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.