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?