, koinonia] with God.” Vos gives us a picture of being renewed and transformed in this relationship, “he issues, a new man, from the secrecy of his tent.”

 

Paul writes that “though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16; see also 2 Cor. 3:17 – 18).  The Christian life is to be a life of transformation into the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29; 12:1 – 2) as God works in us, to will and to do His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).

 

What do we see in the relationship of the Incarnate Only Begotten Son with His Father? We see that Jesus had food that the disciples didn’t know anything about, it was to do the will of the Father and to accomplish the Father’s work (John 4:31 – 34; 17:4). We also see that the koinonia of the Father and Son is such Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner” (John 5:19; see also John 5:30; 6:38; 8:28; 12:49; 14:10). Since this is the manner of life of the Only Begotten Son, this is what the manner of life ought to be in His Body; as the Head lives so is the Body called to live (1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 4:14 – 16; Col. 2:19).

 

The life that lives in the follower of Jesus Christ is the life from above, the believer is born of the Spirit of God (John 3:1 – 8), the Spirit of sonship (John 1:12 – 13; Romans 8:14 – 17), and is given the seal and deposit of the Holy Spirit that places a foretaste of future glory in our jars of clay (Eph 1:13 – 14; 2 Cor. 1:21 – 22; 5:5). We live in anticipation of our future participation in God’s glory (Phil. 3:20 – 21; 1 John 3:1 – 3; Romans 5:1 – 2; 8:18 – 25; 2 Thess. 1:10; 1 Peter 4:12 – 13). This seal and deposit of the Holy Spirit draws us into a participation, in this present life, of this glory that will be revealed (1 Peter 5:1).

 

The root of our life, the source of our life, is to be the very life of God, the Holy Trinity.

 

Vos writes of “rich and perennial springs that lie deep in the recesses of converse with God, where prayers ascend and divine graces descend, so that after each season of tryst [intimate private time with God] he issues, a new man, from the secrecy of his tent.”

 

While we are most certainly members of Christ’s Body, and citizens of a heavenly community, and while we have a community of communion with the Trinity; we are also called to have individual intimacy with God, to enjoy what Vos styles as seasons of tryst in the secrecy of our tents.

 

Jesus teaches us to go into our inner rooms and close the door, praying to our Father in secret (Matthew 6:6). Paul writes that our lives are “hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). John speaks of a different language in Christ, in the sense that there is a speaking and hearing beyond what is naturally spoken and audible (1 John 4:5 – 6; see also John 15:18 – 19; 1 Cor. Chp. 2).

 

The heavenly – minded life is a life of cultivation in which we learn, by the grace of God, to respond to the love and Word of God, by the heavenly Holy Spirit of God working deep within our souls and transforming us into the image of Jesus Christ.

 

While this life in Christ is intimately individual (it is also intimately communal!), the Scriptures teach us that we meet Christ in His Word and in prayer; we learn to receive His Word in prayer and to pray according to His Word. Whatever distinctions we may have in our individual relationships with the Trinity, the Scriptures demonstrate again and again the common Table from which we all must eat – the Word and prayer.

 

May I ask you a question? Let us suppose that you are a member of the royal family of Britain. How would you respond if the Queen said to you, “I love you so much, I desire a relationship with you so deeply; I want to know you and I want you to know me, I want to know your heart and I want you to know my heart…may I ask you; Would you please begin each and every morning with me? Could we have breakfast together every day and spend some special time together…just you and me?”

 

How would you respond?