Heavenly Mindedness (31)

 

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

 

“For heaven itself is subject to a process of preparation, so that its full content became accessible only to the patriarchs through a projection of their faith in time. The heaven for which they hoped was the heaven of redemption, enriched through the ages, become peopled with the successive generations of the saints of God, filled with the glory of Christ, the recreated paradise, towards which all the streams of grace springing up in time send their waters. The believer requires this new heaven, not simply the cosmical place that resulted from the first creation. Hence his heavenly-mindedness can never destroy interest in the unfolding of the ways of God throughout the history of the present world.” G. Vos

 

Heaven is in a process of preparation, the patriarchs had a sense of its coming fulness as they saw and touched it transcendently through time, it was a heaven of redemption they saw, the culmination of a process through the ages, populated with saints from all generations – the glory of Christ permeates this glorious heaven which surpasses the first creation; this heavenly-mindedness does not negate interest and concern in the present world, in fact we engage the world because God’s ways are unfolding throughout history.

 

What does Vos mean, “For heaven itself is subject to a process of preparation”? Is this something we think about? Can it be that we are such prisoners of the “here and now” that our thinking and horizons have collapsed into distracted nanoseconds from which we cannot escape? Sustained thinking and conversation seem to be a foreign practice for us, we want to respond to everything “now,” we want fulfillment and gratification “now,” we demand attention “now.” This makes as much sense as getting on an airplane and not caring about its destination as long as we are given food and drink and entertained during the flight. Suppose the airplane is going to fly over the ocean until it runs out of fuel? Suppose it lands in a nation torn by war or famine or disease? It does not matter as long as we are entertained and catered to during the flight.

 

In approaching the idea that “heaven itself is subject to a process of preparation” I’m going to share some of my customary words of caution; we can only know what the Holy Spirit reveals to us through the Word of God, and in conformity to the Word of God. There is much around us that can inspire us and instruct us, such as our Father’s glorious Creation, even in its state of disarray and corruption; but our foundation and bearing walls must always be the sure and certain Word of God in Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 3:10 – 15).

 

Having said the foregoing, it is our Father’s firm desire to reveal Himself to us through the Holy Spirit, “even the very depths of God” (1 Cor. 2:10). Jesus says concerning the Holy Spirit, “He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore, I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you” (John 16:14 – 15). And yet, with all of this, we still “see through a glass darkly” and we “know in part” (1 Cor. 13:12).

 

Peter teaches that the ancient prophets did not fully understand what the “Spirit of Christ” was speaking through them, however, “It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you…” (1 Peter 1:10 - 12). A good dose of humility and wonder is helpful as we consider what it means when Vos writes, “heaven itself is subject to a process of preparation.”

 

Jesus tells us that He goes to prepare a place for us (John 14:3). We see in Hebrews 11:10 that God is the builder and architect of our City, and that “He has prepared a City” for those who seek Him (Heb. 11:3, 16). There is an ongoing work of preparation by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 2:19 – 22 we see that we are “being fitted together” and are “growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.”

 

Hebrews 11:39 – 12:1 speaks to us of the collective nature of God’s preparation in His People, “so that apart from us they would not be made perfect. Therefore, since we have a great crowd of witnesses surrounding us…”

 

Peter witnesses to this process and preparation in 1 Peter 2:4 – 10, “…you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house…” Paul gives us a picture of a Maturing Man, “which belongs to the measure of the stature of the of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:10 – 16).

 

A problem we face with the above passages is that we don’t think like this, we don’t see ourselves as God’s People, as Christ’s Body, as the Holy Spirit’s (collective) Temple – at least in the United States we don’t. We have been corrupted by an individualism that trumps everything. Our congregations, regardless of their polity, functionally consider themselves individual entities. Some traditions are strident in their insistence that each congregation must be self-governing and self-accountable. While this is not the place to explore the issue of polity, I don’t see how a fair reading of the New Testament, indeed of the entire Bible, can support the idea that congregations are accountable to no one but themselves. The Bible was written to the universal and transcendent People of God and demonstrates time and again that we are accountable to one another.

 

Our individualism, including congregational individualism, hardly conforms to the prayer of Jesus that, “…they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me, I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me” (John 17:21 – 23; see also Ephesians 4:1 - 6).

 

We functionally dismiss what Christ is saying, our actions do not indicate that we think it relevant to our collective testimony and evangelism. The professing – church is a religious Babel and we don’t seem to care.

 

If we do not submit our thinking to the Bible, we will not see what the Bible is saying. We must learn to submit to God’s Word, to allow God’s Word to form our thinking and perspectives – no matter what our cultural backgrounds may be, even American individualism.

 

As I was writing this, I received a well-intentioned email from an organization inviting me to join a thirty-day program “to find God’s purpose for my life.” In all charity, if I do not understand God’s eternal purpose to be glorified in Jesus Christ, and for Christ Jesus to be glorified in His Body, His Bride, the New Jerusalem, the City which God is building, His Living Temple – then I will not likely find God’s purpose for my individual life. Life is not about me, it is about Christ and His People.

 

If we do not understand this, we will not understand that heaven is in a process of preparation, for this process is about the glory of Christ and His People, and I only find my purpose and calling as I see myself as a member of the transcendent Body of Jesus Christ.

 

We’ll continue with this in the next post…