Heavenly Mindedness (30)

 

Continuing our reflections on Geerhardus Vos’s Message on “Heavenly Mindedness” from Hebrews 11:9 – 10, and returning to work through the passage from our last post:

 

“Because it had this effect for the patriarchs, faith had so intimately joined to it the exercise of hope. It is no less the assurance of things hoped for than the proving of things not seen. It annihilates the distance of time as much as of space. If faith deals with heaven as it exists, hope seizes upon it as it will be at the end. Hope attaches itself to promises; it sees and greets from afar. As the Epistle describes it, it does not contemplate purely provisional and earthly developments, does not come to rest in the happenings of intermediate ages, but relates to the end. In one unbroken flight it soars to the goal of God’s work in history, which is none other than the finished heaven.” G. Vos

 

What does it mean that the intimate joining of faith and hope annihilates time?

 

“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad. So the Jews said to Him, You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” (John 8:56 – 58).

 

In Genesis 12:2 - 3, Yahweh tells Abram (whose name will be changed to Abraham), “And I will make you great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing…and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

 

In Galatians 3:8 Paul writes, “The Scripture (note that Paul uses “the Scripture” interchangeably with “Yahweh”), foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, All the nations will be blessed in you.”

 

In the above Scriptures we see that God not only preached the Gospel to Abram/Abraham, but that Abraham “saw” “the day” of Jesus Christ. We might ask, “How did Abraham “see”?” I think that there are at least two responses to this question, which are inextricably joined together.

 

Abraham “saw” by believing the Word of God and by spending time with God. Abraham’s “seeing” was not self-generated, it was not something he could produce in and of himself, it was not something that was the result of following a formula or a method. We are called to seek the God of Abraham for God’s glory, not so that we may have various spiritual experiences. We are called to seek the Face of God, not spiritual experiences.

 

We are told that “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.” (James 2:23; 2 Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8). It is only as we live in relationship with God, believing the Word of God, that we experience the facets of time and space of Hebrews Chapter 11, including what Vos terms their “annihilation”, as God hides us in the Rock of His Son as His glory envelopes us.

 

This is not about living in the “present”, this is not about “mindfulness” – this is about koinonia with the Trinity, with the Word of God, and with the People of God. The world and the evil one will always have counterfeits, they will always have imitations – the True and Living God calls us into the fellowship of His Son, not into experiences for the sake of experiences.

 

“As the Epistle describes it, it does not contemplate purely provisional and earthly developments, does not come to rest in the happenings of intermediate ages, but relates to the end. In one unbroken flight it soars to the goal of God’s work in history, which is none other than the finished heaven.”

 

There is a sense in which we see “the end from the beginning” (Isaiah 46:10) as we live in communion with God and His Word. As we live in the pages and epochs of history, we keep our eyes on Jesus, looking for His City and for His glorious appearing when all things shall be consummated in Him and for Him. While we may acknowledge “earthly developments,” we do not cast our anchor into them, for our anchor is in Christ Jesus. Our hope is not in this present age, but in Jesus Christ.

 

How sad when Christians confuse the “purely provisional” with the eternal. How sad when we confuse the dispensations of God with those of man; the Kingdom of God with the kingdoms of this world which are passing away. What a tragedy when we think the Disney – Worlds of this age are the expression of the Eternal Age of Christ that has come, is coming, and shall come in consummate fulness (Eph. 1:9 – 11).

 

So many of our present activities are rooted in the “happenings of intermediate ages,” and particularly our own intermediate age. I write “rooted” for it is not a question of whether we should be active, but rather a question if we are about our Father’s business. Are we worshipping God in Spirit and in Truth? Are we taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth and making disciples, teaching them to obey Jesus Christ? Are we building up the Body of Christ? Are we manifestly living in the oneness of the Trinity? Are we loving one another as Jesus Christ loves us? Are we plainly declaring, in word and deed, that we are citizens of heaven? Embedded in the foregoing, is it manifest that we are loving and caring for the least of Matthew 25:31 – 46?

 

All that we do should be related to “the end,” to our purpose and calling in Christ, to God’s ultimate intention in Christ, to His eternal purposes and counsels and glory. As we “see” the End we shall see the Beginning (and is not Christ Jesus the Beginning and the End?), and we shall see our calling in these intermediate times so that we might be given grace to say, “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given me to do” (John 17:4). We are called to say this as individuals, and we are most certainly called to say this as the Church in every generation (and yes, we ought to say this as congregations). Is this something that we can say in truth?

 

“In one unbroken flight it soars to the goal of God’s work in history, which is none other than the finished heaven.”

 

O dear reader, while Martha runs about the house of intermediate concerns, Mary sits at the feet of Jesus, choosing that which is needful. In this day of apostasy in which the “church” has married the world with its politics, nationalism, entertainment, materialism, and therapeutic priesthood, Christ calls us to look to Him and His Father and walk the streets of the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. Let us learn what it means to “sit with Christ in the heavenlies” (Eph. 2:6), and at the same time “walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called” (Eph. 4:1).

 

Let us clearly reject the notion that we can be so heavenly - minded that we are of no earthly good – that is a lie. Consider, that the One who was the most heavenly – minded of any of us is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

 

Who will walk with the Lamb right now, right here, today?

 

Will we? Will I? Will you?

Five Less Books

 

I saw it in the mainstream media yesterday, and I wondered what the “seekers” thought who had been in his audiences over the years. I wondered about those who had asked him sincere searching questions. I wondered about those who had trusted him; both those inside and outside of Christ.

 

Through reading news reports from within the professing – Christian community I had known about this sadness for some time; yet another professed servant of Christ is revealed to have been a fraud. Fraud! Fraud! Fraud! But now it is in the mainstream media; and yet, I suppose we’ve arrived at the place where this kind of behavior is so widespread that it is not receiving the mention it may have generated just a few years ago. We have become experts in compartmentalization, the truth no longer matters, it is only what we want that matters – for verification of this consider the abundant conspiracy narratives around us, consider the farce of the impeachment “trial” where the truth does not matter; many senators deciding how they will vote prior to the commencement of the trial.

 

When we have one “Christian leader” prostituting a university, and another “Christian leader” prostituting his evangelistic association, why should we be surprised that, after his death, we find that another “Christian leader” has sinfully gratified his sexual lust and damaged the lives of women over whom he wielded power. Of course, success makes right in much of the professing – church; money matters, political power matters, book and video sales matter. Just as we don’t want to know what happens to our children when we send them off to college, so we don’t really want to know what happens within “Christian” power centers. And let’s face it, there are many stories of what has happened to the man or woman, especially the woman, who dares to question the words and actions of people (usually men) in “Christian” power. “Christian” power centers, whether they are churches, universities, denominations, or para-church organizations, have a record of snuffing out the “smoldering wick” and stomping on the “broken flax.”

 

When I first read about the egregious sin of the person in question (see 2 Peter Chapter 2 and Jude), I wasn’t surprised. This is not because I had suspicions or red flags, it was because I am somewhat numb after report after report of ungodly behavior and hypocritical “leadership” in a “Christian” culture that worships success rather than the True and Living God who is Holy. In fact, I had appreciated this man’s ministry, I enjoyed listening to him and I had five of his books on my shelves – one of them on marriage, in which he used his own marriage as an example of a godly marriage.

 

After reading that the sin in question had been verified, I took the five books and put them in the trash. We cannot compartmentalize our lives with impunity, no matter what others say. We as a nation, and we as a professing church, have bought into the lie that morality has little, if anything, to do with function, with vocation, with leadership. How can we have fallen so far not only from philosophical common sense (I’m thinking of Greek and Roman and Asian philosophers with their emphasis on virtue), but from the clear teaching of Scripture, the Word of God? Leadership (to use a term I’m beginning to loath) must begin and end with character, and for the Christian it must begin and end with holiness and virtue in Christ, and derived from Christ – a character with the transparency of the New Jerusalem. Leadership begins with washing the feet of those around us, its ethos is that it has not come to be served, but to serve and to give its life for others (John 13:1 – 17; Matthew 20:20 – 28).

 

The Bible and the Church Fathers are clear that holiness of life in Christ is inextricably bound up with the illumination of the Holy Spirit in understanding the Word of God and enjoying a life of communion with the Trinity. In other words, we are not going to experience true Biblical understanding without living in the light of God’s Word in Jesus Christ. This necessarily includes living in accountable and transparent community within the Body of Christ.

 

But what have we done? We have said to the world, “Come and build with us! We will adopt your ways! We will utilize your principles! As long as it works it must be good!” (Ezra 4:1 – 3). Where are the faithful shepherds of God’s people who will say, “You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God”?

 

Our epistemology must not be that of the world. Our ontology must not be that of the world. Our teleology must not be that of the world. Our pedagogy must not be that of the world. And please, O please, may our paradigms of leadership and success not be derived from the world.

 

Where are those who will act and speak as Paul and Barnabas, rather than receive the worship and accolades of man? “But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd crying out and saying, ‘Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God…’” (Acts 14:14ff).

 

Where are those men and women?

By Good Powers – D. Bonhoeffer

 By Good Powers – D. Bonhoeffer

Translated by: Chris Zimmerman

(Written by Bonhoeffer while in prison)

 

Surrounded by the silent powers of goodness,

protected and secured against all fear,

so may I walk with you into the future

and confidently meet the coming year.

 

When burdens from the past return to haunt us,

when heaviness or evil brings distress,

O Lord, then grant our frightened souls and spirits

the saving grace that you’ve prepared for us.

 

And should it be our lot to bear with suffering,

to drink the bitter cup at your command,

may we accept it gladly, without trembling,

as offered by your good and loving hand.

 

Or should you give us happiness, or bless us

with earthly joys – with laughter and bright sun –

then too let us be mindful how you’ve led us,

and dedicate our lives to you alone.

 

O Lord, give us the radiance of candles

whose silent, steady flames burn through the night.

Lead us together again, if you so will it;

and shine upon our darkness with your light.

 

And as the silence grows and deepens round us,

give us the ears to hear the ringing sounds

of joyous praise arising from your children,

and echoing from the unseen world around.

 

By powers of goodness wondrously surrounded,

we’ll face tomorrow boldly, come what may.

God is with us each morning and each evening:

His faithfulness is certain every day.

 

Chris Zimmerman is a member of the Bruderhof and teaches at the community’s Mount Academy in Esopus, New York.

 

 

Heavenly Mindedness (29)

 

Continuing our reflections on Geerhardus Vos’s Message on “Heavenly Mindedness” from Hebrews 11:9 – 10, and returning to work through the passage from our last post:

 

“Because it had this effect for the patriarchs, faith had so intimately joined to it the exercise of hope. It is no less the assurance of things hoped for than the proving of things not seen. It annihilates the distance of time as much as of space. If faith deals with heaven as it exists, hope seizes upon it as it will be at the end. Hope attaches itself to promises; it sees and greets from afar. As the Epistle describes it, it does not contemplate purely provisional and earthly developments, does not come to rest in the happenings of intermediate ages, but relates to the end. In one unbroken flight it soars to the goal of God’s work in history, which is none other than the finished heaven.” G. Vos

 

Vos writes:

 

“It annihilates the distance of time as much as of space. If faith deals with heaven as it exists, hope seizes upon it as it will be at the end. Hope attaches itself to promises; it sees and greets from afar.”

 

In a forthcoming section Vos will expand on “as it will be at the end,” but we’ll engage the subject as it comes to us in his message, trusting our Lord Jesus to illuminate us. How might we think of the annihilation of space and time? Let’s begin with “space.”

 

Because we live in a material world, we tend to think spatially – we have spaces filled with things, whether trees, structures, mountains, or people; we have open spaces; we have personal spaces. Some of us have learned that two automobiles cannot occupy the same space at the same time, and we’ve learned that our insurance companies frown on attempting to prove this point. Many people have special spaces when they attend church, and woe to the visitor who dares to occupy that space. When a group of people move into a new office they all want the best spaces. When we eat in a restaurant we don’t want the table space next to the restrooms. When we consider going to see someone we think about the distance between our space and the other person’s space – how many miles is it, how long will it take us to make the trip? There are some people I can see today and others I cannot see – all because of the space between us.

 

How does “space” affect your daily life?

 

Because “space” informs much of our daily existence, it is natural that we tend to think spatially and experience much of life spatially; but how else might we experience life?

 

There are numerous places in the Bible where we are told that Jesus Christ is at the right hand of the Father (e.g., Acts 2:33; Eph. 1:20; Heb. 1:3). This is a spatial image that conveys a number of spiritual realities; the approval of the Father, the finished work of Christ, the authority of Christ over all principalities and powers. It is right and good that I should hold this spatial image in my heart and receive the grace that it is meant to communicate to me and grow in the reality of that image. However, that spatial image can also convey the idea of great distance between Jesus at the right hand of the Father and me on planet earth. If that spatial image with its immeasurable distance between me and the Son dominates my thinking, if my “space” is here on earth and Jesus’ “space” is at the right hand of God, then what is the likelihood that I will live in intimate relationship with Christ? God will be a distant figure to me, and I will consider myself a somewhat distant person to Him.

 

In John Chapter 14 Jesus tells the disciples that the Holy Spirit has been with them, and will be in them (14:17). Then Jesus says that if anyone loves Him and keeps His Word, “My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him” (14:23). In John 15:1 – 11 Jesus speaks of us “abiding in Him.” What has happened to spatiality? It has collapsed, God is no longer spatially distant from us, He is living within us.

 

In Hebrews, we are encouraged to “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace” (4:16). In Hebrews 10:19 - 20 we are told that “we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh.” Once again, what has happened to spatiality? Whereas in the Gospel of John we see God coming to live within us, in Hebrews we see Christ opening the way for us to come live with Him. To put it another way, in John God comes to live in our temple, in Hebrews we come into His Temple.

 

We also see our spatial orientation changing in the Scriptures, from that which is “seen” to that which is “unseen”. While we see in Genesis that Yahweh promised Canaan to Abraham and his descendants, this idea of a promised land, even in the time of the Patriarchs, was transposed upward. This is why the Patriarchs saw themselves as “strangers and exiles on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13); why they desired “a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Heb. 11:16). Jacob was not looking for a city in Canaan, but rather for “the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10).

 

Paul testifies to this spatial transposition when he distinguishes between “the present Jerusalem…in slavery” and “the Jerusalem above” which is free and the mother of the children of promise (Galatians 4:21 – 31).

 

How is it that we are so locked into our earthly spatiality that we cannot “see” that the things that are recorded in the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms are recorded “as an example…written for our instruction” (1 Cor. 10:11), that they are shadows of what is to come, “but the substance belongs to Christ” (Col. 2:17) and reveals Christ (Luke 24:25 – 32; 44 – 47)?

 

We build grand theological, and especially eschatological, edifices based on earthly ideas, earthly spatiality, images and shadows and types…never leaving the natural for the revelation of Jesus Christ in the spiritual. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew that “Canaan” meant more than “Canaan”, yet we insist on earthly spatiality. It is Jesus Christ who is our Sabbath, who is our Promised Land. “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29).

 

Let’s look at one more example of the collapse of spatiality in the Kingdom of God. In John Chapter 4 a woman raises the question with Jesus of just where people ought to worship, is it in her ancestral mountain or in Jerusalem? How does Jesus respond?

 

“Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father…but an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshippers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:21 – 24).

 

Do we believe this? Where is space in this? Where is spatiality? Here, in the beginning of his Gospel, John is introducing a radical concept to his readers; who, whether Jew or Gentile, have been raised in a spatial orientation regarding shrines and temples. What happened to Jerusalem? What happened to the woman’s ancestral mountain? Jesus has gone from speaking of a radical birth by the Holy Spirit in chapter 3, to a radical worship in chapter 4.

 

Where are sacred spaces? They are where Jesus Christ dwells, in His People, the New Temple of God (Ephesians 2:19 – 22; 1 Peter 2:4 – 10). The Holy Land is Jesus Christ and the People of God, the “Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16). The City of the King is that which is above, the heavenly City which is the mother of us all in Christ. Abraham knew this, Isaac knew this, Jacob knew this – they confessed that they were strangers and aliens, on pilgrimage to the City whose Builder and Maker is God.

 

We no longer journey to sacred spaces; but we do make spaces sacred as the Presence of Christ lives within us.

 

Well might Vos preach about the annihilation of time and space. The Lord willing, we’ll explore “time” in our next post.

 

 

Heavenly Mindedness (28)

 

Continuing our reflections on Geerhardus Vos’s Message on “Heavenly Mindedness” from Hebrews 11:9 – 10, and returning to the passage from our last post:

 

“Because it had this effect for the patriarchs, faith had so intimately joined to it the exercise of hope. It is no less the assurance of things hoped for than the proving of things not seen. It annihilates the distance of time as much as of space. If faith deals with heaven as it exists, hope seizes upon it as it will be at the end. Hope attaches itself to promises; it sees and greets from afar. As the Epistle describes it, it does not contemplate purely provisional and earthly developments, does not come to rest in the happenings of intermediate ages, but relates to the end. In one unbroken flight it soars to the goal of God’s work in history, which is none other than the finished heaven.” G. Vos

 

Let’s work through this passage:

 

“Because it had this effect [see the previous passage in post 26] for the patriarchs, faith had so intimately joined to it the exercise of hope. It is no less the assurance of things hoped for than the proving of things not seen.”

 

In Hebrews 11:1 we read, “Now faith is the assurance/substance of things hoped for, the conviction/evidence of things not seen.” Vos tells us that faith and hope are “intimately joined”. What does it mean that we are assured of the things we hope for? Perhaps we can derive two meanings from this; one meaning is that we are assured that the things we hope for truly indeed do exist, they are not wishful thinking, they are not fabrication – they are of substance and we can, in some measure, touch that substance; we can also testify that the substance touches us. Faith makes eternal substance palpable; we touch it and it touches us.

 

Another dimension of this assurance is that, in Christ, we are assured that we will experience and inherit the things of God that we hope for; we are convinced that this is the will of our Father and that Jesus Christ, the Firstborn among many brethren, has permanently secured this inheritance for us to the glory of God our Father. Writing of our fathers and mothers of faith, the author of Hebrews tells us, “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them” (Heb. 11:16).

 

Early in Hebrews the author discloses the heart of our Father when he writes, “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren…” (Heb. 2:10 – 11). In 2 Thessalonians 1:12 Paul writes that at the parousia “…the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” This is the eternal unfolding of the prayer of Jesus, the Firstborn Son, to the Father in John 17:22, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them…”

 

Paul confidently writes, “…I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have committed to Him until that day” (2 Tim. 1:12). Our trust and assurance is rooted in a Person, “I know Whom I have believed.” Our faith and hope are grounded in the Ground of all that is and ever shall be.

 

An often misquoted verse is 1 Cor. 1:9, “…but just as it is written, Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.” This verse is misquoted every time it stands alone, every time it is quoted without its context. The “eye” and the “ear” and the “heart” in this verse are those of the “natural man” who cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:14); for we see in verse 10, “For to us [those born of the Holy Spirit] God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.” While it is certainly true that we do not yet see all of the glory that is yet to be unveiled, this passage does not teach that; it teaches that, at least in some measure, God is revealing those things which He is preparing for those who love Him to those who love Him (see also John 14:2).

 

Fanny Crosby wrote what she experienced, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine, O what a foretaste of glory Divine!”

 

I hope that this is your experience today. God our Father loves you with an everlasting love and He deeply desires you to bathe in His love as you would bathe in crystal clear waters – without fear, and with deep peace, joy, and contentment. Jesus tells us that we are not to fear, because it is our Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. We have a depth of inheritance in Jesus Christ that we can touch, that we can taste, that we can breathe; an inheritance that…if we will be still before God…will envelope us in the secret places of the Lord our God.

 

We’ll continue working through this passage in the next post.

Heavenly Mindedness (27)

 

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

 

“Because it had this effect for the patriarchs, faith had so intimately joined to it the exercise of hope. It is no less the assurance of things hoped for than the proving of things not seen. It annihilates the distance of time as much as of space. If faith deals with heaven as it exists, hope seizes upon it as it will be at the end. Hope attaches itself to promises; it sees and greets from afar. As the Epistle describes it, it does not contemplate purely provisional and earthly developments, does not come to rest in the happenings of intermediate ages, but relates to the end. In one unbroken flight it soars to the goal of God’s work in history, which is none other than the finished heaven.” G. Vos

 

Please read the above carefully, for it is likely that Vos is introducing concepts that are unfamiliar to some of us. What does Vos mean when he speaks of the annihilation of “the distance of time as much as of space”? What does he mean when he speaks of “heaven as it exists” and “as it will be at the end”? What does “the finished heaven” mean?

 

Have you ever thought about these things? What is your reaction to them? Have you ever thought that heaven is a work in progress? Have you considered that heaven as it is, is not heaven as it will be? Have you experienced the annihilation of the distance of time and of space? In coming passages Vos will continue this line of thought, in fact, in the next passage Vos beings with, “For heaven itself is subject to a process of preparation…”

 

A challenge with engaging Vos as he engages the Word of God is that this is a blog, and we are therefore limited in how much we can reasonably ponder in a posting. Another challenge is that, even if we were all in a room together, Vos’s preaching is so dense that it requires time to ponder and absorb it – it deserves to be read and considered again, and again, and again.

 

Vos’s language will resonate more easily with some of us than with others; some of us may be more inclined to give a fair hearing to Vos than others of us. After all, how many of us think this way? How many of us have experienced these things? How many of us have heard teaching concerning heaven being a work in process?

 

In Vos we see a disciple of Jesus Christ in whom there is a holistic dynamic of the rigorous Spirit-directed intellectual and the heavenly-minded mystic. Let us not forget that Vos taught theology, a rigorous and thorough-going theology. Vos is an example of the wisdom Paul writes of in 1 Corinthians Chapter 2, a wisdom imparted by the Holy Spirit, a wisdom that is discerning, seeing the relationship of elements of the Word of God and the Kingdom of God, “righting dividing the Word of Truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). In the Trinity there is no separation between knowledge and experience, the deeper we move into the koinonia of God and His Word the more our thinking, seeing, knowing, and experience meld together in Christ Jesus. As our eye is single our temple becomes full of light. Not only is there no disconnect between Vos the intellectual and Vos the mystic, the intellectual informs the mystical and the mystical informs the intellectual.

 

Consider Paul, who in 2 Corinthians 10:5 can write of “destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,” surely with an emphasis on clear thinking and the intellect; and then in 2 Corinthians 12:4 writes of being “caught up to Paradise” and hearing “inexpressible words,” surely a mystical experience – mystical to the point that Paul writes, “whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows” (2 Cor. 12:3).

 

While it is natural that some of us are inclined to the mystical and others are inclined to the intellectual, that some of us are predominately thinkers and others feelers, that some of us tend to look backwards, others to the future, and others are more rooted in the present – these myriad propensities we all have should not be insurmountable barriers to us all tasting the good things of God in Christ and inheriting the promises of God. We are all called to be the sons and daughters of the Living God in Jesus Christ and we can trust the Holy Spirit to reveal Christ to us in all of His glory, restoring the holistic image of God in Christ in our hearts, minds, and souls. Let us remind ourselves that in Jesus Christ all the promises of God are “Amen” (2 Cor. 1:19 – 22).

 

What are your thoughts concerning this passage in Vos’s message? In the next post we’ll look at this again.